parallel or together

spring motivation, recurring faves, and fancy dinner for one

I don’t really consider myself someone who’s affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder. I’ve lived nearly my entire life at this latitude, and my ancestry comes almost entirely from the UK: I feel adequately conditioned to be used to the rain, the long nights in winter, the grey days. I accept my winter lethargy as the price I pay for January temperatures that only occasionally drop below zero, for 10pm sunsets in June. But I can’t deny that the first really nice weekend of spring never fails to feel like an awakening, a remembrance of a version of myself that wants to go outside and start new projects (and actually finish them) and socialize.

Even though I talk to people every day, there are moments, like the changes in season or surrounding certain events, when I just feel so much more connected to humanity. Sometimes you just see a little piece of evidence of other people’s lives— like a dog leaving its owner’s side to go and excitedly visit a patio table of women clearly having a bachelorette party— or the kind of everyday beauty we might forget to appreciate— like the pastel reflection of a sunset in the windows of an office building— and have to embrace the corny feeling that we’re all in this wonderful, terrible world together.

did this UHaul sign make me feel some type of way? Yes.

Jeff and I got distracted accomplishing errands and household tasks last Saturday, and went to Wildeye once we realised it was almost 6pm and we hadn’t even considered dinner. I really need to stop ordering IPAs there because I’m always disappointed, but the sours and lagers remain very good. They’ve expanded their food menu a lot since they first opened, and I really enjoyed the kimchi hot dog I had. Jeff found the Reuben a little small for the price. We both agreed that the kale caesar on the side was the best part, though, and next time we’ll probably go for the nachos our server enthusiastically recommended.

On Sunday, Jesse and Krystyna had made efforts to get some of us together at Tinhouse Brewing in PoCo, where the Veg Out vegan food truck was going to be parked for the day. I’d never been to this brewery before, and when I looked it up on the map my brain’s first response was ‘ok, so kinda behind the Costco’ which didn’t seem like that great of an atmosphere, but it’s actually facing the bike path that runs along the Pitt River, which is much nicer. From the food truck, I got the classic burger which was sloppy and delicious and the sauce reminded me of a Big Mac, an old guilty pleasure I haven’t had in years. And I was in the mood for a pretty regular-ass beer, so I got the Handyman pale ale and loved it. Jeff got a flight and I enjoyed the sips I tried of the peach sour and the hazy IPA, too.

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With longer daylight hours and better weather my motivation to do literally anything also increases, so I’ve spending more time in the kitchen. Though that could also have to do with the fact that I no longer have to pull sauces out of liquor store boxes in order to use them. And still, there are other challenges in getting used to cooking and prepping food in a new space— I’m frequently charring things I didn’t mean to char because the pans get so much hotter on an induction stove, and our old basement suite was so humid I never had to worry about the brown sugar turning into a brick like I discovered mine was the other day, and I haven’t really found a good place to keep our supply of empty mason jars or my bin full of chips and crackers— but these aren’t enough to kill the spirit of wanting to keep my space nice, make good food, and get creative.

I baked something for what I’m pretty sure is the first time in this apartment. I was craving my mom’s brownies, because I’d bought some of those two-bite brownies from the grocery store recently and they weren’t as good as I remembered them being. Unfortunately the brownies I made weren’t as good as I wanted them to be, either, because I only had semi-sweet chocolate instead of unsweetened. This means the brownies had more sugar and less fat, and if I weren’t trying to do other things at the same time I probably could have adjusted some measurements to make them better. Instead I overcompensated with chocolate chips mixed in, and toffee crumble on top, simply accepting that they would come out less fudgy and rich, with a texture that isn’t as nice. But the recipe is solid and I look forward to making it again, properly next time.

I had a craving for dal makhani, and made some in the instant pot. It’s a lot of spices, but if I get everything out of the cupboards before I’m ready to start, then the rest of the process goes pretty quickly. I haven’t found a recipe that’s quite perfectly the way I want it, so I’m sort of combining elements of this one and this one until I get right (when I do, I’ll be sure to write out what I did so I can share it with you). Basically I’m just melting a bunch of ghee, toasting some whole and ground spices in it after frying onion, garlic, and ginger, and then adding broth and whole urad dal to pressure cook. I used all lentils and no kidney beans here because I almost never remember to soak them, and the lentils will be cooked in 30 minutes without soaking, whereas kidney beans need about 45. At the end, yogurt or cream and some cilantro will finish it off. If the dal thickens up too much in the fridge to eat it with basmati rice as leftovers, it also makes a good soup heated up with a bit of extra broth.

