Food Porn, and the relative lack
May. 19th, 2006 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumI haven't been cooking so much since I got back from Korea.
The reasons are strange, and for those who are expecting anything of a truly scrumptious nature, this may not be the post to read.
Our landlord, and housemate, has a new boyfriend. He has a house. She has been spending most of her time there. This has, actually, cut into my cooking.
There are a lot of things about the boyfriend to dislike, the long and short of it is he is a privileged kid with no sense of awareness for other people. While I was in Korea/Tennesee they took to cooking for the weekly get together. They've not yet stopped. On several levels this bothers me, mostly (I think) because they aren't here much. They come in, make some food (most of which was prepped at his place) make a mess and leave.
I resent it.
It feels false. The basic idea was ours. Maia and I were used to having people over once a week, and so we wanted to continue it. We are no longer actually hosting it, and that annoys me.
I confess that, as I do most of the cooking, I don't always clean up those dishes which weren't cleaned in process. In part this is because I did the cooking, and don't think I ought to have to do all the dishes, and in part because I certainly don't want to be cleaning up after a dozen people at 11 o'clock in the evening, and put it off to morning.
They clean up almost nothing (last week they did put away the food, but that was all, and a first). So I have pots, pans, dishes and a sink full of whatever they tossed in it while they were cooking.
feh.
He seems to have zero sense of several of the simplest tasks, like not scorching rice, or beans, to the bottom of a pan. So there've been a few occasions when my good cookware has been left on the stove with a lid, a bit of water and food. Just what I want to find a couple of days later when I get to digging things out.
I've had to repair a couple of my knives. This does not put me in a good mood. I like my cutlery. To a small degree I fetishize it. I tend to keep my knives sharper than most schools of cooking recommend (I like a smaller angle than they do. It makes the edge more delicate, but they cut more cleanly, and with greater precision when doing delicate work). These were not the routine touching up of something dulled (which bothers me not at all) but having to take out the stones and grind out places where the edges had been smashed flat, and folded over.
So I've had to remove things from the kitchen.
Combine that with hectic scedules, and the like, and lots of the cooking has been routine. A pot of chili, some pasta with red sauce, etc..
I did get a present from Maia, at long last (I've been asking for it for a couple of years) part of which delay wasn't her fault, as she made it back in February, and the Craft Center lost two kilns, so everything was delayed.
I am now the proud and happy owner of a kraut-pot. It's a straight-sided cylinder, of about 1/2 gal. capacity, with a lid which fits just inside the rim.
It's used for the making of sauerkraut (which I very much like).
Making sauerkraut is easy.
Cabbage
Salt
Time
Those are what one needs. I am on my second batch and the results are very good. The first batch was a trifle too salty, but I fixed that.
Take a head of cabbage, slice it thin (3-6 mm)
Place a layer (maybe 1/3 in) in the pot.
Sprinkle some salt on it (sea salt, esp. grey sea salt is best, because the calcium in it will keep the cabbage firmer. I recommend against iodized, because the flavor will be slightly off).
Repeat this until the pot is almost full.
Every so often take the lid (Mine is bowl-shaped, with a knob in the center) and press down, with moderate firmness, on the cabbage.
You are aiming for a 1-3 percent solution (this is different from brine for pickles, which tends to be more toward 10 percent salt, which is enough to make an egg stand on end; which is what a book means when it says, "strong enough to float an egg," If the egg actually floats, it's too salty. Kosher salt will dissolve more readily. Actually making a stong brine, and tossing the cabbage in it isn't all that effective because not enough sticks. If you add too much it will still work, but the flavor will be different.
In a day, or so, the salt will have pulled enough water out of the cabbage to cover it. If it hasn't, then add a little water. Let it sit for at least a week, and test.
