Deli selection with fresh bread
Seafood stew with rustic rouille
Deli Selection with Fresh Bread
Autumn Saturday was at one time the most stressful shopping day in the system, as I needed to purchase unfamiliar ingredients for Don’s Surprise on Sunday and spontaneously create an original lunch for Saturday. This was deliberate: I wanted to demonstrate that I could function without the Standardized Meal System. On autumn Saturdays, I simulated the shopping pattern of a less organized person, and, in doing so, reminded myself of how much time and mental effort the system saves.
For Don’s Surprise, I had a list of items for the new recipe and could generally obtain them from familiar vendors. The spontaneous lunch was more challenging. I would choose a loaf of bread (olive sourdough), then purchase delicatessen items to accompany it, aiming to produce something I had not served before. But without a shopping list, organized by vendor, the market is overwhelming. Vast numbers of cured meats, marinated vegetables and seafood, dips, cheeses…all with different variations, qualities, and prices.
One autumn Saturday I was examining the selection at a deli when the woman serving noticed my distress. I explained the problem, and she immediately recommended fresh buffalo mozzarella, with tomato and basil from the greengrocer. “Next week I’ll have something different for you.” This became a pattern – a very satisfactory, win-win solution to my problem.
It was a useful reminder. Learning to work in opposition to one’s natural behavior is sometimes necessary, but there is no point in doing so when there are good alternatives, especially ones that let others utilize their strengths.
Retain at least one slice of bread as a dinner ingredient.
Seafood Stew with Rustic Rouille
Recommended cocktail: Americano with absinthe wash.
When our friends Dave and Sonia from New York lived for a time in Melbourne, they insisted on coming to dinner at our house on Saturday instead of Tuesday nights. Rather than further disrupting the week by shifting meals (and in this case impacting on Monday’s dinner, which requires tonight’s leftovers), I simply scaled up. Sonia commented: “You guys eat a lot of seafood. No wonder you’re both so slim.”
Sonia was wrong. We eat seafood frequently, but the quantities are no different to the quantities we eat of other food. And eating seafood – especially “a lot of seafood” – does not guarantee a healthy weight. Sonia had fallen into the trap of thinking that a diet based on certain food groups would lead to weight loss, a myth perpetuated by diet books.
The credit should go not to seafood but to the Standardized Meal System, which enables meal sizes to be adjusted precisely to maintain or lose weight at the recommended (slow) pace. Also:
1. My father-in-law Phil’s advice on weight management is “don’t eat junk.” The Standardized Meal System contains minimal “junk” (ice-cream on Autumn Sundays, weekly chocolate), which is carefully regulated. Even these items can be easily eliminated.
2. By following the standardized shopping lists rather than shopping randomly, you will not buy additional junk. If you don’t buy junk, you will not have junk available to eat.
3. There is one major exception, which Phil would insist on me pointing out: alcohol, which contains “empty” kilojoules, encourages additional consumption of food and more alcohol, and discourages exercise, as well as being (convincingly) associated with numerous diseases. I recommend not drinking alcohol1.
4. Regular exercise is important. If you are motivated by quantified goals, I recommend use of a smart watch to monitor exercise (you should already have one for timing cooking activities). It represents vastly better value for money than a prestigious watch with useless “features” (appropriately named complications), such as tourbillons.
5. Weigh your body daily. This advice is contrary to conventional wisdom, which mistakenly argues that daily variations can be eliminated by less frequent weighing. It is better to take frequent, regular readings at the same time of day, store them in your monitoring device (see 4), and allow it to create a curve of best fit to show progress.
The rouille is a major factor in the deliciousness of this meal but is incompatible with wine. I suggest an Americano with an optional absinthe (or pastis, such as Pernod or Ricard) rinse: put 10 ml of absinthe in serving glass, tilt to partially coat interior of glass, transfer to next glass until all glasses prepared; drink any remaining. Then make a conventional Americano in those glasses: stir 30 ml of sweet vermouth and 30 ml of Campari with ice; top with 30 ml of soda; garnish with orange slice1. Or don’t drink alcohol at all.
