batch batch cooking

Tortellini pressure-cooked in sauce, ready for freezer.

I've been doing "batch" cooking for nearly as long as I've been cooking, because it always made sense: make the effort (and the mess) once, eat well, and have a few servings tucked in the freezer for another day. When I started using a "multi-cooker" - mine is a Gourmia brand, not the famed Instant Pot - I also started cooking batches in a sequence, with two or three things different things cooked over the course of an afternoon or even a couple of hours. For example, the first thing could be plain pasta, followed by a pot of bulgur, followed by winter squash or a pot of soup.

The speed of pressure cooking is what many people seem to focus on, and it's true that once you've waited several minutes for the pressure to come up, the actual cooking times are almost incredibly short and presumably energy-efficient compared to other methods. But a major advantage for me is the kind of attention needed: intermittent.  Compared to cooking in a regular pot on the stove, there isn't any hovering or stirring or keeping an eye on. This frees up bits of time for little tasks, such as slicing apples for the herd or dealing with a sliding pile of mail or folding the laundry. I'm still in the kitchen but  getting extra things done in addition to restocking the fridge and freezer. It makes the entire cooking endeavor feel more efficient and productive, and I love that.

Speaking of pasta, have I mentioned my new favorite shape? After decades of rotini fandom, a trip through the Aldi markdown aisle a couple of years ago led me to cavatappi:

And because I rarely have the chance to shop in Aldi, I bought a few boxes. By the time I'd worked out the best way to cook cavatappi in the Gourmia I had also created a new way to eat pasta: with a spritz of oil, a dollop of salsa, and a sprinkling of shredded sharp cheddar melted in. I've been cooking this pasta for two years now and have yet to put pasta sauce on it.

After running out of the Aldi boxes, I started looking for cavatappi online and couldn't find it anywhere. It seemed impossible, so I visited the Barilla website and started scrolling through pictures of their many pasta products. Behold:

Here's what cavatappi or cellentani looks like when it's been pressure-cooked for 3 minutes, then frozen, then thawed:

This week, in the interest of eating cold things, I've branched out from my usual salsa and cheddar method, and used the thawed pasta for a salad with tuna and mayo. If I'd had celery or frozen peas or corn, they would have gone in also, but it was good anyway. So good. This form of pasta just seems perfect to me: thick enough to have a good chewing texture but hollow, so not overly dense. Spiraled and ridged to hold whatever is added - salsa or mayo or even just butter. If you like rotini, I strongly recommend trying this. Hot or cold. Except today. Today is definitely a day for more cold pasta salad, at least here in Massachusetts.

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snow and rain and ice and soup

Do you use an "instant pot" or other pressure cooker? I bought a 6-quart Gourmia during a holiday sale a couple of years ago, and it earns it's footprint in my tiny kitchen.

It's become my method-of-choice for vegetables and bulgur, both of which I cook often. Also for hard-boiling eggs. There's been a lot of experimenting and note-taking, to get the timing right - at first it's incomprehensible how short the cooking time can be - and sometimes my experimenting produces a nice surprise like this one:

The Easiest Soup Ever.

I take one jar of pasta sauce:

The shelf of What Was On Sale

And one package of Barilla tortellini.

And I make tortellini soup:

In case anyone wants to try it, here's the detailed description.

• 1) Pour a whole jar of pasta sauce into the pot.
• 2) Rinse the jar by filling it with water and shaking it, then add the water to the pot.
• 3) Repeat step 2 and give it a stir. You have added 2 full jars of water to 1 jar of sauce.
• 4) Turn on the pot - lid off - to a setting that will heat the liquid. I use "Saute" because it was the first one I tried, and it worked.* It takes just a couple of minutes to see steam rising from the sauce. Turn off the pot.
• 5) Add the package of tortellini to the pot, give it a stir, put on the lid and set to Pressure Cook for 4 minutes.
• 6) As soon as the 4 minutes are up, release the pressure and take the pot out of the base so it won't keep cooking from the residual heat.
• 7) You are done making soup.

