On my journey to Brighton Beach, I bought a jar of pekmez. Pekmez is a molasses made from fruit must, usually grapes. I tried it instead of brown sugar in a bowl of oatmeal. Less viscous than ordinary molasses, it tastes mild, fruity, like a dark corn syrup. Perfect for a special July 4th barbecue sauce. I sautéed pork chops and dressed them with the sauce. We ate spinach and baked potatoes and coconut popsicles, too. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Sauce
Fusilli with Crab
My ability to cook with a recipe has degenerated. I shy away from unfamiliar techniques and ingredients and avoid my cookbook collection with anxious distrust. As an immediate consequence of this aversion, I constantly cook within my comfort zone. Although my refusal to play by the book also forecloses opportunities for personal growth, I now conceptualize and execute imagined dishes with ease. And, in fact, my first stirrings of imagination emerged from my distaste for written instructions. When leaving unwieldy schematics behind, the mind glimpses a world previously hidden: the potential to create whatever the tongue desires. This potentiality appears as a seething mass of unintelligible stocks and sauces and viands, all whirling in an infinitely deep pool of possibility. Last Thursday, I wanted pasta with crab, a tingling tomato sauce, insalata caprese. So I made it.
Filed under Recipes, Theory and Criticism
