Tag: recipe

creativity

Day 20: A magician in the kitchen

Christa Avampato
Me smiling with a plate of Golden Diner’s famous pancakes

I see myself as an amateur cook and baker, and a professional eater. I’m always hungry for something delicious. I also love that other than a recipe I may have on my phone (though I love cookbooks – I read them like novels!), cooking and baking are completely analog, tactile activities. No screens. No chatter. Lots of experimenting. No matter how well I know a recipe, making it never unfolds exactly the same way twice (at least not for me!)

I don’t like shopping. At all. Except for grocery shopping. Picking out and trying on clothes. Ugh. Not at all interested. Picking out produce, spice blends, cheeses. Sign me up for all of that. I get giddy as I head home with my grocery bags knowing they are full of potential to bring me joy.

There’s something magical and poetic about taking a bunch of separate ingredients and combining them to make something greater than the sum of its parts. I love the science, art, and sprinkle of luck that’s involved in cooking and baking.

Because I’m an adventurous eater, I’m also an adventurous cook and baker. I love to try making a cuisine that’s not in my wheelhouse. I love cracking into a recipe that I’ve never made before. I like to stretch my techniques, trying to make something that feels just beyond my skill set. Like all adventures, there will be some mishaps. Sometimes, I’ll mess up, make a mess, or burn something.

The other day I made something that was *truly* awful. I tossed it right into the compost, which crushed my heart a bit because it felt like a waste of time and I hate food waste. It makes me hangry to make something terrible, but that’s part of the process of an analog activity.

Sometimes I’ll completely surprise myself with how good something is. I’ll master a technique that I’ve worked hard to fully understand and execute. That makes me feel like a wizard, confident in my abilities and happy with a full belly.

When perfecting a recipe, I have to try and try again to get it just right and to get a result I’m consistently happy with. And there’s something to be said for that. Yes, the reward of something perfectly cooked or baked is a thing of beauty. But there’s also so much reward in the process itself from the planning and research, to shopping, to being in my kitchen and then at my dining table. I even like the washing up afterwards.

On my bucket list is a cooking vacation where the entire point of the trip is to take cooking classes, go to food markets, and visit farms, restaurants, and food businesses. Food is so full of everything I love – culture, history, and stories. Always stories. And to me, that sounds like an ideal way to spend my time.

creativity

Falling in love with vegetables thanks to Hetty Lui McKinnon

Christa Avampato
Tenderheart: a cookbook about vegetables and unbreakable family bonds by Hetty Lui McKinnon

A number of years ago, I upgraded my diet to be plant-based. I still eat meat and animal products occasionally, but the bulk of my food comes from plants. I knew this change would be good for my health though I can’t say I was excited about it because I really didn’t know what to do with vegetables other than roast them. Enter the New York Times Cooking app, loaded with thousands of ways to turn vegetables into a feast. Some of my favorite vegetable-centric recipes are by James Beard Award winner Hetty Lui McKinnon whose inventive style and focus on easy preparation makes me feel like a gourmet cook even though I most certainly am not. Australian by birth and Chinese by heritage, she now lives in Brooklyn (as do I).

I recently read Hetty’s beautiful memoir cookbook, Tenderheart: a cookbook about vegetables and unbreakable family bonds. A love letter to both vegetables and her family’s role in stoking the fires of that love for her, Hetty gives us a glimpse into her past, present, and future, and celebrates her family history on every page. Organized by vegetable, the recipes include a snippet about why she loves each one, vegetable swaps and ingredient substitutions that can be made without compromising the flavor. I read cookbooks like they’re novels or biographies, so Hetty’s book is perfect for me. Give me a simple, healthy recipe and then tell me the story behind it. 

From cabbage carbonara(-ish) to chocolate eggplant brownies to the not your traditional Sunday roast to her Mum’s velvet potatoes, Hetty now has me dreaming about vegetables. Her recipes have also caused me to seek out vegetables I don’t normally buy because I never knew what to do with them. While vegetables can take a bit more coaxing than other foods, they can be made to be every bit as satisfying and craveable as any other food. 

Post-dissertation, I’m happy to be back in my kitchen more now than I’ve been able to be over the past two years. If you want to fall in love with vegetables, please join me in my sun filled apartment. With help from Hetty’s recipes (I’ve now ordered all of her cookbooks!), I’ll be happy to play matchmaker.