Mindful cooking

I want to discuss mindful cooking with you in this post. It's a concept which has been rolling around in my head for awhile. What does it mean to be mindful in general? Does your attitude and state of mind even matter in the kitchen? And if so, how does one become a more mindful cook?

Most of the time, cooking is a chore. It's a necessary evil, done at the end of the day when you're exhausted and irritated. I admit that I fall into that rut as well. I much prefer to cook on my terms, when I feel like it. The problem is, when you approach any task with a bad attitude, that attitude shows in the end results. I've eaten food prepared by people who hate what they do and I could tell. I've made food for people when I've been in a bad way emotionally and they could tell. Currently, the dishes I make for family and friends are consistently praised as delicious because I love cooking for people I love and it shows. The ultimate goal in cooking should be to make the absolute best dish every time regardless of ingredient variations, different cooking environments, distractions, and lack of spices.  A good cook, a mindful cook, can improvise and think on their feet.

Some time ago, I made a pot of beef stew and my friend asked me (as she was eating her second bowl) what recipe I used.  Kind of taken aback, I said, “Well, I don’t have a recipe, I just know how to make it”, which I think astounded her.  Her husband a few days later asked me how long I cooked pasta and my knee jerk response was “until it’s done”, which I said in a much more diplomatic way—I think I said that I used the cooking time on the package as a guideline but I always checked it before draining so it was al dente.  After thinking about both interactions for a little while, I decided that the majority of people don’t know how ingredients go together or what flavors complement one another so they have to follow a recipe each and every time they make a dish. 

So, what does it mean to be a mindful cook? Miriam-Webster defines "mindful" as "bearing (or keeping) in mind" or "inclined to be aware". So, being a mindful cook means to pay attention to what's going on in front of you. Start with your attitude. If you really don't want to cook and you're just going to bang around in the kitchen, don't bother. The meat will be tough, the veggies soggy, and the potatoes gluey and bland. Order a pizza. Seriously.

Now, if you're in the right mood to cook, be in right mood. Call it zen, call it mystical, call it weird, but be in the moment. Turn off your phone; no Instagramming, no tweeting--pay attention to what you're doing. It's okay to be alone with your thoughts. It's okay to be completely focused on how a dish smells, looks, tastes, and even how it sounds. It's more than okay, it's vital. Be observant. Take notes in a notebook. Writing things down with an actual pen on actual paper helps your brain retain that information; it reinforces neural pathways. And please don't whine to me about your ADD/ADHD. Yes, it's a legitimate condition and yes, it can make things more difficult, but there are professional cooks who have ADD/ADHD with chef Jamie Oliver perhaps the most well known. If you want to cook, you will cook. No excuses.

But before you start cooking, you need to prepare. Did you read that recipe all the way through so you know you have all the ingredients and you're familiar with all the techniques? Are your ingredients prepped? Do you have all your seasonings? Is your oven preheated and is your knife sharp? Is your head in the right place? Have you put aside those distractions and are you ready to create?

Here's my point: as in painting, photography, knitting, sewing, or woodwork, once you have learned the rules, then you can break them. Great chefs have a solid foundations in cooking techniques which allows them to to create delicious new dishes. If you don't know how to properly season and cook a chicken breast, then don't try to cook any other kind of poultry. Baffled by a beef roast? Don't even touch that venison your hunter friends gave you. Just...don't.

If you're serious about learning to be a more mindful cook, don't neglect your education. And don't you dare tell me you don't like to read. You're reading this, aren't you? The more you read and the more you watch, the more information you'll internalize and then be inspired to try. Subscribe to cooking and food magazines; Bon Appetit, Saveur, Food & Wine, Cooking Light, Cooks' Illustrated. Search out cookbooks at your library, local bookstores, garage sales, and thrift stores. Watch cooking shows; there's a cooking show for everyone! If you're like me and need to know the science behind the ingredients and techniques, watch Alton Brown's "Good Eats". Don't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen? Check out Rachael Ray's "30 Minute Meals" and Sandra Lee's "Semi Homemade". There's Italian cooking shows and Southern comfort food shows and grilling shows and on and on and on. A good beginner's resource is your local PBS station. Our station here in the Seattle area has a day-long cooking show every Saturday, called, "KCTS Cooks" and they hawk their cookbook, they also demonstrate many of the recipes. What's nice about KCTS is that the cooks featured on the program are local as are many of the ingredients and if you pledge to the station, you receive the cookbook in return. Many of the featured cooks are regular people, so they tend to stick to more common techniques; no sous vide or molecular gastronomy here!

