Cooking Rhythms
Annie & Alison Newsletter #25
The rhythms of cooking are a comfort to me. A routine, a knowable framework of activity that makes me feel capable, safe, grounded.
Chopping, stirring, salting, searing, braising, boiling, roasting. Tasks that produce tangible results. Tasks repeated daily, like second nature. No matter the problems I’ve faced, the changes I’ve witnessed in a given day, these tasks wait for me and welcome all that the day holds.
Need to process that meeting? Here, chop these sweet potatoes.
Worrying about the future? Come back to the present, salt the lentils.
Smiling about that joke? Stir the sauce at your own pace.
Are you tired? Simmer this broth. Let it nourish you the way it was made to do.
The returning itself is a rhythm. I return to the kitchen at the end of each day, no matter how many long hours I’ve been away. Upon standing in front of my stove, I’m gently reminded to re-member my body, my senses. My hands become useful, my arms fold dough and lift heavy pots, my taste buds engage to balance salt, acid, heat. I forget how long I’ve been standing. I feel ushered in to the present moment, simply by turning a burner on.
The rhythm of cooking always concludes in awe. Every time yeast makes dough rise, I’m delighted. Roasting will always make squash become tender, and still, I marvel at its transformation. Cooking may just be the most quotidian miracle of my life.
“Delight in the act of cooking is one of the oldest and nearest things in the world. We have not made mud pies for nothing. If a cook is willing to simply look at what they are doing, there is hope. And if they should ever be fascinated by the fact that cornstarch and flour do the same thing differently, there is more than hope.” - Robert Farrar Capon
This week’s reviewed recipe round-up includes:
Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder with Garlic, Citrus, and Cilantro
Spiced Black Lentil Salad with Oil-Packed Tuna, Radishes, and Purple Potatoes
Spelt with Crispy Sausage, Flowering Broccoli, and Green Garlic
155 recipes cooked, 70 to go.
During this week of cooking…
I learned… that crushed olives and pickled jalapeño go together nicely (surprise!), that making your own cured fish is, in fact, way easier than it sounds, and that when I fork out the cash for a piece of halibut, I want to taste the halibut.
I watched… a live performance for the first time in over two years! Gosh, it felt good to be in a room of people all inclined to listen and wonder. Some friends and I saw the touring Broadway play, “What the Constitution Means to Me?” Like all good theater, the show asks more questions than it gives answers. Questions like, “what does it mean to be human?” “who qualifies, and why?” “how much can we rely on a document, or government, to fix society’s problems?” See it if you can.
xo,
Annie
P.S. I realize that this newsletter’s cadence has become bi-weekly. It started out by accident, but then I realized that it’s what feels doable in this season. I’m going to try to stick with this bi-weekly cadence going forward.
