To measure or not to measure?
A few weeks ago, a friend commented on my scales and measuring quantities. They said that they do not really measure while cooking. This made me think, how much do I measure?
In our kitchen we weigh the cats' daily dry food intake, and the coffee beans when we make coffee. I use the scales when I feed my sourdough starter and when I bake; or make pizza and bread doughs. The general advice for baking is to measure everything precisely but the type of baking I do is not as finicky (bread can be quite forgiving, you just need to know your flour's capacity to absorb water). As for cooking in general, I use the scales sometimes when I cook a dish I am unfamiliar with, but otherwise I am not very precise.
I started reading Cooking at Home by David Chang and Priya Krishna. For 120 pages, they lament how measuring is not needed and instead we should know our own flavour profile and cook to our tastes. Some can cook a recipe to precision and it never comes out right whereas some cook by feel and the food comes out delicious.
I generally agree with those notions. I know how to cook most common dishes and do not need step by step instructions or precise quantities. However, there are two problems with this approach. The first is that we need to know the rules before we can start stretching them, tweaking them, or even breaking them. And for that, we need to have detailed instructions until we feel comfortable. The second issue that I have with this approach is transferability of recipes. It is very difficult to know how to cook a recipe with having any reference or general idea for quantities — especially for dishes I am unfamiliar with.
The book suggests that instead of asking your grandma to write down the recipe for you, go and cook with her, and watch what she does. I think this is a great excuse to spend some more time with our family. Don't you reckon?
Here are this week’s recipe suggestions for you to try:
Roasted cauliflower soup with basil chickpeas — creamy and comforting soup
Wheat berries with roasted parsnips, butternut squash and dried cranberries — I cooked spelt berries in preparation for another dish and I made too many, so went looking for ideas. Found this recipe and replaced the cranberries with sultanas. I loved it but found it a bit sweet, so was thinking that adding some Brussel sprouts to the roasted veggies would be a nice complement
Classic vanilla overnight oats — two minutes prep the night before for a filling breakfast that is full of goodness
Salmon, edamame and soba noodle salad — this has all the things we love
Lentils and veggies stir-fry:
Small red onion, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, sliced
Yellow or red capsicum, or both, chopped (if using both, maybe use half each?)
Snow peas or green beans, trimmed
Zucchini, sliced into semi-circles
3/4 cup cooked lentils, whichever variety you have
Baby spinach leaves
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon miso paste
Salt and pepper to taste
How to?
Mix the soy sauce and miso paste, adjust quantities until you're happy with the flavour
In a wok or a pan, fry the onion with a little bit of oil until it becomes soft, about two minutes. Add the rest of the veggies and stir fry for about 5 minutes.
Add the lentils and sauce and stir fry for another minute until everything is evenly coated with the sauce. Finally mix in the spinach leaves, remove from heat, and season.
Serve and enjoy!
Our meal plan from a couple of weeks ago can be found at: https://foodfamily.app/public/meal_plans/4f976999-d8a9-4739-a4cf-49a287e0d645
Once again, please let us know if you make any of these recipes, how you found them, what you changed, or just drop us an email to say hi.
Thanks and see you next week,
Elle, Lachlan, M, Ginger, and Edward