I might as well admit it, today was a write-off.
I got up, waved my husband off to work, ate my oatmeal and drank my tea. And then the morning completely fell apart. The afternoon too, for that matter. It’s all because of this cookbook; Cooking In The Moment by Andrea Reusing. I sat down with it at my desk with a mind to read, cogitate, ingest, write a review, and then get on with the rest of my long list of to-do’s for today. But I soon moved from desk to couch, and before I knew it I was curled up entirely engrossed in the tome and on my fourth cup of tea. And did I mention it was 3pm, and there was no review to speak off.
I knew Reusing’s recipes would be well-conceived, comprised of simple yet astutely well-paired and sometimes surprising ingredients (collard greens and shoyu soy sauce, watercress and black sesame, eggplant and walnuts, red grapefruit and blue cheese – who knew?), and certainly worth lingering over. After all Reusing, an award-winning chef and leader in the sustainable agricultural movement, is the owner of Lantern – an Asian fusion restaurant in Chapel Hill in North Carolina. What I didn’t know was that Reusing- a New York transplant- is also a wonderfully talented and engaging writer. A wordsmith who reels you in with thoughtful, lively tales that touch on every aspect of her culinary life – a culinary life that makes you want to pack up shop, wave goodbye to NYC and head down South, and doesn’t let you go until you’ve savored every tid bit of advice she proffers, and imbibed every vignette she paints.
Click on to read more about Cooking in the Moment, for some great photos, and for a recipe for Zucchini “Noodles” with Ricotta.
Cooking In The Moment takes us through a year in Reusing’s home kitchen. Though a chef, she leaves behind the intimidating and time-consuming fare of the restaurant world with remarkable ease, and instead offers recipes that are perfectly in tune with how everyday folk cook at home, or at least aspire to cook. In the introduction Reusing defines what she means by “cooking in the moment”. No doubt there are allusions to seasonality, but it really means focusing on one meal at a time, such as “an icy, spicy cucumber soup on an August night, a glass of tangerine juice on a frosty morning, or soft, braised short ribs with horseradish on a grey fall day.”
“Cooking and eating in the moment allows food in season to become a reason for celebration,” she writes.
Reusing’s recipes are appealing, inspiring yet always accessible. Her fried chicken had me wanting to get the cast iron skillet out right there and then at 11am. I’m hankering after weather cool enough to put her Hard Cider-Braised Pork Shoulder on the table, the same goes for her Macaroni with Beans, Roasted Pumpkin, and Ham Hocks, and the Juicy Satsuma Orange Cake. Reusing includes a recipe for a decadent Honey Frozen Custard. I ogled the photo than flippantly cast aside the recipe as I assumed an ice-cream maker would be required. But no, not only is there no need for cumbersome electrical equipment, there’s no actual cooking required, just extremely acheivable whipping and folding and freezing. And it calls for just 4 ingredients: heavy cream, eggs, salt and honey.
Indeed, almost all of Reusing’s ingredient lists are short – oftentimes suspiciously so. Very occasionally, she’ll trick you. She’ll include an ingredient like Chile Oil, or Ginger syrup, or Honeycomb Candy, and just as you are about to start the recipe you’ll realize that these so-called ingredients actually come with recipes themselves. That 20-minute-dinner, turns out to take an hour to prepare. But, for the most part, you’re left wondering whether the 5 quotidian ingredients in your shopping basket will yield the tasty, flavorful supper you’ve been yearning all day. They always do. And it’s because Reusing is not only adamantly tied to a diet of seasonal, local ingredients, but above all, she holds the utmost respect for the food she cooks with. She sources her chicken with the same meticulous attention to detail with which you and I seek out the perfect bathing suit. She gave up citrus out of season “holding back to enjoy it as compensation for winter.” She checks her tomato store daily in the height of the season to ensure she serves them at their peak, and in a manner that best suits their level of ripeness. In an essay on Tomato Maintenance, she writes of how during a morning inspection of her tomatoes at the restaurant she designated the ripe, juicy tomatoes for a salad, the dangerously ripe specimen for a spicy relish, firm cherry tomatoes for pickling to garnish a spicy vodka cocktail, and the super-ripe “uglies” for a rich tomato juice “that will spike kitchen beers at the end of service tonight.”
