"Why don't you cook every recipe in one of your cookbooks? Go through and cook everything, at least once. No variations, no matter how strange or how hard to find the ingredients are. That could be fun, right?"
Well, yes, I suppose it could. It worked for the person who cooked her way through Mastering the Art of French Cookery. by Julia Child. The cookbook I've chosen is Cook With Jamie by Jamie Oliver. I have a slew of cookbooks. Way too many. Jamie's books, unlike those of some other celebrity chefs, actually have recipes that are easy to follow and work in reality, for normal people. (Are you listening, Anthony Bourdain? You try making chocolate mousse according to your book. Yourself. Can't do it, can you? Not without 6 arms and a rewrite. If you don't get chocolate scrambled eggs, you'll get some great chocolate pudding. But not mousse.) And he claims on the front of the book, right there in white letters, that he can make me a better cook. Who can argue with that?
I also think Jamie's doing some amazing things instead of using his celebrity status to line his pockets, like taking on the evil school lunch programs in England and the United States, and starting the Fifteen Foundation. Fifteen is a program for kids who come from less-than-great circumstances, and it gives them the chance to really turn their lives around through culinary schooling and restaurant work. I've put a link to the program off to the side, and all the proceeds from this book go to Fifteen as well. I called the blog "My Year with Jamie" because he likens what you'll learn by following the recipes as something akin to what his students learn during their time with him.
I've set myself some rules:
1) I must cook at least 3 recipes from the book each week. They don't have to be in order, but they can't be the same thing, and repeats don't count.
2) I must try everything, from the carrot cake to the oxtail (blurgh) to the live lobster (yikes!).
3) No substitutions. I must be valiant in all efforts to obtain the ingredients he uses. If I plan my shopping right, that shouldn't be a problem, but I do anticipate having some difficulty sourcing wild rabbit, for instance. But we'll get there when we get there.
I don't have any professional cooking experience. I took 8 weeks of Home Ec in the 6th grade, and 24 hours of cake decorating (I can make a mean buttercream rose, but I didn't see any when I read the book, so I'm not ahead with that). I have an apartment kitchen (read: average appliances) and standard but good kitchen equipment. I was put to work early in the kitchen as a kid, and I've read cookbooks and watched cooking shows forever. But I'm terrible with knives. I've still got lots to learn.
I'll try to post what I'm cooking ahead of time, in case anybody wants to follow along. (Like Picturepages, only with food! Oh, I'm dating myself.) This week's recipes are Jools' Favorite Saturday Afternoon Pasta, A Rather Pleasing Carrot Cake..., and either the Fifteen Chocolate Brownies or Nan's Lemon Drizzle Cake (no, I normally don't eat this much dessert -- husband's class is having an end-of-year party, so I'll be foisting it on the law students).
7 comments:
Oxtails are actually surprisingly tasty. They are!
I think this is such a cool idea and look forward to reading :-)
My dad's favorite butcher is Johnny Jones on Kendall Drive, a block west of SR 874 (on the north side). You might check with JJ to see if you can procure wild rabbit through him. Otherwise, you might just have to make friends with people who have huge backyards adjoining wooded areas and see if you can bring one in a trap to a butcher while it's still kicking...
Um, yeah. See, said husband had rabbits as pets. I mentioned this recipe, and his response was, "Ook. :-P" I may have to make an exception for that one.
I've had rabbits as pets too, and I've been vegetarian since before you met me in 1992. But if you want to cook wild rabbit, I'd respect your choice; that's why I offered information. :)
By the way, is there any way to turn off these v.annoying "word verification" CAPTCHAs for non-anonymous commenters? Would appreciate it if it's possible.
I am wondering if cooking various types of meat will cause me to go at least pescatarian, if not veg completely. (The book index does have helpful "v" designations for vegetarian recipes, though.) Since having a child, preparing large items of meat has started to bother me somewhat. Stay tuned!
Done, and done!
Is there some causal relationship between motherhood and vegetarian tendencies, do you think? Or is it just a coincidence?
Motherhood, definitely. Once you've bathed a baby in your sink, you'll never look at cleaning a chicken or a roast the same way again. Things that look like where they came from have always bothered me. But now I can't help but think that this animal once belonged to a mother, and how would I feel if someone took my kid away and turned her into dinner? It's not the same, but you get weird when you have a kid. :-)
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