the Humanist view

I have grown up and I have been socialized in a culture were our cuisine is cooked nearly the same way each time – mostly boiled. Mark you, we do so with a huge range of flavors, and mostly without written down recipes.

It is an experiment each time – getting condiments right. You have to remember how you saw another cook it or what another told you was the right amount for each component ingredient. It is unlikely that we have perfect recall and so it is mostly ‘educated guess work’ each time.

I love cooking my culture’s cuisines, most of which are slow-cooked. So, based on my socialization, I need not ask what ingredients the chef used. If I enjoy the meal at his or her restaurant, I love to wing it and to replicate it at home.

Among my latest inspirations are meals on my working trip to Berlin, Germany:

Pork at Schnitzelei Mitte, Berlin

Chicken at the restaurant of Hotel Rossi, Berlin, Germany

Slow cooking is a privilege, I find. It takes planning and it challenges one to make use of the ingredients that one has, in order to produce a tasty meal. If you are going to slow cook, you are going to have to pre-plan the ingredients way in advance.

Whenever I can, I slow cook. I try to do so at least once a week. I love it, to the extent that to retain the idea of my food being slow cooked, even when I warm it, I no longer use a microwave.

I steam it – as in bring water to boil, place the food to be warmed in a covered container and then place it in the container with hot water, cover the container with hot water and let the steam from the hot water warm the food.

My preference, when I slow cook at home, is to do similar with what I believe restaurants do. Cook in bulk so as there are leftovers that can be refrigerated. And during the course of the week or even longer, I use the leftovers to create other interesting meals and in different combinations.

Profiled picture desert in Berlin.