Two Peas One Pod

Go Mark Bittman!

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/gifts-for-non-cooks/?ref=opinion

“Cooking gives you control over what you put into your body and it’s cheaper than eating out or taking in. Food you make yourself tastes better, and it’s better for the environment, for your body, for your family. It’s just plain better.”

From the article:

“Big Gifts. These are free, or not, but require a real time commitment.

• A cooking lesson — from you: A truly generous gift. Cooking with someone who spends little or no time in the kitchen is fun and, as teachers know, a learning experience for you, too. (It’s also nice to feel like an expert.) Can you teach someone to cook two dishes you know they like? How wonderful!

• A shopping lesson: For some, shopping is more intimidating than cooking; it’s often more time-consuming as well. Efficiency can be taught and learned, however, and cooking becomes more manageable if you can shop smart. Take a non-cook for a spin around the supermarket (or farmers’ market) and show them how you shop; what your pantry and fridge staples are; what you buy to supplement the basics. Discuss what you plan on doing with all that stuff when you get home.

• Both: Plan a meal; take your non-cook friend to the market; go back home and help cook it. Leave your friend with more food than he or she needs, and leftovers as well. I’ve done this, and it generates the warm, fuzzy thing. Better still, sometimes just seeing it done is enough to put people on the cooking path.

Gift Packs. These cost money; with a good knife, up to around $75 for the first two; the second two are considerably cheaper. The last: up to you.

• Roast chicken pack: A roasting pan, tongs, chef’s knife, instant-read thermometer, butter or oil, rosemary, a whole chicken and a recipe. (You might as well throw in some root vegetables.) A whole bird is a daunting task for a non-cook, but all it really takes to cook is turning on the oven — carving is by far the hardest part. There’s not a lot that’s better than a roast chicken, and if that crisp, buttery skin and juicy meat doesn’t turn a (non-vegetarian) non-cook on to the simple and significant pleasures of cooking, I don’t know what would.

• Stir-fry pack: A wok, spoon, cutting board, chef’s knife, paring knife or vegetable peeler, and the ingredients for a basic stir-fry recipe: If you can cook one stir-fry, you can cook a million. Stir-frying is fast, doesn’t involve a lot of cleanup, and is a simple, appealing concept for beginners.

• Pasta with Butter, Sage and Parmesan Pack: A large pot, colander, microplane, pound of spaghetti, butter, sage, a chunk of Parmesan and a recipe. If I were a cooking missionary, this might be my bible. (A chunk of Parmesan is a great gift in itself.)

• Rice and Beans Pack: A pot with a lid, wooden spoon, rice, dried beans, maybe a chunk of ham or bacon, some spices and a recipe. If you can cook rice you can cook any grain; if you can cook beans as well, you can eat healthily and dirt cheap for the rest of your life. Tremendous gift, no?

• The One-Week Pack: A week’s worth of groceries and a recipe plan for what to do with them is a super-generous gift for somebody who is used to following recipes but doesn’t make a habit of it.

Equipment. Varies in price; most people have a few pots and pans lying around, but if they don’t you might start with a 10- or 12-inch cast-iron or nonstick skillet and a pot big enough for pasta.

• Beyond that. 8- to 10-inch chef’s knife, paring knife, serrated knife:With these three knives you can chop, slice, dice, mince, trim or carve just about anything.

• Plastic cutting board with rubber grips: Nice because they don’t slide around the counter and can go in the dishwasher.

• Vegetable peeler: I like the u-shaped ones, especially the ceramic kind, which are blinding fast. A stocking stuffer?

• Food processor: Not cheap, and not for beginners. But a tool that makes shredding vegetables, chopping meat, making sauces and dips, forming any kind of dough, blending sorbet and a dozen other tasks dead easy.

• Slow cooker: People who don’t cook often say it’s because they don’t have enough time. O.K. Load the slow cooker in the morning and it’ll cook dinner for you.

Some random ideas. Obviously, you can take this in any direction you want, but some thoughts about other gifts:

• A bottle of good olive oil: Slicing a ripe tomato, toasting a piece of good bread, washing some romaine and drizzling any of that with olive oil is, in my book, more like “cooking” than microwaving a pizza. And not only are they delicious, they might lead to better things.

• A spice assortment: I’m reluctant to add this, since these kinds of things decorate the kitchens of many non-cooks. But real cooks use spices.

• Your favorite cookbook: Many cooks have books (or, these days, apps) that inspired them to get into the kitchen. Pass that inspiration along.

• A CSA membership: Community Supported Agriculture programs not only provide local produce, meat and dairy, they strengthen local farmers and food systems, which thankfully appears to be something that more people — experienced, novice and non-cooks alike — are getting into.”