As we follow Reusing through her year her essays resemble diary entries, or even intimate blog posts, each dated with the day and season. Written in the first person and always in the present, they exude an immediacy that allows us to enjoy the moment with Reusing, or to learn with her, or to consider with her, or to recall with her the rich, and vivid vignettes of her childhood and of her grandmother and all the wonderful culinary wisdom she imparted to Reusing. But this isn’t just a book filled with memories and useless nostalgia. Reusing doesn’t shy away from telling us what’s what. She teaches us how to kill crabs, how to compost, and how to eat corn: “Corn belongs on the cob, and if you run into it elsewhere, there had better be a good reason.” She also pays tribute to the local farmers and producers who allow her the luxury of cooking in the moment. We are introduced to John and Cindy Soehner who grow the “sweetest, juiciest” corn at Eco Farm, and to Rob Bowers and Cheri Whitted who keep bees to pollinate their biodynamic farm and produce a heavenly melon blossom honey, and to Peter Holzman who cultivates shiitake mushrooms on mushroom logs in the Japanese tradition.
I wouldn’t want to short change you by delivering a cookbook review without actually cooking from it. So, in keeping with our summer squash theme this week, I made Zucchini “Noodles” with Ricotta from the Late Summer section of the book to go with a tasty organic chicken I spatchcocked (that’s flattened out after cutting out the back bone, in lay terms!) and roasted for dinner. Oh, and a confession. I was so enamored by some shiitake mushrooms I saw in the grocery store, that I couldn’t resist skipping back to the Late May section and taking inspiration from a recipe for Roasted Shiitake Mushrooms with Garlic Oil (oh dear Andrea, did I just fail you?). I omitted the garlic oil and instead sent my shiitakes into a hot oven drizzled in some truffle oil that I picked up on a recent trip to Tuscany. The zucchini “noodles” were really just long, paper-thin slivers that I’d used a sharp vegetable peeler to create with great effect – on Reusing’s recommendation. The dish was a complete success: a mix of tarragon, parsley and chives redolent of the very essence of summer itself added freshness, chopped ripe tomato delivered acidity and bite, while the ricotta brought along a rich creaminess and made for a tasty pink sauce once melded with the tomato. As for the roasted shiitake caps- they might have been out of season but they were still juicy, meaty and intensively flavored. This was the first time I’d ever roasted shiitakes, but I’ll certainly be adding this technique to my bag of culinary tricks.
Zucchini “Noodles” with Ricotta
From Cooking in the Moment by Andrea Reusing
Serves 2 as a light main course
2 small tomatoes, cored and cut into cubes
Kosher salt
3 medium zucchini
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
1 small fresh hot red chile, split in half lengthwise to expose the seeds
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
1 cup mixed fresh tender herbs such as basil, chives and/ or tarragon
3 tablespoons grated aged sheep’s-milk cheese
Season the tomatoes with a little salt. Slice the zucchini lengthwise into long paper-thin slices, using a mandoline or a sharp vegetable peeler.
In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over low heat and saute the garlic and chile until they are fragrant and softened but not browned, about 4 minutes. Season with a little salt. Add the zucchini, raise the heat to medium-high, and toss gently with tongs, seasoning very generously with salt and pepper. Continue to cook while tossing occasionally until the zucchini is sightly wilted and warmed through but still firm and not yet giving off very much liquid, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and toss for a moment, until they are hot and begin to give off a little liquid. Reduce the heat to low and add the ricotta and herbs, combining them with the zucchini and tomatoes to create a creamy, light pink sauce. Divide between two warm bowls, and serve topped with the grated sheep’s-milk cheese.