Check it every couple of days. The smell will get more acidic as it develops the bacteria which do the work (like brined pickles and olives, it's a lactic acid fermentation). You can add seeds (caraway and dill are traditional, but fennel, celery, cumin, etc. are all interesting). You can also add carrots, turnips, parsnips etc. Temperature will affect it, the cooler it is the more slowly things go. If keeping it at room temperature it will be ready sometime between 7-10 days, and be good for 3-5 weeks. You can put it in a widemouthed jar, and move it to the fridge if you want to keep it longer than that. The best thing, however, is to make only enough as you are likely to eat before it starts to get less tasty.
The speed of the reaction will give it different texture and flavor (as will age). You can also use the brine as starter, much like sourdough. If you are making new, as the old runs out, just reserve a bit (for my pot, about 1/3 cup) and pour it on when all the cabbage is in the pot.
Kimchee is about the same. The main difference in technique is 1: the amount of salt, and 2: the size of the cabbage. Kimchee starts at 3 pecent and heads toward 6 percent salt. This changes the sort of bacteria, and makes for a more effervescent, and "brighter" flavor. It also leaves the cabbage crisper.
One can make kimchee from "white" cabbage, but the Koreans use bok choi, or Napa, and they chop it into large pieces.
The (in)famous aroma comes from the peppers, garlic and ginger which are added to the mix, the authentic stuff is redolant of stagnant water when brewing, so it might be the best thing for domestic harmony to put the pot in the garage, or the backyard, instead of the kitchenn counter.
The reasons are strange, and for those who are expecting anything of a truly scrumptious nature, this may not be the post to read.
Our landlord, and housemate, has a new boyfriend. He has a house. She has been spending most of her time there. This has, actually, cut into my cooking.
There are a lot of things about the boyfriend to dislike, the long and short of it is he is a privileged kid with no sense of awareness for other people. While I was in Korea/Tennesee they took to cooking for the weekly get together. They've not yet stopped. On several levels this bothers me, mostly (I think) because they aren't here much. They come in, make some food (most of which was prepped at his place) make a mess and leave.
I resent it.
It feels false. The basic idea was ours. Maia and I were used to having people over once a week, and so we wanted to continue it. We are no longer actually hosting it, and that annoys me.
I confess that, as I do most of the cooking, I don't always clean up those dishes which weren't cleaned in process. In part this is because I did the cooking, and don't think I ought to have to do all the dishes, and in part because I certainly don't want to be cleaning up after a dozen people at 11 o'clock in the evening, and put it off to morning.
They clean up almost nothing (last week they did put away the food, but that was all, and a first). So I have pots, pans, dishes and a sink full of whatever they tossed in it while they were cooking.
feh.
He seems to have zero sense of several of the simplest tasks, like not scorching rice, or beans, to the bottom of a pan. So there've been a few occasions when my good cookware has been left on the stove with a lid, a bit of water and food. Just what I want to find a couple of days later when I get to digging things out.
I've had to repair a couple of my knives. This does not put me in a good mood. I like my cutlery. To a small degree I fetishize it. I tend to keep my knives sharper than most schools of cooking recommend (I like a smaller angle than they do. It makes the edge more delicate, but they cut more cleanly, and with greater precision when doing delicate work). These were not the routine touching up of something dulled (which bothers me not at all) but having to take out the stones and grind out places where the edges had been smashed flat, and folded over.
So I've had to remove things from the kitchen.
Combine that with hectic scedules, and the like, and lots of the cooking has been routine. A pot of chili, some pasta with red sauce, etc..
I did get a present from Maia, at long last (I've been asking for it for a couple of years) part of which delay wasn't her fault, as she made it back in February, and the Craft Center lost two kilns, so everything was delayed.
I am now the proud and happy owner of a kraut-pot. It's a straight-sided cylinder, of about 1/2 gal. capacity, with a lid which fits just inside the rim.
It's used for the making of sauerkraut (which I very much like).
Making sauerkraut is easy.
Cabbage
Salt
Time
Those are what one needs. I am on my second batch and the results are very good. The first batch was a trifle too salty, but I fixed that.