You will have achieved a low-alcohol or no-alcohol Saturday night2, which you should not notice due to being distracted by the quality of the meal and the work of extracting seafood from shells. Avoiding alcohol is likely to have more weight-loss benefits than eating seafood.
COMMON RESOURCES: SEAFOOD STEW
1 can tomatoes, 400 g
2 cloves garlic
1 brown onion
RECIPE-SPECIFIC INGREDIENTS: SEAFOOD STEW
This recipe is intended to produce leftovers.
750 g live mussels
12 large raw (“green”) prawns (shrimp), shelled (tail may still be attached)
1 small calamari, cleaned by fishmonger
6 sea scallops or 12 smaller scallops
1 fillet (250 g) firm fish, as recommended by fishmonger for stew or soup
1 hot or mild (smoked) chorizo sausage
1 small fennel bulb
COMMON RESOURCES: RUSTIC ROUILLE
1 egg (use yolk only)
8 cloves garlic (this is correct)
2 tsp of peppercorns (white or black)
1 slice bread leftover from lunch, crust removed
2 birds-eye or alternative preferred chilies, fresh or reconstituted
EQUIPMENT
Enameled cast-iron pot
Medium bowls
Mortar and pestle
Ladle
PROCESS
Time: 80 minutes, including significant unallocated time.
0: Slice calamari into thin (1 cm or less) rings.
Remove skin from chorizo and slice chorizo into 1 1/2 cm discs.
Put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in pot and heat on burner / hotplate (25% of maximum setting).
2: Fry chorizo slices. If they begin to blacken, turn them over immediately and reduce heat.
In parallel with the frying processes, peel onion, and chop onion and fennel bulb into 2 cm cubes.
5: Turn over chorizo slices with spatula, if you haven’t already. If they begin to blacken, go immediately to next step.
8: Use spatula to transfer chorizo to bowl, leaving oil from the chorizo in pot, and increase temperature to 80% of maximum.
10: Fry prawns and calamari.
11: Turn over prawns and calamari with spatula.
12: Reduce temperature to 20% of maximum. Use spatula to transfer prawns and calamari to bowl.
Add onions and fennel to pot. Stir with wooden spoon every 10 minutes.
While onions and fennel are cooking, prepare the rouille:
Put all rouille ingredients except the egg in the mortar, and use the pestle to crush and mix them into a homogenous paste (3 minutes). Alternatively, use the food processor.
Separate egg yolk from white and add yolk to mortar.
Slowly (initially drip by drip1) add olive oil to the pestle, stirring rapidly and continuously with a fork, until the mixture thickens to the consistency of mayonnaise, which it is. If it fails to thicken or stops thickening, you will need to perform the oil–egg-emulsion rescue procedure: put another egg yolk in a bowl and add the mixture in the same manner as you should have added the olive oil. You will have another egg white for a cocktail to assist in dealing with the stress of the near-disaster.
Enjoy unallocated time.
60 (non-critical): Increase temperature to 50% of maximum.
65: Add tomatoes and mussels to pot. Put lid on pot.
70: Remove lid, add contents of bowl and all remaining seafood to pot, and stir contents. Replace lid.
75: Remove lid. If less than 80% of mussels have opened, stir and keep cooking for 5 minutes or until the 80% target is reached.
Using ladle, transfer 1/3 of the stew to the bowl. Cover and refrigerate.
Serve the remaining 2/3 of the stew in the pot. Diners should add rouille (carefully) to their individual servings. Refrigerate leftover rouille.
VARIATIONS
The chorizo is optional but delicious.
The seafood items can be varied to include other bivalves and crustaceans, even to the extent of eliminating the fish.
Convert the stew to a soup by adding 500 ml of commercial fish or shellfish stock with the tomatoes. I recommend deleting the chorizo if you do this. Leave the liquid behind when removing the portion for refrigeration.
If you decide to have a first course (the cooking smells may stimulate hunger), take 1/3 of the prawns, scallops, or calamari, plus 6 slices of chorizo (1 cm each), and fry on the barbecue or in a pan. Their absence from the stew will not be noticed.
