Further culinary adventures

[kaberett]

Last night my housemate of three years, C; the woozl; and I -- concluded that we should open a restaurant, and we should name it conFusion.

You're welcome.

We'll be here all week.

---

Independently, a few weeks ago I decided that if I ever write a cookbook, it will be titled Cook Until Done, because - well, because that's how I cook, to the great frustration of most people who've attempted to co-chef with me, or for anyone who's ever asked me for a recipe. "Chop up some onions..."

(Fun fact: my reliance on smell and hearing to cook occasionally collide with my autism-spectrum tendency to get overstimulated. In particular, if I'm boiling a kettle I stop being able to smell the spice mix in the frying pan unless I get my face less than 6 inches away and then concentrate. Yes, even though boiling water is approximately white noise. This is related to the thing where I stop being able to taste food in noisy environments, and probably also to the thing where I get cravings for textures about as frequently as I get cravings for particular tastes - hence my love of seaweed rice crackers &, in the other direction, of trifle and condensed milk.)

Warm couscous salad
... is something we've been eating a lot of this week. The quick and easy version goes like this:

Combine chopped dates, chopped pistachios (unsalted), halloumi (fried in a dry pan until as burnt as you like it) and couscous (already soaked). Stir. Eat. Takes about 10 minutes from start to serving.

It's very, very easy to dress up, though. For lunch yesterday we added parsley, tomato, spring onion and avocado. For dinner (several times!) last week, we roasted half a butternut squash and an onion with misc herbs and added those, too.

Walnuts can be substituted for the pistachios, and so can pine nuts or pretty much anything else of that ilk. Apricots would work slightly - but not hugely - differently to the dates; dried figs would probably be amazing. Bell pepper and cucumber would go. Raw fennel would go. Adding a tin of green lentils provides more interesting textures and more protein. You can fry the halloumi with garlic if you're that way inclined.

And so on, and so forth.

Cook until done.

Comments

[lnr]

I have to say this is roughly the way that I cook most things too! Baking is a bit different, as I'm not confident enough with that - though I did make filo pastry jam tarts that way at the weekend - but for savoury things I'm very much a one chopped thing, plus some that, a tin of the other, pinch of assorted seasonings, fry until browned then add the wet bits and simmer until done, serve with $starch. To the extent that sometimes naming a recipe is pretty much all there is to it, and half the ingredients are only implied.

[forthwritten]

I make a similar sort of thing. It's also nice if you change the grain - I found a mixture of giant couscous, couscous, quinoa and bulghar wheat was good although needs different cooking times (start off with the thing that needs longest cooking time, add other grains to the pot at appropriate intervals). Also good to add are roasted cherry tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, olives, mushrooms fried with garlic, puy lentils...

[hairyears]

Nom!