Vendredi V - Chef's Surprise Edition
Friday, April 25, 2008
When I first got married, my cooking repertoire consisted almost entirely of packaged noodles and sauce (hey, cut me some slack - I was a child bride - that's all anyone else my age was eating).
Since that day, I have slowly added to the list of dishes that I can make without entirely ruining and have become (hopefully not flattering myself unduly) a not unacceptable cook. I'm no Iron Chef, but I don't blanch at the thought of supper company anymore either.
This confidence stems less from inherent abilities and more from the discovery of certain products; my go-to epicurean enhancers, if you will; the first items to be purchased for my pantry after what has become our annual move.
Top 5 Items that Turn Me into Jamie Oliver**:
1. McCormick's All-Vegetable Bouillion Cubes. I do not understand how chicken- and beef-flavoured stock cubes can be made a) without MSG and b) without meat. All I know is I love these things so much that I'm importing them from Canada since I can't find them down here.
2. Butter. Even though I'm one "Meet Your Meat"-style movie about the dairy industry away from becoming vegan, I'm a huge fan of butter. It is my fat of choice and makes *everything* taste better.
3. Balsamic vinegar. I totally admit that I'm a Philistine when it comes to the world of for-reals, honest-to-goodness balsamic vinegar, the kind that requires a sommelier. However, I do know that even the cheaper stuff makes fanastic salad dressing and adds zip to all kinds of sauces.
4. Fresh-ground black pepper. From Campbell's soup from the can to homemade risotto, fresh-ground black pepper livens up every dish. I thought once that it would be a good idea to find a purse-sized pepper grinder to carry with me, but the odd looks I received from coworkers when sharing my great plan ground those plans to a halt.
5. My handblender. Not a food item, but a near-perfect invention. Its uses are few, but specific. No food processor, regular blender, or masher could ever puree a soup so easily and so well.
Happy Friday all! May you have at least one meal requiring the use of all of the above at some point this weekend.
** I totally admit that Mr. Oliver is a bit of a hack, but the way he loves food combined with his little lisp make him my culinary idol.
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2 comments:
That and the fact that his tongue is too big for his mouth. That's why he talks like that, ya know.
And I too worship at the altar of butter at every opportunity.
I think Mr.Oliver has had some speech therapy over the last few years. His lisp seems, to me anyway, much more subtle than it used to be.
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