Don’s Surprise; Ice-cream
Common Resource Maintenance and Advance Preparation:
Chili con Carne (if necessary)
Chicken Stock (if necessary) – refer Summer Sunday for recipe
This day had three major problems.
1. On the occasions when I prepared a batch of chili con carne (for freezing and use on Fridays), it smelled so delicious that Rosie and Hudson insisted on eating a portion of it instead of the standard calf-liver-based meal. Even if we had eaten chili two days earlier.
2. When I was not preparing chili, the calf-liver meal was not conducive to concurrent family discussions, due to speed of preparation – and possibly cooking smells.
3. Rosie and Hudson were strongly encouraging me to change this meal.
More generally, the Standardized Meal System needed a process for evolution.
My solution was the non-standard Autumn Sunday. If I am not making chili, I trial a new recipe, based on research, vendor recommendations, or experience in restaurants and friends’ homes, sourcing the Recipe-specific Ingredients during my Saturday shopping. In this way I test at least ten new recipes per year, enabling (theoretically) a 36% annual replacement rate.
The dessert is deliberately “indulgent” and trivially easy (“serve ice-cream”), as compensation in the event that the experimental meal is “challenging” to prepare or consume. For the same reason, you may want to serve a familiar pre-dinner cocktail, which can be justified given the reduced alcohol consumption on Saturday. I suggest an Old Fashioned.
COMMON RESOURCE MAINTENANCE: CHILI CON CARNE
The chili con carne recipe makes four double meals (eight serves). It includes zucchini and corn, which are inauthentic1 but delicious and healthy.
COMMON RESOURCES
4 tbsp chili con carne spice mix (commercial product, but preferably from specialist spice vendor)
Hot paprika / cayenne pepper
4 cans tomatoes, 400g each
4 cans red kidney beans, 400g each
1 can sweet-corn kernels, 400 g
2 brown onions
RECIPE-SPECIFIC INGREDIENTS
2 red capsicums
400 g zucchini
500 g minced beef
Large enameled cast-iron pot
Bowl
Freezer containers to store meals
PROCESS
Time: approximately 120 minutes elapsed, but less than 15 minutes work.
Remove beef from refrigerator 30 minutes before next step.
Chop onions into 1 cm cubes.
Chop zucchinis lengthwise into quarters, then cut crossways into pieces 1 cm thick.
Cut capsicums in half, remove cores, and cut into 1 cm squares.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in pot on burner / hotplate at 75% of maximum temperature.
Add onions, zucchini, and capsicum, and cook for 8 minutes, stirring every minute with spatula, then transfer to bowl.
Increase heat to maximum and add to pot 1/2 a tablespoon of oil, beef, and chili-spice mix. Cook until meat is uniformly brown (4 minutes), stirring every minute with spatula, breaking up any large clusters of mince.
Drain and dispose of liquid from beans and corn.
Add contents of the bowl and the canned products, and reduce heat to simmer.
After 30 minutes, taste, and progressively add hot pepper (1 teaspoon at a time) to achieve desired level of spice heat.
Continue cooking for between 15 and 90 minutes – non-critical, but the cooking smells are extremely enjoyable.
Serve and eat. Freeze leftovers in meal-size quantities.
VARIATIONS
Interestingly, given the name means “chili with meat”, the amount of meat per serve in chili con carne is relatively small and can be reduced further, even to zero, with surprisingly little negative impact on flavor and some positive impact on the number of cow deaths1 for which you are responsible.
Experiment with the quantity of chili powder, noting advice provided by the vendor.
Add 1 tablespoon of sweet smoked paprika to the spice mix. Obviously, the makers have undertaken considerable research and experimentation to achieve the optimum formula, so this is a personal-taste anomaly, but one which you may share.
Linguini Marinara
Tonight’s meal is trivially simple: leftover (“reserved”) seafood stew from Saturday reheated and added to linguini.
If you want to add a starter (as I would), I recommend a selection of vegetables cut into slices 1 cm thick (length according to original size of vegetable), grilled on the barbecue and sprinkled with olive oil: vegetable antipasto, consistent with the Italian theme.
