A four-year old's way of knowing
I've written in the past about synchronicities involving my four-year old son. My son is very perceptive in general and this weekend he has again blown me away--this time by inspiring me to continue learning to cook.
My husband is a great cook who can whip up a nutritious dinner out of nothing and I am a very insecure cook who has learned almost everything I know in the kitchen directly from him.
Every once in a while I will get into a cooking-kick--once when I checked out Anna Venturi's "Secrets from an Italian Kitchen" from the library, once when I began following recipes from Rick Bayless' "Everyday Mexican" and for several years using my husband's recipes. I've been taking a MOOC the last two or three weeks (Just Cook--Child Nutrition & Cooking) which has kicked me into action in the kitchen again.
On a coworker's suggestion, I checked out Aaron Sanchez's recipes, and printed off his recipe for Birria on Friday. My husband LOVES birria--it is basically meat in broth I suppose, but it is the food frequently eaten for big celebrations and/or on weekends in his town. For my first Christmas in Mexico, my husband got a goat and had birria prepared for the celebration. I've never attempted to cook it, and I don't think my husband has either. So when I saw the recipe, I figured I would surprise him.
On Friday night I spent hours preparing the soup--having fun and making a bit of a mess. There were a few things that seemed strange--the salsa ingredients included A LOT of onions, had the tomatoes "cored & quartered" BEFORE charring, and none of the veggies got very charred or even cooked after the recommended time under the broiler. The ancho chile in the ingredient list was not mentioned in the preparation instructions and there didn't seem to be a sufficient number of guajillos to make a "deep-red stew" as described by Sanchez. And what's more, the recipe made an overwhelming amount of Chile Colorado salsa--far more than I can use before it goes bad. But I tried to follow the instructions as written, thinking that it would all come together in the end.
By 11 PM it was done and I unveiled the soup, but the reception I got was not at all what I had expected. My husband turned his nose up at it. First, it didn't look like birria to him. There was too much water and who had ever heard of tomatillos in birria? "Where is this Sanchez guy from?" he asked. He's from Agua Prieta, right on the border, but grew up in the US. The soup had two kinds of meat--beef stew meat and pork ribs. And my husband was highly skeptical--he'd never heard of anyone putting PORK in birria. He eventually ate some of the beef and said the meat was good, but wouldn't touch the soup itself.
But my son, who rarely eats anything I cook, and always takes his cues from my husband about what is good, decided to eat the beef. "Yum, this is sooo good--can you cook this again for me mama?" I couldn't believe it--was this really my son talking? After that, I didn't feel so bad. And, even though my husband didn't like the soup, I thought it tasted fine. Maybe it wasn't birria, but it was still pretty good--besides all the onions and chunks of garlic floating around in it.
Now this is usually how my cooking kicks end. I give up after a marathon cooking session which ends in disappointment. But this time, bolstered by my son's praise, I pushed through. I woke up this morning, feeling a bit down and cranky about food. I wandered around trying to decide what to do with myself and decided to scrub all my pots and pans and start a load of dishes--erase all the negativity I felt about the failed birria. When my son went in to wash his hands he said "Wow, the kitchen looks so nice and clean!" Again, my son was pushing me back to feeling better.
We finished the meat from the birria for lunch. For dinner, I went back to the basic stir fry recipe I learned in my MOOC: garlic and onion sauteed until aromatic + whatever veggies you have on hand, stir, pour in soy sauce and oyster or plum sauce, serve. Easy, quick, creative, healthy, and fun. I enjoyed it so much that I made it twice today.
My husband is a great cook who can whip up a nutritious dinner out of nothing and I am a very insecure cook who has learned almost everything I know in the kitchen directly from him.
Every once in a while I will get into a cooking-kick--once when I checked out Anna Venturi's "Secrets from an Italian Kitchen" from the library, once when I began following recipes from Rick Bayless' "Everyday Mexican" and for several years using my husband's recipes. I've been taking a MOOC the last two or three weeks (Just Cook--Child Nutrition & Cooking) which has kicked me into action in the kitchen again.
On a coworker's suggestion, I checked out Aaron Sanchez's recipes, and printed off his recipe for Birria on Friday. My husband LOVES birria--it is basically meat in broth I suppose, but it is the food frequently eaten for big celebrations and/or on weekends in his town. For my first Christmas in Mexico, my husband got a goat and had birria prepared for the celebration. I've never attempted to cook it, and I don't think my husband has either. So when I saw the recipe, I figured I would surprise him.
On Friday night I spent hours preparing the soup--having fun and making a bit of a mess. There were a few things that seemed strange--the salsa ingredients included A LOT of onions, had the tomatoes "cored & quartered" BEFORE charring, and none of the veggies got very charred or even cooked after the recommended time under the broiler. The ancho chile in the ingredient list was not mentioned in the preparation instructions and there didn't seem to be a sufficient number of guajillos to make a "deep-red stew" as described by Sanchez. And what's more, the recipe made an overwhelming amount of Chile Colorado salsa--far more than I can use before it goes bad. But I tried to follow the instructions as written, thinking that it would all come together in the end.
By 11 PM it was done and I unveiled the soup, but the reception I got was not at all what I had expected. My husband turned his nose up at it. First, it didn't look like birria to him. There was too much water and who had ever heard of tomatillos in birria? "Where is this Sanchez guy from?" he asked. He's from Agua Prieta, right on the border, but grew up in the US. The soup had two kinds of meat--beef stew meat and pork ribs. And my husband was highly skeptical--he'd never heard of anyone putting PORK in birria. He eventually ate some of the beef and said the meat was good, but wouldn't touch the soup itself.
But my son, who rarely eats anything I cook, and always takes his cues from my husband about what is good, decided to eat the beef. "Yum, this is sooo good--can you cook this again for me mama?" I couldn't believe it--was this really my son talking? After that, I didn't feel so bad. And, even though my husband didn't like the soup, I thought it tasted fine. Maybe it wasn't birria, but it was still pretty good--besides all the onions and chunks of garlic floating around in it.
Now this is usually how my cooking kicks end. I give up after a marathon cooking session which ends in disappointment. But this time, bolstered by my son's praise, I pushed through. I woke up this morning, feeling a bit down and cranky about food. I wandered around trying to decide what to do with myself and decided to scrub all my pots and pans and start a load of dishes--erase all the negativity I felt about the failed birria. When my son went in to wash his hands he said "Wow, the kitchen looks so nice and clean!" Again, my son was pushing me back to feeling better.
We finished the meat from the birria for lunch. For dinner, I went back to the basic stir fry recipe I learned in my MOOC: garlic and onion sauteed until aromatic + whatever veggies you have on hand, stir, pour in soy sauce and oyster or plum sauce, serve. Easy, quick, creative, healthy, and fun. I enjoyed it so much that I made it twice today.
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