*I do Step 4 because it can take 10 minutes or so for the closed pot to come up to pressure, and I think preheating the liquid gives the pot a head-start. That way the tortellini isn't sitting in liquid, not cooking, for more time than is necessary. It's just my theory, but like the Saute button, it was an experiment and it worked, so I'll probably keep doing it forever.

So far I've tried six or seven different sauces, and the results were good every time. Sometimes different in consistency - once the sauce I used was quite watery all by itself, so adding 2 jars of water made a lighter soup than usual - but always tasty. Sometimes after cooking the sauce is still so thick, I add even more water to it when I reheat it. This is what happened yesterday, when I tried a new sauce, this one from Italy; the result could be served as "tortellini in a lot of sauce," but I really wanted soup so I diluted it again before serving.

At first I made a note to add even more water to the pot the next time this brand of sauce is used, but then I thought about storage space and realized it's more practical to make it the same way next time, freeze it in my favorite Pyrex bricks, and then add water when reheating.

Here are two Pyrex 3-cup containers, destined for the freezer:

And here's what it looked like with even more water added:

One thing that has really surprised me is that no matter how much water I use, either during or after cooking, I haven't needed to add more seasoning. Isn't that strange? Sometimes I do add things to a bowl of tortellini soup - like cheese or olives or yogurt - but it's not really needed.

This pressure cooker "recipe" is my best soup discovery ever.

So far.

Do you have any pressure cooker tips to share? Please do!

~~~~~

scrambling

My method of cooking scrambled eggs and omelettes has recently changed, and it's such an improvement that every time I make scrambled eggs I think, "I should put this on the blog." Maybe everyone else already knows this tip, as it's apparently been around for many years, but it was new to me. So here goes.

If you like your fried eggs cooked through, but not dry or browned or crisp in any way - then this method is for you. And me. It's definitely the method for me.

The secret is adding a bit of starch to the eggs. I've experimented with the amount of starch - I'm using potato starch - and have settled on a much smaller amount than the (possibly original) version I've seen online.

Potato starch, salt, and pepper stirred into milk.
Eggs on deck.

Here's what I'm doing: 

for each egg, I mix 1/4 teaspoon potato starch with 1 Tablespoon milk in a small bowl, add seasonings, then beat in the eggs. I melt about 2 teaspoons of butter in a frying pan, then add the egg mixture. The amount of butter probably depends on the size of your pan; mine are the small blue Pyrex with detachable handles, made in the 1930s and 40s. A perfect size for two or three scrambled eggs. A bigger pan is much easier for omelettes.

Apart from the potato starch, everything is traditional scrambling: low/medium heat (on my gas stove, 3.5 on a dial of 10 is just right, and 4 is too hot), moving the eggs frequently as soon as they begin cooking, and taking the pan off the heat just before the eggs are completely done. Really, the only difference is that tiny amount of starch!

But the results have been consistently excellent. Best scrambled eggs I've ever had. Isn't it great when a tiny, simple change improves something you've been doing for years?

Did you know about this little piece of magic? If not, and if you like eggs that are consistently soft and neither runny nor dry, I think it's worth a try.

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lightening the mood

First of all, thanks for all the supportive words on the rain/hay/rain situation. As I mentioned, I've been transitioning the goats' diet -  much more quickly than I would have liked - into soaked timothy/alfalfa pellets and chaffhaye, which is a bagged and semi-fermented alfalfa. I've fed it before, many years ago, but had a mixed experience with quality and availability, which I hope will not be the case this time. Today my order of 12 more 50-pound sacks of Chaffhaye came in, so no one is going to starve here for at least the next couple of weeks.

In other news, the beans are producing abundantly! Some of the vines were badly damaged in the recent deadfall, but I'm still going down to the terrace garden with a little basket every second or third day, to  pick the next batch of beans for salad.

By the way, my "three bean" salads are generally "4-plus beans" salad, which became shortened in my mind to "beans salad" and now, "beansalad." It's on the menu every day, with little modifications to keep things interesting. I've tried adding white kidney beans, and starting with dry red kidney beans instead of using canned. The garden provides varying percentages of green filet beans, yellow filet beans, and yellow romano-type beans. I don't think the "sauce" is ever the same twice: different oils, different vinegars, different ratios. Luckily, it's been tasty every time.

Which reminds me...is this a good time to share a couple of kitcheny tips?

Here's the first. The best idea I've ever heard - honestly it's the only one I've ever heard, but it's a good one - for using strawberry caps: making strawberry-infused vinegar. This came from Nancy Birtwhistle, one of the early Great British Bake-off champions who has since written books on "green cleaning" and gardening. Her website has loads of recipes on it as well.

Anyway, she recommends filling a jar with strawberry caps, then adding plain vinegar and soaking. I don't recall how long she advised, but I just stuffed a jar with strawberry caps, filled it to the brim with vinegar, and watched it get red then redder for a couple of days before straining it into a smaller jar. Isn't it pretty?

This jar was full to start with.
Strawberry vinegar is very nice.

It smells lovely and has a refreshing taste, and is a subtle twist on the vinegar component of beansalad. Plus it's very satisfying to have something to do with the strawberry caps! 

Another tip: garbanzo bean skins. Do you use canned chick peas? I do. Do you remove the skins? I do. It's so easy that it's fun. It involves using a rice-washing bowl and plenty of water, rubbing the beans with your fingers and floating the skins away. It takes about one minute for a can of garbanzos.

This method came from Refika's Kitchen on YouTube. I've followed Refika for a few years now, and have been entertained, educated, and, most importantly, inspired to be a bit more adventurous in my attitude to preparing food.

Back to the beans. I'll try linking to a YT video which should open in another window, starting right here at the chick pea technique. Removing the skins only takes a minute, but I couldn't figure out how to make a short clip, so you'll have to either exit the video after a minute or learn how to make Turkish hummus.

It's really nice not to have all this in the beansalad:

Well this is shaping up to be a bit of a random post, isn't it? I'm going to round it out by linking to an article the Guardian published a few days ago.

I've written about the International Space Station before, and since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I've often wondered what's going on inside the ISS and in the program control rooms of every country involved. This article by Stephen Walker takes a pretty good crack at the question.

A big chore day tomorrow, so I'm going to do my Daily Markmaking and go to sleep. In case I haven't said it lately, thanks for visiting and especially for taking the time to leave comments - I really appreciate the contact.

