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SPEAKING OF FOOD THINGS, can I be a grump about something for a second?
I think Science Cooking a la America's Test Kitchen, Alton "Mr. Fascism" Brown, and even Serious Eats, which I really love, have done us a disservice.
This notion that there is a perfect way to cook a thing, a Very Best Recipe that cannot be deviated from, makes feeding yourself seem a lot harder than it needs to be.
It's made cooking seem like a thing you can "win" and thus a thing you can fail at. And a lot of people freeze up because the stakes seem so high.
Cooking is absolutely one of those things where a little is better than nothing, where the effort matters, where you have to take a risk and learn to trust yourself.
I love science-y recipes! I love detailed, authentic recipes, and I do them often! But way more often, I just cook. I nourish myself and my family and try to have a nice time in the process.
I think if I'd learned from science cooking first (as opposed to from my great grandmother and Nigella), it would have stolen the love of cooking from me, and that would have been sad.
I am reminded of this every time I'm riffing on this recipe for Rajma. It's easy! It's delicious! You should use it for whatever beans you have lying around! https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021035-baked-rajma-punjabi-style-red-beans-with-cream and I see the first
And every time I see the first review in the comments, it breaks my heart and makes me mad. Because, I swear, it doesn't matter what variety of green chili you use. I SWEAR.
Again, I really don't dislike Science Cooking. The absolutely killer reverse sear ribeye I made three days ago is proof that I love me some detailed instructions and a probe thermometer.
I just think the cultural dominance of this style is always great.
I just think the cultural dominance of this style is always great.
If the goal is "more people feed themselves more often and don't hate it", it's often not the right approach.
And I don't really want to poke the bear, but it's also really gendered. Serious Science-y Man Cooking (which is better than silly ol' domestic women's work).
And I don't really want to poke the bear, but it's also really gendered. Serious Science-y Man Cooking (which is better than silly ol' domestic women's work).
And I should say, I am not always a great cooking example myself, since I frequently enjoy unnecessarily fussy labor intensive cooking because it keeps me learning and being creative.
So sometimes, something I make looks simple, then somebody asks for the recipe, and I realize it's four different recipes with stuff from my freezer and took a total of 9 hours over 5 days.
In conclusion, make @tejalrao's Rajma. It's *excellent* on top of garlic toast. You can tinker with it. So long as you don't "I subsisted pork cheeks for beans and cream for tomatoes and cocoa for garam masala" you're golden. https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021035-baked-rajma-punjabi-style-red-beans-with-cream Fin.
