![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
During my big cooking day, which happens every five to eight days depending, I make a bunch of things and put them in the oven. Then I also make some things on top of the stove. The top of the stove things tend to be lighter and less dairy-oriented.
Most weeks I make a legume dish. My favorite legumes at this time are lentils, giant lima beans ("butter beans" in some venues), and garbanzo beans. A year or two ago on Making Light I was exposed to a new method of preparing lentils and it has made a world of difference. The key revelation was salt in the soaking water, and the next most important new thing was long soaking times. I was reluctant about the salt because I don't like a lot of salt flavor in my food, but I experimented and the method works as well with a tiny pinch of salt that doesn't affect the flavor (modern cookery experts are all about the salt and more salt everywhere all the time and more salt than you can imagine, and I just don't go modern in this instance. Each to his own, my mama said. I say each to their own, myself). I soak them for at least two days. If the weather is muggy I soak them in the fridge.
Once they're nicely cooked, I usually make them into a nice whatever vegetable soup. Now, this soup can lean towards the minestrone side (heavier), or it can lean towards the borscht side(lighter). It can rejoice in seasonings brought in from whichever regional pallette pleases you(r palate, let's pretend I didn't think that litle lame play on words). They can also be made into a dhal or a curry. They can also be marinated with lemon juice or vinegar, olive oil, garlic, and available green herbs, and then plopped into a chopped salad or flung onto a tossed salad or mixed into a "Russian-esque" salad (about which more later). They can also be mashed up and made into an oven dish I forgot about before, a bean and nut loaf. My friend Bonnie makes marvelous bean balls but they are not part of my strategy because I don't know how. Since I don't eat rice hardly ever at home any more, I don't make hoppin'john, but I make something that is flavored like that and lacks rice.
You could make cassoulet, or Boston baked beans, but I don't usually. Cassoulet is too complicated in the classical version even though back in its proper time and place it was kind of a convenience food, and anyway I don't usually feel I can afford the cost or the nutritional cost of sausages and duck confit and all that. Boston baked beans tend to be too sweet and it would take an investment of experimentation to get a version that isn't. Also, salt pork is the same situation for me as sausage.
Sometimes on cooking day I just make the legumes and stick them in a jar in the fridge and hope I incorporate them into dishes as I go along before they give up the tastiness ghost, but the whole point of cooking day is that I don't trust myself to do reliable ad hoc cooking. I recently lost a small batch of pinto beans due to forgetfullness, which I would not have done if I had put them into a composed dish from the beginning.
Another frequent dish is the giant stir-fry. This is pretty much the only way I use tofu, which makes it pretty much the only way I use soy products (except for a tiny bit of soy sauce). Soybeans and soy milk are solidly on the list fo things I can't eat without serious consequnces, and I'm sort of giving up on the tofu noodles because they have next to no nutritive value and I haven't been able to coak stellar results from them so why bother? I also make the giant stir-fry with sliced meat sometimes, or even with mushrooms only as the protein source. I use at least twice as much vegetables as protein source, or sometimes with no protein source at all. Being a true American, I especially like any kind of broccoli in this (Italian Broccoli, Chinese Broccoli, whatever broccoli). But green beans, snow peas, snap peas, kale, bok choy, baby bok choy, asparagus, green onions, celery, celery root, turnip, any kind of large radish (or small, but trust me, cutting up that many little radishes is something I do not want to repeat), zuchinni, carrots, chiles or sweet peppers -- really, whatever -- will do very nicely. Combinations are good too, though it's not as nice when you combine too many many things. A few is good.
Pot roast or stew or soup (and that is just a continuum, if you ask me) are also places where I can combine protein that is rich in B-12 and iron with a lot of vegetables and end up with something I can just eat on for days afterwards. I mentioned pot roast in the oven section but it can be done on top of the stove too. So the flesh of any animal can go into these, or legumes as I described above, and even tofu, but I can't talk about that because I haven't mastered it. Another thing I haven't mastered is poaching eggs in vegetable stew, which I read about in a MIddle Eastern cookobook.
It's also nice to occasionally stew vegetables without a protein source. One version of that I was calling summer sauce this year because it was a reaction to a superabundance of tomatoes and peppers. I threw into the pot tomatoes, peppers, onions, and whatever vegetables (often zuchinni and mixed fresh beans), and cooked them till they were pretty soft, and then ladled it over whatever I was eating until if was all gone.