~~~~~

november notes

I recently remembered that grilled cheese sandwiches exist.

This was a happy thing, because I'm hitting a lot of obstacles to task completion lately, and am not feeling much satisfaction in "jobs well done."

Because they are not done.

My biggest achievement in the past few days:

grilled cheese sandwiches.

Organic butter, bread, sharp cheddar.

One of my old Pyrex skillets -

the little ones that are just right for this job.

And in a very few minutes:

So. Good.

~~~

This is Piper during our Sanity Break in the woods yesterday.

I am sitting on my "sketching cushion" a few feet away.

Sneaky Ms. Piper crept up near me and stood very still.

She really believes I cannot see her.

Maybe I can't see you, Piper,

but I definitely know where your jacket is!

Piper still turns away from the camera when she sees it,

but I managed to get this hug-and-click shot.

Sneaky tactics!

I learn so much from my dog ;)

~~~

Tsuga and her babies (who are almost 7 months old, can you believe it?) have been spending sunny afternoons browsing the Lower West Side. The rest of the herd is enjoying the remains of the terrace vegetable garden, since the fences came down on Monday. So, in fairness, I had to find a special treat for Tsuga, Tansy and Fern. The little LWS paddock between the road and the driveway is full of leaves and even a little greenery. They've been very busy.

Very, very busy.

I love these colors:

If the cashmere grew in the same color as the topcoat,

Tsuga and her girls would be a perfect fiber palette for me.  

~~~

I hope your week is going well, your weather is kind, your tasks and projects are hurdle-free. And I hope you can take time for things that make you feel productive, in an environment that nurtures you.

Adding a few rows in the Knitting Room.

