Cooking as a Distraction?

[angesradieux]

While going through the application process--first stressing over writing samples and the like, and now trying to get through this awful purgatory of waiting to hear back with my sanity in tact--I've found that cooking is a decent distraction. Once I have a flame on the stove, it's time sensitive, so I can't really start and then stop, walk away to check my e-mail, the results board, question all my life choices, probably cry a little, and then eventually make my way back, and also when I have a sharp knife in hand, I'm kind of forced to just pay attention to what I'm doing rather than drifting off to torture myself with all the possible, horrible outcomes, because I'd prefer not to slice my hand instead of an onion. Plus, when I was in the midst of working on my writing sample and I got stuck, it gave me an excuse to walk away and still feel like I was being somewhat productive. I mean, you have to eat, right? So it was really easy for me to spend time cooking without stressing myself out and feeling guilty over wasting time.

Anyway, anyone else use food either as a distraction from waiting or as an excuse to take a step back from working when you hit a wall and can't keep looking at it anymore? Any interesting recipes or cooking tips to share?

I tried Rachel Ray's recipe for individual beef wellingtons a while ago. I thought it worked pretty well and my parents seemed to really enjoy it. Except no one in my house really likes pate, so I left that out, and I don't particularly care for mushrooms, so I used chestnuts instead. I put them through the food processor, so they were chopped more finely than the mushrooms would have been, and to cook they needed a bit more liquid and a slightly longer time, but with those adjustments I think it worked pretty well as a substitution.

I also made Julia Child's coq au vin, though I added carrots and doubled the cognac. But I just let the alcohol in the cognac boil off. The recipe says to light it with a match, but I'm not quite brave enough to try that. For now, I'm content keeping the flames underneath the pan.

[TakeruK]

I do this too! Baking is also fun and enjoyable for me. I think lighting alcohol with a match is also scary (I've never done this), but a safer alternative is to take the pan off the flame, then use one of those clicky-stick lighter things (no idea what they are really called, but I hope that makes sense).

One thing I would really like to bake properly are macarons. The ones I make now taste right, but they are too flat so don't quite have the right texture  I think I need to be more patient with beating the egg whites. (Or maybe I'm overbeating them? not quite sure!!)

[angesradieux]

On 1/27/2017 at 10:50 AM, TakeruK said:

I do this too! Baking is also fun and enjoyable for me. I think lighting alcohol with a match is also scary (I've never done this), but a safer alternative is to take the pan off the flame, then use one of those clicky-stick lighter things (no idea what they are really called, but I hope that makes sense).

One thing I would really like to bake properly are macarons. The ones I make now taste right, but they are too flat so don't quite have the right texture  I think I need to be more patient with beating the egg whites. (Or maybe I'm overbeating them? not quite sure!!)

Macarons are difficult. I have the opposite problem. I think I'm a little too cautious when I fold in the almond flour, so they end up with these little peaks that don't smooth out the way they're supposed to. I should probably try mixing a bit more, but then I'm worried I'll go in the other direction, overmix, and end up with flat macarons. Do you wipe down the bowl and mixer with vinegar before beating the egg whites? I've read that even washing the bowl thoroughly, sometimes there's still some residual fat from previous uses that could interfere with the egg whites whipping up the way they should. I'm not sure how true that is, but I use vinegar whenever I work with egg whites and I've had pretty good results. Do you let them sit out at all? I've also read that it's best to let egg whites rest for a day or so before making macarons because some of the moisture evaporates, though if you're impatient a short time in the microwave will do the trick. In either case, I find them easier to work with when they've warmed up a bit. I tend to separate the eggs while cold, and then let them sit at least long enough to come to room temperature. I've also found this works really well for angel food cake.

But take my advice with a grain of salt since mine also have yet to come out exactly the way I want. But even if they're not quite right, they still taste pretty good and I'm content eating whatever I end up with. They're definitely one of the most finicky things I've tried to bake, though. Angel food cake and gougeres also make me a little nervous--I tend to lurk by the oven and just pray that they rise like they're supposed to--but I've had more success with those than macarons.

Have you made raspberry scones? I tried making a recipe a couple days ago, and it worked out alright, but I couldn't for the life of me incorporate the raspberries into the dough without smashing a bunch of them. They tasted fine, but the juices from the smashed berries started to run while baking and some of the scones stuck to the parchment paper and I broke when I tried transferring them to a cooling rack.

[TakeruK]

Hmmm, no I have not been cleaning out my mixing bowls with vinegar. I'll try that next time!! I did leave the egg whites out for a day to dry as you suggested though! I've done gougeres once and they turned out pretty well (in my biased opinion anyways). 

I haven't been able to bake raspberries very well either. Like you, they get too smashed, or they end up a little more tart than I might have liked. Lately, blueberries in the supermarket have been pretty cheap, $1 per 8 oz thing, so I have been thinking about making blueberry scones. Maybe next weekend!

[angesradieux]

I may try blueberries next time, too. I can get them cheaper than raspberries, so if I make a mess of things it won't annoy me so much. But I also have a recipe for biscuits I've been wanting to try.

My first attempt at gougeres puffed up very nicely in the oven, but I think I took them out a little too early, so they collapsed on me. A longer baking time on subsequent attempts seems to have solved the problem. I love how versatile the choux pastry is, though. Learn the one recipe and you have a starting point for a bunch of things. For Thanksgiving, I divided the choux pastry in half and added cheese to some to make gougeres and then used the rest for cream puffs.

[TakeruK]

39 minutes ago, angesradieux said:

I love how versatile the choux pastry is, though. Learn the one recipe and you have a starting point for a bunch of things. For Thanksgiving, I divided the choux pastry in half and added cheese to some to make gougeres and then used the rest for cream puffs.