One of my favorite things to do is to go to different grocery stores. Ethnic stores, definitely, but also change up the regular stores you go to. Stuck on Safeway? Try Albertson's. A die-hard fan of Fred Meyer? Take a walk through Haggen's or QFC or IGA. While the major chain stores carry the same national brands, some have better deli cases or bakeries, better stocked spice sections, or bulk food areas. My favorite bulk sausage is made at IGA, my favorite sourdough bread is baked at Haggen's, and Safeway has a nice antipasto bar. I was in Connecticut over a decade ago to be in a friend's wedding. One of my clearest memories is of the different varieties of apples and pears at her local market. I was astounded! I mean, taking the train to Manhattan was pretty awesome and visiting Ground Zero was emotional, but when I remember Connecticut, I recall the fruit. Sometimes, walking up and down unfamiliar aisles will trigger your creative juices and shake you out of your same old dinner time rut.

Is it easy to be a mindful cook? No. It's like any discipline, it takes practice and dedication to become better. And you know what? There will always be someone who is a better cook than you and you will always be a better cook than someone else. There is no ultimate pinnacle, no unbreakable record, no limit to what you can learn. Even for celebrity chefs and experienced restaurateurs, hard fought for Michelin stars are awarded one year and might disappear the next. Zagat's might tout your restaurant for a few years and then drop you for the bistro two doors down.

Look. I don't expect you to suddenly become a kitchen diva if you've never had any interest in cooking. This is simply my advice for those who have a passion to do better in the kitchen. And like advice, it's just that--advice. It's not a list of rules, it's not carved in stone, and parts of it may not even be relevant to you.  What I want you to walk away with is a better understanding of yourself as a cook. 

A Brief Overview of Arizona and Washington State Culinary Traditions

Quite a few months ago, I took an informal poll on my Facebook page asking my loyal followers what foods, cuisines or techniques they were interested in learning more about. My cousin suggested a comparison of Sonoran and Pacific Northwest foods as she lives in Arizona and enjoys visiting family in Washington State. It's taken me longer than expected to complete this essay but I hope you enjoy it.

The indigenous peoples of Northern Mexico have traditionally been hunter-gathers due to the arid climate and limited water and any agriculture was likewise limited. Wheat, which thrives in warm days and cool nights, was introduced by the Spanish in the mid-1500s and flourished in the state of Sonora, located just south of the Arizona border. Sonora is still a wheat-producing region and flour tortillas are a staple of mealtime. The huge thin flour tortillas used for burritos originated in Sonora and are instantly recognizable as the wraps used by Taco Del Mar.

Other European settlers discovered that cattle, sheep and goats flourished in the region and over time, the ranch culture began to produce fresh cheeses as a way to preserve milk. Because of the desert region, there is a more limited variety of foods than in the southern states and preservation techniques are primarily cheese making (as mentioned above), dehydration and drying (which are not the same thing) and canning. Since preserving foods alters the flavor of the foods,dried chilies are less spicy than fresh and they add depth of flavor and heat to braised dishes and sauces.

As you can see, this very brief overview indicates the range of cultural influences on the cuisine of Arizona and I didn't even discuss the full extent of the Spanish influence on Mexico. Trying to distill all the culinary history of any region into a short essay is difficult so you’re just getting some of the highlights. In short,Arizona is known for Mexican-American food but it comes closer to actual Mexican cuisine than say, Texas does.

Arizona has mild winters which produce beautiful crops of “cold” weather crops such as broccoli, bok choy, carrots, parsnips, onions, and cabbage. Like Washington has apple trees, Arizona has citrus trees; on every street corner and backyard and taken for granted. Lemons, limes, oranges, and grapefruit, harvested in the winter months, get their sweetness from the long hot summers which also produce spicy chilies of all varieties, sweet dates, and stone fruits such as apricots, peaches and pluots. I would venture to say that Arizona has a greater variety of produce available year-round because of the mild to hot climate while Western Washington with its shorter growing season has a high yield in a shorter time span. Eastern Washington is notable for apple and cherry orchards, vineyards, potatoes, onions, wheat and lentils. There is a remarkable diversity of produce to be found in a relatively small radius from Seattle and on that note, let’s move up the coast and look at the Pacific Northwest.

