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When I graduated from college the job market was tough, much like today. I worked in a video store for a few months, then lucked into a job as a cook at a busy, hip restaurant. I worked as a cook for the next ten years, before moving on to horticulture. That was a long time and two careers ago, but I still love to cook fast and furiously, making several dishes at the same time, just because I can! And cooking food I've grown gives me a sense (probably false, but comforting) of some control over my life.
Here's what I made today.
Yet more pickled peppers. No, I don't have a peck, but there are a lot.
Here's how I did it:
First I put a pot of salted water on to heat. I put bowls of pasta and raw limas out nearby.
While the water boiled I cleaned the peppers, slit the sides a couple of times, and jammed them into Ball jars.
By then the pot was boiling, so I put the pasta in and set the timer to two minutes.
Next I filled the pepper jars with cold water, then poured it out into two measuring cups. There was about three cups.
My timer went, and I added the limas to the pot of boiling water and put the timer on eight minutes.
I replaced half the water from the peppers with white vinegar, and put the mixture in a pot on the stove. then I added three coarsely chopped cloves of my own garlic, a teaspoon of whole cumin, three roughly broken bay leaves, three tablespoons each of sugar and kosher salt, and two tablespoons of whole black peppercorns. I turned the heat on medium.
When the pasta alarm rang I drained the lima bean and pasta mix, put it into a reusable plastic container and added a half tablespoon (ok, maybe a bit more...) of unsalted butter, two tablespoons of parm/romano mix, salt and pepper. Lunch for tomorrow at work!
While my pasta cooled, I turned to the pickling mix. When it had simmered for about five minutes I turned off the burner, let it sit a couple more minutes, then ladled it over the peppers. I put the lids on and moved the jars to the fridge to cool.
Then I turned the oven on to 400 degrees, peeled and sliced my own butternut and onion, layered them in a casserole with salt, pepper, a pinch of nutmeg and some knobs of butter. Once the oven dinged, I put the casserole on a middle rack to cook until tender (depending on the squash this can be anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes; some squash is drier and takes longer to cook).
While the squash baked I watched a DVD from the library-- a cosy British detective series called 'Rosemary and Thyme' about a pair of gardening detectives. I wish I got to take long lunches in the pub with a pint when I worked on other peoples gardens!
After a half hour the squash was tender, so I sprinkled some parm/romano mix on it, turned off the oven, and let it sit in the oven another ten minutes. It smelled so good I forgot to take the picture before I ate some!
Mark Bittman wrote a column recently about how easy it is to cook cheap good food at home. I agree, but a few years of restaurant cooking sure help with the efficiency. And I got some cool burn scars too.
