I woke up thinking about food. Recipes that involve red sauce, specifically. Bolognese, shakshuka, the shrimp and grits I ate last night, red curry. I wake up thinking about food more often than I’d admit in unfamiliar company.
I like to eat. Well, really — I love to eat. I also like to cook. I like cooking for and with people. And I like to write. So I figured, this morning, lying in bed thinking about lamb stew, why not start writing about food?
(I initially wanted to call this “Red Sauce Only” and make it a weekly recipe for something cooked in tomato sauce. I could probably do a year of it, but not sure how I’d feel by the end of it.)
So anyway, the idea here — behind “Cow We Doin’?” — is to write about a recipe once a week, maybe inspire you — the reader, the eater — to cook it, too. I’m going to avoid writing actual recipes (3 lbs lamb stew meat, 1 onion (diced)… heat 1tbsp oil over medium in a large, heavy bottomed pot… BORING!!), and instead focus on what Sam Sifton of New York Times Cooking calls “no-recipe recipes.” Here’s one for pasta with feta (from NYT Cooking, not by me):
“Pasta and feta, and very simple. Just cook your favorite spaghetti (bucatini, for me!) and reserve a little bit of the cooking water. Combine the pasta with a nice scattering of feta — Bronson likes the creamy Bulgarian variety, and I agree — loosen it a little with the pasta water, stir in some spinach or baby kale, hit the whole with red-pepper flakes and serve.”
That was easy, and sounds delightful. Even if you can’t “cook,” you can probably boil water and put some pasta in it. How do you know when the pastas done? Well, do like I do and stand over the pot, tasting the pasta every couple minutes (and burning your tongue), until it’s just past chewy (al dente means “to the tooth” as you should know). Scoop out some of the pasta water in a cup (“reserve” it), drain the pasta, and mix in the feta, spinach, and pepper flakes while the pasta’s still hot, and if it’s too dry, add a splash of the pasta water to “loosen” it up.
Maybe, eventually, I’ll write up a proper recipe and make it available to what I believe Substack calls “premium subscribers” — but at the end of the day I’m doing this for me since I like to write and I like to cook and this gives me an excuse to combine both. I think I’ll also likely write about other things I enjoy, occasionally — which right now means the outdoors, fitness, dogs, and a baby girl — and also share some links to things I’ve found interesting. Nothing fancy, but certainly something to do.
So here we are at the end of my first post. I suppose, since this whole endeavor came about from red sauce, I should probably finish with an idea for dinner. This is what we ate last night, and even if you don’t have all the right ingredients, I’m sure it will be great. It’s a simple take on shrimp and grits.
Make grits however you normally like (or just follow the directions on the package), making sure to add in a healthy serving of parm cheese towards the end of the cooking process. While the grits are cooking, dice a few slices of bacon and add them to a cast iron pan. Once they start to render, add in some diced garlic and diced onions. After a few minutes cooking all together, the garlic and onions should start to get soft and smell good (cook books call this “getting fragrant”). At this point, squirt in some tomato paste and stir it around until the whole mixture takes on a nice red color. Now add a splash of white wine, lemon juice, and/or some chicken stock.
(If you don’t have tomato paste, you could use some cherry or grape tomatoes, adding them in earlier and letting them blister. Or you could use canned tomatoes, but not too much.)
To this mixture, add maybe a pound of shrimp (easier if they’re already peeled, but that’s your prerogative). Once the shrimp start to get pink, you can flip (or just stir) them. Do this once or twice more, turn off the heat, and then grab a bowl, give yourself a dollop of polenta, spoon your desired amount of shrimp and sauce on top, and finish with more cheese. Enjoy with your beverage of choice.
So — now, cow we doin’?