So, my mouth watered at all the meats in this month’s cookbook, but I was afraid I’d go to the butcher’s and get a cleaver between my eyes if I start with:
-Was this cattle fed on grass?
-Yes, ma’am, is it possible? We feed only organic, eco, not sprinkled grass for export to our cows!
-Ntzzzz, it’s not good, because Mr. Bourdain says that the meat is a bit sticky, it has to be feed with grains grains at some point… Let me take some baby… across the road or as they say in baby beets. :)))
Not that the book is good, it’s just for people who aren’t hungry. People with a lot of patience and plenty of time to look for all the ingredients and spices on the list. That’s why Anthony was so skinny, rest in peace, he walked a lot after stars dust to put in the food. I didn’t even have the energy to look it up in the dictionary :))). The recipes are for people with sophisticated tastes that make the difference between different kinds of omelet, I said :))).
We are not like that. In our family we always have only that essential spice that makes any boiled potato DE-LI-CIOS: it’s called being very hungry :))). With us, sophistication means that we peeled the potato and haute cuisine that we put butter and salt on it :))).
For me, when I see recipes in which various mixtures “rest” with the hours in the fridge or chops that sleeps full time in the oven, I get jealous that I rarely afford such luxuries, it is not right for my food to have a better life than me :))), I grease a slice of bread, any kind of bread, with butter and I look at the pictures further :))). In this book I discovered the culmination of slow food: a sandwich that is prepared in two days :))).
But let’s go back to the recipe I chose. By the way, this is how the vegan man ends up, he doesn’t know how to choose meat, he’s intimidated, he thinks he won’t do well and he chooses Ratatouille because he knows all the ingredients, including where to get them.
All you need plus a few cloves of garlic, half a cup of tomato sauce, olive oil, balsamic vinegar if you don’t have the two years old, put some that you have, I thing you can, salt, pepper, thyme and green basil.
I started by taking a week off. I wanted to retire because I was sure that a human life was not enough for me to get the perfect cubes from the illustrative picture in the book, but they refused my request :))). Judge for yourselves. Know that I have endeavored.
Professionally chopped ingredients.
How they turned out for me. It is worth mentioning another moment of disobedience on my part that I put all the eggplant, even if they did not have all the skin cubes as Mr. Bourdain said that you must be in the idea that I disobeyed it, I eat it :).
The chopped part was easy-peasy, wait and see when you have to harden se-pa-ra-te-ly the onion and garlic with the tomato, then the eggplant with the eggplant, the pumpkin with the pumpkin, the pepper only with the pepper, the solo zucchini… If you have one pan like me, that you have to wipe after each vegetable according to the instructions, you are glad that you do not have children that you would miss their adulthood and graduation only so that the tastes do not mix too quickly :))).
But look what a beautiful picture… :))) It was worth it, really :). Yes, the pepper was the last hardened and yes, it’s almost cruel that I didn’t have the patience :)))
Well and when you are ready with the hardening, let it all cool separately and then mix the vegetables and herbs, sprinkle with oil and balsamic vinegar to taste, and leave the project alone, this time 3-4 hours, during which time you run to the nearest McDonald’s so you don’t starve :))). You also have time to sign the divorce papers because your husband is a bit carnivorous, incompatibility, this and that, and you didn’t even have to give him dessert – why? Read the book and find out, I personally agree with the approach, but the ex-husband does not, character mismatch :))).
The end result that I bet looks even better next to a piece of meat :)))
When you return, enjoy the food at room temperature, according to the instructions, meditating on how short life is :))). It’s good, I’m not saying no, and colorful. But I don’t think I do it anymore :))) Do you know any recipes with raw potatoes? :)))
Oana’s recipe is from the second book proposed at the cookingbookclub in March / April Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain. The next book comes out in early May.
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