The past few weeks Jeff’s been the manager on duty at one of the restaurant’s locations for the dinner rush, so I’ve been making dinner for just myself. This week, instead of doing what I usually do and cobbling something easy together, or making something he wouldn’t be able to eat (read: lots of cheese), I took the time to make something really nice that also used up a bunch of ingredients that I could see the clock ticking on. A bunch of thyme drying out in the fridge drawer went into a salty, garlicky marinade for some baked tofu, some forgotten nugget potatoes boiled to make smashed potatoes, some softening tomatoes grated into pulp for tomato vinaigrette.

You don’t really need a recipe to make smashed potatoes, but there’s a decent guide here. After brushing them with olive oil, I sprinkled them with garlic salt, which had coalesced into a small meteorite in the container, but was recently returned to its former state with the mortar and pestle. And I used the flat side of a meat mallet to smash them, because that thing almost never sees use for its intended purpose, and it’s so much fun. I was cooking these on the same baking sheet as my tofu, which only needs 30 minutes in the oven, and I decided the potatoes were done then, too, though I wouldn’t have minded if they’d gotten a little crispier at the edges.

While those were in the oven, I made the salad dressing. This is one of my favourites from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, (the recipe here is for a double batch) and I make it a lot when tomatoes are in season. It’s so flavourful and versatile. The salad was just Persian cucumber and red leaf lettuce, but the dressing is the star anyway, and I drizzled some over the potatoes and tofu, too. We’d opened a bottle of sparkling rosé the previous night, and the last glass of it was a perfect match. I’ve also been enjoying the leftover smashed potatoes for breakfast, reheated in a cast iron while I fry an egg, and then I drizzle chili crisp or chili miso over everything.

I’ve been revisiting a bunch of old standby dishes lately, like this greens and caramelized onion pasta with breadcrumbs, which I made often in the first year of the pandemic. This is a thing I’m a lot more excited to make now that I don’t have to start cooking the onions so much earlier than I want to eat, but I will say that if you cook your onions for 15-20 minutes at medium-high, they will likely be crisped, not caramelized. Cook them slightly longer at medium-low instead. The anchovies in the butter used to toast the breadcrumbs add a particular umami that I love, but I think some Bragg’s or miso added to the butter, or chopped salt-cured olives added to the pasta along with the greens, would work decently for a vegetarian version.

When Jeff was visiting his dad earlier this month, he was sent home with gifts, including noodles and sauces from Momofuku, which Joanne (his dad’s partner) was raving about. Since then Jeff has been periodically saying, “We need to make ramen soon,” as if we don’t make ramen at least once a month. Anyway, I made the usual broth from this recipe, with no tofu since I’d used it all up earlier in the week, adding some marinated quail eggs I got in my Christmas gift box of Asian snacks and treats from Cory and Michelle. I prefer the runny yolk from a regular soft-boiled egg, but these are really tasty and kind of fun to eat because they’re so small. We used some of the chili crisp Joanne gave us in the broth and on top, and while I haven’t looked into the sourcing to decide if it’s so much better than other brands that it warrants the high price tag, it is very good and I’ll be sad when it’s gone. And we still have the hot honey one to try, too.

Here are my tips for timing this recipe in order to get it ready quickly, since the recipe doesn’t account for boiling eggs (ramen needs an egg in my opinion), and some of the other steps are ones I skip. Boil a pot of water while heating the pan for the tofu. If you’re cooking eggs, boil them as the tofu is cooking, and fish them out with a slotted spoon to keep the water for cooking the noodles. It’s ok if they’re done early, just separate them into the serving bowls so they don’t stick together while you’re still cooking. Warm the broth and assemble the soup base while the mushrooms cook. Whisk the milk and soup base into the broth, making sure it’s warm enough that the noodles won’t cool it down again, and heat the corn in the frying pan during this time. Also, if sesame paste isn’t something you keep around, you can use peanut butter for a different but equally delicious broth (just be sure to check if it has added sugar or salt, and adjust your sugar and soy sauce accordingly if needed).

I don’t always have the energy or ingredients to make the full recipe with its beautifully crispy fried scallions, but the gochujang glaze makes appearances often in my kitchen. Sometimes with eggplant, as in the original recipe, but it’s excellent with other vegetables, as well as tofu. I often double the amount here so I can glaze more things with it. This week, I cooked an Italian eggplant in the glaze and served it with rice, some leftovers of the marinated tofu (it wasn’t a perfect match flavour-wise, but I wasn’t mad about it either), quick pickled cucumber, and dry roasted peanuts. I love adding something cool like the quick pickles to this spicy-sweet sauce, and for a soft vegetable like eggplant it’s always nice to have something good and crunchy— in the original recipe this role is filled by the fried onions, but the peanuts are a nice quick fill-in.

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Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so any donations, especially while I’m still looking for work, are greatly appreciated. Finally, I’m sorry I didn’t write last week and therefore missed the Ides of March, when this would have been more appropriate to share, but I’m making you look at it anyway.