CoronaCooking

It is getting onto six months since I blogged about the Coronavirus pandemic we are experiencing and nothing fundamental has changed in my perspective or experience as described there. Restrictions have waned and waxed and my ways of coping have been refined but today I shall just focus on one small aspect of this life - cooking.

Suddenly I was home a lot to try new things (or variations on old things). I got into one-pot meals in a big way. It takes longer than using pot and pan but it somewhat reduces dish-washing and I do plenty of that thanks. Somehow it never occured to me that one can slowly reduce the water pasta cooks in and add other ingredients till one has a sloppy pasta sauce (rather than use a strainer). I made Pasta Primavera in this way.

The more water the more something can be called a soup and sometimes I never bother with reduction. A lot of my soups start with a short-cut - using a sachet of cuppa-soup as the 'stock' for a proper soup. That gives it a flavour boost to which I then add things like celery, carrot and corn. And one time I made a sauce from mushroom cuppa-soup (just add less water than usual) to pour over a mixed plate of food.

By 'mixed plates' I mean the traditional thing of having a few different cooked items on the same plate. As a kid I had an aversion to 'meat and three veg' and so have spent most of my adult life cooking pasta sauces and stir-fries. But finally I've been having things like grilled baramundi fillets with potato gems and tabbouleh. At other times I'll have a mix of cold items but I guess that's just an indoor picnic for one.

I'm much more of a sandwich-maker now. Slopping spreads on bread got boring quickly so I moved onto things like toasted linseed buns with grilled bacon, avocado, roquette and chilli mayonaise. Such dishes can be done in so many combinations to keep things interesting. The grilling of ingredients takes a bit of time but I have plenty to spare.

Now and then, I took this 'all the time in the world' attitude to extremes. I had a tin of mixed beans but felt that the chickpeas in it were the 'odd ingredient out'. So I removed each and every one of them and then made them into hummus. I soaked the chickpeas overnight in spicy water then cooked both together the next day. I lacked sesame seeds for the tahini component so instead doused sunflower seeds in sesame oil. Both these were turned to a grainy paste by mortar and pestle and then mixed with minced garlic, lemon juice and a dash of honey. It made sufficient hummus to have with one packet of corn chips - a lot of energy and preparation for just one snack but, what they heck.

It has been fun but, every week or so, I just get sick of my own cooking so have been exploring different microwave meals and takeaway food. I also make sure to have something a bit indulgent for those nights I 'attend' some online event. Oh, and on a whim I bought a pot of parsley, with which I can garish some of my creations. It also keeps me company on the sunlit porch while I sit and read. We need all the company we can get right now, whether it be animal, vegetable or mineral. I'm managing alright but damn, it will be nice to once more cook with friends or eat out.