Bi-polar dinner disorder and cooking in the unconscious February 25, 2010
Posted by Eli in : Uncategorized , trackbackUnlike Max who is always at The Breslin working a 12 hour shift, I work at a “9-5″ job in a standard-ish office. Yes, the deep dark secret about us is that I do not have a full time cooking job… unless you count twitter as a full time job (which unfortunately for our society, some people now can). Max and I often talk about the vast differences between the mindset it take to be in a kitchen, in your zone – tickets flying, hot pans, yelling, consistency, timing -often total unbridled chaos…and the more composed order of an office routine still with large stresses and fires to be put out, but lightyears different in their form and solutions. But while I sit for hours “doing advertising” the thoughts that dominate my subconscious are what I’m eating for lunch or what I’m going to be cooking for dinner. The busier I am at work, the more I look forward to rushing home, cracking open some wine and cooking with a record playing in the background. So yeah, when my brain is free to roam, I daydream about driving 20 min home from a full work day in order to spend an hour plus standing in a small kitchen at home cooking.
Tonight it was raining in LA and while I am the most staunch advocate of it being sunny and 74 every day, tonight the rain seemed extremely relaxing and for some reason, weirdly appropriate. I opened the sliding side door off of my kitchen to listen to the rain and get a breeze going and then put on a record. It’s only slightly coincidental that I find myself reaching a lot for the Phil Collins album “No Jacket Required” when I cook. I say only slightly coincidental because well, it’s awesome (Don’t Lose My Number, Sussudio and Doesn’t anybody stay together anymore – Instant classics) and secondly, I only own like 25 albums on vinyl so my choices are somewhat limited. And…here’s where we get down to the actual cooking part of the post.
Unlike my limited vinyl selection options, on sunday I went on a black out shopping binge at (industrial grocery store) Smart+Final where I came to, lying on the floor in my living room, drowning in plastic bags and opened items having sampled 1 of everything I had just bought (as I always do when I come home from the grocery store).”EVERYTHING IS SO DELICIOUS” I cried in between mouthfuls of beef jerky chased with salsa chased with pickles chased with peanut butter chased with Soy Sauce chased with tortilla shells chased with batter blaster (what can I say, I’m reckless).”I JUST…. WANT ….TO TRY… ONE OF EVERYTHING!” (you know you do this too).
So when I came home today after work, I was greeted by a still overflowing fridge offering me a bounty of industrial sized riches. The dinner possibilities were endless. But this, this my friends is where it gets tricky. If you have bread and PB+J…there is only one true direction. But me, I looked at my full fridge and I got bi-polar dinner disorder. My mind began to race. I’m high and low. I’m thinking italian. Then mexican. Then middle eastern. Then american…
“I want chicken nuggets and french fries.” No problem! I began to defrost the chicken, got out the bread crumbs and pulled some potatoes to make the fries.
“Wait wait wait…I think I want an artichoke, sundered tomato and grilled chicken sandwich. Yea….that’s def gonna be delicious.”
But when I reached for the artichokes, I noticed the white mushrooms and the yellow and green peppers.
“Hmmm…those are going to be no good soon, so I should probably cook those up… I guess now it’s looking like a spicy chicken hoagie with grilled peppers and mushrooms. Maybe put some bbq sauce on top…So i began to reach for the BBQ sauce only to spot the heirloom tomatoes. I took a step back.
Don’t they make some sort of pill for this type of food-born anxiety illness?
So with all these flavors and choices and options…literally a wealth of food…and with my mind all over the map…in what direction would I go? It was then I realized that while I had been pulling item after item deciding what to make, I had chopped garlic which was now sautéing lightly in oil and had began breading the chicken. (Is it possible you cook and think with different parts of your brain or do I just black out around food a lot?) I sliced the peppers and the mushrooms and added them to the garlic. I still had no direction but I was going with it. Water was boiling. Penne entered the water, for what – you’re guess at that point was good as mine. The heat against my legs reminded me the oven was on, set to 425. The chicken went in and began baking.
Artichokes , tomatoes, spinach, black olives and some left over cooked sausage hit the frying pan and sizzled, juices and flavors creating a thick aromatic sauce. I was making ‘the kitchen sink’ jealous with this display. With the chicken cooked and the perfect ratio of the italian breading KFC crisp and slightly burnt, I diced it and added it to the frying pan along with the penne. I added parmesan cheese and folded it in gently. A little drizzle of BBQ sauce for some bite. Then over the top I sprinkled bread crumbs creating a solid crust. A light drizzle of olive oil and then I put the frying pan in the oven to bake.
What emerged was not where my brain started. It was some sort of bastardization of a baked pasta. A frankenstein dish borrowing from lasagna,utilizing homemade chicken tenders, sausage, olives, artichokes,peppers,mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes. A ripoff based on pasta al forgo? A pizza-esque pasta? Whatever it was, It was insanely delicious and will be tomorrow’s lunch and dinner too.
So I started off in one place and ended up somewhere else completely different. The brain is funny like that. I was either thinking too much or wasn’t really thinking at all.Trying out things without a real dish in mind, hoping for the best by mixing flavors and just going for it.
Mostly, I guess I was just cooking.
And that’s just the way I like it.
Comments»
Some of my best dinners have followed this very process. I start with an idea, discover I’m out of something or realize I should use up something. If I’m in a good mood, a child’s “I feel like Mexican” or whatever might change the direction as well and influence the spices or main protein choice.