Pantry: Putting joy back in cooking

What is the hardest part about getting dinner on the table?

I’ve long felt that it was the thinking about it, the stressing over it, that is the highest hurdle to clear. That’s one of the reasons I love farmers markets. Go, open your eyes, buy some things that look good, return home, cook, eat. Problem solved. Deliciously.

Recently, the blogosphere has been weighing in on the topic at viral speed. Advocates of home-cooked meals are being accused of being elitist and those who insist on their importance acting like just that: arrogant patronizing “foodies” who look down on those who complain that cooking is hard, that they don’t like it, that they don’t have time for it and someone else does it better anyway. These foodies, often praised as intellectuals, show contempt for priorities other than their own. It would be okay in the rarefied atmosphere of a think tank where philosophy is the dish of the day, but not out in the real world.

A mom or dad feeding their family and supervising homework and baths is likely not thinking about how actually cooking dinner shows crucial reverence for our deepest values. He or she may be inclined to shake a wooden spoon at the writer and say, yeah, here’s your reverence and you know what you can do with it.

It’s enough to make me want to go to bed with a cup of tea and bowl of soup. Homemade, of course. Actually, it doesn’t matter. When I feel inclined to squirrel myself away from the herd, I don’t really care who makes the soup or whatever else comforts me at the moment.

That’s something else that’s bothering me, too, a current attack on so-called comfort foods. I just read an article attempting to explode the so-called myth of comfort foods. The writer explains a study that “proves” that human moods actually improve whether or not one indulges in a favorite food.

Well, duh. Comfort food is not, to my thinking, medicine, i.e., something we take with a certain goal in mind. The goal is of the moment, not of the future.

What, I ate that quart of ice cream for nothing? It didn’t cure my (fill in the blank)? Now I regret my indulgence. That’s happened exactly never.

Comfort food is something to get us through moments of - hold onto your seats, this is shocking - discomfort. When I have a cold, I often want a certain brand of noodle soup, not because it effectively gets me through to the other side of my symptoms but because it takes a bit of the edge off enduring those symptoms, in part by evoking a time in childhood when I felt and was cared for, in part, by simply tasting right. Right for the moment.

Obviously, I love to cook. I enjoy the process, from beginning to end. And I want you to cook, too. I want you to find a way to love it because when you do, the world becomes a little easier, a little sweeter, a little simpler.

But I don’t want to badger you or humiliate you into doing it. I want to share the joys, not offer a sermon.

So, what do I advise? First, dispense with the stress, best done by thinking simply. It’s one meal - three, maybe four dishes, a couple of hours. Life moves on.

Second, try to learn to cook so that you don’t need to rely on recipes, especially for weeknights. If you can make a simple green salad, an omelet, a meatloaf, a few vegetable dishes, a soup or two, a couple of rice dishes, a few pastas and roast a chicken, you’re good to go from Monday through Thursday nights for months. Variety comes from the seasonal ingredients you naturally snag from the farmers market; you won’t get stuck in a rut because nature won’t let you.

A fall dinner of a simple omelet, steamed broccoli or cauliflower and a green salad is not only easy and almost universally acceptable; it’s also delicious and nutritious. Add some sliced strawberries and it’s a weeknight feast.

If you want to experiment with recipes or new kinds of cuisines, you’ve got weekends, holidays and vacations for that.

It’s not a compromise to think this way. It’s simply our food-as-entertainment-Thomas-Keller-does-it-better-than-I-ever-could culture that makes us think it is. But if you’ve ever been to the French Laundry or a similar restaurant, you understand you would never want to eat that way day in and day out, even if you could. Simplicity, true simplicity based on the seasons and a few enduring techniques, is its own reward.

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Avocados are excellent and inexpensive right now. These two omelets (easily doubled or tripled, as needed) take mere minutes to make and clean up is easy, as long as you have the pan hot enough before adding the eggs.

Avocado Omelet with Warm Cherry Tomato Vinaigrette

Serves 2

- Warm Cherry Tomato Vinaigrette, recipe follows

½ firm-ripe Haas avocado

4 large farm eggs

- Kosher salt

- Black pepper in a mill

4 teaspoons butter

Make the vinaigrette, set it aside and keep warm.

With the half avocado still in its skin and its pit removed, use a sharp pairing knife to cut thin lengthwise slices, cutting to but not through the skin. Use a large spoon--a soup spoon works well--to remove the flesh; to do so, insert the spoon between the flesh and the skin at the top of the avocado and then carefully scoop it out, keeping the back of the spoon close against the skin as you do. Set it aside briefly.

Break 2 eggs into each of 2 small bowls, add 2 teaspoons of warm water to both bowls and beat the eggs until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

Set a 9-inch omelet pan over high heat, add half the butter and when it is very foamy, tip the pan to coat it fully. Working quickly, tip in 2 eggs and let cook, without stirring, for about 90 seconds. Continue to cook while using a fork to whip the unset eggs into tender curds, being certain not to reach down through the set portion. When the eggs are fully cooked but still moist, spread half the avocado slices over half the omelet (the half on the side opposite the handle). Use a spatula to lift the portion of the omelet near the handle over the avocado, then tip the omelet onto a plate.

Repeat with the second dish of eggs.

Spoon warm tomato vinaigrette over the omelets and serve immediately.

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As tomato season winds down, I make this simple dressing 2 or 3 times a week, using it with potato salad, risotto, fillet of sole and pasta with bitter greens as well as with omelets.

Warm Cherry Tomato Vinaigrette

Makes about ? cup

1 shallot, minced

2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced

- Kosher salt

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

? to ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered

- Black pepper in a mill

2 tablespoons snipped chives or chopped Italian parsley

Put the shallot and garlic in a small bowl, add a generous pinch of salt and add the vinegar and lemon juice. Set aside for 20 minutes.

Pour a little of the olive oil into a sauté pan set over medium heat, add the cherry tomatoes and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Season with a little salt.

Tip in the shallot mixture and the remaining olive oil and heat through.

Remove from the heat, season with several turns of black pepper and add the chives or parsley. Taste and correct for salt.

Michele Anna Jordan has written 17 books to date. Email Jordan at michele @saladdresser.com.