|the kind of person who cooks without recipes|
I have long believed there are two main types of cooks in the world - those who need recipes and those who don't. In between, there are tons of shades of gray - people who use recipes, but aren't afraid to play with them a bit, people who try something and then try to re-create it, people who make things up entirely. (There are also bakers, but that's a whole other world of food preparation, defying cooking categorization).
I have long, long wanted to be the kind of cook who doesn't use recipes. As a kid, I moved slowly into the "tinkering" category. I was always adding stuff in to a recipe or taking it out. My mom didn't love this and would tell me to stop it, but I eventually got pretty good at it. A few years ago, I had my first major light-at-the-end-of-the-cooking-without-recipes tunnel when I successfully re-created chicken marsala without a recipe. I was pretty proud of myself (still am, in case you couldn't hear the puffed-up nature of my typing).
Still on my quest - this week had both a highlight and lowlight. First, I decided to take some of the non-meat-product sausage in a tube (which my wonderful sister-in-law and brother introduced to me!) and create a stuffed cabbage recipe (because we had a bunch of savoy cabbage on hand). I've never seen a recipe for stuffed cabbage, so I did a lot of guessing - used sauteed onions, garlic, cooked rice, an egg, the sausage, herbs, and some tomatoes in sauce for the filling. Then wrapped it in cabbage and cooked it, simmering in more tomato sauce, for a while. My technique was good, the end result was pleasing. Unfortunately, I had forgotten one cardinal rule of fake-meat-crumbles. They expand with time and liquid. So, as I was eating it, the meat bits started to get larger and less meat-like and grosser. It wasn't pleasant.
The leftovers went in the trash. The savoy cabbage is now in a coleslaw. The last of the fake sausage will be used for either breakfast egg muffins or pizza. Sigh.
But...never deterred, I soldiered on to create a bean dip for my lunches this week. Success! My bean dip is yummy yummy, so I'd like to share the recipe with you. Feel free to doctor it up if you're a tinkerer or ignore it altogether if you're too good for recipes. :-)
CANNELLINI-LENTIL DIP
Combine the following in a food processor:
3-4 cloves of garlic
3-4 shallots (onions would work, too)
handfull of parsley
a few mint leaves
2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice
2-3 tablespoons of the juice from your can of beans
Chop this stuff up in the processor. Then add:
1 can of cannellini beans (drained)
1 cup of cooked lentils
a bit more of the bean juice
Puree. Add salt and pepper. Drizzle in 2-3 teaspoons of olive oil.
Enjoy on pita, crackers, veggies. Whatever you want. Mmmmm. It's about 2 points for 1/2 cup on Weight Watchers.
I have long, long wanted to be the kind of cook who doesn't use recipes. As a kid, I moved slowly into the "tinkering" category. I was always adding stuff in to a recipe or taking it out. My mom didn't love this and would tell me to stop it, but I eventually got pretty good at it. A few years ago, I had my first major light-at-the-end-of-the-cooking-without-recipes tunnel when I successfully re-created chicken marsala without a recipe. I was pretty proud of myself (still am, in case you couldn't hear the puffed-up nature of my typing).
Still on my quest - this week had both a highlight and lowlight. First, I decided to take some of the non-meat-product sausage in a tube (which my wonderful sister-in-law and brother introduced to me!) and create a stuffed cabbage recipe (because we had a bunch of savoy cabbage on hand). I've never seen a recipe for stuffed cabbage, so I did a lot of guessing - used sauteed onions, garlic, cooked rice, an egg, the sausage, herbs, and some tomatoes in sauce for the filling. Then wrapped it in cabbage and cooked it, simmering in more tomato sauce, for a while. My technique was good, the end result was pleasing. Unfortunately, I had forgotten one cardinal rule of fake-meat-crumbles. They expand with time and liquid. So, as I was eating it, the meat bits started to get larger and less meat-like and grosser. It wasn't pleasant.
The leftovers went in the trash. The savoy cabbage is now in a coleslaw. The last of the fake sausage will be used for either breakfast egg muffins or pizza. Sigh.
But...never deterred, I soldiered on to create a bean dip for my lunches this week. Success! My bean dip is yummy yummy, so I'd like to share the recipe with you. Feel free to doctor it up if you're a tinkerer or ignore it altogether if you're too good for recipes. :-)
CANNELLINI-LENTIL DIP
Combine the following in a food processor:
3-4 cloves of garlic
3-4 shallots (onions would work, too)
handfull of parsley
a few mint leaves
2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice
2-3 tablespoons of the juice from your can of beans
Chop this stuff up in the processor. Then add:
1 can of cannellini beans (drained)
1 cup of cooked lentils
a bit more of the bean juice
Puree. Add salt and pepper. Drizzle in 2-3 teaspoons of olive oil.
Enjoy on pita, crackers, veggies. Whatever you want. Mmmmm. It's about 2 points for 1/2 cup on Weight Watchers.
Comments
I certainly enjoy your blog! Quite entertaining!