When I was taking a night class that had a potluck supper as part of it, I noticed that the Mexican students often brought a tuna, potato, or macaroni salad that had those frozen mixed vegetables added to it. It was dressed with mayonaise flavored with Tapatio sauce. I don't know what this sounds like to you, but it appealed to me in a way that is almost guilty. One day when I was surfing through food blogs as you do, and I happened to surf from a couple fo Persian blogs to some Russian ones, I noticed Salat Olivier, also sometimes called Russian Salad, which I remembered being briefly enamored of in my early twenties in some form or another. At its base it's a potato salad with other vegetables added and usually some protein source (either/or: chopped cooked meat or fish, chopped egg, or chopped cheese), dressed with mayonnaise with or without chopped pickles. So that has congealed in my mind and I make a chopped salad with barely enough diluted mayonnaise to hold it together. Sometimes I do use frozen mixed veegtables I have allowed to thaw, other times I use a variety of fresh vegies either blanched or raw. I might add a chopped hardboiled egg, or a handful of chopped meat, or some cooked legumes. I'll dilute the mayonnaise with vinegar and/or lemon juice and a splash of oil, and flavor it with Tapatio in the Mexican way but also add a handful or three of chopped fresh parsley and dill. I rarely actually use potatoes: I prefer turnips, and I rationalise this by saying that Russians probably made that with turnips before they did it with potatoes.
Sometimes I'll just steam or sautee some plain vegies to have around the house to add to things, but for me with my weak powers of concentration that is a little dangerous.
I also do make meals at the time of consumption now and then, but that's usually fried or poached eggs with vegetables piled under them and usually some warmed bread: or a big salad: or a sandwich. A favorite thing I don't do much anymore because I usually just bake the pumpkin into a thing is to take a large chunk of pumpkin and cook it in the microwave till it's tender, and then put a shamefully large slab of cheese and a big glob of salsa or a generous dollop of Tapatio on it and cook it till the cheese melts. Or I'll make a sandwich, which in practical terms means a cheese or peanut butter sandwich more often than not, though I might make a meat or summer sauce sandwich. Or I'll load up a bowl of plain yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit and/or (homemade) jam. See, if I don't cook in advance? I get unbalanced on the dairy side. My tummy is happier with a more varied diet like I get when I cook in advance.
Now I'm going to go cook, and also eat a salad. Some other time I will go into tedious detail about my replacement philosophies.
Most weeks I make a legume dish. My favorite legumes at this time are lentils, giant lima beans ("butter beans" in some venues), and garbanzo beans. A year or two ago on Making Light I was exposed to a new method of preparing lentils and it has made a world of difference. The key revelation was salt in the soaking water, and the next most important new thing was long soaking times. I was reluctant about the salt because I don't like a lot of salt flavor in my food, but I experimented and the method works as well with a tiny pinch of salt that doesn't affect the flavor (modern cookery experts are all about the salt and more salt everywhere all the time and more salt than you can imagine, and I just don't go modern in this instance. Each to his own, my mama said. I say each to their own, myself). I soak them for at least two days. If the weather is muggy I soak them in the fridge.
Once they're nicely cooked, I usually make them into a nice whatever vegetable soup. Now, this soup can lean towards the minestrone side (heavier), or it can lean towards the borscht side(lighter). It can rejoice in seasonings brought in from whichever regional pallette pleases you(r palate, let's pretend I didn't think that litle lame play on words). They can also be made into a dhal or a curry. They can also be marinated with lemon juice or vinegar, olive oil, garlic, and available green herbs, and then plopped into a chopped salad or flung onto a tossed salad or mixed into a "Russian-esque" salad (about which more later). They can also be mashed up and made into an oven dish I forgot about before, a bean and nut loaf. My friend Bonnie makes marvelous bean balls but they are not part of my strategy because I don't know how. Since I don't eat rice hardly ever at home any more, I don't make hoppin'john, but I make something that is flavored like that and lacks rice.
You could make cassoulet, or Boston baked beans, but I don't usually. Cassoulet is too complicated in the classical version even though back in its proper time and place it was kind of a convenience food, and anyway I don't usually feel I can afford the cost or the nutritional cost of sausages and duck confit and all that. Boston baked beans tend to be too sweet and it would take an investment of experimentation to get a version that isn't. Also, salt pork is the same situation for me as sausage.
Sometimes on cooking day I just make the legumes and stick them in a jar in the fridge and hope I incorporate them into dishes as I go along before they give up the tastiness ghost, but the whole point of cooking day is that I don't trust myself to do reliable ad hoc cooking. I recently lost a small batch of pinto beans due to forgetfullness, which I would not have done if I had put them into a composed dish from the beginning.
