In Cairo where my wife Marcelle and I grew up and like the rest of the Middle East and Mediterranean, cooking and eating are often elaborate events rather than just feeding oneself. They are emotional pursuits and hedonistic experiences steeped in tradition and often involve passionate exchanges of strongly held views that eventually lead to the satisfaction of all the senses.
The amount of physical and emotional energy that is expended in preparing a meal often verges on the obsessive and the drama does not stop there. After the meal is over, one enters into the critique stage of the event where reputations are made or broken overnight! “What an absolutely original dish,” “The vine leaf stuffing was perfectly cooked and not soggy,” “I felt there was a touch too much cumin,” “I would have left the lamb in a little longer,” or “The tomato sauce was much too runny”. “And why did they stew the apricots for so long”. You get the picture.
Marcelle and I have shed our inherited drama around cooking and food (well not entirely) and I have simplified many of the recipes I grew up with and those that I have collected along the way. I have also discovered a few truths that make it easier to turn a simple meal into something special and how to spend more time enjoying a meal than cooking it.
We are fortunate to live a stone’s throw away from Washington DC’s historic Eastern Market and its abundance of fresh produce.
Butter is back
There is no direct scientific correlation between a reasonable intake of butter and coronary disease provided the rest of your diet is balanced. Also many of my recipes come from Middle East and Mediterranean where olive or vegetable oil is the medium of choice for sautéing so the occasional dollop of butter will not break the cardiac bank.
Sauces
Contrary to popular belief sauces can be dead easy to make and I know of no better way to elevate a simple grilled or poached dish to gourmet status in minutes. Nor can I think of a quicker way to transform a vegetable side dish from a support role to something more special. So take a little time to explore links to my sauces and dressings for fish and seafood, meat and poultry and vegetables.
Keep it simple
My Greek grandmother was full advice on life, love and the pursuit of happiness that invariably involved food. One little nugget that keeps coming back to me is that “it is better to excel at simple meals than deliver mediocre elaborate productions”. And this from a Greek who as we all know are the masters of the dramatic.
Ingredients
There are only so many layers of flavor one needs to have a satisfying and distinctive dish so I keep my recipes simple with few ingredients without compromising too much on taste.
Do a lot of tasting, poking and prodding along the way.
Ingredients vary from brand to brand and from country to country. Measurements are also altered or varied because of conversion and there is also the question of personal taste. No matter what you are cooking keep a small spoon in a glass of water handy so that you can keep tasting as you cook through the dish and make adjustments accordingly.
Oven temperatures, gas and electric cooking rings also vary, so be prepared to gently prod, poke, prick and flake whatever protein or vegetable you are cooking to make sure it is cooked to your liking.
It is OK to serve food at room temperature
Excessively high temperatures often destroy natural flavors and textures. So can reheating a dish till it is piping hot. Little did we know then as we do now that for centuries, Middle Eastern and many Asian dishes (with exception of soups) are often served at room temperature.
So next time you cook, do not bother with juggling the timing involved in steaming the carrots while baking the potatoes and micro waving the beans to have them all perfectly cooked and piping hot at the table!
Desserts
I am not big on desserts and do not enjoy adding a layer of baked calories after a satisfying meal. Also there are very few desserts you can quickly prep and make for two, so the limited number of recipes I have included are based on fresh fruit with the occasional dollop of sorbet, ice cream or creme fraiche for the calorie hungry palate.
Time management
To state the obvious always start with the item that will take the longest to prep and/or cook. If something takes 30 minutes to bake, start with that first and use that time to prep and cook the other part of the meal. Or if you are cooking a side dish like rice start that before grilling your protein.
If your side dish needs a separate dressing or sauce make that before cooking the dish.
A word about marinating. Contrary to popular belief you do not have to marinate food for a long time to get the flavors through. Fifteen minutes can often do it. However with a little forethought, a lot of flavor can be had and time saved by marinating food ahead of time. I know it is unrealistic to expect you to decide on what you plan to have for dinner a day in advance or when you are rushing to work and I have plenty of recipes that take care of that. But when you can, 5 minutes of prep time and marinating a dish for even 10-15 minutes does pays dividends.
The family making gnocchi while on holiday in Noosa Australia 2016
Use all the help you can get
A timer ( an iPhone works) and a temperature gauge takes a lot of the guess work out of new recipes you try – like fish and especially thin cuts of meat or chicken that can dry up to shoe leather if you get the timing wrong.
Recipes are not the gospel. Use them as a platform to create your own taste experiences.
Nigel Slater, one of my favorite food writer said it best. “The English are not cooks. They are recipe followers”. How right that is about a lot of people.
Havana and I baking at home in Tokyo 2011
In the Middle East the “Wasfa”concept is alive and well. The word means “description” in Arabic and that is what you will get if you asked someone for a recipe. A description along the lines of “Fry a little garlic, coriander and cumin in some olive oil then add the tomatoes “ is about all that you will get. Proportions and times are left to you and your taste preferences.
Sure a recipe helps to get to know a dish but does that mean that one should follow it every time? I do not think so. In fact a recipe is only a start so go ahead improvise, improve and innovate.
Finally to my grandchildren Havana and Monty I say “Start your cooking adventures early. They will give you wonderful experiences and memories of people and places that you will treasure for a life time.”
Above all,
Have fun and don’t take cooking too seriously.
