Via Vegan.com, a great article from the New York Times on "recipe deal breakers". One note: glove boning is not so much difficult as it is fussy and pointless. I spent one weekend morning mastering the technique under the tutelage of a foodie friend, and then thought, "When the hell am I going to want do this much work just to serve a stuffed chicken without bones?" The answer being "never", I abandoned my newfound knowledge. I never missed it, even before I stopped eating animals.
My recipe dealbreakers:
1) Prep time over one day
2) Active prep time over four hours
3) Anything that calls for shaving garlic with a razor blade
4) Discussions of mortars and pestles, or a chinois
5) Excessive chopping of onions, which leaves me crying for hours
6) Olives. I hate olives. (though I love olive oil)
7) Cherry pitting
8) The words "serves 12" unless I am having a huge party
9) Hours of stirring
10) Deep frying. My apartment is just too small.
Erik says this recipe is a deal breaker: too many ingredients. But most of that is just measuring, and stuff you should have anyway if you're going to cook Asian food. It actually looks pretty easy and delicious; I may try it this weekend.
Croissants and baguettes are two amazing creations that take 24 hours and once you make them home made you'll find yourself wondering why you don't do it more often!
And if you don't have a food processor, get one. It takes care of the onion issue and as long as you use it frequently you'll love it. Those extra tasks of cooking like slicing potatoes, carrots, celery, mincing onions, or even finely sliced strips of meat is done in seconds. Some of them have a dough hook you can use to mix dough too, although it's good to knead by hand for a minute or two afterwards.
With regard to #8 ("serves 12"), I fail to see where this would really be a problem. As I understand it Ms. McArdle, you have some facility with economics, and are surely capable of numerical division.
There is a really, really easy way to avoid crying from onions. Just slice them in half, once, then set them aside for 15 minutes while you prep the rest of the meal, read, watch TV, stretch, yada yada. Then go back to finish chopping after the sulfur has diffused out.
Oh, and I live in a Manhattan apartment with a kitchen measuring about 12 square feet (literally), and deep fried my own pommes frites last week. It's incredibly easy and quick.
George,
If that works, thank you for the most useful thing I have learned on the internet since March.
Concerning 4 and 5, I use a mortar and pestle for grinding up various spices such as pepper, coriander, mustard, etc. Which is to say: Comes in, or is used in, seed or ground form. It's most economical to just buy the seeds and grind them yourself.
To avoid crying from chopping onions: Start with refrigerated onions, which release fewer fumes. Use a very sharp knife, which also releases fewer fumes. (You should use a sharp knife for safety reasons anyway). Wear swimming goggles.
Yeah, that last leaves you looking goofy. So what? You aren't doing it on the Food Network.
She said "glove boning."
Hee, hee, hee!
You can also put onions in your freezer for about 5-10 minutes to take care of the crying thing.
Number 3 is the only one I can bring myself to disagree with. Pasta, olive oil, basil, and shaved garlic got me through college.
I could not agree more about the olives.
Beside the point if you're a vegan, but I will never do anything that involves me having to skin uncooked pork bellies ever again. I couldn't turn my neck right for a week.
And my eyes thank everyone for the onion tips...
Hey, Erik's recipe taught me what "t.v.p." is. Now I just need to learn glove boning and I'll be complete as a person.
Re: olives. Green, black, or both?
4) Discussions of mortars and pestles, or a chinois
What do you have against the Chinese, you insensitive clod?
Can I just say that I find #1 and #4 odd?
I'm with wiredog - what's so bad about a mortar and pestle?
They're small, cheap, and they make it possible to (for example) easily toast your cumin for making chili.
Toast cumin seeds in hot pan, grind in mortar, add to chili. Delicious, fast, barely any effort.
Ditto if you want to make Indian food.
"Can I just say that I find #1 and #4 odd?"
Agreed, for 1) it's really easy to let something soak overnight. It also allows prep work to be done the day before.
For 4), a mortar and pestle is a useful small tool. It's not like requiring a $400, heavy and giant appliance for a meal.
I'm also perplexed by #1. Especially for a self-described "foodie", what's the hang-up about letting something marinate or otherwise set up overnight?
TH, your apartment is 12 square feet? Like 3'x4"? Or 2'x6'? Or do you mean 12 feet square, which is 144 square feet?
Alan - I can't answer for him, but there are manhattan apartments with literal 12 sq ft. kitchens. It basically amounts to taking the door off the closet and installing a min-stove with a shelf overhead. Arguably, the kitchen is the entire living room (where you stand while working the stove), but in terms of actual space devoted to cooking, 3 x 4 sounds about right.
Count me as another mortar user. It's great for allspice (which works great when making pancakes, apple crisp, apple pie, or anything else with apples).
My kids like using it too.
Megan,
Mapo Dofu is in fact very good and very easy to make. (The recipe you have there is a pretty complex version, there are quicker ones out there) The are right in saying you have to be careful about the salt. Use Lan Chi Chili Garlic paste if you can find it. Way less salty that a lot of the competitors.
http://ninecooks.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/12/20/lanchi1.jpg
p.s. I find a mortar and pestle to be great, especially since I sprung for one of the big granite ones. (Thai groceries often have them) Not only can you grind spices with it you can do a lot of the things you do with a grinder or a small food processor and then you clean it by wiping once with a paper towel.
I make really tasty vinaigrettes by crushing chopped garlic in a bit of olive oil in the mortar and pestle. Nothing gets that garlic flavor infused in the oil like that does.
Oh, I misread that. I thought he said that the apartment itself was 12 sq. feet, and somehow skimmed past the word "kitchen". No it seems a bit more plausible.
Cherry pitting? You can by a cherry pitter for a few bucks and it's no harder to use than a pair of scissors. Pop, pop, pop.
We did that years ago when we had a cherry tree, and the pies were wonderful.
Light a candle and place it by the cutting board and you'll never have to worry about crying because of onions. much easier than goggles or whatever, and then you can put it on the table and enjoy the pleasure of a candle-lit dinner.
I don't deepfry. What on earth would you be able to do with all that oil afterward? If people here do deep fry, what you do you? Trash? compost heap? just pour it down the drain?
Trash? compost heap? just pour it down the drain?
Bio-diesel!
just pour it down the drain?
That one you will definitely live to regret, as it will rapidly foul up the drain. You may end up alternating between a powerful degreaser and two or three gallons of boiling water before it finally comes free. You won't make any friends in the city's public works department, either, as grease can accumulate over time and block even large drain channels over time.
If you have no other options, save a couple Folgers coffee containers (these can often be rescued from the office trash can), let the grease cool to the point where it won't soften plastic, and then pour it into the containers. Close the lid and let it sit until congealed, then place it in the trash.
I said my kitchen was 12 square feet, not my apartment.
Re: deep frying. Just flush it down the toilet.
TH: Unless you have a septic tank. Yeeuch.
Mortars and pestles: I adore my suribachi, which has ridges on the inside and makes fast work of even very hard spices such as peppercorns. It is marginally harder to clean than one of the smooth-sided mortars, but boy is it efficient. The big Thai ones Alan mentioned are good too. (Megan, have you been struggling with one of those teeny glass sets? They're worthless.)
Funny, last time I made mapo tofu, I wished I had a mortar and pestle -- had to crush/grind my roasted Szechwan peppercorns with a spoon. It was well worth the effort, the best version of my favorite recipe I've ever made. (But then, my version is not vegetarian...)