Sticking to it will make your life a lot easier and your food taste wonderful. Plus another consideration for your courgette and tomato glut: Tomato salad alla puttanesca.
I'm sorry you are laid up with your back Lizzie, magnesium, rest and heat packs are my friend, and surrender and patience to allow the back to come out of spasm. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you I liked your post. I can cook, must have clocked my 10,000 hours. But I still have failures. Just now, I've split another mayo after years of excellence in this area, I'm going through the dark passage of splitting mayo almost every time. This time it was even worse, a fly took a plunge and was blitzed to make the now emulsified mayo look as though I'd grated in some black truffle through it. My garden will receive this dark offering later, once I can face it.
I hope you are feeling better soon, you salad looks fantastic.
This is an interesting observation. My mother was an excellent cook but she bemoaned the fact she could not make a good pie crust (something which, after watching some youtube tutorials and putting in some time practicing, I found not so hard). She was a person who always watched her weight and steered clear of heavy desserts, so I assumed that it was because she didn't care to make pies, so therefore never mastered it. Now I am wondering whether your theory applies here. Perhaps too many early attempts ended in frustration.
There are many delicious dishes that my friends make that never taste as good when I try to replicate them and vice versa. I am going to consider what is part of my "cooking eco-system."
Just reading Elizabeth David's mediterranean food cover to cover rather than in my normal dip-in-and-out way. She is VERY firm on omelettes and scathing about the 5 minute method - never more than 45"!
That’s interesting – have never read her like that! But am sure the longer method must work for some people. I like the drama and the great bubbles that appear with the hot and fast way!
You raised such a valid point abt a disagreement between you & a recipe. Indian desserts are my nemesis. I screw them up royally. I see the recipe, la, la, la, so easy! I get to it & weird things start happening, nothing behaves the way the recipe describes. Disbelief, disappointment, self-pity & the whole damn circle. Sorry for the rant
That is so interesting Annada! It could be the chemistry between you is wrong – there might be other dessert writers that work better for you, or it might be that the recipes don’t work!
I am unfortunately coping with edema from cancer meds. Low sodium is non optional for me. As a person who in a past life would have agreed with you on the salt issue, no matter how much delicious basil and garlic and olive oil I add, it just is not the same. Also, I would kill for some olives 😆 thanks for the delicious thoughts of puttanesca. A girl can dream 💕
I am so grateful for my meds despite my current salt restriction. Well worth the lack of feta and fish sauce these days. 😊 I cook everything from scratch so my substack food inspirations are so valuable. Thank you !
@amylord , I, too, eat low salt. But, I have found, as I suspect you have, that cooking at home gives me lots of latitude to make interesting things with fabulous ingredients. My palate has acclimated to very low salt levels, which I think in hindsight may have been masking all the great flavor I can taste now. I ate a potato chip out of my husband ‘s snack bag this weekend, grimaced from the hyper salt and had to spit it out. Wishing you many great cooking adventures and good health from a survivor. You deserve to enjoy what you eat!
I can imagine! Something I have noticed is that the closer something is to its natural state, the less it needs salt – so a bean or pea eaten straight from the plant is delicious as its is; or a whole carrot, eaten raw, is also excellent. And also glad that substack food writers are helping!
mouth? watering.
I'm sorry you are laid up with your back Lizzie, magnesium, rest and heat packs are my friend, and surrender and patience to allow the back to come out of spasm. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you I liked your post. I can cook, must have clocked my 10,000 hours. But I still have failures. Just now, I've split another mayo after years of excellence in this area, I'm going through the dark passage of splitting mayo almost every time. This time it was even worse, a fly took a plunge and was blitzed to make the now emulsified mayo look as though I'd grated in some black truffle through it. My garden will receive this dark offering later, once I can face it.
I hope you are feeling better soon, you salad looks fantastic.
This is an interesting observation. My mother was an excellent cook but she bemoaned the fact she could not make a good pie crust (something which, after watching some youtube tutorials and putting in some time practicing, I found not so hard). She was a person who always watched her weight and steered clear of heavy desserts, so I assumed that it was because she didn't care to make pies, so therefore never mastered it. Now I am wondering whether your theory applies here. Perhaps too many early attempts ended in frustration.
There are many delicious dishes that my friends make that never taste as good when I try to replicate them and vice versa. I am going to consider what is part of my "cooking eco-system."
Just reading Elizabeth David's mediterranean food cover to cover rather than in my normal dip-in-and-out way. She is VERY firm on omelettes and scathing about the 5 minute method - never more than 45"!
That’s interesting – have never read her like that! But am sure the longer method must work for some people. I like the drama and the great bubbles that appear with the hot and fast way!
Another great article, Lizzie. I hope your back improves soon. 😊
Thanks Rosy! Yes, back much improved — mostly because I am now 90% Nurafen..
I’m the same with presentation, whatever I put on a plate just doesn’t look right.
Me too – I rely on things looking good in the bowls, and leave it to people to lie it on their plates.
Ha, exactly.
You raised such a valid point abt a disagreement between you & a recipe. Indian desserts are my nemesis. I screw them up royally. I see the recipe, la, la, la, so easy! I get to it & weird things start happening, nothing behaves the way the recipe describes. Disbelief, disappointment, self-pity & the whole damn circle. Sorry for the rant
That is so interesting Annada! It could be the chemistry between you is wrong – there might be other dessert writers that work better for you, or it might be that the recipes don’t work!
I am unfortunately coping with edema from cancer meds. Low sodium is non optional for me. As a person who in a past life would have agreed with you on the salt issue, no matter how much delicious basil and garlic and olive oil I add, it just is not the same. Also, I would kill for some olives 😆 thanks for the delicious thoughts of puttanesca. A girl can dream 💕
I am so grateful for my meds despite my current salt restriction. Well worth the lack of feta and fish sauce these days. 😊 I cook everything from scratch so my substack food inspirations are so valuable. Thank you !
@amylord , I, too, eat low salt. But, I have found, as I suspect you have, that cooking at home gives me lots of latitude to make interesting things with fabulous ingredients. My palate has acclimated to very low salt levels, which I think in hindsight may have been masking all the great flavor I can taste now. I ate a potato chip out of my husband ‘s snack bag this weekend, grimaced from the hyper salt and had to spit it out. Wishing you many great cooking adventures and good health from a survivor. You deserve to enjoy what you eat!
I can imagine! Something I have noticed is that the closer something is to its natural state, the less it needs salt – so a bean or pea eaten straight from the plant is delicious as its is; or a whole carrot, eaten raw, is also excellent. And also glad that substack food writers are helping!
I love this point you make! And the discussion
Gosh I am SO sorry. I know cancer treatment could be brutal, but I had no idea it might mean giving up salt! Good luck!
I’m a pretty good cook and baker. However, I cannot make Jell-O worth a damn. It was always a good laugh at every holiday.