I thought preparing meals without an oven would be a challenge. At home, many of our meals involve both our oven and our counter top convection oven. I roast vegetables, especially peppers, on an almost daily basis.But we also do stir fry a lot, so I figured we'd be OK. I like to experiment with salads, so I knew we could always do the salad and baguette approach.
What I was not prepared for was how much a difference it makes to have really good and fresh ingredients.
Academically, I knew this of course. Meals I make during farm market season are always better than meals made with store-bought produce.
But French produce has an edge. A taste edge. Tomatoes have a bit more bite and peppers have, well, more peppery taste. I knew this already from previous shopping trips in France. But my taste buds had forgotten.
One of the first things we did was look for sausage. The first time I asked for saucission, which yielded some wonderful salami from Davoli Maison de Jambom. It was fabulous on a sandwich and equally delightful in a salad.
But it wasn't what I wanted so I tucked it into the little wheeled cart (hell going over those cobblestone) and tried again. This time I found chair de sausage, which is freshy ground sausage. We'd tasted this in Cahors a few years back and found it some much better than the Italian sausage we buy at home (and that is pretty good).
My husband asked for two kilograms, which as it turns out is enough to feed the entire 7th arrondissement, so we ate a lot of sausage-based meals. One of our favorites was a simple dish of sausages and peppers, with a bit of onion and garlic. Brown the sausage with garlic and a bit of olive oil, set it aside, and saute the peppers with onions. Combine all the ingredients and allow the flavors to marry over low heat. Serve with a fresh baguette and unsalted butter. We paired it with a light and fruity rose wine from Provence.
In France, I made do with one large skillet, two or three sauce pans, a souffle dish, one bread knife and some wooden spoons and spatulas. As a result, I am paring down my kitchen a bit, giving a set of mixing bowls and a few other odds and end to the Relay for Life rummage sale my dean sponsors every year.
Have you ever made do with only a few utensils? What did you make? How did you like it? Did roughing it change the way you prepared food in your own kitchen?
12 comments:
Last year, when my kitchen was being remodeled, we were down to nothing when it came to cooking. I think the experience was more horrible than I now remember, since I'm blocking absolutely everything other than broiled salmon on a George Foreman grill. (The new kitchen was worth it, but I'm shocked at how much of my stuff still remains packed in the basement w/o much thought.)
I wish my kitchen could be remodeled! A few years ago we got rid of the old sink (the subject of an upcoming post, I think) and replaced the appliances with stainless steel, but I would dearly love to do more - a whole remake.
I can no longer use the kitchen as an excuse for my culinary shortcomings, because I prepared some fine meals in Paris.
We've stayed in quite a few 'holiday rentals'. The first time I went out and bought a decent knife and cheap but decent grill pan. After that I learned to make do - and, like you did just fine.
But you and Christine both have me thinking: I should pack away half of my kitchen and see if I miss it. I know I reach for the same tools over and over again. It just always looks so tempting in those beautiful kitchen stores....
When we go camping the utensils and pots and pans are always way pared down. I hate going with the standard camping fare of hot dogs and burgers, so we take a few basics to help prepare real meals. Really, a good cast iron skillet and a spatula can turn out incredible meals. If I could only have the basics, it would be the skillet, a stock pot, and a roasting pan for the oven.
But all the extras stuff is fun to have too...
What a gorgeous, colorful dish. Fresh is best!
I love the challenge of creating with very few kitchen utensils (though goodness knows I have more than my share!). Camping is a perfect example -- we take a good knife, a frying pan, something in which to boil water, a mixing bowl, and a cutting board. When we've rented apartments in Venice, too, we find that they are underequipped -- and yet we manage to prepare wonderful meals. I think it forces me to be more inventive.
Our kitchen is pretty small so I get by with fewer "toys" than I did in the States. There is still a drawer full of little gadgets like a garlic peeler and crab claw crackers that I never use, but they don't take up too much space. The bigger items like mixing bowls, pots, pans and appliances are definitely pared down and I don't miss anything I left behind except for my KitchenAid Mixer and my ice cream maker.
They are so expensive here so I've never replaced them.
Katie, I amost bought a good pairing knife for the apartment! There was only one ice cube tray, too, but we made do. I am getting rid of mixing bowls, a casserole dish, a meat loaf pan and some muffin tins.
Erika, good choices. I feel the way you do about camping, but then it is not something I do. But if I did, no hot dogs and beans.
Kristin, it was good, too, especially washed down with a fruity wine from Provence.
Lydia, a cutting board is essential. This apartment had four of them, plus butcher-block carts. I think we will go back. I grew to love that little kitchen.
LouLou, I have to confess: I never grated my own cinnamon until Paris. It was great! I rarely use our KitchenAid thing, because it is too heavy to move. I have a little KA chopper that I like, though.
I actually enjoy the challenge of preparing foods with what is available , as far as the utensil departments goes..... never seem to have the correct pans for baking........but, we have tasted a few great meals,using what was there when in vacation homes. Your meal looked lie quite a success!
The kitchens we've used in France have been fairly well stocked, with both utensils and ingredients. Last time, when we were in the Lot Valley, we arrived about 3 weeks after the owner's spring visit, and she left a bunch of stuff, non perishables, that we could use. It was still an interesting challenge, Jann.
Oh, this looks superb! And I bet it was heaven to taste.
The colors are great too in the photo.
I'm quite an oven cook too -- and usually when I'm in a gîte or other rental, I keep cooking to a very simple minimum. But I have a small kitchen in my home, so in some ways I'm continually challenged!
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