"The Hard Way"

It occurs to me that anyone reading this who doesn't actually know me personally (as if there were any of those people, but still, it's an excuse to write) might not be quite sure what I'm referring to when I mention that a recipe concerns doing something "the hard way".

In essence, I mean that while there are probably easier ways to make a certain dish, I like doing them the harder way. View "the hard way" in this context as a synonym for "the old fashioned way", or "the long way", or "the not purchasing anything pre-done way", etc. I think cooking is fun, and I enjoy the whole process of taking the basic ingredients and building them up into more complex food products until BOOM, you end up with something good.

For example, the coq au vin recipe I put up could be simplified in a lot of ways. Big way #1: Purchase your chicken pieces already butchered. Big way #2: Buy pre-made stock at the store. Big way #3: just cook the chicken through in the first place, and make the sauce/stew separately (which is how most of the recipes I found on the web when learning how to make it go about creating the dish).

Then there are all the little ways you can make it easier. Buy pre-minced garlic (I admit, I've done it before) or pre-chopped celery or carrots. Skip the addition of cognac. Don't sautee the pearl onions and mushrooms before you add them to the stew. There are lots of pretty common-sense shortcuts you can take that will save you time and still end up in a perfectly serviceable meal. If all you do is purchase pre-made stock and pre-butchered chicken pieces, you basically cut the time to make the dish down to a manageable 2-3 hours.

Then, of course, think of the waste! Odds are that you are not going to properly store the unused stock you made for later use. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "But Eric, I recycle! I purchase dry groceries in bulk! I have reusable grocery bags! I'm a FREEGAN!" Bullshit. You know what you're going to do? You're going to take whatever is left in the stockpot at the end of the 6 hour cooking effort and you're going to toss it. Which is, let's admit, kind of a waste. Alternately, you WILL store it properly for later use (I find putting leftover stock in an icecube tray and freezing it a pretty neat method) but you won't ever actually use it, and it'll go bad and get wasted anyway.

So sure, you could make your life easier, save some of your valuable time, and probably be a little less wasteful by not doing things the hard way. Those are all good reasons to cook the easy way. However, I guarantee that the food won't taste as good, that you won't enjoy it as much, and you will feel like a cheap whore.

Now come back to my side of the fence for a minute. Think of the benefits of doing things the hard way. You're cooking something the way it was meant to be cooked, the way the folks who came up with it in the first place cooked it. There are tons of modern day cooking conveniences, and there is a time and a place to use them, but this ain't that time or place! These aren't recipes for things you're going to whip up on a Tuesday night just to fill your belly before crashing out when you have to be at work by 6am the next day. These are recipes for having your friends over or impressing your newly acquired lover, or convincing your parents that you do know how to take care of yourself. These are things you make when you have the boss over for dinner to try and talk them into a raise. These aren't dishes you can whip up in 30 minutes on a weeknight. You won't have "most of the ingredients lying around the house." Rachel Ray? That soulless wight wouldn't touch these recipes with an egg timer. This isn't even shit designed to help you keep a budget. I'll be frank, the first few recipes you'll see on this blog will cost you MORE to make at home than they probably cost on the menu of a nice restaurant.

The whole point of doing it the hard way is to step out from a hot, sweaty kitchen after hours of labor your grandpa would be proud of and bang your chest because you just kicked that food's ASS! To get back at all of the root tubers and fruits we call vegetables and odd, stringy pieces of animal flesh that mocked you and laughed at you behind your back in high school by enslaving them to your will to make something so tasty it cannot be denied! To go to a restaurant and know in your heart of hearts that you make that particular dish better, because you take the time and effort to do it right!

Although if you're eating at a place like Alinea, Trotter's, Moto, Fleur de Lils, or any of a number of fine restaurants whose chefs are the Bohrs and Fermis and Einsteins of the modern culinary arts... well... fuck you, you can't make that shit as good as they can.

BUT FOR FUCK'S SAKE, YOU HAD BETTER DAMN WELL TRY!

besides, the longer it takes to make, the longer you get to drink in the kitchen before dinner.

Cheers,
Eric