a cook’s tale

I’m not a great writer, but I’m beginning to understand the process.  To me, it’s kind of like cooking.  There are some natural steps involved.  First I have to be inspired (what to make).  Then I need some words (ingredients).  Next, a story (recipe), then words on a paper (cooking), editing (tasting and adjusting the ingredients), then finally creating the cover and publishing (plating and presenting the meal).  Wow, that was pretty deep, huh?

Here is the breakdown in last night’s story:

The inspiration:  The vegan culture.

The words:  arugula, Japanese eggplant, sea salt, San Marzano tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, raw hot cherry peppers, 0recchiette pasta, asparagus, white balsamic vinegar,  plum tomatoes, garlic, cucumbers, dark balsamic vinegar, dried oregano, and cracked black pepper.

The story: Pour 1 cup dark balsamic vinegar in small pan, bring to a simmer until liquid is reduced by two-thirds.  Saute thinly sliced garlic until soft.  Add crushed San Marzano tomatoes, salt, pepper, and ripped fresh basil and bring to slow simmer.  In another fry pan, bring water to rapid boil, blanch asparagus for one minute, remove and put into an ice bath.  Thinly slice Japanese eggplant.  Wrap about 3 or 4 asparagus spears with the eggplant and secure with a toothpick.  Fill large pasta pot with salted water and bring to rapid boil, add pasta.   In another fry pan, saute wrapped asparagus spears in extra virgin olive oil until nicely browned.  Drain pasta and add to simmering tomato sauce for 2 minutes.

Creating the cover and publishing:  Spoon vinaigrette over arugula salad.  Plate pasta and eggplant wrapped asparagus (don’t forget to remove the toothpicks).  Drizzle reduced balsamic over eggplant and asparagus.

pasta in marinara sauce with eggplant wrapped asparagus

arugula salad with white balsamic vinaigrette

The end