COMMON RESOURCES
Leftover seafood stew
160 g linguini
EQUIPMENT
Pot for reheating seafood stew
Pot for cooking linguini
PROCESS
Reheat the seafood over burner at 40% of maximum, with lid on pot. Stir every 5 minutes.
Prepare the linguini as recommended on the packet (add 1 tablespoon of salt when the water boils if not specified), drain, and mix with the reheated seafood.
Serve and put leftover rustic rouille on table to allow diners to stir in whatever quantity they want.
Tuna Sashimi; Thai Duck / Chicken Salad
Guest night. Quantity for four people.
Recommended cocktail: margarita or generic sour.
Recommended wine: white with some sweetness to balance the chili1 (e.g. pinot gris or gewürztraminer). Or beer.
A margarita is an excellent accompaniment to sashimi, since it contains citrus juice, but any cocktail of the sour family will satisfy this requirement. A sour consists of a base spirit, lemon or lime juice, and a sweetener. Various other flavorings can be added. Vast numbers are published and popular, including the daiquiri (rum), white lady (gin), and whisk(e)y sour (whisk(e)y).
Rather than fill space with minor variations, I have documented the Don Tillman Sour Generator (version for home use only, by persons of legal drinking age):
1. Select base liquor from vodka, gin, tequila, mezcal, white rum, cachaça, any whisk(e)y, dark rum, brandy, pisco, sherry (less alcoholic, less conventional).
2. Select lemon or lime juice.
3. Select sweetener from simple syrup2, triple sec (e.g. Cointreau), agave syrup (with tequila or mezcal), maple syrup (possibility with whisk(e)y). Sugar can be used directly (e.g. in a caipirinha) but it must be dissolved in the citrus juice.
5. Select optional garnish (slice or rind of fruit, maraschino cherry, sprig of mint or another herb).
The formula can be varied, but a starting point is: put 60 ml base liquor, 30 ml juice, 30 ml sweetener, 15 ml supplementary ingredient (two dashes for bitters) in a shaker 1/3 filled with ice. If you want a frothy result, add an egg white. Shake vigorously for at least 45 seconds. Pour. Garnish with garnish. If you want a longer drink, add soda (in which case, don’t use egg white).
Document recipe, assess critically, and consider changes to ingredients and amounts. If the cocktail is a success, name it the <Interesting qualifier> <Noun phrase from table below>. If you cannot think of an interesting qualifier related to the ingredients, use your location, e.g. Northcote Mezcalita.
Base liquor | Noun phrase |
Vodka | Caprioska |
Gin | Lady |
Tequila | Margarita |
Mezcal | Mezcalita |
White rum | Daiquiri |
Cachaça | Caipirinha |
Whisk(e)y | Whisk(e)y sour |
Dark rum | Rum sour |
Brandy | Sidecar |
Pisco | Pisco sour |
Sherry | Sherry1 sour |
The sashimi is trivially easy, but guests are often impressed that you prepare raw fish at home. You should reassure them (with well-researched confidence) that you purchase it from a reliable fishmonger.
Occasionally I have had problems sourcing the sashimi-grade yellowfin (ahi) tuna or the green mangoes. Other forms of tuna, yellowtail (hamachi), or salmon (obviously also “sashimi-grade”) can be substituted for the yellowfin. If no suitable fish is available, I suggest purchasing raw (“green”) prawns (shrimp) or sea scallops and barbecuing them – simple and delicious.
The green mango can be replaced by green papaya or ripe mango (in the latter case, cut into 1 1/2 cm cubes rather than strips).
