Why I Can't Throw This Le Creuset Pot Away

I’ve been worrying about this pot. It has enamel issues. See — along the edge chunks of enamel have chipped away. And inside, years of cooking have worn the white enamel so thin, a powder of iron seeps through with every wash. Was it even safe to cook with? And also, I’d been wanting a bigger pan. Batch browning chunks of meat is tiresome.

So I went to Sur La Table, just to look, you understand, and while I was just looking, discovered that the Lamborghini of a casserole I’ve been lusting after for a year was on sale. Sale. This thing never went on sale.

Dear reader, I bought it. And in glee, I put my faithful pot on the floor, near the trash, thinking I’d never look back.

Two months later, it’s still on the floor.

Why? Well…

It’s been with me my whole adult life.

I bought it when I couldn’t really afford to buy anything (publishing doesn’t pay). There was this Bloomingdale’s ad in the NYT: Sale, Le Creuset casserole, $30 (slate blue only). $30. I rushed to Bloomingdale’s, nabbed the very last pot, lugged the obscenely heavy box onto the uptown bus and wondered how I was going to drag the thing up four flights of stairs. Does passion confer inordinate strength? It does.

My very first “kitchen” was really just an extension of the tiny living room: sink, toy stove, refrigerator jammed between the bathroom and front door. But I was serious about cooking and the pot seemed to respect that. We got to work.

The pot and I worked our way through Marcella Hazan’s The Classic Italian Cook Book: The Art of Italian Cooking and the Italian Art of Eating. And then we tackled Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. No recipe, no cookbook was too daunting as long as I had the pot. Cassoulets, risottos, tagines, sauerbratens, fried chickens, kimchee jjigaes, fondues, shabu shabu, Dutch baby pancakes…we ate well.

Hard-working, low maintenance, reliable, easy-to-clean. The “just the facts, ma’am” of kitchen appliances. It’s never thrown even one prima-donna fit.

Probably responsible for 50% of my marital happiness.

But something more: I think I can’t throw this pot away because this slate blue pot is home. My life has been oddly peripatetic and I’ve had to cook in many foreign, unwelcoming kitchens. If the pot goes, where is home?

Japanese Cooking Tips

I've been watching a lot of Japanese cooking shows lately and I've been learning some interesting things. Like about cucumbers. If you rub salt all over them, they'll get shiny and extra green. I think this works mostly for long Asian cucumbers like these:

From NHK World

You can also use salt to get rid of that gross fishy odor from raw shrimps. Either soak the shrimp in salty water or rub the shrimp directly with salt (my preferred method). Rinse, pat dry and then use.

If you plan to deep-fry the shrimp, cut the tails at a diagonal to get rid of excess water. Excess water will make the hot oil go nuts and may cause accidents.

If you want to make shrimp tempura, make small cuts in the belly section (just don't cut all the way through—you want to keep the shrimp whole). This will keep the shrimp from curling during cooking. Then lightly pound the back of the shrimp with the dull side of your knife. To plumpen up the shrimp, they say.

Another handy tip: if you want to make an omelet and you're using a Teflon pan, heat the pan, add a tiny bit of oil, then break the egg directly into the pan; mix with a spatula (or chopsticks) and cook. This saves you from washing a bowl.

A lot of my tips are now coming from an interesting NHK program called
Itadakimasu! Dining With the Chef. Here's a video of the shrimp tempura show. (So sad they got rid of Shelly. About the only "normal" presenter on NHK.)

Small sausage in big sausage from Taiwanfoodculture.net

Lately, I've been going to a lot of Taiwanese restaurants but it's still not really clear to me what Taiwanese food exactly is. So I was really grateful that my husband sent me this article by Clarissa Wei: Pork-chop Gate: Why Pork Chop Over Rice Isn't Classically Chinese + Death of Authenticity. I'm not really sure if the article answers all my questions because there seems to be a lot of controversy over what she says but it's an interesting start. Clarissa is Taiwanese and her criteria seems to be "would my grandma know what it is?" Classic or not, pork chop over rice is awfully nummy. I also love the pickles you get at Taiwanese restaurants. Check out the article if you'd like to know more.

Pea Pod Shells

 

Just saw the most interesting use for pea pod shells on a Japanese cooking show. Put the washed and depodded shells in a pot of water. Add konbu (a type of seaweed often used in Japan to make stock). Bring to boil. Cool the broth and use to cook rice with! You can add peas if you'd like.

Rose-petal sandwiches

Photo from Wikipedia; author Frank Vincentz

I was doing some research on roses and their uses when I stumbled across the most interesting recipe for rose-petal sandwiches at botanical.com. Usually, rose petals are the decorative part of a cake or other pastry and I've never seen them used to flavor a sandwich before. The recipe is quite simple. Just put rose petals in the bottom of a container (I'd advice organic). Then add butter that's been wrapped in wax paper. Put the container in a cool place overnight and you should have butter with the fragrance of roses. Spread the butter on sandwich bread and voila! I haven't tried the recipe but it's intriguing. Sounds perfect for an afternoon tea.

Okonomiyaki

Ah...just looking at this picture makes me want to whip up another batch of okonomiyaki. What is okonomiyaki? It's a big, fat savory pancake filled with vegetables and meat. In Japan, you can go to restaurants that specialize in okonomiyaki. Each table will have a large flat grill and the pancake is made right in front of you. Lots of fun. But you can also make okonomiyaki at home. It's pretty easy—in fact, learning to say okonomiyaki is the hardest part of the dish.

Recipes will vary greatly because you can add pretty much any ingredient to the basic flour batter. But I have found that one ingredient is pretty important: nagaimo (a.k.a mountain yam).  The yam won't add any flavor at all, but it will make the pancake light and almost cake-like.  I have to warn you that nagaimo takes a little getting used to. The raw vegetable is pretty darn slimy and trying to peel it (which you must) can be a bit tricky. The Japanese really enjoy slimy vegetables (okra is another favorite) and believe their mucilaginous properties are very good for your stomach. I don't mind slimy. And all the slime will have disappeared by the time you've cooked the pancake. Another odd property of nagaimo is that when you grate it, the yam instantly turns into a snot-like gel! Just bear with it and continue to grate in a very gentle manner (I find a Microplane is great for this). Interestingly, if you just slice it into large chunks and braise it in a stew, the nagaimo has the same texture as a potato.

As a guide, click here for a very dependable recipe from Harumi Kurihara, a popular cookery writer in Japan (she's known as the Martha Stewart of Japan). Warning! The recipe calls for "taro". This is a translation mistake. What they really mean is nagaimo. You will not get the same effect using taro!

Going out to eat okonomiyaki is such a popular thing to do in Japan, many TV shows feature it in a scene or two. My favorite depiction of okonomiyaki feasting is in Kekkon Dekinai Otoko (The Man Who Wouldn't Marry). In the following clip, Abe Hiroshi demonstrates the perfect way to cook okonomiyaki.



KekkonDekinai06.2 2/4

Vivian | Myspace Video

Yotam Ottolenghi's Butternut Squash and Tahini Spread

Sometimes you read a recipe and you know instantly that it's going to be good. Like Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe for butternut squash and tahini spread. The title of the recipe says it all—the heart of the recipe is just squash, tahini and yogurt. I tried out the recipe today and the dish was fantastic, probably because I was able to get an incredibly sweet and aromatic butternut squash. That's the trick to recipes like this: very good, fresh products. Hope you try it.

For the full recipe, go to The Guardian's webpage.