Although I am agog with excitement and impatience for the arrival of my new cooker, I am in a strange way rather enjoying the challenge of turning out not just 'make-do' meals, but the kind of dishes I'd be producing had I several burners, an oven, and a properly functioning kitchen. So we aren't going without, by any means!
Meatball prep: minced beef, chopped coriander and chorizo, and breadcrumbs, chopped onion and garlic, cumin, salt and pepper and an egg.
However, the actual production of meals is curiously hesitant; I'll tell you what I mean, if you'll bear with me.
Meatballs browned, a sauce of grilled red peppers (from a jar!), tinned tomatoes, basil, some passata, salt and a pinch of brown sugar.
When I'm cooking up a storm, I think of myself as engaging in a dance. When you move between the various store - prep - cook areas (even in the smallest of kitchens) naturally and repeatedly, it becomes almost choreographed, a dance.
Meatballs gently simmering in the sauce.
At the moment, with no cooker as such, being short of a permanent place for my herbs, spices and condiments, and my utensils being parked where they wouldn't normally be, I'm constantly checking myself, going to the wrong place, having to retrace my steps to find an item which wasn't where I'd expected it to be!
Giant (Israeli) couscous and chopped pak-choi bubbling away.
I love being in my kitchen. I find it simultaneously comforting, calming and stimulating. I'm so pleased to have even this make-shift arrangement to work in after the four days of culinary chaos while the Rayburn was removed, and new pipes and boiler installed. We aren't there yet, though, and my time in the kitchen is governed by a temporary new, and awkward, rhythm; I am dancing to a different tune, a little discordant and unfamiliar.
The finished dish - lunch for two and lots for left-overs!
The important thing is - I am still dancing!
I hope you are thrilling to the rhythm of your own dance as you go about the things you love to do! Catch you next time!
