Funny I'm focused on writing recipes for others, when I've reached a point in my own kitchen where, baking excluded, I rarely use them. My approach is based on instinctual preferences from much I've learned and tasted and served over the years.
Example: I can now look at the head of cabbage I bought on a whim, knowing I have several ways to use it while it is fresh and without my tiring of it. I could make a rice wine vinegar Cole slaw to top blackened fish sandwiches, or bake sweet-and-sour cabbage rolls stuffed with rice-raisins-pistachios. I might toss crunchy cabbage shreds into a vegetable stir fry coming off the heat, or put cabbage chopped, in a pot for soup along with onion and white beans.
Prep work and planning that comes from intimately knowing my inventory, is my joy. Worth repeating; Is my joy! I make croutons if bread begins to dry out. I freeze all shrimp tails till I've enough to make stock. If there are a couple shallots on the rack and mint still growing in the patio pot, I'll make a quick tomato pasta sauce to freeze for a rainy night's dinner. I prefer my Herbs de Provence over any other blend. I haven't purchased bottled salad dressing in decades...
I am the home cook that chef and author Ronna Welsh hopes her readers will be. She wants you - us - to think of all foods in terms of their many possibilities, not as our Go-To for use in a few recipes. I feel I am very much already there but I know she has much to teach me. I am barely through a fourth of her wonderful book, The Nimble Cook.
She has a recipe, Seared Kale with Dates and Cream, which I got very excited about. I don't plan to make the recipe at all. I'm going to turn that (brilliant) rich combination of ingredients into a luscious penne pasta dish. Then I'll ever so joyfully, turn my attention to what to do with the likely large amount of remaining kale...
I think the chef would be proud.
Super smart planning. Waste not want not. Bon appetit!
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