The psychology of cooking

Everyone knows there is deep psychology and emotions around cooking and food. The smell that makes reminds you of your childhood. Turning to food for comfort, sometimes destructively. Cooking as a way to relax. Adventuring down the grocery aisles, looking for something new to experiment with.

Why do you cook?

Live alone and you'll discover the answer. With no obligation to cook, you quickly learn your motivations. Seems I am motivated by cooking for others. I alone am not worth making a mess over (maybe because there's no one to help clean up). I like the idea of cooking for fun, as an adventure, because it's worthwhile even if just for me. But hmmm, it's not turning out that way. What's fun is sharing the kitchen and cooking for others. My one year old hardly counts yet, and I suspect he won't appreciate cooking efforts for a long, long time.

That said, I know somewhere in my heart, I like to cook. And maybe if I cook for myself occasionally, I will benefit emotionally.

I did cook a pork tenderloin today. In fact, the botching of it inspired me to blog again. Felt like my old self, misstep after misstep.

It was out of "Simple to Spectacular" - a beautiful and wonderful book. I chose the "simple" pork loin with a sugar, salt, rosemary, cayenne rub splashed with dry white wine. I had a boneless loin in the freezer and figured I could adapt the cooking temp/time. Even so, it cooked much faster than I anticipated, and the wine/sugar mix burnt to a quarter inch black, burned honeycomb all around the baking dish; I think I need a razor blade to scrape it out. Reminded me of the time I left my spiced cider cooking overnight in my crock pot. Smelled like it too. I managed to baste once, then there was nothing left to baste with. And it overcooked because I killed my new meat thermometer, waterlogging it trying to wash it, then really breaking it trying to pop it open to see if water inside was preventing it from turning on. I was never disciplined about reading instructions (like "how to wash" and "how to open") and it sometimes bites me in the butt. Some day...I will learn.

Despite all that, it tasted pretty good. I'd like to give it another go.

Soup du leftovers

Yes, yes, we've been cooking and eating around here. Little Zachary is even doing his part now with a little rice cereal (yuck). We've been sticking to the grill to keep the heat out of the house. Ribs, burgers, shrimp, steak. Yum yum!

Well no grill for me right now. Hubby is the grillmeister and he's out of town. While he's away, I'm determined not to buy any food. Yesterday I had mini frozen quiches for lunch (not bad) and leftover burrito for dinner (better the first and second time around). Today I cheated and went out to lunch, but for dinner, ahhhh dinner, Top Ramen!

But I didn't stop there. Top Ramen is a soup base and therefore has endless possibilities. I grabbed a package of "Pork Flavor" and "Chicken Teriyaki", leaving behind the "Creamy Chicken" for obvious reasons. (Couldn't they come up with a better title than "Pork Flavor"?) I doubled the water called for and began to boil. Then I raided the fridge (which I CLEANED) for ingredients and found two lonely leftover Asian spiced pork ribs and their companion, tasty dipping sauce.

Sploosh.

A little pork fat makes everything taste better and the spice rub contributed to the taste: "toasted" Chinese 5 spice, pepper flakes, coriander, more hot pepper, ... The dipping sauce included soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, ginger and rice vinegar. I figured that would match my Ramens. I gave a taste and determined the seasoning packets were indeed needed (easier to add then take back!) Then I threw in some spinach leaves for good measure. Hey, they were in the fridge. Dropped in the noodles for 3 minutes and voila: Asian Frankenstein soup!

To top it off, it doesn't taste bad. I dare say it's better than plain Top Ramen.

And to drink, that lonely Almond Cream soda with a shot of rum. Doesn't quite go with the soup, but beggars can't be choosers.

(Did I mention I cleaned the fridge? I mean cleaned. Not only does it look like a bachelor's refrigerator, I sudsed all the shelves and drawers and washed down the inside. Who knew there were so many kinds of pickles!???)

Using up corn tortillas

Similar to the lemongrass, we bought a monster package of white corn tortillas. 120 in all, half of which went straight to the freezer. We made tacos, then tortilla chips and guacamole, then chicken enchiladas. Now it's Sedona White Corn Tortilla Soup.

Unlike our favorite Tortilla Soup from Cook's Illustrated, this soup was all blended up. It wasn't as "fresh" tasting without the chunks of avocado, tomatoes and other ingredients. It was more like chili (especially with the inclusion of cumin and chili powder...)

Don't get me wrong, this soup was great. Just different. Very tasty. Make sure to top with the cilantro. And next time I plan to use twice as many tortillas to make the soup thicker.

The best part was I used my Kitchen Aid immersion blender. What a sweet little machine with a super motor. Never again will I "transfer my soup to a blender in batches". I totally recommend this tool if you make soups and salad dressings. It also came with attachments for chopping and whipping. The chopper is much easier for small food processor chores and has less parts to clean.

I'm excited to make the pizzas from this cookbook...we love the restaurant.

Sedona White Corn Tortilla Soup from The California Pizza Kitchen Cookbook
Rating: great

Perhaps redundant...

...but we made Spicy Thai Shrimp Kebabs with Chile Lemongrass dipping sauce last night, taken from Fine Cooking magazine, June 2005. I still have the tube of minced lemongrass and I want to use it up before it expires end of the month.

So...more Thai please!

The two dishes, the soup and now the shrimp, had a lot of overlap in ingredients: ginger, lemongrass, chills, fish sauce, cilantro. And yet, the shrimp were enormously better than the soup.

I'll warn you this recipe is tedious. Lots of ingredients and chopping between the grilling sauce and the dipping sauce. It took both of us 2 hours before we ate. (Granted, that 2 hours included cooking artichokes, making sangria and throwing dessert in the oven.)

But it was worth it for a special meal. The shrimp had so many flavors between the grilling and dipping sauce - I thought it would be overwhelming and you wouldn't taste one flavor from the next. But no. It was extremely bold, but balanced. Amazing really. Zingy, zesty, spicy, pungent, fishy - fantastic.

Unless you're an eggplant fan, which we aren't, I don't recommend the grilled eggplant on the side. Whatever side you choose, make it a strong one. Our poor artichoke was weak in flavor by the end; our mouth became desensitized from the strong shrimp. The sangria paring was good.

I experimented with Merlot Blackberry Arbor Mist, which has fruit and sweet built in. Add a cup of OJ, 1/2 C of brandy, 1/2 C orange liqueur and top with fruit for looks. If you want to add complexity, let the fruit sit overnight, strain out the next day and serve with fresh fruit.

To cut corners, I recommend a good quality pre-minced lemongrass and even ginger; we like "The Ginger People" minced ginger. Taste and smell it - it should be close to the real thing or it's not worth using. And for Heaven's sake, get peeled, deveined shrimp!

Spicy Thai Shrimp with Chile Lemongrass Dipping Sauce, Fine Cooking June 2005
Rating: excellent

Spicy Thai soup

We tried a Spicey Thai Soup out of "Fine Cooking March 2003". It was good, but complicated and made a huge mess in the kitchen; I even cut a few corners and it was still complex. What I did enjoy was the addition of lemongrass. I've learned I like lemon in my soup, which I first tasted at a Greek restaurant. Lemongrass is a more "mature" taste than lemon juice that I intend to use again. The store didn't have any fresh lemongrass, but it had a substitute of lemongrass in a tube. Not romantic, but close to fresh without mess or hassle.