So, I'm feeling in a bit of a cooking rut. I've been making the same things over and over again, buying the same ingredients, and occasionally branching out into a new use of them.
Last year was a pretty good year for me, in terms of learning how to cook new things, and I'm hoping to push the envelope on that again this year.
Here's a short list of ingredients I'd like to learn how to use this year:
* fennel (confession: I don't actually know what this looks like, what it tastes like or if I will like it... But it appears in a number of interesting recipes I've seen lately!)
* greens that aren't spinach or arugula, ie: swiss chard and kale (same confession as the fennel)
* lemongrass -- used in Thai and Indian cooking, mostly, from what I can tell
* fish (OK, I *do* know how to cook fish... I just rarely do it, and even more rarely do anything interesting)
Any ideas or tips for these ingredients? Would love to hear!
dreaming? of all the new things I might cook this year
* fennel: my aunt likes to saute in olive oil and various peppery spices; i'm not crazy about it, but nor do i dislike. in my book, it's a stereotypical root vegetable, and kindof like if celery and licorice and ... onion? ... had a threesome, fennel would be the lovechild.
ReplyDelete* kale: the only thing i've ever used kale in is the knockoff zuppa tuscana from olive garden. which is delicious. but i would just as rather go and pay $7 for all you can eat salad, breadsticks and soup, than go out and invest time and effort to make it at home.
i want to know what you make with said ingredients though! eagerly awaiting those posts :)
I'm making the Zuppa Toscana again this weekend. And this time, I'll be making a double batch. The kale I bought two weeks ago is still good. I agree with Morgan that it's a process. But the fact that I, of all people, can pull of the recipe speaks volumes!
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