Take a head of cabbage, slice it thin (3-6 mm)
Place a layer (maybe 1/3 in) in the pot.
Sprinkle some salt on it (sea salt, esp. grey sea salt is best, because the calcium in it will keep the cabbage firmer. I recommend against iodized, because the flavor will be slightly off).
Repeat this until the pot is almost full.
Every so often take the lid (Mine is bowl-shaped, with a knob in the center) and press down, with moderate firmness, on the cabbage.
You are aiming for a 1-3 percent solution (this is different from brine for pickles, which tends to be more toward 10 percent salt, which is enough to make an egg stand on end; which is what a book means when it says, "strong enough to float an egg," If the egg actually floats, it's too salty. Kosher salt will dissolve more readily. Actually making a stong brine, and tossing the cabbage in it isn't all that effective because not enough sticks. If you add too much it will still work, but the flavor will be different.
In a day, or so, the salt will have pulled enough water out of the cabbage to cover it. If it hasn't, then add a little water. Let it sit for at least a week, and test.
Check it every couple of days. The smell will get more acidic as it develops the bacteria which do the work (like brined pickles and olives, it's a lactic acid fermentation). You can add seeds (caraway and dill are traditional, but fennel, celery, cumin, etc. are all interesting). You can also add carrots, turnips, parsnips etc. Temperature will affect it, the cooler it is the more slowly things go. If keeping it at room temperature it will be ready sometime between 7-10 days, and be good for 3-5 weeks. You can put it in a widemouthed jar, and move it to the fridge if you want to keep it longer than that. The best thing, however, is to make only enough as you are likely to eat before it starts to get less tasty.
The speed of the reaction will give it different texture and flavor (as will age). You can also use the brine as starter, much like sourdough. If you are making new, as the old runs out, just reserve a bit (for my pot, about 1/3 cup) and pour it on when all the cabbage is in the pot.
Kimchee is about the same. The main difference in technique is 1: the amount of salt, and 2: the size of the cabbage. Kimchee starts at 3 pecent and heads toward 6 percent salt. This changes the sort of bacteria, and makes for a more effervescent, and "brighter" flavor. It also leaves the cabbage crisper.
One can make kimchee from "white" cabbage, but the Koreans use bok choi, or Napa, and they chop it into large pieces.
The (in)famous aroma comes from the peppers, garlic and ginger which are added to the mix, the authentic stuff is redolant of stagnant water when brewing, so it might be the best thing for domestic harmony to put the pot in the garage, or the backyard, instead of the kitchenn counter.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-05-20 05:52 am (UTC)Mmm, sauerkraut, mmm kimchee.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-20 06:10 am (UTC)Wow. That's just... wow.
Disgusting, I think is the word I'm searching for.
You know, you don't have to let them do this. Just say you'd rather plan something simple because cleanup is starting to get out of hand and take back over.
Gee whiz. Tacky.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-20 06:16 am (UTC)I don't know the cause of the change, but I suspect it has to do with the boyfriend's influence. He's spoiled, and it shows. For all intents and purposes, she's not living here, but the assumption seems to be that we are to behave as though she were, and that she was making almost exclusive use of the public parts of the house.
If we are gone when they arrive, anything which is in the public areas is piled in front of our door.
It's a pity really, because she's a nice person, and the sea change is affecting my attitudes about her. That pisses me off too. I resent feeling I have no right to use anything other than our room.
But we are moving in a month, and I'll probaly just quietly seethe about it and not get into it with her, because I can't see any good outcome.
Maybe it's because we're moving, and this is her way of coping. I don't know.
I'd like to keep in touch when we move, but I don't know how well that will work.
TK
no subject
Date: 2006-05-20 06:21 am (UTC)This week is ours, because it's Maia's birthday, and the week after that is Memorial Day, so the odds are most people will be out of town. Then finals start and we are probably going to do something because we are leaving, and it's my birthday. Those can probably be used to trump things.
Disgusting is how it gets, if I don't give in to frustration and clean up.
