Kitchen Squatter

So it has been two months since I've had a kitchen that I could in any sense call my own. It's been four months since I had a kitchen that I could call entirely my own. So its been hard to do a lot of cooking, which means I've been ordering out and eating out way more than I like and spending way too much money to feed myself. But, I have made really good progress on my thesis proposal while I've been in Boston, and I suppose its worth it so that someday I can say I am no longer a student. Putting a thesis together is such a long and thankless process. It really is like Sisyphus and the boulder. Every time you write a new proposal and expend the enormous effort it takes to address whatever set of critiques you received on the last version, or accommodate new evidence, or place the study in relevant theoretical framework, it just creates new problems and new critiques and you have to do it again, and again, and again with no end. This has been the last year of my life, and, while I can say that I am definitely much closer to having a viable thesis project than I was a year ago, the work is very repetitive and it is hard to ever feel you have accomplished anything. Not feeling any sense of accomplishment is not so good for motivation. I think that is one reason that I like cooking so much. It is not unlike other creative projects like writing a novel or a song or making a sculpture, but instead of requiring enormous of sacrifice and patience, it is instantly gratifying. Even the most elaborate meals and dinner parties I've hosted have been planned at most a week in advance. I plan my weeknight dinners in front of the fridge and produce something really satisfying in an hour or so. Cooking gives me an opportunity to exercise my creativity, solve problems, and concentrate on something that gives immediate results. I think it is really therapeutic for someone like me, who has been investing in an uncertain future for years and has years to wait before making good on that investment, to have some part of each day where I feel so productive and useful. I noticed this especially during the few times that I have been able to cook in the last weeks. I hadn't realized how much I missed the familiar sequence of cooking's physical tasks: chopping the vegetables, frying the aromatics, browning the protein, adding the vegetables, seasoning with salt, deglazing the pan, adjusting the heat, stirring, finishing with fresh herbs; all of this has a logical and deeply comforting flow.

I stopped in Chicago to see my family for a few days on my way back from Japan last month. My mom made me an early thanksgiving dinner, since I'll be in Paraguay at the end of November. I've only ever missed thanksgiving once, and that was when I was doing my study abroad in Argentina. Being from a food-obsessed family, I would say that thanksgiving is probably the most important holiday for us, though any holiday is easily made into an excuse to do some serious cooking. I really love thanksgiving, I think it is the best American tradition (leaving aside the idealized vision it provides of Native Americans' relationship to their colonial intruders). No other holiday is more completely about family and sharing with those that mean most to you. I think it is really wonderful that we all get a day off work and school to do what we ought to do every day. Plus, my mom makes a pretty phenomenal turkey, actually two turkeys and either a pork or beef roast too, along with homemade dinner rolls that people demand year after year and pear and apple tarts made with homemade puff pastry. Each year, my tia Mai makes better mashed potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes than I've ever tasted elsewhere and homemade mayonnaise to dress the sandwiches we make from the leftover turkey after getting back from day-after-thanksgiving shopping. Somehow, I didn't manage to get any pictures of the thanksgiving rehearsal my mom held for me, but it was very good. I'll have to plan thanksgiving for David and I and my family in Paraguay. It will be fun to cook my own thanksgiving dinner and to share these traditions with my extended family, but I know it will be a little sad to celebrate where the holiday doesn't have the same meaning.

I did take a picture of another meal we cooked while I was in Chicago to take care of my Mexican fix. I have way too much luggage to take back with me to Paraguay, but I'm still thinking I should buy a bag of Maseca to be able to make tortillas there. Either that, or I'm going to have to learn to make my own masa from raw corn, because there is really no mexican food to speak of (or to eat) in Paraguay. Don't tell the agricultural inspection service, but I took some poblano, jalapeño, tomatillo, and epazote seeds with me, and David supposedly planted some in the garden. I couldn't go a whole year without any mexican food. This dinner will have to tide me over until the plants start to bear fruit: steak tacos with homemade corn tortillas and homemade salsa, guacamole, and black bean salad.

I've been staying with one of David's friends and fellow clarinetists, Kristian, since I've been back in town. It's pretty far from any supermarkets though, but I managed to carry back some groceries on the T a few times and make some good meals. I made a pretty good African peanut stew that didn't get photographed unfortunately. But Kristian and his brother were pretty impressed, so you don't have to take my word that it was pretty good.

I did get a picture of this linguine with spicy sausage and tomato sauce. It was a good quick meal that used up the leftover ingredients from the African peanut stew.
Yesterday, I had my friend Melanie over for dinner and had a lot of fun cooking and drinking way too much of Kristian's dad's "Three-Buck Chuck." That small step up from Carlo Rossi makes all the difference. We quickly concluded that it was well worth all three of those bucks. After putting away for bottles between the three of us, we engaged in a bought unsuccessful intercontinental 'drunk dialing' unfortunately neither David nor our French friend Vincent answered their phone.

Dinner was wholewheat noodles with browned tofu, broccoli rabe, crimini mushrooms, and peanut sauce. Melanie said she was amazed at what can be done with a few ingredients. It was pretty good considering how improvised it was. I was just going to serve it with rice, but all we could find was super fancy rice at more than $10 for a small jar at Savenor's market in Beacon Hill where we stopped on our way to the T station. The noodles were even better I think, and the bitterness of the broccoli rabe was matched perfectly by the deeply toasted garlic and tempered by sweet and creamy peanut sauce.
Here is the basic recipe:

1 lbs. fresh wholewheat or buckwheat noodles
1 package firm tofu (you could also use chicken, but I think the flavor and texture of tofu are perfect in this).
6 cloves of garlic sliced thinly
Good Soy Sauce (I like San-J organic tamari or shoyu)
1 bunch broccoli rabe, chopped
1/3 cup dry white wine (old sour wine works well, because the sauce needs the acidity)
1 cup sliced mushrooms (shitakes, oyster, shimeji or other wild mushrooms would be good)
1/3-1/2 cup chunky 'natural' peanut better (the kind that separates when it sits and has no sugar)
1/2-1 cup reserved pasta cooking water
small bunch cilantro

Cut the tofu to desired size (I like larger rectangles) and brown well in some peanut oil. It browns much better if you don't move the pieces around at all until they are ready to flip. Once they are browned add a few table spoons of soy sauce (3). Set aside. Wipe out the pan and brown the garlic in some more peanut oil. Don't let it burn, but let it get a deep toasty golden. Add the mushrooms season with salt and saute until the mushrooms have released their liquids and it has evaporated. Add the broccoli rabe, and stir fry over very high heat, deglaze with the white wine and cover the saucepan to let the broccoli rabe steam until it is tender, take off the heat and add the tofu back in. Meanwhile cook the noodles in salted water. When you are ready to serve, add the peanut better to the broccoli rabe tofu mixture and add enough of the pasta cooking water to make a sauce of creamy consistency, it should not be too watery but if it is too thick it won't coat the noodles and other ingredients either. Toss with the noodles and garnish with chopped cilantro. I think I will experiment with adding some sugar to the peanut sauce if I make this again.

Here are Melanie and Kristian ready to pounce.
We also had a dessert course of a single cheese. I forget the name (I have to remember to save cheese labels so I can post my reviews!) but it was a great value. It was only $5 but a very tasty, soft french cows milk wrapped in chestnut leaves. It had a very creamy almost liquidy texture at room temperature, and a buttery flavor that was good with lingenberry jam as for dessert.
A timer shot of Melanie and I.