I am excited to start a 3 month online cooking course tonight. It’s the Forks Over Knives Ultimate Course. Learning how to cook with no oil, no sugar, and no animal products is like learning a new programming language or maybe even like a new programming paradigm. Bring it on!
Tag: Cooking
Bärlaunch pesto
Pounding the shit out of some bärlauch (ramsons) to make pesto.
Bulb vs clove
Cooking confession: the first time I made pesto (nearly 30 years ago), I used dried basil instead of fresh and (having confused bulbs and cloves) two bulbs of raw garlic. We ate it anyway.
Mortar and pestle
Inspired by an episode of Salt Fat Acid Heat on Netflix, I made pesto with mortar and pestle for the first time. Only I made it with bärlauch (wild garlic) instead of basil. Smashing the crap out of the leaves and pine nuts felt very therapeutic! Will do again.
Cooking in the time of coronavirus
More coronavirus cases are announced every day. Switzerland is a small country (population 8.2 million), but not only are we in the top 10 for total number of cases, we’re #2 for cases per capita. It’s not surprising really considering that we’re next door to Italy and precautions were not taken.
A few weeks ago the government banned events with more than a thousand people. Last Friday the government closed all schools until April 4, banned events with more than a hundred people, and limited restaurants to 50 people. On Monday the government closed all non-essential shops, restaurants, bars, cinemas, pools, gyms, etc. Today the government issued a recommendation that everyone should stay at home unless they need to leave for work, buy food or supplies, or help others. Maybe tomorrow that recommendation will be made mandatory.
So much for going for walks in the farm fields. That seemed to me to be harmless enough, but ok. Stay home it is.
Fine. I’ve worked from home for nearly two decades now. My wife was working from home two days a week, but now it’s full-time. Our son has online learning arranged through his school for 6 hours every school day. He’s on day 2 of that and really enjoying the novelty of it. It’s a bit hard to concentrate at times with everyone here, but we’re so lucky that we are able to stay put.
I’ve been cooking a lot recently. I started cooking more frequently in January when I got some new cookbooks and began adopting a new diet (more on that some other time), but in the last few weeks it’s been even more. Part of it is wanting to stock up the freezer in case we get quarantined. Whereas in the past I might make a big pot of beans or soup and eat it for three days in a row, now we’ll eat it for one day, freeze the rest, and I’ll cook something new the next night. Part of it is wanting to eat as healthy as possible in the hope that it will help our immune systems. Part of it is just indulging myself with delicious food. The world may seem as if it’s coming apart at the seams (it’s not really– I know that), but at least right now in this moment I am with my family, our bellies are full, and our tastebuds are happy. Part of it is probably that cooking is one aspect of my life where I can easily assert control. The world may feel like it’s spinning out of control, but here in our kitchen I can cook good food. Some people hoard toilet paper. I cook.
I suppose it’s a coping mechanism. I’m ok with that.
Cook & Eat
I WILL COOK AND EAT MY WAY THROUGH THIS CRISIS!
Bärlauch pesto
I thought I would post the recipe for the bärlauch pesto I made last week. (It’s loosely based on a recipe for basil pesto that I took decades ago from a Cuisinart Food Processor booklet.)
- Fresh Bärlauch (1 package)
- Parmesan cheese (a fair-sized hunk, chopped into cubes)
- Pine nuts (about 1/4 cup)
- Garlic, 1 clove (optional)
- Olive oil (a lot)
- Lemon juice (1/4 lemon)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Pulverize the parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and optional garlic in the food processor
- Add in Bärlauch to running food processor
- Slowly drizzle in olive oil until the pesto reaches the desired consistency
- Lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste
- Serve with freshly cooked al dente pasta
Yeah sorry, I’m not too big on exact quantities in my recipes. I tend to eyeball them based on the quantity I have of the main ingredient(s).
Bärlauch
Bärlauch (literally “Bear leeks”), also known as ramsons or wild garlic, is a wild relative of chives that is native to Europe (and Asia). Here in Switzerland it appears in the produce section of grocery stores at this time of year. Last night I bought my first bunch and baked it into a quiche along with asparagus and potatoes. Its rich garlicky taste really made the quiche. Today I bought a second bunch and tonight I am making it into a pesto (substituting it for basil). I probably won’t need to add in any extra garlic at all. I love learning about new food items like this! (Hat tip to Birgit, my German teacher, for telling me about bärlauch.)
