A Year of Improvising
En Cuisine, comme dans tous les arts, la simplicité est le signe de la perfection. (“In cooking, as in all the arts, simplicity is the sign of perfection”)
Richard Olney - Simple French Food
Winter Light, Cooking with Massimo & Friends Part 6
It is true that until recently I have never made pasta from scratch. I bought the pasta machine, a shiny steel contraption and Jamie’s book on Italian cuisine as gifts for husband and kept my fingers crossed. He prepared the pasta mixing flour and eggs going from novice to pro within weeks so for me, why bother? However, now that ravioli presented itself in Bread is Gold page 32 to be exact well I had to test my fortitude.
Pity and Awe, Cooking with Massimo & Friends Part 5
What really moves me is spending time sharing and creating food that teaches me a new way to be in the kitchen. I really like thinking about a recipe for a day or two. Today I was offered some grapefruit from a homegrown garden, yes I will make the Fennel and Grapefruit Salad with the Anchovy dressing. Great I can’t wait. That’s what its all about. I am with Gwyneth (Paltrow) anchovies on anything. It’s a shame my kids don’t eat them, but maybe in time they might. (I love G.P’s cookbooks too) So this is the heart of the kitchen, the coming and the going, and the turning up again to do it all over again.
“Submit it to the test”...Cooking with Massimo & Friends Part 4
Turning to Bread is Gold: Extraordinary Meals with Ordinary Ingredients I learn about Alex Atala’s food, his traditions and his intention behind the food he cooks. I learn that the anchovy is a wise friend in the meal that can reproduce quickly in the food chain, unlike tuna that can take a year or so to grow. I did not know that and revel more in the deep flavours that this sauce shares. The key take away here is to add anchovy to the garlic in oil part as it dissolves into the sauce adding flavour and boldness.
Poor Mans Feast, Cooking with Massimo & Friends Part 3
No less, food has become the back bone for days spent at home, no distractions. I have been cooking, gardening, weeding, growing things like kale and spring onions, leek and delphiniums, pots of sweet peas....my own dreams of a row or two are coming to life. Somewhere in between I have returned to a few days at work and the rest is just the domestic and the creative and a cook book to ponder. A blue one since the beautiful cream cover I have set aside. I am still cooking from ‘Bread is Gold’ and trying out recipes and gaining a whole new way of looking at food and the possibilities of simple ingredients and what is possible in the day to day.
Slow Mondays, Cooking with Massimo & Friends
It’s funny but I have to come to realise over the past few weeks as I manage and figure out how I am going to cook every recipe in this book I realise that reading a cook book and mediating upon the recipes is much like a spiritual practice. You turn up, you read, begin, make, follow, sample, season, taste, prepare and ultimately create something beautiful to sustain your day. You commit, you take your intentions, your creativity and your intuition to the table.
The Cookbook Project
Somewhere along the way I have been contemplating the idea to find a cook-book that I would go on to actually cook every recipe in the publication. The theory being that I learn some new skills in the kitchen, perhaps find some fresh recipes I can rotate on the family menu, perhaps take myself into new territory in the land of cookery and food. I have been thinking about this for about a year now.