About "About" Cooking

I call all of my cooking "about" cooking. Note the quotation marks; they are key to anything I do here in the kitchen, as I don't want to be confused with being an authority on the subject. (Ha! As if that was really an issue.)

Part of my reluctance to be exact and measure out all the ingredients can be attributed to my lack of patience and my desire to be expedient. But most likely it is due to my penchant (some might call it an obsession, but that's still up for debate) for cleanliness. After all, my sister doesn't call me "Monica" for nothing. I simply don't want to have tons of dirty dishes lying around, nor do I really want to wash them all later, and so I make a concerted effort to minimize the amount of dishes I use. Which means, dear readers, that I don't waste energy on using things like measuring cups and spoons. After all, that's what my eyes are for, right?

But one of the reasons that I love cooking is learning how to push the boundaries of what you are doing. There are so many ways to stumble upon something good if you're willing to experiment. I really only started cooking regularly about a year ago. And by regularly, I mean, actually following recipes, as before then, dinner involved things like half a can of corn and half a can of black beans, mixed together and heated up the microwave (I still do love this combination though, just a little more sophisticated than that.)

About the only "herbs" I used (if you can call them that) were salt and pepper. And I think I listened to Salt-n-Pepa more than I even used them. Remember "Push It"? (Note: this a link to the Youtube video, and I promise to end all the gratuitous parentheses now.)

Oh, wait, what were we talking about? Oh, yeah, cooking. Sorry, I get distracted sometimes by my childhood memories of 80s music. Let's get back to experimentation with cooking.

Take, for example, mint. This is one of the most underappreciated herbs, in my opinion, for cooking. Oh sure, mint is the star in a number of cocktails: mint juleps and mojitos come to mind. But those cocktails are very labor-intensive and might earn a disdainful glance from a bartender in a busy bar, no matter how much he or she protests otherwise.

But in cooking, all it takes is a few chopped leaves to add instant flavor to any number of foods. See, easy, right? I have been having it on zucchini a lot lately, adding it to the charred slices after they come off the grill, along with some salt and pepper, and maybe a little bit of cheese. It's good with watermelon too, as you can see here.

And speaking of experiments, I have had a bunch of unripe green tomatoes thrust upon me as of late, due to the presence of a gopher in the garden who has been killing the plants. Not one to cried over spilled milk, I harvested the green tomatoes so that at least they wouldn't go to waste. And my loss is your gain, as now I can experiment with them beyond fried green tomatoes. So feel free to leave a comment with any suggestions you might have, and I'll try them out.

I found a simple way to dress up sauteed shrimp is to chop up the green tomatoes with some shallots, then adding some white wine vinegar and salt-n-pepa, not to be confused with the group, letting all that stuff marinate for a while and then topping the shrimp with it. Please note that unripe tomatoes tend to be a little bitter, so keep the pieces small. Adding a tad bit of sugar might help sweeten them up too, but I haven't tried them that way.

It also works pretty well as a side dish with a mild white bean, like cannellinis or Great Northerns, for those of you looking for a vegan alternative. Or heck, just throw it on top of the grilled zucchini if you are feeling adventurous.

But I really don't want to end up with a tomato garden that produces just unripe green tomatoes. I do have hope. Right now it happens to be a Great Yellow Hope.

Which reminds me: Do you have any methods for, ahem, disposing of gophers? Because if you do, I will buy it. Ever heard those sayings, he could sell "sand to an Arab" or "ice to an Eskimo"? (And yes, I realize those saying are probably all kinds of politically incorrect, but work with me here, and yes, I realized that I might have been misleading you earlier with a promise to end the parentheses, but this is it, I promise.) Um, you don't even need those special salesman techniques with me. Pretty much, if you say "gets rid of gophers," I'm buying it.

Remember to leave a comment with a suggestion for green tomato recipes if you want me to try anything out. Because I'll try just about anything; check this out if you don't believe me.