Kitchen Fear

"If there’s one thing I could never confess, it’s that I can’t dance a single step.“

Here’s the thing: I can’t really cook. Sure, give me a pot of sugar and I can create all sorts of different sweets, but I find proper cooking incredibly intimidating. Normally, this is hidden by virtue by me being alone in the kitchen and not really trying much out of my small comfort zone. But here, that’s not really an option, and I’ve shied away from the kitchen a bit as a result.

(helping Stacie the other day was a slight help, though faced with a peeler, I almost gave up right at the start. However, after ten minutes of flailing, I reversed the direction to compensate for my left hand - one beet at least was peeled without too much awkwardness)

I think what I like about confectionery and chocolatiering is that there’s so much that’s pretty exact. You can be off by a degree or so or a few grams here and there, but there’s temperature curves, times, and precise weights to go by. Heating a pan of sugar to 175˚C, pouring in cream held at a temperature of 60˚C, and bringing the mixture to 125˚C before slabbing describes things enough that I don’t have a problem with it, in total opposition to ‘fry until golden brown.’ Is it your golden brown, or mine? What if I’m not a great judge of colour?

Unfortunately, Shy Kitchen Syndrome cannot be allowed to continue, as although eating out is cheaper here in America, it’s not really affordable when you’re unemployed. And I do have some pasta ideas from Ideas In Food to try out. And I really, really, really want to make the McGee/Chang ramen as featured in the first issue of Lucky Peach. I should have bought the pasta maker instead of the gumball machine, obviously.