Western Washington is home to several distinct ethnic groups such as the Native Peoples and the descendants of Swedish and Norwegian fishermen and loggers. Various Asian populations have also contributed greatly to Pacific Northwest cuisine beginning with the Chinese who worked on the railroads as well as Japanese and Korean immigrants.

One could argue that PNW is too “young” to have established a regional cuisine although Washington has been a state longer than Arizona. I think that because of the wide range of ethnicities of Washington State, it has taken longer to establish a regional cuisine than it has in Arizona where the immigrants until recently have primarily come from Mexico and Central and South America.

But take a look at the profusion of local cheese makers, brewers,wineries, produce co-ops and fisheries. We may not have a specific dish like Chicago deep dish, Southern barbecue or Boston brown bread but we have an abundance of fresh ingredients. Salmon, geoducks,oysters from Willapa Bay, Dungeness crab and rockfish of all kinds from the deep cold Pacific, apples, cherries, potatoes, asparagus, lentils and wheat from east of the Cascades, cranberries from the bogs along the coast, mushrooms, nettles and fiddlehead ferns foraged in early spring…are you hungry yet? What about the eponymous Tillamook cheddar cheese? Smoked trout from Idaho? Walla Walla sweet onions? Blackberries that grow in every ditch and backyard? You could even argue that we have rediscovered and reinvented charcuterie with Salumi in the Pike Place Market which is owned and operated by the Batali family (yes, that Batali family). There is a welcome influx of neighborhood butchers being opened by Bill the Butcher who offers fresh local organic meats in addition to cheeses, eggs and their own charcuterie made on-site.

With the emphasis on fresh ingredients, Sonoran dishes and the cuisine of the Pacific Northwest both rely on simple techniques which showcase the foods. In Arizona, grilling over mesquite adds flavor to thin cuts of beef and salmon fillets pair beautifully with both alder and cedar which are found in every Pacific Northwest backyard. Sauces in both regions are exclamations points highlighting the flavors of the dishes rather than disguising them. Ready for dessert? Fresh fruits and cheeses are a perfectly acceptable alternative to more  traditional desserts but if you do crave a sweet ending to your meal,flaky pumpkin empanadas or fresh churros and a cup of Mexican hot chocolate round out a meal in Arizona. In the PNW, try a slice of blackberry or apple pie, a silky pannacotta made with local organic milk and a cup of coffee from a local roaster.

As I was researching Sonoran cuisine, I realized that I’ve cooked Mexican food this way all along, thanks to my dad. Dad moved to Arizona in the early 1970s to work construction with his dad (my grandpa) and that’s where my parents met. Dad was influenced,unconsciously I suspect, by the “roach coaches” (his term for taco trucks and yes, I know it’s not a particularly nice phrase!). I remember helping him make fresh salsa (pico de gallo is probably more accurate) with ripe Roma tomatoes, sweet onions and fat jalapeños with lots of cilantro and lime juice. Dad was primarily self-taught as a cook. His mom, my grandma (who we call Nana), made sure her three boys knew how to cook at least the basics and my dad and my uncles took it to the next level. John is married to a Norwegian woman and he’s learned to make an assortment of Scandinavian foods while Dave is married to a part Native American woman who is a dietitian so he cooks more vegetarian dishes.

I'm very fortunate that I have family who are just as food-obsessed as I am. My nieces and nephews all love fresh fruit and raw veggies, my brother-in-law makes a killer salsa and my younger brother and his wife are vegetarians; they continually inspire me to try new recipes. My other brother is a meat-cutter and an excellent resource for when I need to know how to prepare a certain cut of meat. We patronize farmers' markets and join co-ops and CSAs. We share recipes, cooking techniques and swap produce and dry goods if one of us has an abundance.

Food, for me, is more than a source of energy. It's a way of life. It's what I dream and think and read about. It's established traditions such as Christmas Eve dinner and it's a new tradition of Mexican food at every sibling get-together. I'm blessed to be able to draw on the foods of the Pacific Northwest and Arizona's Sonoran cuisine as I create my own traditions.