Skip to main content

I'm not a chef

I cook one meal at a time, and I'm only cooking for me. Folks who work commercial kitchens can crank out hundreds of meals a day, which is amazing to me. I decided tonight to try cooking two different dishes at once. Turns out it's something I can do.

Sunday is usually my day for getting rid of odds and ends in the kitchen. I hate wasting food, so I have to do something with everything before it goes bad, which means I had a bit of an assortment of things to use up today. Seemed like the perfect time to knock out a few different meals at once.

I didn't take a lot of pictures because, as it turns out, keeping multiple pans with different items at different temps really keeps your hands busy, so this isn't a step-by-step of anything. Instead, it's a warning: don't try this without thinking ahead about what you're making. I learned that lesson hard tonight: lots of scrambling, adjusting, readjusting. There were a handful of times I almost knocked shit off into the floor, there was plenty of cussing. Miraculously, the food didn't burn, I didn't get burned, and I still have all of my limbs and digits.

Suffice it to say: I can actually knock out two completely different meals (chicken breast and linguine with habanero tomato cream sauce, and adobo chicken wings with a couple different sautéed veggies). I just don't think I'll be doing anything like that again for a little while.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Voices in my head, or: Why do I cook?

Every time I chop a vegetable, slice a steak, drop garlic into oil, or scrub a pan, I hear voices in my head: my mom, my dad, my grandmothers, friends from college like James and Liz, friends from adulthood like Rick and Claudio, internet friends like NerdyCap , and tv chefs like Gordon Ramsay, Jeff Smith, Anthony Bourdain, Jacques Pepin, and Alton Brown, all of the folks who have taught me, directly in person or indirectly through books, tv episodes, or live streams, about cooking.  Steak frying with minced onion and minced garlic Sometimes I hear them instructing me on what I'm doing, the same words I've heard repeat in my head hundreds or thousands of times. "Don't let the garlic overcook or you'll get a bitter taste," mom says every time. Claudio often hits me with "If you hear them sizzling, they're sautéing. If they're quiet, they're caramelizing." "Why the fuck are you fucking doing this, you stupid donkey?!" ...

My Mexican restaurant

Some nights (and weekends), I just don't feel like cooking, so I do go out to local restaurants from time to time. My most frequent haunt is El Idolo, a Mexican place just on the edge of Bartlett, TN. It sits a good 1/8 of a mile from the geographic center of the county, so it's reached easily enough from everywhere. They also have the best damn margaritas in town. I've come here frequently and long enough (since they opened, to be honest), that I don't order a drink - my server brings my drink when I've been seated. Incidentally, I go for the medium (used to be large, but they added a new size that's for my Sundays only) margarita on the rocks, no ice, no salt. When a new server starts at "the 'Dolo" (as we call it), it usually takes them 2-3 visits before they remember, and then it's smooth sailing again. Most places that I've ordered this just mix a normal margarita, then top it off with their mix; the 'Dolo says, "nah, hermano,...

A Spicy Tuesday Night

 In my younger years, I did not enjoy spicy foods. Luckily, I grew up... Recipe for habanero cream sauce Tonight for dinner, I made chicken and veggies with a new favorite: habanero cream sauce. I started with a couple mushrooms, a couple radishes, some shallot, a little yellow bell pepper, and a few cloves of garlic.  I generally try to group ingredients by when I want to add them (I call them "firm," "soft," "aromatic," etc.). In this case, the sliced baby bellas and diced bell pepper were "soft," the sliced radish and slivered garlic were "hard," and the minced shallot and minced garlic were "aromatic." A little knife work, and they were ready to go, which meant it was time to tackle the habanero.  I cut it up last just to help prevent getting that heat mixed in anywhere it didn't need to go. I mince that shit down so I can mix it around pretty thoroughly, and I threw that into the a...