COMMON RESOURCES: SASHIMI
Soy sauce
Prepared wasabi (typically sold in tube)
RECIPE-SPECIFIC INGREDIENTS: SASHIMI
1 thick slice “sashimi-grade” yellowfin tuna (200 g)
COMMON RESOURCES: THAI DUCK SALAD
100 g tamari almonds (or non-tamari almonds, cashews, or peanuts)
For dressing:
1 tbsp tahini
Limes (for juice)
2 tsp maple syrup
80 ml soy sauce
1 birds-eye or alternative preferred chili, fresh or reconstituted (optional)
RECIPE-SPECIFIC INGREDIENTS: THAI DUCK SALAD
700 g duck fillets
250 g zucchini
1 red capsicum
1 yellow capsicum
1 long green chili
1 bunch spring onions
2 green mangoes
1/2 packet bean shoots
1 bunch coriander
EQUIPMENT
Bowl
Serving plates for sashimi and salad
Small bowls / plates for serving soy sauce and wasabi (preferably 1 per person)
Jar for mixing dressing
Meat thermometer
PROCESS
Time: 55 minutes, including time to greet guests and make cocktails.
Preferably before guests arrive, prepare salad:
Squeeze limes to produce 40 ml of juice. Put juice in jar with other dressing ingredients and shake to amalgamate.
Cut capsicums, zucchini, and long chili into 1 cm strips. Halve strips as necessary to achieve a more consistent length. Put in bowl with bean shoots.
Tear the coriander leaves from their stalks and add to bowl.
Chop chili into tiny pieces (30 seconds) and edible part of spring onions into 3 mm discs, and add both to bowl.
Take enough salad to fill 2 rice-paper rolls, put in a container, and refrigerate.
Peel green mango / green papaya using a vegetable peeler and cut into thin strips to match the zucchini strips. (If using a ripe mango, slice into 4 “cheeks” around the stone; use a knife to mark out 1 cm cubes, cutting from the flesh side but not into the skin – a crisscross pattern; turn cheeks inside out; cut away cubes from skin.)
Add mango and the nuts to the bowl containing the chopped / sliced vegetables.
Fifteen minutes before guests are due1:
Activate barbecue (indirect heat, lid on).
When barbecue reaches 180 degrees, put poultry on barbecue, skin side down, for 5 minutes.
When timer sounds, turn poultry over and set timer for 15 minutes.
Slice sashimi into the thinnest possible intact slices, observing the general carving rule to cut across the grain. Arrange on serving plate. Put 30 ml of soy sauce and 1 teaspoon of wasabi in each small bowl.
When guests arrive, make cocktails and serve sashimi (traditionally eaten with chopsticks).
Pour dressing into bowl containing the chopped / sliced vegetables; mix with a fork and pour contents of bowl onto salad serving plate.
Slice poultry (across grain) into pieces 1 cm thick. Isolate sufficient to fill 2 rice-paper rolls when chopped and add to container in refrigerator. Put remainder of poultry on top of salad. Serve when diners are ready.
VARIATIONS
Sear the entire piece of tuna for 1 minute each side over maximum heat on the barbecue before slicing. Optionally, rub with olive oil and chili salt before doing so (highly recommended).
Instead of serving the sashimi with wasabi and soy (which is simple and excellent), experiment with lime / lemon juice, with or without added soy, poured over, and chopped garlic, chilies, and capers in any combination.
None of the salad ingredients except the mango / papaya are critical – you can experiment with deleting, replacing, or supplementing them with other vegetables, nuts, etcetera. Chicken (note higher internal temperature target1), or other meat or seafood, can replace the duck.
Mushroom Minestrone; Chocolates
This is a “light” meal, though obviously any meal can be made heavier by cooking and eating more of it. The quantity specified is intended to satisfy two adults and the Standardized Meal System allows the amount to be precisely tuned. But it is insufficient for four persons.
The mushroom minestrone was scheduled when Rosie arrived home with her boss, Judas, and colleague, Stefan, as unexpected guests (unexpected because I had not checked my text messages in the preceding 57 minutes – checking for communications more often than hourly is a serious distraction).
My initial thought was that an inadequate meal would discourage such behavior in future. Also, Rosie constantly complains about Judas and Stefan, so it seemed there was no need to give them an undeserved high-quality meal.
As often happens, my judgment of the personal dynamics and / or appropriate response was incorrect. Rosie indicated to me that she would like me to “ramp it up” and “show them what we can do.” It seemed that I was being asked to weaponize food – again.
