Welcome to class.
First up, what is Bright Cooking? To sum it up and until school starts lets have it simply mean, eating smart and cooking often.
Now let’s start by asking ourselves, who is it that I’m bright cooking for? For most of us it’s ourselves. For a few others it’s our children. Then there are those of us that love to feed, we’ll invite a friend and offer them foods that gets them excited or a meal you know they need to feel cared for. Or we’ll send out an invite and posse deep. We hit up the markets, we splurge on ingredients, we use our last bit of cash as we yolo like Babette’s Feast. We buy items that push us to be better cooks like chestnuts and cardoons or the $80 large box from Natoora. We make introducing new ingredients part of our thing. To feed people is to become a better cook and a better person. If you don’t feel so confident in this area then this lesson today is especially for you.
Lesson 1
Walk the market, find the whole chestnuts, hazelnuts or other local nut in you area, the ones still in their shell. Buy one pound. Keep two or three nuts in your coat pocket at all times. Around this time of year squirrels are coming out of their little dens and running low of their stored nuts. On your walk find a squirrel, reach into your pocket and feed it one (one nut per squirrel). It may sound silly to have this as an assignment. And it may bring out anxiety about what people will think if they see you… but in doing so you’ve conquered your first lesson in Bright Cooking, the freeing feeling of feeding. The truth is we all feel odd about having people over and having them taste our creation. Its vulnerable until you see the happy face of your guest when you open the door and the delight when they smell the food or the nod of satisfaction when they take the first bite. It’s an act of love. Like the little squirrel, we are hesitant to approach. Like the squirrel we are happy we did. This assignment is also about connecting to nature, a big part of cooking bright, more on that soon.
When you get home from your walk consider getting back to the old world ritual of cracking nuts. Mastering the right amount of pressure so the nuts come out fully intact takes skill and repetition. Interactive foods always provide a lovely way for people to sink in and relax. No nut cracker? Consider using your handheld juice press, the yellow ones that most of us have. Maybe a tortilla press? A mortar and pestle works but most always crushes them too much.
Nuts are a fall crop and store well through the year. In the autumn we’ll revisit nuts, we’ll have a lot to cover. For now let’s use up the remaining pound of nuts we bought or clean out our pantries of some of the ones we’ve stored. Nuts should be eaten within the year of their harvest. Their high fat content makes them especially volatile and go rancid very fast, use them within 30 days of opening them. I store mine in the fridge. This is not to say throw out all your nuts. But if they’ve remained with you and opened for over a year, you may wanna walk back out and find some more squirrels. If they smell rancid, compost them.
**Extra Credit**
A Recipe:
I love love love Alice Waters’ recipe for Slow Roasted Nuts in Sage in her book, My Pantry. The nuts roast slow and low, they infuse with the flavor and aroma of the sage and the sage is left crispy, like a chip. Every time I make them as table gear people obsess over them. Make some, then share them with a human. Feeding can be as simple as gifting something you made. Start your feeding practice today!
A Post:
You may be inclined to take an image of your new way of chilling and chatting over cracking and snacking. A photograph of a hand cracking a nut tells a story and is timeless. My theory is that everyone loves being asked to have their picture taken, it makes them feel special. Except for older people, they don’t, they didn’t grow up with it. In my opinion they have the best hands, they would be a good choice for this assignment.
Feed A Chef:
I say this often, the curse of a chef is that we rarely get invited to dinner parties.
As we countdown to the first day of school, I'm starting to take students now. While we wait for everyone to make their way to class, I'll be sending out notes and small lessons to prepare you. School starts June 25, 2024.
Preorder the ‘textbook’, Bright Cooking: Recipes For The Modern Palate.