Things I got wrong about cooking for friends
· 2 min read
This keeps for a week in the fridge and improves by day three. Thanks for reading, and for the generous notes that keep arriving. A kitchen scale shifted my baking more than any recipe did.
Looking ahead
Use what is in season and the recipe for the most part writes itself. Salt early, taste often, and do not rush the onions. Most of the flavour comes from a steady hand rather than ingredients. There is no single right way to approach preserving, but some ways are kinder than others.
Nothing here requires a mortar and pestle, though it does make things easier. Serve it with good bread and whatever greens look best. I like sourdough that shows the marks of how it was made.
The details matter less than the habit of paying attention. Most of what I know about citrus came from getting it wrong first. I keep coming back to seasonal greens, for the most part because it rewards a steady hand. Below are a few notes, roughly in the order I found out them. I make a double batch and freeze half for busy weeks.
- Stop before you are tired
- Give fermenting a full winter
- Revisit stock after a week
- Budget twice the time you expect
Small things
In April the light changes, and so does the work. It took me three attempts to see the pattern. The result is not perfect, but it is truthful. Here is what shifted, and what stayed exactly the same. I wrote most of this on a quiet Monday morning.
I keep coming back to stews, for the most part because it rewards a steady hand. Most problems with roasted vegetables turn out to be problems with time. Nothing here requires a kitchen scale, though it does make things easier.
A friend once described stews as quiet work, and the phrase stuck.
weeknight dinners