The subject had previously been discussed in relation to regular guest nights. It is conventional to cook more elaborate meals when guests are invited, but Rosie had sought to dissuade me from doing so, observing that our guests were intimidated by the complexity of the dishes, which they would feel obliged to match if they invited us to their homes in return.
She said, “Becca’s afraid to have us for dinner because you’re such a good cook.” Obviously, it is flattering to have one’s expertise recognized. And if Becca is an incompetent cook, eating at her home could be unpleasant or unsafe, as well as (demonstrably) anxiety-provoking for Becca. Dining at other people’s homes is always stressful: the typically excessive number of guests, the host distracted and agitated by attempting a too-complex meal, the awkward and time-wasting protocols for leaving.
“Becca says she’ll have to buy us dinner at a restaurant instead,” said Rosie.
Perfect outcome. Hence, retention of the elaborate-food-for-guests principle. And the Standardized Meal System allows for the complexity (and heaviness) of any meal to be increased at short notice. With minimal effort, I can add mixed antipasto (olives, preserved goods, salumi); cheese and nuts; and fresh fruit (or, since it was autumn, affogato – ice-cream with an espresso coffee1 and a shot of amaretto) and chocolates (already specified for Autumn Wednesday) with Pedro Ximenes sherry, all from Common Resources.
In this case, I included all of these, plus a further course, employing my general solution to any problem which renders the scheduled main course nonviable (e.g. inability to shop or a fault in a critical ingredient). The key element of the emergency-food solution is pasta, supplemented with other Common Resources.
Example pasta flavorings include:
Oil, garlic and chili
Parmesan cheese and butter
Anchovies (simple but surprisingly good)
Puttanesca (except in summer, when it is Monday’s meal)
Pizzaiola (in winter, if this option is selected, it is then necessary to eat at a restaurant on Friday or have the same meal twice)
I decided on spaghetti puttanesca (possibly subconsciously hoping that Judas had high blood pressure), omitting the tomatoes due to lack of tomatoes, and serving it as a main course after the soup.
Meanwhile, I delegated Rosie to make negronis to dull our guests’ critical faculties and to assist me in dealing with the change to routine. If I had not had an expert cocktail maker available, I would have served good-quality red vermouth on ice with a curl of orange zest.
Except for the (now widely accepted) practice of serving pasta as a main course rather than before it, I had created a reasonably authentic Italian meal. Due to the pasta, it was necessary to open a bottle (technically, two bottles) of red wine. Judas and Stefan were highly impressed, and it was probable that their sleep was disturbed by the combination of alcohol, coffee, and salt.
The negroni should be made according to the International Bartenders Association recipe: equal quantities of gin, good-quality sweet vermouth, and Campari. (The vermouth and Campari should be stored in the fridge, and the gin in the freezer with the glasses.) Stir over ice, and serve with the ice and a slice of orange. It is fashionable to serve a negroni with a single large ice cube – this will not dilute the drink as much but will be less effective in maintaining coldness, and coldness is critical.
COMMON RESOURCES
10 g dried porcini (or alternative interesting) mushrooms
1 clove garlic
500 ml chicken stock (from Sunday)
1 can cannellini beans, 400 g
1 bay leaf
Parmesan cheese, for grating over soup
RECIPE-SPECIFIC INGREDIENTS
180 g fresh interesting mushrooms (conventional mushrooms are acceptable)
1 leek
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley (measured after chopping; optional)
200 g zucchini
EQUIPMENT
Enameled cast-iron pot
Ladle for serving
Bowl
Jar
Grater
Time: 50 minutes, including 30 minutes unallocated time.
Put dried mushrooms in jar and add hot water (not boiling) to original level of mushrooms (some mushrooms will float). Shake jar (with lid on) to ensure soaking.
Cut prosciutto into 2 cm squares.
Chop mushrooms into 1 1/2 cm cubes – this is very approximate; if you have small mushrooms, leave them whole.
Cut leek (stop when you reach the tough leaves) and zucchini into 1 cm discs.
Cut garlic into tiny pieces (30 seconds chopping).
Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil in pot at maximum temperature.
Add prosciutto to pot and cook until crisp (2 minutes).
