It’s that time of year where the “Best of” charts are everywhere. I’ll keep it easy and ask a few questions, giving you my answers, and I hope you’ll post back either through the blog or facebook to see what’s on people’s minds.
Where have you been, and where are you going?
Top 5 food lessons learned in 2011
1. Vegetarianism is harder than it looks. While you could live off spaghetti and salad, at some point, you have to learn how to incorporate protein into a vegetarian diet.
2. The pressure cooker is your friend. The more you learn how to use this tool, the faster things go, especially for stocks, soups, etc.
3. Hangar steak is far and away my favorite cut of meat.
4. Making pickles is actually fun and pretty easy. We pickled peppers, carrots, onions, and green tomatoes this year, trying to get the most out of our garden. We also made pickles out of cucumbers, eggplant, radishes, and garlic.
5. Making dough is easy. Making bread is difficult. To really get good at it, you have to have a good understanding of the microbiology and exponential growth to take your bread (pizza) to the next level.
* and one bonus. The most satisfying food is that which we cook at home.
Top 5 food projects for 2012
1. Using the immersion circulator (sous vide) just enough, but not too much. Yeah, I haven’t posted much about it, but I’ve got a ton of stuff coming up about how to use it. It’s an amazing device that allows precision on a level I’ve never had before. And when you couple it with the jet-engine grill for high-heat searing, you’ve got something.
2. Greater understanding of sauces, emulsions, soups, etc. With your meat cookery simplified by sous vide technique, more effort can be put towards making sauces and adding flavors.
3. Reprise of pasture-raised meats: chicken, pork, beef, etc. I think if you get the right purveyor, and you’re happy with the product, you should support it. Don’t just buy the free-range chicken at the store to offset guilt.
4. Further refinement of the art/craft. While we get close in a lot of ways, it’s interesting to see how far we’ve gotten in 5 years, and how far we have to go. From representation (photography and prose), to taking that meal that was 85% right and kicking it up to 95%.
5. Balance. In some of my zeal, in protein/carb/fat, meat intake, etc. The more comfortable we get with cooking most anything, the easier that is. And I think there’s a balance to be struck between modernism and farm-to-table as well as in homegrown produce and store-bought.