tasting cabbage salad
What does it mean to follow your culinary curiosity?Follow an intuition, take a recipe apart, put it back together, follow a longing to know how... to bake bread, brew beer or... ?
The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled. ―Plutarch 
|
Love is three quarters curiosity.
Giacomo Casanova 
Curious PostsA Riff on Boston Baked Beans
Posted June 2, 2016 I’m a culinary teacher by trade, and my specialty is International Traditional Foodways, so I’ve no shortage of ideas. My bookcases hold my 300 ish, dearly beloved cookbooks from all over the world. I mix and match day by day: Indian one day, Greece, Italy, Guatemala, Cuba, Georgian Republic...I’m having lots of fun. Today’s beans are a riff on Boston Baked Beans--USA although I detect some French.... Tags: international cuisine, beans, dinner, United States, vegetarian Spiced Clarified Butter/ Ghee Made in the Oven Posted June 9, 2016 Liquid Gold, take some time to smell and taste, and luxuriate in this butter paradise. Use to sauté, make popcorn, drizzled over everything, make sauces.... You will want to keep this beauty around. Tags: Spices, Indian Cuisine, Butter, Basics Cheese & Herb Barley Bannocks Posted July 7, 2016 A flat round loaf, similar to a scone/ The triangular cuts are called farls/ Traditionally cooked on the griddle, but the oven is a more reliable approach/ Overnight fermentation makes for a great taste/ The Bannock is native to Scotland/ Good with tea, soup, ale or breakfast. Tags: British Isles Breads, tea bread, breakfast, bread, wheat free, barley, fermentation, water kefir baking |
Cooking An life giving engagement Cooking means engaging in an ongoing creative process, following unknown paths down backstreets, and into the foreign kitchens of my imagination. It means to always be between a win and a lose, to have productive failures; to learn something from my flops, and then start over and try again.
Rolling out dough for calzones
Cooking is a Democratic Maker's Space It’s a sharing world, a reaching out, a search that will never have a bottom, because food is too vast a subject. It’s a way to travel without leaving home. It’s a democratic maker’s space, anyone can join in, at any time, and at any level.
Tasting
Play with your food Culinary Curiosity Thursday is a record of some of my wanderings, but more I hope an encouragement for you to wander playful and full questions.
Curiosity Thursday PostsWhat is a pikelet a piglet without the pooh? No!
Posted June 16, 2016 A Pancake is a Drop Scone in the British Isles, but in Australia and New Zealand it’s a Pikelet. But a Pikelet in the U.K. is a regional Crumpet, a Crumpet free of its ring, a free form Crumpet, looks like a Pancake, but leavened with yeast. Tags: Gluten free, Buckwheat, Breakfast, British Isles Baking Bara Brith a Welsh Bread Worth Knowing: Levain Rye & Oat Posted June 30, 2016 Bara Brith is particularly dear to me, and not just because it alliterates so nicely. At camp we marched around singing “Bara Brith and Barley Bannocks”. Tags: British Isles breads, tea breads, breakfast, sourdough, levain, wheat free, alternative flours, rye, oat, bread Key in Culinary Curiosity for the complete list |
Culinary curiosity is playful It wonders what if? It’s full of experimentation; trial and error. Can I make a millet chocolate cake? Why does hulless barley need to be soaked overnight? How do the Italians make a flatbreads out of just chickpeas? What, Why, When, Where, How and Who?
Deciding on bagel toppings
It’s living in the food questions more than
the ‘right’ food answers. It's a creative process Culinary curiosity is what excites me about cooking, much more than the finished dishes. It’s how I got from here to there,
and what was learned along the way. 
rolling tamales
Look for Future Culinary Curiosity Here
|