Honestly, I think part of it is him trying to compete with me for the attention of or friends (some of whom are his fellow students). He's got a tendency to try to overwhelm people and I am neither overwhelmable, nor willing to cave in when he starts spouting bullshit. It bothers him.
And this is a way he can (by virtue of his new position) supplant me in something.
If you ask me the quality of the food, in general, has gone down, even when it's something (like corned beef) which I've made before. He's not as good a cook as I am.
But all that's beside the points I brought up.
TK
no subject
Date: 2006-05-20 06:21 am (UTC)TK
no subject
Date: 2006-05-20 06:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-20 07:06 am (UTC)I know that some people will screw up my things.
Our pied a terre in Pasadena has people who don't know how to work a kitchen. One of them mistreated a knife and it didn't really bother me.
It's not that it took less work to repair, but the cause wasn't carelessness, it was ignorance (perhaps the fact that said person's spouse apologised to me, and apparently issued a scolding, because after all it was my knife, not their's which had been abused had something to do with that, but I don't think so).
His attitude (and yes, lots of my irked is all about his attitude, and my sense of not being able to give him the dressing down/royal chewing out and pretty much permananent ejection I would were it my house; or were he not the boyfriend of someone I happen to like) seems basically to be, "it ain't mine, so it doesn't matter what I do to it."
Which pisses me off, esp. when it's my shit he's fucking with.
TK
i can wash up....
Date: 2006-05-20 07:48 am (UTC)i've also got advanced asshole management skills*....
redc1c4,
(*being one myownself %-)
Re: i can wash up....
Date: 2006-05-20 07:56 am (UTC)On a lighter note, if you have the time on Weds. it's Maia's b-day and you are more than welcome to come to the party. We won't be starting any earlier than 1700, but anytime from then on is fine.
Let me know and I'll give you directions. If you can't make Weds, anytime earlier in the week is fine with us too, though Sunday we may have plans through mid-day.
TK
Wednesday night it is....
Date: 2006-05-20 08:24 am (UTC)email me details. they wanted me to w*rk fryday too, but i refuse to try to drive on the holiday weekend.
redc1c4,
who wonders if there's much difference between WW & AT on Club Bob? %-)
no subject
Date: 2006-05-20 12:49 pm (UTC)It sucks that you have to put your cooking stuff away from them.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-20 04:01 pm (UTC)One month, and I think the weekly cooking will be mine for that month, in any case I'll manage. I've touhged out worse living situations.
TK
no subject
Date: 2006-05-20 11:03 pm (UTC)Renting rooms and making do with whatever quirks and habits my housemates had were all very well until I turned 30. Then, for some reason, I was just over it. I wanted a place of my own with a known roommate. So I moved in with my boyfriend and that's worked out pretty nicely.
I don't miss house drama (man, the pit bull guy; oh man, the time the FBI came round) though I do sometimes miss the cheap rent. But people using my stuff? Unsuitable bf/gf/friends? No. And I contributed my share of being the wrong renter when I was in my early twenties. I tended to keep to myself and I wasn't always reliable about the mutual bills.
Will you miss SLO? I would find it hard to live in LA, but I guess you've done that before.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-20 11:38 pm (UTC)I like having roommates, but the secondary baggage which shows up later... that can get old. L.A. is a swell place, and like NYC, there are those who can't stand it, those who couldn't live anywhere else (SF and Chicago are probably the other big cities with that sort of claim. Seattle has the weather to set it apart, but other than that I don't know that it's so special as to have the sort of love/hate relationships, as well as the voiciferous condemnations).
Me, I've spent some 25 of the past 30 years in and around it. It's comfortable. So large in scope that I could live there another 25 years and still be stumbling over odd quirks and wonderful sections.
But if we could make it work to head back to SLO, we'd probably do it. The pace is nice, the people too and the weather is more to both our likings.
TK
no subject
Date: 2006-05-21 07:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-21 12:34 pm (UTC)