Another frequent dish is the giant stir-fry. This is pretty much the only way I use tofu, which makes it pretty much the only way I use soy products (except for a tiny bit of soy sauce). Soybeans and soy milk are solidly on the list fo things I can't eat without serious consequnces, and I'm sort of giving up on the tofu noodles because they have next to no nutritive value and I haven't been able to coak stellar results from them so why bother? I also make the giant stir-fry with sliced meat sometimes, or even with mushrooms only as the protein source. I use at least twice as much vegetables as protein source, or sometimes with no protein source at all. Being a true American, I especially like any kind of broccoli in this (Italian Broccoli, Chinese Broccoli, whatever broccoli). But green beans, snow peas, snap peas, kale, bok choy, baby bok choy, asparagus, green onions, celery, celery root, turnip, any kind of large radish (or small, but trust me, cutting up that many little radishes is something I do not want to repeat), zuchinni, carrots, chiles or sweet peppers -- really, whatever -- will do very nicely. Combinations are good too, though it's not as nice when you combine too many many things. A few is good.
Pot roast or stew or soup (and that is just a continuum, if you ask me) are also places where I can combine protein that is rich in B-12 and iron with a lot of vegetables and end up with something I can just eat on for days afterwards. I mentioned pot roast in the oven section but it can be done on top of the stove too. So the flesh of any animal can go into these, or legumes as I described above, and even tofu, but I can't talk about that because I haven't mastered it. Another thing I haven't mastered is poaching eggs in vegetable stew, which I read about in a MIddle Eastern cookobook.
It's also nice to occasionally stew vegetables without a protein source. One version of that I was calling summer sauce this year because it was a reaction to a superabundance of tomatoes and peppers. I threw into the pot tomatoes, peppers, onions, and whatever vegetables (often zuchinni and mixed fresh beans), and cooked them till they were pretty soft, and then ladled it over whatever I was eating until if was all gone.
When I was taking a night class that had a potluck supper as part of it, I noticed that the Mexican students often brought a tuna, potato, or macaroni salad that had those frozen mixed vegetables added to it. It was dressed with mayonaise flavored with Tapatio sauce. I don't know what this sounds like to you, but it appealed to me in a way that is almost guilty. One day when I was surfing through food blogs as you do, and I happened to surf from a couple fo Persian blogs to some Russian ones, I noticed Salat Olivier, also sometimes called Russian Salad, which I remembered being briefly enamored of in my early twenties in some form or another. At its base it's a potato salad with other vegetables added and usually some protein source (either/or: chopped cooked meat or fish, chopped egg, or chopped cheese), dressed with mayonnaise with or without chopped pickles. So that has congealed in my mind and I make a chopped salad with barely enough diluted mayonnaise to hold it together. Sometimes I do use frozen mixed veegtables I have allowed to thaw, other times I use a variety of fresh vegies either blanched or raw. I might add a chopped hardboiled egg, or a handful of chopped meat, or some cooked legumes. I'll dilute the mayonnaise with vinegar and/or lemon juice and a splash of oil, and flavor it with Tapatio in the Mexican way but also add a handful or three of chopped fresh parsley and dill. I rarely actually use potatoes: I prefer turnips, and I rationalise this by saying that Russians probably made that with turnips before they did it with potatoes.
Sometimes I'll just steam or sautee some plain vegies to have around the house to add to things, but for me with my weak powers of concentration that is a little dangerous.
I also do make meals at the time of consumption now and then, but that's usually fried or poached eggs with vegetables piled under them and usually some warmed bread: or a big salad: or a sandwich. A favorite thing I don't do much anymore because I usually just bake the pumpkin into a thing is to take a large chunk of pumpkin and cook it in the microwave till it's tender, and then put a shamefully large slab of cheese and a big glob of salsa or a generous dollop of Tapatio on it and cook it till the cheese melts. Or I'll make a sandwich, which in practical terms means a cheese or peanut butter sandwich more often than not, though I might make a meat or summer sauce sandwich. Or I'll load up a bowl of plain yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit and/or (homemade) jam. See, if I don't cook in advance? I get unbalanced on the dairy side. My tummy is happier with a more varied diet like I get when I cook in advance.
Now I'm going to go cook, and also eat a salad. Some other time I will go into tedious detail about my replacement philosophies.