-Keith
And as such, it’s about time to start thinking about new years resolutions, and reflect on old years resolutions.
I never specifically make a hard and fast resolution. Instead I have vague goals I want to work on. Some never work out but were good goals to have, some are doomed to fail because I know who I am and that goal is not something I’d succeed at, and some goals I start working on part way through the year and thus they never were originally a new year resolution, but they fit the spirit of it so I count them. Looking at 2018, I wanted to learn more about homemade/artisan pasta (and that was a success), and I wanted to make homemade bread and sourdough (that was and still is a failure, and still is something I’m working on).
Reflecting on last year’s (food focused) goals, I wanted to learn more about cheeses and make cheese spreads and charcuterie boards, and I aimed to learn more about mixing drinks and stock a decent home bar. I didn’t come close to meeting either of these. I still only reliably have whiskey on hand, and I know very little about cheese. The reasoning behind both goals was simple, I want to increase of diversity of what I can cook and flavors I bring to a dish, and those two areas (cheeses I use and mixology) were sorely lacking compared to other areas.
I didn’t meet those goals. And that’s just fine. Still, it makes sense to think about why. Focusing on the mixology: that’s pretty simple. Alcohol is expensive, and I like whiskey so I don’t stand to benefit from stocking a bar with drinks I don’t care much for. Beyond that I live in Kansas with outdated liquor laws so to pick up anything I have to go to a liquor store (unless I’m in the mood for a low alcohol content beer) and the inconvenience of that is enough to stop impulse purchases from me.
Switching to the cheeses, I didn’t meet that goal for similar reasons. Cheese can get expensive fast, and it’s hard to beat my go-to’s (parmesan, mozzarella, cheddar, and pepper-jack). Beyond that my significant other doesn’t like the funky cheeses at all, so she doesn’t seek them out or prompt me to seek them out. Finally, my grocer doesn’t stock many cheeses. I go to a grocer in a strongly latino community and their stock reflects that (I have access to so many amazing ingredients I’ve never been able to purchase before, so it’s a worthwhile trade off in my book), so to get a wider variety of cheese I have to go out of my way a bit more than normal. And I am too lazy for that.
Instead of charcuterie and spirits, last year I ended up working on spice mixes. I have a wide selection of dried peppers and chili peppers at my grocer, and a friend from Arrakis who gets me a good deal. I tried making Alton Brown’s chili powder and taco seasoning with a few adjustments and I love them. The difference in flavor between homemade chili powder and store bought is surprising. When I cook I frequently rate dishes I enjoyed based on different levels of ‘worth-it-ness’, notable levels from worst to best being:
- I’m so angry at everything especially at and because of this
- I tried it but it wasn’t worth the effort so I’ll buy it from now on
- I tried it and I need to try it again because I might be missing something, but I’ll buy it until then
- I tried it and liked it, but it’s nice to have the store bought version on hand
- I want both homemade and store bought on hand (this is usually because I go through so much that store bought just makes sense at scale)
- I’m only making homemade from now on, even if that means I skip the dish once I’m out of it
(It’s fair to say that this isn’t actually scale, but instead an at least two or three dimensional scatter plot with axes of “taste was worth the process of making it”, “better than a store bought counterpart”, and “produces enough and lasts long enough compared to convenience of ease of purchase” where these axes may be somewhat correlated and those tiers listed above are key “worth-it” distances from the origin, the origin being “not at all worth it”. What I’m getting at is good food is good food, and beyond that it’s a matter of opinion what is and isn’t worth it and why that’s true can vary wildly.)
There is of course at least one more ‘worth it’ tier: “I’m only using the homemade version from now on, and I’m going to be that guy who tells everyone to do the same and if I’m giving you a gift surprise it’s homemade x”, and this is the tier that chili powered and taco seasoning ended up in. And because of how good it was and how many new-to-me ingredients I had on hand after making them, I started trying new blends of dried peppers and spices.
I started noticing how easy it was to make a quick blend to compliment or add to a simple dish, and how much variety different blends could have. I haven’t ‘learned’ much and can’t rattle off facts or histories about these ingredients, but I’ve gotten a better feel for concocting something, and that’s the goal of my food resolutions. I’m not done learning, but I have a foothold in the area and now have more confidence to say, “I think this would be possible and tasty”.
Around late summer, I started working on a new resolution: sauces. I’ve gotten a lot better at main dishes in the past couple of years, and as my technique gets better–I heat something more evenly, or cut it more consistently–there’s only so much the final taste of what I cook will improve. It’s true that the texture of things will improve a lot, but it’s a law of diminishing returns with flavor. In order to improve the taste of what I cook, and maintain the rate of improvement to flavor that I’ve had in the past few years, I started looking at my next low hanging fruit: a sauce.
Sauces are a great way to add flavor to a base dish, and varying the sauce can make the same core dish completely different. This resolution is at an ‘in progress’ stage, but I’m happy with my level of comfort I’m developing.
Looking forward to this next year, my resolutions are to build and use an indoor herb garden, and explore fermentation and pickling (and in this vein hopefully canning).
The herb garden is a simple goal: I just want enough herbs on hand to add a bit of flavor to a cocktail or to a dish. Last year I tried to have enough basil to make pesto every other week, but that proved to need more yield than I could grow in my apartment. And then I was gone for just shy of a week and most of it died. So this coming year I’m aiming to moderate my expectations and build a more sustainable garden. Big targets for me are making sure that they have enough light in the winter, and maybe automating the water system.
Fermenting is a more ambitious goal for me. I’ve never done anything like it, and I don’t know what to expect flavor wise. I just know that it’s flavors I’m currently not using in dishes, and maybe I should be. It’s really hard to guess if I think it’ll be worth it too: the amount of wait time before you can taste it is an exercise in patience, and it might be more of an exercise than reward. But on the other hand difference between actively working with it vs waiting for it might mean that it’s worth it purely because you can make it way in advanced and you don’t have to plan to use it on a certain day. Either way it’s an area I have no experience in, and adding some experience (even mistakes) should help me be aware of what I can and can’t do with flavor.
Continuing from the last few years I plan to try to get into the habit of making bread, learning about sauces and adding them to my dishes, making different kinds of chili powders, and making more pasta. (I haven’t gotten to this point yet, but this blog will slowly accrue many pasta posts).
Twelfth Dimension Kitchen 