A couple of weeks ago, after being severely criticized at breakfast for not holding up my end of things by spending more time in the kitchen - I do lots of clean-up but not so much cooking - I said ENOUGH! I'll cook! In all fairness, it's true that the others in my house like to have proper meals served at the table at a regular time while I am happy just pulling things out of the fridge and pantry to make something edible at any time. This means that when I am in writing mode, or have other work, they have to cook or starve, since they do not share my eating habits. So of course, there comes a time when they start bickering about it. They start saying that I should change my habits and become the main cook because I'm the mother - but it's not like they're little kids anymore. They're big 30-somethings and they have their other halves over all the time and they all like to cook, so why the fuss?
Well, that's an ongoing argument that I won't go into here, but suffice it to say that they did have a point that day because they were all extremely busy doing hard physical work, the fridge was pretty empty, and I was relatively free. So I put on my walking shoes, got my shopping bag and trudged down to the edge of town where dirt road meets pavement and stores of all sorts dot both sides of the street. I bought meat, veggies, a little fruit and a broom (we've been needing one for a while). Then I headed back home, commenced to wash all the produce and do the prep work.
I had a neat idea for how I was going to cook the meat - strips of beef that I'd asked the butcher to cut for me. It was going to be in a sort of stir-fry with the carrots, squash, green pepper and mushrooms I'd bought, so I put the meat on to brown while I chopped the veggies. Meanwhile, I soaked and fried some rice and then added water. While it came to a boil and cooked, I sliced and fried two plantain bananas. This would give the rice definite pizzazz and who doesn't like fried bananas on white rice? With the kitchen to myself, and accompanied by Joy of Cooking, I worked happily in my own rhythm, harmonizing my efforts to produce a succulent meal in about 40 minutes.
As the meat dish finished simmering and bubbling in the sauce I had added, which actually was bottled but watered down to reduce its exaggerated spiciness, I seasoned the rice, pulled the salad from the day before out of the refrigerator, gave it a bit of tossing, and voilà, we had a meal! I asked the others to do things like set the table and serve glasses of beer for all (in Mexico, our main meal is in the late afternoon, so beer is a nice beverage to have on a hot day when you've been working outside). Then we sat down, and it really was a nice meal, although the rice was on the bland side, even with all the fried bananas I heaped on it, and the sauce in the main dish didn't do anything for the meat, perhaps because it was too thin.
I reflected on the paradox as we ate. On the one hand, we were together for a meal I had cooked, something I don't manage often enough, but the meal itself left something to be desired - at least in my opinion. The others seemed happy enough with it, however, and I must admit, the good vibes all around really opened my eyes to the fact that I need to participate more often in this way with my family.
So the meal was a success simply because we were together and everyone was hungry and there was plenty of food to fill our stomachs and make us feel satisfied. But on the technical side - the concoction of that meal - it wasn't the masterpiece I'd hoped it would be.
The next day, I heated up the leftovers and did what I should have done in the first place: I mixed a couple of teaspoons of cornstarch in about a cup of cold water, stirred it around and poured it into the pan where the meat was simmering in its sauce. I've read recipes that call for corn starch to make gravy, but I've always considered it an optional ingredient and just never resorted to using it myself. I keep corn starch on hand, though, because my mother-in-law always had some in her kitchen and she said every kitchen should have it.
While the meat was building to a simmer after the addition of the corn starch, I jazzed up the rice with more condiments and heated it up in a bit of butter.
This time, when I served up lunch - leftovers though they were - the reaction was just what I wanted to see. Everything was really delicious! The rice held its own, this time with sliced avocado on top (the bananas were long gone). The sauce in the main dish - thick, hot and spicy - gave every bite of meet a velvety texture. In short, a savory delight!
I'm not saying this will become a habit - luckily there are great cooks among us, so I don't have to be the one who does it every day - but it does feel good to prepare and serve up a nice meal and sit together at the table and talk. And even if the meal doesn't come out perfect, you can learn from your mistakes and produce a better meal the next time. I'm always glad when things come together like that, and in this case, it meant that we had a nice meal together - cooked by me! - two days in a row!
P.S. Corn starch! Great ally to have in the kitchen when you want your watery sauce to thicken to the right consistency. I can't believe it was the first time I actually tried it, and it worked!
