Keri Recommends: Make It Up As You Cook

Keri Recommends

Make It Up As You Cook

In counterpoint to Follow The Recipe, we have:

Make It Up As You Cook or Everything I Needed to Know about Cooking I Learned from Doris Fields

When I moved to California in 2000, I did not know it would be the making of me as a cook. I've always enjoyed cooking, from the taco meat Dad taught me how to prepare when I was very young (there's nothing like offering bites of something to a child to encourage her interest in learning to make it herself) to the various casseroles and traditional dishes passed down from my grandmothers (although I have yet to make Edna's breaded-chicken-radish-cream of chicken soup-noodle-surprise).

But then I moved and as luck would have it, moved into a tiny apartment behind one of the finest cooks ever. She also happens to be one of the finest women I've ever known, but wow, can she cook.

The trick is fresh herbs.

Doris grows Italian parsley, basil, oregano, chives, sage with its velvety leaves, and rosemary in hedgerows. From her, I learned that one of the first steps in cooking is to take my small colander and some sharp scissors, head to the garden, and start snipping what I needed for that night's meal. A brisk washing (and sometimes soaking) in cold water, followed by chopping them up very fine, and I'd have the stuff of dreams to add to my cooking pot. She always shared whatever was growing in their garden, and there were many nights I'd get home from work and she'd share supper too. Polenta and stew. Pan-fried hamburger steaks rich with garlic and parsley mixed into the meat and gravy you'd risk a burn to lick the skillet just to get a bit more. Scalloped potatoes with chunks of ham. Risotto flavored with saffron brought back from a trip to Europe. The best potato salad I've ever eaten, with homemade mayonnaise.

Whenever I'd ask Doris for a recipe she'd get this look on her face, and I'd know there wasn't a recipe. Most dishes would start with "you take some bacon and toast it around in the pot." There were never measurements, just put some onion, carrot, and celery . . .
Before I moved, I sat down to try to get some recipes out of her, but mostly it was just lists of ingredients and some suggestions for assembling the dish.

In the end, what I gained from Doris was better than a slew of recipes. She gave me the confidence to go into the kitchen and *try*. To look at the ingredients I had on hand and experiment. To learn the flavors of different herbs and spices, and adjust their use to fit my palate. Even when making something as simple as an Italian red sauce, it tastes different every time, which makes it an adventure. That's the fun of cooking.

So now, when people ask me for my recipe for lasagna, I say, "Well, you start with some bacon and toast it around in a big pot . . ."

Here is my non-recipe for lasagna, a favorite here at the Lewis house. If you can't stand the idea of not having a recipe and want some ideas on growing and cooking with fresh herbs, check out this post at Our Best Bites.

Lasagna, the Non-Recipe

Cut 3-4 strips of bacon into small pieces and cook in a stock pot until crispy. Remove from pot, cool, and crumble. (You can probably cook it in whole pieces and then crumble it to save a step!)

Drain most of the bacon grease out of the pan, then add two chopped onions. Saute those for a couple of minutes, then add 2-3 pounds of the ground meat of your choice (beef, turkey, deer), depending on how much meat you like in your lasagna. Brown the meat, adding salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, fresh parsley, fresh rosemary if you have it, fresh or ground sage, basil, and oregano. When the meat is done, drain off the fat. (I throw it all in the colander and then return it to the pot after the liquid has drained out. Yes, you lose some of the spices, but it's okay.)

Add big cans of crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes – whatever you prefer. I do a couple cans of crushed and diced, and then if it’s not soupy enough I add more crushed tomatoes. In fresh tomato season you can add some of those too! *Some people buy the canned whole tomatoes and crush them with their hands, reasoning they're higher quality tomatoes. If you have kids and want to get them involved in the kitchen AND you don't mind a mess, let them crush the tomatoes.

Add crushed garlic – I use about one head of garlic pushed through a garlic press.

Add more spices to taste.

Add whatever veggies you like: shredded/grated zucchini, chopped fresh spinach, grated carrot (note that carrot will make your sauce sweeter), mushrooms, artichokes, yellow squash – it’s a great way to get more veggies in your kids. You can even puree the veggies in a food processor to make the pieces small and unnoticeable.

Simmer for awhile, taste, and add more spices as you see fit. If you want to ramp up the meat flavor, add some beef bouillon but remember it will add salt too.

In a 9x13 or 10x15 pan (sprayed with Pam), put a small amount of sauce, and then layer no-boil lasagna noodles, sauce, cheese, noodles, sauce, cheese. I use mozzarella, plus an Italian blend, and/or parmesan.

WARNING: this makes a bunch of sauce, especially if you are adding more stuff to it as you go along! Generally I can make one full-size lasagna plus a smaller one, or save sauce to freeze for future use, or use the sauce on spaghetti, etc.

Posted by Keri Collins at 4/26/2010 10:39 AM