~~~~~

flowers and food

Blooming!

Just one clump of flowers survived the bank-clearing operation.

I pointed out the young leaves to the man with the brushcutter, and asked him to cut around them. He nodded. Then as he got closer to them, I pointed out the leaves again. He looked at them closely. I agreed that yes, it would be very easy to confuse these plants with the wretched bittersweet growing right next to and all around it, but that it was very important to try. He did a good job, and the buds are becoming blossoms. I am so happy to see them!

And I'm not the only one.

I don't know the name of this flower, but it was growing here when I bought the place.

It has thrived and spread and made me happy every year since.

I was thrilled to see a few stems bravely poking up this Spring!

It would have been very sad if it had been completely lost to the snowplow.

Soon the survivors should be moved a bit farther from the driveway.

Maybe sometime this Autumn? 

If anyone knows what the plant is, and if digging it up is a good idea,

please speak up in the comments!

I'd appreciate it very much.

~~~

Coconut custard pie, hot from the oven...
this is what happens when I think about not eating sugar.

Earlier this evening I started writing a wandering ponder about food and health issues, and a couple of dietary programs I've been reading about. And I was hoping for your input, because I'm not sure I should (or could) do a strict elimination diet. But in the process of all that meandering, at one point I suddenly lost the entire page (hello again, new laptop!) and only later discovered that I has accidentally published it. So if anyone saw the page of fragmented goobledy-gook, I apologize for that frightening glimpse into the way my mind works. 

And now I'm starting over, with less meandering.

Briefly: I'm considering doing the "Whole30" program, which is a 30-day elimination and "whole food" diet, to see if changing the way I eat may help with some chronic pain issues. It's kind of a tough program, in the sense that I already have a simple diet, yet Whole30 eliminates a great deal of what I eat. Which I suppose is the point.

Whole30 was created by the authors of the book It Starts With Food, but there is no pressure to buy their book; the Whole30 program and online resources are free. It is set up to guide people along the 30-day process, and there is a forum where people post recipes and so on.

I can already see that following the diet would mean spending a LOT more time thinking about food, every day. Also, making at least a couple of trips to the "real" grocery store, an hour away. And getting in the kitchen and cooking daily instead of when I feel like cooking. And so on.

For the first time in my life, I can really understand the lure of healthfood/spa-type places, where people go to deliberately relinquish control of their own decisions. Because if all I had to do was wait for some lovely person to bring me platters of "compliant" food, I'd eat it and be (probably) pretty happy. Confession (although no surprise to those of you who have read some of my "recipe" posts): I am so lazy when it comes to food. I like to cook when I feel like cooking. I like to eat when I'm hungry. And I eat mostly good things, and mostly organic: vegetables, homemade kefir, juices, homegrown eggs, etc. I don't eat a lot of sweets or "junk" food...unless I start thinking about it. For example, a few weeks ago I had an encouraging conversation with some friends on ravelry who have had great success lowering their arthritis pain levels by totally eliminating sugar from their diets. And at that time I said, "I don't use much sugar, but maybe I should try eliminating it completely."

And whammo. I have been craving sweets ever since.

So...I'm a bit anxious about what might happen if I suddenly eliminate, among other things, all sugars, all shelled legumes, all grains, and - gulp - all dairy.

On the other hand, I feel like an awfully whiny and entitled wimp to even think how "hard" it would be to eat "only" the things on the very extensive and healthy-sounding list of acceptable foods.

But...one of the most rigorous eat-for-health people I know (also one of the fittest and happiest for all the years I've known her) told me she had done a strict elimination diet years ago. "It was really hard," she said. Then she frowned and shook her head. "It was really, really hard. Whew."

So...I feel that I'd be foolish not to explore this avenue, but I also feel some trepidation about it. If any of my lovely readers has experience, pro or con, with an elimination diet, I would love to hear about it!

~~~~~