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Cooking at home Buy this stove/refrigerator/microwave, and cooking will be as easy as pie. That is the long-standing covenant between technology and the cook. It was even true for a while. Indoor
plumbing, refrigeration, gas and electricity, not to mention canning and
frozen foods, drastically cut the time spent in the kitchen without a
doubt. But despite several generations of technological change and more
and more convenient convenience foods, time saved in the kitchen has
been time lost. Even
the microwave oven, widely hailed as the final solution to the drudgery
of cooking has never really moved beyond popping corn and reheating
coffee. It seems as if we still want to feel involved with our dinners
even if we don’t really want to cook them. People want their meals
prepared by trusty, conventional methods; they just don’t want to cook
them. So,
even as engineers design smarter and smarter appliances, fewer of us are
actually cooking dinner at the end of each day. What we are doing and
have been ever since women left the home for the job market en masse –
is cooking large batches of food on the weekend to serve as dinner
during the week. Interestingly,
this practice has led to one of the sweeter developments of the late 20th
century, and that is cooking as a serious hobby. Just as the renaissance
may have had its Sunday painters, the 90’s has its Sunday cooks.
Judging by the increasing sophistication of tools and equipment being
sold in kitchen stores these days, our cooking is growing ever more
competent and diverse while at the same time retaining a simple and
straightforward look. The recipe below is designed to yield a
week's’worth of quick, simple meals that should rely on that nicest of
kitchen helpers, the microwave, to heat them all up. Ragout
of Fall Mushrooms Yield:
15 cups 3
pounds shitake mushrooms, stems removed and reserved, caps sliced ¼
inch thick ½
cup olive oil 10
medium garlic cloves, smashed and peeled 6
medium shallots, minced 2
pounds portobello mushrooms, sliced ¼ inch thick 3
teaspoons sea salt Fresh
ground black pepper to taste 5
pounds white domestic mushrooms, sliced 2
cups chicken broth 1
teaspoon sherry vinegar ¼
cup fresh thyme leaves ¼
cup minced parsley 1)
Cover the shitake stems with 5 cups water and bring to a boil.
Simmer for 20 minutes. Strain through a sieve lined with a damp cloth.
Discard the stems and reserve the broth for the future. 2)
Warm the olive oil in a large casserole over a medium heat. Add
the garlic and toss. Add the shallots reduce the heat to low and cook,
stirring frequently, until the shallots are soft, about 5 minutes. Add
the portobellos, 1-teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper, toss and
cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the shitakes, 1 teaspoon
of salt and more pepper; toss, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add the
white mushrooms, 1-teaspoon salt and more pepper; toss, cover and cook
for 5 minutes more. 3)
Add the chicken broth and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the vinegar
and adjust the seasoning. Add the thyme and parsley and cook over a
medium heat for 10 minutes, until the mushrooms are tender and more of
the liquid has been absorbed. Serve alone or over pasta or in a mushroom
pie. |
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