A New Way of Cooking

[jesse_the_k]

This from the NYTimes blogger Tara Parker-Pope "On Health"
http://nyti.ms/waTmsS

begin quote  [... snip ...] you will gain a new appreciation for the hidden potential of boiled food after reading the new book “An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace,” by the chef and food writer Tamar Adler. Placing a pot of water on a hot burner allows us to “do more good cooking than we know,” she writes.

Ms. Adler waits for a rapid boil and adds surprisingly large handfuls of salt, tasting until it’s reminiscent of ocean water. (People concerned about sodium can use less.) From that simple starting point, several meals can be created, from pasta adorned with gently cooked vegetables to a chicken, simmered and skimmed, cut up and served with a fresh salsa verde. The chicken leaves behind yet another flavorful dish: richly flavored broth, to be eaten hot with vegetables or added to other dishes the rest of the week.
 quote ends

My initial reaction is Horror! Horror! I want my veg as crisp and fresh as possible. On the other hand, when it comes to lasting a week and still being wholesome and tasty, a properly cooked veg has a much better chance than a raw one, especially midwinter when the raw veg have already travelled a continent to our tables.

Because this is the 21st century, the author has a site at
http://www.tamareadler.com/
and I think any of us who hope to make nutritious with less effort can learn something from skimming her book.

Comments

[anatsuno]

I have the same basic reaction, but I'm intrigued anyway, and I also know that boiling veg doesn't have to mean OVERboiling veg! when I want pasta w/ olive oil, garlic & broccoli, I put the broccoli in with the pasta in the boiling water, just long enough, and drain it all together. Handy, and quicker, and I still eat the veg crunchy! So, yeah.

<33

[oursin]

Personally I go for steaming with just a small amount of water for veggies, if I don't grill or roast them.

[adrian_turtle]

If you want lightly-cooked vegetables, and there are times when people might, there are some advantages to starting with frozen vegetables. The idea that there's something inadequate (let alone horrifying) about having a professional do the painful work of cutting up a cauliflower or squash, or washing kale, makes me a little queasy. Frozen vegetables may be less crisp than raw ones, but they generally contain more nutrients than raw vegetables that have been in the refrigerator for a few days and still look and feel "wholesome and tasty."

I know that for most people, this kind of vegetable prep work is only time consuming, not actively painful. I suspect there are relatively few people with so much spare time they can consider "only" time consuming to be an irrelevant triviality. Especially because this conversation started on the subject of women who didn't have time to shop for fresh produce every day. This kind of article still bothers me, because of how it seems to move the goalposts.