Reduce heat to 70% of maximum.
Add fresh mushrooms to pot and cook for 4 minutes (stir with wooden spoon after 2 minutes).
Add leek, zucchini, and garlic to oil, and cook for 10 minutes.
While the vegetables cook, drain liquid from cannellini beans (discard liquid).
Add stock (you can preheat in microwave to speed process), dried mushrooms with the soaking water, cannellini beans, and bay leaf to pot. Put lid on.
Simmer for 30 minutes (no intervention required beyond monitoring simmer; if diners are not ready, it can be left to simmer until they are – assuming same evening).
Chop parsley. Put grater, parmesan cheese, and parsley on table. Remove bay leaf from pot.
Serve soup.
Chocolates.
Rice-paper Rolls; Stir-fried Vegetables
I consider the most important factor in the success of a relationship (life partnership, friendship, possibly parenting) to be the initiation, planning, and execution of joint projects. Humans are cooperative animals, and cooperation is intrinsically satisfying. Identifying interesting projects relies on a mutual understanding of capabilities, needs, and ambitions – a process which requires and promotes empathy1.
The planning of joint projects is the perfect conversation topic – and you are unlikely to be accused of monologuing, since the other person is a “stakeholder.” Carrying out the projects may be less exciting and important to the relationship than the planning, but it promotes interaction and fulfills one of the obvious goals of a relationship: spending time together.
Joint projects need to be supported by a policy of tolerance and forgiveness. Errors are inevitable in tackling challenging projects (including the ongoing project of the relationship itself).
I consider this vital information, but I am accustomed to being atypical, so it may not apply to you. Nevertheless, I suggest you reflect on it, and on what you can do to improve your personal implementation of it, while preparing rice-paper rolls and stir-fried vegetables.
COMMON RESOURCES: RICE-PAPER ROLLS
4 rice-paper-roll wrappers
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 lime
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 birds-eye or alternative preferred chili, fresh or reconstituted (optional)
RECIPE-SPECIFIC INGREDIENTS: RICE-PAPER ROLLS
Leftover duck and Thai salad
1 tsp chopped spring onion
COMMON RESOURCES: STIR-FRIED VEGETABLES
3 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cm cube of fresh ginger (with experience, you may decide to increase this)
2 birds-eye or alternative preferred chili, fresh or reconstituted (optional)
3 tbsp hoisin sauce
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 small carrots, cut into matchstick-sized pieces
RECIPE-SPECIFIC INGREDIENTS: STIR-FRIED VEGETABLES
100 g baby sweet corn
6 spring onions
1 red pepper
100 g mushrooms
1 bunch broccolini or 200 g broccoli or 200 g snow peas or 1 medium zucchini
Jar for mixing
Lemon squeezer
Bowl
Bowl for dipping sauce
Wok
Dish for soaking rice-paper-roll wrappers
PROCESS
Time: 28 minutes.
If you have neither wrapped a rice-paper roll nor seen it done, I recommend googling an instructional video. It should be simple after the first time (you should ensure you have spare wrappers on that occasion).
Squeeze the lime.
Chop the chili into tiny pieces (30 seconds).
Chop the spring onion into 1/2 cm discs to create 1 1/2 teaspoons of chopped onion.
Put the lime juice, soy sauce, sesame oil, and fish sauce in the jar, and shake vigorously (lid on) for 10 seconds. Pour into serving bowl. Add chili and spring onion to float on top.
Chop the leftover duck and salad into 1 cm cubes where feasible. Mix together in bowl with the chili and spring onions, then divide into 4 equal portions.
Put the roll wrappers in a dish and cover with water – press them under if necessary. When pliable (2 minutes), pull one out and, on the chopping board, place a portion of the duck mix on it. Wrap according to past experience or recent tuition. Or “figure it out.”
Serve with the dipping sauce, then dismiss the other diner(s) while you prepare the stir-fried vegetables.
Peel garlic and ginger. Chop them and the chili into small pieces (30 seconds chopping each).
