The Two Posts that Almost Were…

In Which I Present Two Half-Developed Posts from 2018

Starting a new habit is hard, even when it’s something you’re passionate about. After many years of thinking about writing about food, 2018 was finally the year I actually started doing it. And it’s hard. And I’m not terribly good at it. I’m even worse about being consistent about it. But, upon reflection in the wee hours of this our new year, I find that I very much enjoy doing it. And I know that like anything else, the more time I spend writing and developing my thoughts about food, the easier it will become. So this year, 2019, will be the year that I really dive in and dedicate myself with purpose to the goal of transforming Rebellious Belly from an experimental project to one with a focused purpose(foreshadowing of a future post, I think).

But, before in with the new must come out with the old. In the interest of the archive, if for no other reason, here are two posts of which I didn’t quite make it to the end.

My Thanksgiving

(For as long as I’ve been a single mom, my kids have gone to their Dad’s Thanksgiving dinner on the day of the holiday. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, they’ve come out to my house, and we’ve celebrated together with our own favorites. This holiday has long been my f)

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. What could be better than a day spent cooking and eating delicious food that we only enjoy once a year? For as long as I’ve been a single mom, the kids have always gone to their Dad’s on the day of Thanksgiving, and to be honest, that was a sacrifice I was okay with, but only because I have always had them Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Seemed like a fair trade. The day after Thanksgiving became our traditional day to spend together, and for the most part, all of their favorite dishes would grace our table and provide leftovers for days.

When Eric still lived here with us, he and I would binge Netflix all day on Thanksgiving, and some years we would feast on Tofurkey, and some years we would make the 40 minute drive to the Town and Country in Gorham, New Hampshire, where we’d be the youngest couple in the dining room by a good thirty years, and I’d be so grateful that we would still have the next day of feasting with the kids to look forward to.

I have always been indifferent to having turkey on my Thanksgiving table. In fact, until an unexpected bounty at our local food pantry landed me with a turkey last year, I had never cooked an entire bird in my own kitchen, let alone a 15 pound behemoth I wasn’t entirely sure would even fit in my diminutive oven. Over the years, wanting to respect Eric’s commitment to meatless eating, I tried many different alternatives to the main poultry dish, including my most successful and impressive meal of a vegan lentil and vegetable loaf, served up Wellington style, wrapped in beautifully browned and crisp puff pastry.

And that’s the end. Unedited from the last time I worked on it, which was before this Thanksgiving. You can see a bit of the process there, as I worked through how to get into the post. Often, the beginning of a piece of writing is the hardest for me. Clearly, finishing a piece of writing has also proven difficult…

In Which I Work Toward Improvement…

This past Saturday was the first in several weeks for which nothing much was planned. Of course, there was a private flute lesson taught in the morning, but all that required was being upright and sufficiently caffeinated by 10am, and there was also the seemingly requisite daily drive to St Johnsbury. But other than those two things, the day was wide open. What a perfect day for cooking!

One cuisine my kids and I all appreciate is Asian food, whether it is Chinese, Thai, Indian. It is also a cuisine notoriously hard to master in the home kitchen, particularly for someone not raised with grannies and aunties around to learn from. Add in the extreme difficulty, if not impossibility, of acquiring the essential ingredients for the dishes and you’ve got the recipe for one intimidating feat for a novice cook.

Maybe about a year ago, I made my first attempt at an Asian Feast. On the menu was Korean Fried Cauliflower(inspired by a dish from our one and only meal at The Cheesecake Factory, of all places), Gyoza, and Scallion Pancakes. I remember having somewhat of a success with the Cauliflower, but I also remember dumpling filling that all but evaporated in the sad, flabby store-bought wrapper, and doughy, heavy, greasy Scallion Pancakes. I remember a distinct feeling of disappointment in my achievements of that day, explaining, perhaps, the twelve month span of time with no second attempt at an Asian Feast.

Until Saturday.

I felt it was important, this time, to work toward improving my technique with food I’d tried before. And so Saturday’s menu was almost identical to that of a year ago- Korean Fried Cauliflower with Spicy Sweet Chili Sauce, Chicken Sesame Potstickers, and Scallion Pancakes.

As ever, my biggest challenge lay in the timing of everything. Unlike the last attempt, I decided that I was not going to even try to get everything up at the same time. Why not prepare the Cauliflower first, as an appetizer to enjoy while continuing on with the rest of the meal?

KOREAN FRIED CAULIFLOWER with SPICY SWEET CHILI SAUCE

The first time I made this dish, I remember it being the one highlight of success of the entire meal, so of course I approached it this year with a little trepidation. What would it mean if my second try was not the victory it had been before? Well, it would probably just mean that making something twice does not a master make. The most intimidating part of this recipe, the only intimidating part, in fact, is the fried part. It should come as no shock to read that I am not really set-up for deep frying in my kitchen. If something was getting fried, it was being done in my one and only Dutch oven, on my camp-sized gas range, with a thermometer poking up. Old school all the way.

This recipe comes from Serious Eats, one of the food sciency projects of J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. When I see alcohol listed as an ingredient in a recipe, I usually immediately do a search for what I can use as a substitute. I am not a drinker of alcohol (not due to moral principles of any kind, but because my delicate Asian constitution does not tolerate it in any amount), so needing to buy an entire bottle of vodka for the cauliflower batter stuck in my craw a bit. But I know enough about batter making- theoretically, of course- to know that the vodka really would make a difference, so I put it on my shopping list. You can read all about Kenji’s reasoning behind vodka, but essentially, you’re replacing water with alcohol that will mostly burn off during frying, allowing the batter to be crisper and lighter.

The rest of the ingredients called for in the recipe are really straightforward, unless you live in the rural boondocks of the north, where gochujang is rarer than hen’s teeth. I went to all four- FOUR!- grocery stores that lie in my usual circuit of daily driving, and came up short each time. What is very mysterious is that I have a bottle of the stuff in my fridge, and I have no idea where it came from. Fortunately

Grr. I’d been off to such a great start, and the meal really did come off pretty well. I took some great pictures, and I don’t mind if I do post them here 🙂

Scallion Pancakes-