Yeah, this is one of the reasons I enjoy cooking---it's really about some fundamental skills and recipes and then you build more complex things out of them. Kind of like research/science  

[Charlsa]

I've tried both macarons and choux pastry only once and both times were a failure. I really need to try again, but almond flour isn't exactly cheap and I hate the idea of spending money on something likely to fail (she says while applying to graduate schools she will probably never get into). It's funny because the baker I consulted beforehand said choux pastry is easier to prepare than the custard I had intended as the filler, but my custard came out fantastic and my pastry looked more like ladyfingers. Maybe I'm just destined for cooking rather than baking.

Cooking was useful while I was in graduate school too. I would feel guilty as I began because it was time away from studying, but it probably did more to help in the long run. It was a break from the stress and it was a form of self care, since nutrition affects your mental health and energy. It also broke up the monotony to try new recipes and cuisines. If I get back into school, I would love to have group potlucks or cooking nights where we could either study together (if done weekly) or all agree to not study at all (if monthly).

[Gadgette]

When I'm stressed I like to cook and bake, or give massages. My sister bought me Thug Kitchen for Christmas and I love it! Made some delicious broccoli and chickpea burritos and pad Thai. But my latest fun baked good was a brownie pizza. Brownie crust, cream cheese frosting, and strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. The only downside was getting annoyed that the fruit wasn't perfectly symmetrical.

[pinkdaisies]

I enjoy cooking. I love experimenting with new things especially pastries. 

[avflinsch]

I love to cook too, it is a great distraction from school/work related things.

One of my favorite things is recreating historical recipes - especially Roman and 18th century American, where you may have an ingredient list, and very basic instructions. A good resource for the 18th C stuff is James Townsend & Sons - they have a YouTube channel

[angesradieux]

1 hour ago, avflinsch said:

I love to cook too, it is a great distraction from school/work related things.

One of my favorite things is recreating historical recipes - especially Roman and 18th century American, where you may have an ingredient list, and very basic instructions. A good resource for the 18th C stuff is James Townsend & Sons - they have a YouTube channel

That sounds like fun. I haven't tried historical recipes before.

Recently, I made beef wellington to cope with a rejection from my top choice school. Now I'm waiting just waiting on one more school and it's driving me crazy. For a while, there was a rumor that their decisions would be out Friday, but now I'm hearing late next week. So I'll probably be in the kitchen quite a bit. I think today I'm going to try a recipe for chicken pot pie. I've taken to burying the anxiety with comfort food. I'm also figuring pot pie will be nice when I do go off to grad school. The recipe I found is freezer friendly, so I can make extra to keep frozen for when I'm too tired or busy to cook something fresh but want something healthier than supermarket frozen dinners.

But I'll have to look into some historical recipes. I'm having visions of organizing occasional historical recipe pot luck type things. Except first I'll need to find some friends. But I'm going into a history program. Shouldn't be too hard to get a handful of people on board with combining history and food, right?

[Charlsa]

Historical recipes sound like a great idea! I've heard about The Mid-Century Menu but that's mostly for saying "oh good god, they ate that?!" I've wanted to perfect a soup beans recipe that is served every year at Living Archaeology Weekend at the Red River Gorge in KY, but that requires a fire, a giant kettle, and loads of time. How's that for keeping it local? In the meantime, I have an electric stove and seasoned cast iron skillets. 

Meanwhile, I am rediscovering the power and glory of fruit smoothies. I have a food processor that's hand-cranked and I can't recommend it enough.

And you should totally do historical recipe potlucks! Grad school is lonely as all get-out; anything to curb the loneliness should be welcomed.

Edited February 8, 2017 by Charlsa

[angesradieux]

Just found this site. http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/imagining-the-culinary-past-in-france-recipes-for-a-medieval-feast/.

And the BnF Gallica database has all kinds of scans of old documents that can be downloaded as PDFs. I bet I could find some recipes there. And then it isn't really procrastinating, because that's the database I do most of my research in, anyway, and the recipes will be in French so I'll be keeping my language skills sharp. So many ways to justify procrastination...

[avflinsch]

24 minutes ago, angesradieux said:

Just found this site. http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/imagining-the-culinary-past-in-france-recipes-for-a-medieval-feast/.

I have done several of the medieval recipes in the past, one thing to be aware of is that they usually use much larger amounts of spices that would normally be used in modern cookery. You will need to adjust to make some dishes edible for the modern palate.

There are 2 main reasons for this -
1 - many spices traveled quite a distance (and without modern shipping that means long times), so they were probably not at their freshest when added to a dish, so larger quantities were used
2 - spices were expensive, so it was a display of wealth

[avflinsch]

59 minutes ago, Charlsa said:

And you should totally do historical recipe potlucks! Grad school is lonely as all get-out; anything to curb the loneliness should be welcomed.

I took a few medieval history courses with a particular instructor while in undergrad. The last class of the term always ended with a potluck, and several students did bring in medieval recipes. It was a very interesting concept.

 

[angesradieux]

1 hour ago, avflinsch said:

I have done several of the medieval recipes in the past, one thing to be aware of is that they usually use much larger amounts of spices that would normally be used in modern cookery. You will need to adjust to make some dishes edible for the modern palate.

There are 2 main reasons for this -
1 - many spices traveled quite a distance (and without modern shipping that means long times), so they were probably not at their freshest when added to a dish, so larger quantities were used
2 - spices were expensive, so it was a display of wealth

Good to know! It makes sense that they'd use more spice than we're accustomed to, but I probably wouldn't have thought of that if you hadn't pointed it out. When I get around to exploring, I'll make sure to start out with smaller amounts and adjust as needed. Should be a fun adventure!