CRUNCH #3
notes on meal-planning, cauliflower rigatoni and recipes
Crunch is a (from now on) weekly series where I write about what I’m cooking, what I’m eating and what it makes me think about. Thank you for reading!
Last Monday, I sent Rob this message:
steak and salad (spinach and kale with sesame dressing)
steamed dumplings with pickled cucumber and rice
pork chop cutlet with pickled veg slaw
caesar salad with crispy chicken thigh
soy and sesame mushroom bowl with spinach
I think this is a meal plan? I don’t meal plan, so this felt weird to do. I’m a what’s-in-the-fridge kind of cook. Actually, I usually decide what we’re eating for dinner when I wake up in the morning. It’s one of the first things that pops into my head after Rob’s brought me my coffee. As he’s leaving at around 07h30, I’ll announce “We’re having laab for dinner!” or “I really feel like potato leek soup.” Early morning is my most generative time.
Last week though, I felt compelled to start my week with a list. Nothing in my life really needs to be listed (ie. I don’t have that much going on right now) so listing the things I’d like to cook and eat seemed like a fun thing to do1. I ended up only making two of the three meals in this plan, but I knew this would happen when I was writing it down. I think the purpose of the meal plan wasn’t the result of the meals, it was the plan to cook five meals at home.
The steak and salad was a necessity, because we’d defrosted one sirloin the day before and ended up not cooking it, so it had to be eaten. The dumplings made it on the list because I got a rice cooker and steamer for Christmas and recently bought some steaming mats which I want to try out. I didn’t end up making them though, because I never got round to my local Korean store to buy some frozen mandu, but maybe this week. I had some leftover stale bread that I whizzed into breadcrumbs, which is why the pork cutlet made the list. I’ve also never made a pork cutlet before, I usually stick to chicken. I made this over the weekend and I liked it, but Rob got the heebs2 after a few bites cause he has a weird thing with pork. Won’t be making again. I never made the Caesar salad, because I had a very particular vision of a kale Caesar with super crispy chicken thighs, but when I went to buy said chicken thighs, there were none available. Off the list. I made a kind of variation of the soy and sesame mushroom bowl, except instead of rice, I used quinoa and it all went downhill from there. You can read more about it in my latest essay.
My favourite meal of the week that was not planned, was a cauliflower and broccoli rigatoni, with chilli and almonds. I made this for two friends who came over for dinner. It’s a variation of a recipe I found on Mob. I couldn’t find paccheri anywhere, despite going to three places that usually stock it, so I had to ruin the vision and use rigatoni instead. It was fine. I also opted for half broccoli half cauliflower, instead of a full head of broccoli.
While making this, I thought that if you’re not someone who cooks regularly, and not only that, likes to cook, read about cooking and watch other people make food, you’d probably end up hating this dish. The recipe is deceptively simple, but the dish requires you to know what the end result should look like — soft, broken down veg that kind of melts into itself and coats the pasta. This takes time (more than you’d think), a lot of olive oil and even a little bit of butter, so that you get an unctuous, glistening sauce, and the constant addition of little sips of pasta water as the broc/cauli mixture is cooking. The recipe also doesn’t call for the addition of any cream/milk/liquid other than a little pasta water. I don’t think it needs dairy, or dairy alternatives, but it definitely needs more liquid. Next time, I think I’ll use stock instead of the pasta water for the veg, because you add pasta water at the end with some parmesan (my addition) so it does help thicken it then.
Making this dish also made me realise why people get frustrated by cooking. It’s not a bad recipe, I just think it’s trying to present itself as ‘quick and simple’ when it’s really a little bit fussy. There could’ve been a couple of footnotes. You have to pay attention as the veg breaks down so that it doesn’t stick to the pan and burn (hence additions of pasta water). Also if you’ve never fried garlic before, and followed this recipe to the letter, you’d definitely burn it, which would ruin the whole meal. Frying garlic for 2 minutes in hot oil will burn it, surely? When I put mine in, I immediately took it off the heat. It also called for not nearly enough lemon, I probably squeezed two and a half lemons worth of juice over this and it needed it.
I only knew what this pasta was meant to do because of Alison Roman’s creamy cauliflower pasta recipe that I’ve watched her make twice, but have never tried myself. This is why I opted for doing half cauliflower, because to me, cauli is creamy and nutty and makes more sense in a ‘sauce’ like this instead of full broccoli, but I’ll try it with just broccoli next time and report back.
I’m being fussy with this recipe, because I’ve watched people who aren’t cooks follow a recipe and that’s exactly what they do — follow it. I had a late online meeting one evening, and asked Rob3 if he could prep and roast a chicken that I’d been defrosting. I gave him a recipe — I think I just pulled up a Jamie Oliver one — so that he’d feel like he could turn to something if he was lost, but I just wanted him to olive oil and season the chicken and put it in the oven (I told him all this too). Cut to fifteen minutes into this whole process and out of the corner of my eye, I see Rob rifle through a drawer and pull out a piece of twine. He cuts off a very (very) long piece, contemplates the bird and starts wrapping its legs haphazardly. He immediately starts swearing. I turned off my video, muted myself, and calmly asked him what he was doing:
“It says I have to ‘truss’ the chicken so I’m ‘trussing’ the chicken!”
“Rob, it’s a Tuesday night, we don’t truss a chicken on a Tuesday.”
“But the recipe says I have to tie the legs together.”
“Yes, but you don’t have to, it just makes it look nice and helps more when it’s a bigger bird.”
“Are you sure it’s going to be fine?”
“Yes, put it in the oven.”
By this time I’d rejoined the meeting but could still hear Rob grumble, “If it’s ruined, it’s not my fault.”
I honestly thought most people knew that trussing a chicken is a nice-to-have and not a necessity. Also, am I wrong in saying this? Are people actually trussing chickens on a Tuesday night and I’m the asshole leaving mine untrussed? Please let me know.
I don’t think it’s a recipe developer or recipe writer’s responsibility to write a recipe that includes every single thing that can go wrong, and ways of preventing it. That would be ridiculous. I do think that recipes could include footnotes though. Just small tips like, “This might take a bit longer than you think.” or “Be careful to not burn the garlic! If you see it turning brown around the edges quickly, take it off the heat and add the pasta water.”
These opinions are coming from a person who reads recipes, not from a person who writes them, so if I’m being unreasonable or missing something, please tell me. I have the highest respect for people who create and write recipes, my life would be so boring without them.
All this to say though, the (cauliflower) and broccoli rigatoni was incredible and you should definitely make it. But you should also read more recipes, essays about recipes, and food journalism in addition to watching people make food (IRL as well as online — watch your friends cook). I think this is what got me to a place where I can call myself a ‘reasonably okay cook’ instead of just someone who likes to eat food and sometimes cook.
Next week, I’ll probably be writing about steamed dumplings, but I don’t think I’ll make a meal plan again. That was a one-time-thing.
I realise now that this is probably why I felt like making a list.
The chills, the ick etc.
Rob can cook, he’s very good at steak and anything cooked on fire. He’d be mad at me if I didn’t include this footnote :)