Food templates

[magid]

A post of MamaDeb's got me thinking about how most of my cooking happens. It's not recipes anymore, but templates. Like the pasta-vegetable-cheese one-pot template, which can be any pasta shape, whatever veggies are convenient and appeal (sauce falls in this category), and whatever cheese. Which itself can be generalized to starch-veggie-protein, substituting rice, or barley, or polenta, or wheatberries (etc.) for the pasta, and fish, eggs, or tofu (rarely meat, though) for the cheese. Or the not-an-omelette template, with sauteed veggies, sometimes leftover starches, and eggs. Quiche, too, is easily permutable. Or a variety of baked chicken dishes (and pretty much anything that goes well on chicken is decent on salmon, too). And so on. I think this is why only certain recipes catch my eye these days, ones that use a familiar ingredient in a very different way, or a very different combination, or use a technique I'm not familiar with (that's useful in more situations than just that). Endless recipes for pizzas (another thing easily permuted) aren't enough to make me want to read, or to use that recipe (though it may inspire a desire towards pizza that evening anyway). Oddly enough, food writing (other than the recipe parts), is very compelling reading for me.

ETA Part of this template thinking is tied into creative use of leftovers, somehow (at least in my brain). I get bored with the same thing for meals on end, and if it's just me, there's frequently too much food (cooking for one is not my forte). So I end up making a lot of things that are easily transmogrified into other dishes. Vegetable side dishes for Shabbat (always pareve, for easier use later) get put in with pasta, or turned into quiche. Meat goes into soup, or salad, or sandwiches. And so on.
(I do go through phases where particular dishes are made frequently, but meal after meal of the same thing isn't appealing).

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

I have a similar way of cooking, but somehow I still love reading recipes. Mmmm. food.

[cellio]

I do a lot of my cooking the same way, though I still find inspiration in recipes sometimes (new ingrediant uses, sometimes a new template).

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I read recipes, and take ideas from them and then make them my own way. It's especially useful since so many are treif.

I adore foodwriting though, and would love to do that professionally.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I used to read cookbooks avidly. Now... not so much. Or, I skim the recipes, and read the rest.

[magid.livejournal.com]

*nod*

I read around the recipes, and skim the recipes themselves, unless something in the other writing grabs my attention. ("Oh, so that's how to use lemongrass!" "An idea for how to use leftover x!")

[magid.livejournal.com]

I tend to automatically substitute while reading (when feasible), but reading Food_porn has brought out how much my cooking is skewed from the non-kosher norm. (Everyone apparently has that green bean casserole for Thanksgiving; I'd never think of it, with the cream of X soup base. And so on.)

I'd love to write about food professionally. I don't think it's enough of a strength of mine for that to happen, but it's nice to think about. (I admit to envying Clothilde of Chocolate and Zucchini fame, who, based on her food blog, has now quit her day job and is working on a cookbook, contracted by whichever publisher.)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I've had that casserole once. Never was a part of my family's Thanksgiving, either.

You're not missing anything. It's very salty.

[(Anonymous)]

I was once told that quiche was originally designed for using up leftovers anyway.

I've been reading your site for a while now, and you seem to be an excellent and efficient cook, and more creative than you seem to think.

[magid.livejournal.com]

*blush*
Thanks for the compliment.

Food templates

[(Anonymous)]

This is a really cool idea. I wonder if there are food template cook books?
I know of some that have basic recipies.
nk

Re: Food templates

[magid.livejournal.com]

I know of some cookbooks that have a number of variations on a theme for a number of recipes, but I haven't seen any that start with the template idea and go from there. It works best with foods known well already; it's a lot easier for me to think of permuting a pasta dish than a curry one, though both are theoretically quite flexible.