Prepare all remaining vegetables in advance to avoid stress. Use the baby sweet corn as your size reference (cut a 7 x 1.2 cm piece of another vegetable if you have substituted the corn with another vegetable – if the corn is longer than 8 cm, cut in half). Cut all vegetables to that size. Approximately.
Put 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in wok on heat source and set temperature to maximum.
When oil is smoking, add the spring onions, garlic, ginger, and chili; stir for 1 minute.
Reduce heat to 70%.
Add vegetables according to the timeline below and stir while they fry (hence the term “stir fry”; you don’t need to stir while you are performing the vegetable-adding task).
0: Mushrooms.
2: Carrot, capsicum, and sweet corn.
5: Green vegetable(s).
10: Hoisin and soy sauce.
Cook for a further 2 minutes or until all the vegetables are cooked but not too soft.
VARIATIONS
The rice-paper rolls can be deep or shallow fried (set burner / hotplate to 75%) in cooking oil. Let them dry before cooking. Less healthy but more delicious.
Use (smaller) spring-roll wrappers and deep fry.
Add grated ginger to the rolls.
The stir-fry recipe is readily adapted to a vast number of different vegetables (though I recommend avoiding root vegetables).
You can add red meat, poultry, or seafood to the stir fry in place of one or more vegetables. I recommend giving it first place in the cooking sequence.
Buy hoisin noodles and cook according to instructions on pack. Add to wok after final vegetables and stir to mix.
Serve rice (of your preferred variety) with the stir-fried vegetables.
Restaurant Night or Chili con Carne
Recommended alcohol: beer.
Do not buy avocados! Discipline begins with shopping. If you have the potential to make guacamole (and to eat it with corn chips or broken taco shells), you will sabotage any possibility of eating out. Guacamole is the perfect accompaniment to chili con carne and margaritas are the logical accompaniment to guacamole. A meal of this deliciousness will be impossible to resist. Just reheat the chili con carne. Or go out.
VARIATIONS:
(Do not read unless you are definitely not going out.)
Put the chili into taco shells. Top with cheese. Heat in oven.
Make nachos: put corn chips in oven dish; top with the chili, hot sauce (optional), and cheese; heat in oven.
Buy avocados and make guacamole. Add it to nachos, above. Make margaritas. Congratulate yourself for resisting being bullied.
_______
1 Obviously, I have ignored this recommendation, due to its positive effect on my mental health (self-assessed).
1 If you enjoy the Americano and decide to order it in a bar, be sure to specify Americano cocktail, or you are likely to be served a coffee.
2 Unless you use excessive absinthe for the glass-rinsing process or, in the interests of minimizing waste, use the egg white to make a Boston sour, as I do.
1 The rate of pouring should be approximately proportional to the amount of oil in the mortar.
1 Omission of the zucchini will significantly improve the impression of authenticity.
1 As noted in the discussion of Summer Saturday Lunch, the total number of deaths of living creatures is far more difficult to calculate.
1 If you don’t eat chili, I recommend a dry white wine (unless you prefer sweet wines in general). And, of course, deleting the chili.
2 Make by heating 1 cup of water with 1 cup of sugar until sugar dissolved. Refrigerate. Store up to one month.
1 Or specify the sherry type, e.g. oloroso sour.
1 I recommend use of the word “sharp” when specifying arrival time, and the avoidance of such ambiguous formulations as “6:30 for 7:00.” If you have French guests, it is vital to emphasize that local custom is for guests not to be “politely late.” If you are French yourself, you should expect guests from other countries to arrive at the time you specify, and therefore you should be clothed and prepared.
1 Do not rely on the picture of a duck or chicken on the meat thermometer. Correct temperatures are 52 degrees (duck) and 74 degrees (chicken).
1 Obviously, if you don’t drink coffee in the evenings, omit the coffee. Reactions to coffee vary, and you should be aware of yours, unless you have made a decision not to drink it at all.
1 Rosie considers that the prosciutto “makes the soup taste like coq au vin without the coq or the vin but not in a bad way.” This is probably true.
1 Empathy is frequently mischaracterized as arising only from intuition. In my experience, empathy can also be achieved (and often more accurately) by interrogation and discussion.