10 things #3 - big P

#3 - big P: patten. patten is my very good friend who both taught and inspired me to be a better cook. patten and i met working in a hotel restaurant in york maine called the stage neck inn. he was a manager there and i was a server, and during a pre meal one evening he led the staff through some wine tastings and gave us some pointers for upselling glasses of wine. patten has a knack for boiling things down, for making things that aren't supposed to be complicated, that end up getting complicated, less complicated (and i probably couldn't have said that in a more complicated way - but patten's not here to help). at the time, he inspired me to see that i might actually understand wine and as a result i got hooked. we formed a friendship from there and most of the rest of the top 10 things i will go on to write about he had a hand in showing me.

pizza, pizza

i've been trying to learn more about flour in my quest to ultimately mill my own flour. last weekend we made pasta and bread. this weekend was pizza with goodies from the our gardens and the csa:

we used whole wheat (maine) flour for the dough and it baked up perfect and tasted very healthy. my standard recipe is: 3 c. flour, 2 tsp. yeast, 2 tsp coarse salt in a food processor, and then pour in 2 tbl. evoo and about a cup of water to bind it all up. i knead it a tad, then let it double in size for 1-2 hours.

we topped it with roasted eggplant, mozzarella, carmelized onions, fresh rosemary, the infamous himalayan salt, and i made a tomato sauce with all the fallen tomatoes from our gardens and cooked that up with garlic, capers and olives - it was sensational!!

patterns in food

10 things #2: heat

"now we're cooking with gas" a phrase my dad used to say to me which for most of my life i simply processed as 'i finally got it' or 'things are going in the right direction.'

but i really only started cooking with gas when tamara and i moved into our house at the beginning of the year. i had lived with a gas stove a few times (and i cursed and cried the many times i ended up moving into a new apartment that ran an electric stove), but we had made it a priority to get a stove with a couple of high powered burners i could really let rip under a saute pan. and boy did it change things!

for starter, the dials practically go all the way around! i can turn the heat all the way to high, and then i have another option to turn on the high powered boil. and then of course, there's the flexibility and the quick reaction time and so on - i will never go back.

but it was a few other maneuvers that really helped me to 'start cooking with gas' while cooking with gas:

• put the pan on the flame and just walk away for a few minutes. i've learned this helps seal up the microscopic cracks in the pan and create a smooth, uniform heat surface.

• add oil, and let it warm up (of course, this doesn't take very long)

• add whatever you plan to saute and don't crowd the pan - once you've got it hot, keep it hot, always maintain control of the heat and make sure that if you are adding something to the pan and it might cool it down, that it is your intention to do so.

so it is the power of heat, but also how i control that power and that has made all the difference in improving cooking technique.

10 things that changed the way i cook - # 1: "on hands" - the larder

as i have said, this blog is in response to the fact that i find myself on a new plateau in my journey as homecook. i am able to reflect on the things that changed the way i cook, the things that got me here. in many cases these were not things i learned in one night, but were instead lessons that i processed over time-bit by bit bought into, incorporated and eventually mastered, and once i had them in my system forever changed the way i cooked. it is like the changing of a season, slow, gradual, but all of a sudden there comes a change and things are not how they have been.

so i thought i would chronicle these 'key learnings' in no order then perhaps how they came to me, so the later ones i had to think more deeply to get to, but i put no more importance on one than the other. for the next few days i will post them, how i came to them and share a little of their impact on my style of cooking:

i) "on hands" the larder. my cooking changed when i began to just get all the staples i might ever need at the market instead of deliberating whether or not i would be able to use a whole carton of heavy cream before it would go bad or if it made sense to have both these delicious looking new potatoes and some good old fashioned russets. today, i stock up. and it affords me much more range in everyday cooking. i think the change came when i decided that limes and lemons would be a staple.

(limes and lemons!!??)

a few years ago, living alone and barely affording the rent on my boston apartment i was always careful at the grocery store - oj, coffee, cream, greens, onions, garlic, parmesan, protein, veg done! - enough to cook the basics, but most things that i cooked i would usually plan for.

i think it was an alfredo dish that set me off - i was in the finishing touches stage: plates warmed, pasta water boiling, garlic and shrimp carmelizing in the pan...i opened the fridge to cut a wedge of lemon and...empty! how did i not have any lemons? what was i thinking? where was the breakdown in the system? where did my last lemon go? alfredo is a staple dish, alfredo you make any day of the week, there is no planning in this dish, how am i not ready for this!!

ever the plan B person I took the heat down on things and ran down the street to the corner convenience store that i knew would have lemons (for a dollar a piece of course). what should i find at the convenience store? a 6:30 closing time on Sunday.

as i walked back home i let my fury warm a new idea: i determined there would be a certain set of things that, no matter what, i would always be sure to have on hand, this would include lemons and limes but quickly grew to include a new generation of staples - things that, knowing i had them, empowered me to go to new lengths as i pursued home cooking. today, my 'on hands' stretches 10 pages and over a hundred items - many of them dry goods which is no worry to have on hand, but many perishables which add an urgency to cooking, and a lot of kitchen cabinet salads, soups and rag tag dishes which have only increased my capacity for creative cooking. now when i find myself in the store, confronted with a bountiful bushel of tomatillos, or rooting through the herbs, or examining the leeks, the fennel, the beets, a little voice inside whispers: "just by the lemon!"

and so it begins...

twenty years ago on a night like tonight i would stuff my satchel with notebooks, pens, cigarettes and a few dollars for a bottomless cup of coffee and trek over to the 'why not cafe' on belmont st. in chicago where i grew up.  i didn't cook then, the computer in my house ran .dos and connecting to the internet was still pretty scifi - so, versus this moment, my world has changed.  i've grown up a lot, i live a drive away from a coffee shop (which is probably closed now), and instead of notebooks and writing filling these last hours of the night i like to draw up shopping lists and compose menu's.  for me, the pleasure of cooking starts at the first thought:  there will be dinner! i'll draw a picture of a plate on a piece of legal paper and sketch out the chicken breast, the salmon filet, the pasta noodles... depending on the day, how much time i have, what grocery stores i'll be driving by, the meal can go in a dozen different directions.  so, there's a planning phase. then there's shopping:  grocery stores are fine - they've come so far, even the chains make an effort and if i spend time in the aisles i'll always find a new item i'm intrigued by, something that will inspire that evening's meal.  but it's the boutique shops that get me in trouble.  where i live now, there are a ton.  my girlfriend and i moved to maine at the start of the year, and i have gradually become more and more aware of the strong food culture here.  the farmers, wine merchants, fishmongers, farmstands, cheese shops and bakeries stand tall in their communities - it's inspiring, and it's a big part of why i'm starting this blog.  my goal is to create a record.  i want to track my progress in what i feel is a new step for me.  a better (wiser) cook, yes, but also a more complete person.  cooking has so much tradition, and whenever i am swept up in it (an afternoon entangled in flour and egg and a rolling pin, an evening spent skimming stock...) i feel i come out more connected to...well, to what i don't really know, or can't really say.  another reason, perhaps, why i have started this blog:  to be more soulful, to express my passion for cooking and by doing so, perhaps to grow. and so it begins...