Foodstuffs
Mar. 11th, 2003 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pantryslutToday, I learned how to section an orange.
I didn't actually do it. What I did was peel an orange (four, actually) with a paring knife, cutting away all the pith, and then cutting the remaining flesh into pinwheels.
But I hadn't realized how little of the pithy membrane was left after the initial peeling, when you're using non-navel oranges. The diagrams and descriptions had made sectioning an orange sound so daunting! And good cook I may be, but I'm no technician. My strength is in my palate, not my fussiness. (You may guess now that I don't bake much.) So I'd just avoided it for years.
No more! I am empowered!
Just a few weeks ago, I learned the same thing about French toast. When I was a kid, French toast looked so complicated. And as an adult, I found the stuff generally too sweet. But I had half a loaf of leftover challah sitting around the house, so what the heck, I thought, I'll try it and see.
It was so simple, and so delicious, I couldn't believe it. I could make it every morning! And I'd thought it was a big-deal special occasion dish.
It's odd, having cooked for myself, nearly every day, for a decade or so now, to be picking up such basic skills and dishes. Odd, but fun.
My cutting board is pinkish because one of the oranges I cut up turned out to be the darkest blood orange I've ever seen. The peel was pure orange, but inside was a purple deeper than wine.
For dinner tonight: oranges and pistachios, plus a thick "sauce" (a fast stew, maybe?) of chicken, celery, leeks, and dried mint, over rice.
The rice cooker just popped. Time to eat!
I didn't actually do it. What I did was peel an orange (four, actually) with a paring knife, cutting away all the pith, and then cutting the remaining flesh into pinwheels.
But I hadn't realized how little of the pithy membrane was left after the initial peeling, when you're using non-navel oranges. The diagrams and descriptions had made sectioning an orange sound so daunting! And good cook I may be, but I'm no technician. My strength is in my palate, not my fussiness. (You may guess now that I don't bake much.) So I'd just avoided it for years.
No more! I am empowered!
Just a few weeks ago, I learned the same thing about French toast. When I was a kid, French toast looked so complicated. And as an adult, I found the stuff generally too sweet. But I had half a loaf of leftover challah sitting around the house, so what the heck, I thought, I'll try it and see.
It was so simple, and so delicious, I couldn't believe it. I could make it every morning! And I'd thought it was a big-deal special occasion dish.
It's odd, having cooked for myself, nearly every day, for a decade or so now, to be picking up such basic skills and dishes. Odd, but fun.
My cutting board is pinkish because one of the oranges I cut up turned out to be the darkest blood orange I've ever seen. The peel was pure orange, but inside was a purple deeper than wine.
For dinner tonight: oranges and pistachios, plus a thick "sauce" (a fast stew, maybe?) of chicken, celery, leeks, and dried mint, over rice.
The rice cooker just popped. Time to eat!
