Quarantine Culinary Adventures
Since the beginning of quarantine, I've been spending a bit more time in the kitchen in general – this is mostly because my family has been trying to avoid ordering take out food from restaurants, and as a result prompted me to learn to make my own favorite dishes at home. In addition to a bit of baking, over the past few months I discovered The Pasta Friday Cookbook: Let's Eat Together by Allison Revalo in the window shelf of my local library (definitely worth a read!). I checked it out in late July, and I have somehow (I should've hit the maximum renew limit, but I haven't yet) been able to keep it at home since. I've made many recipes from the book such as Zero Ricotta Baked Ziti, and have gotten the hang of not just boiling pasta but also baking it (kind of like lasagna), which tastes so good.
In addition to pasta, a week back I decided to try making pizza dough from scratch, which was much harder than I expected (there was quite a learning curve...) I didn't add enough flour while kneading the dough, so that went downhill quite quickly; however, I managed to pull it together (pun not intended) and used the food processor to finish the kneading. A few days later, I took the dough and tried to shape it into a circular pizza using the 'gravity stretch' method (letting gravity stretch the dough instead of spinning and throwing it into the air). It took me two pizzas to realize that I was too focused on making the dough elliptical – I should focus on evening the thickness of the dough using the gravity stretch. This drastically improved the quality of my pizza bases, and in the end I was quite satisfied with the results :)
I'm planning to try making cookies sometime, but last time I made them they didn't spread out in the oven and I was left with domed biscuit-cookies... Do you guys have any tips?
Hey Soham, I really admire your drive to become a better chef. I wanted to do the same thing, since I know I'm going to be independent in the near future, but lost track of that goal. I hope you keep on improving!
ReplyDeleteThat is really awesome how you're getting so good at cooking! My dad is very good Italian chef and he once told me that you want to make sure you are not kneading your dough too much, so I hope that helps with your future pizza endeavors.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the ability to cook is such an underrated skill, as it is really important as an independent person. It gets largely ignored (hence the college student and ramen stereotype), so I admire the work you have done to improve at cooking.
ReplyDeleteThat pizza looks so good, and I, too, have found myself in the kitchen more frequently because of quarantine! We definitely need to have a Soham x Rian Jasmine cooking collab when things are back to normal. As far as your cookies go, maybe check the expiration date on your baking soda and powder? That could possibly affect the way your cookies rise and spread.
ReplyDeleteMy siblings and I tried making homemade pizza dough over the summer and it was honestly quite a disaster, but it was a fun learning experience and made us appreciate takeout pizza all the more. I admire your resilience and intention to keep at it until you got it right!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you are finding time to cook! I appreciate that you keep at this and learn over time how to make adjustments and changes. Awesome!
ReplyDeleteWoah that pizza looks good! As I'm growing older I'm starting to cook a lot more, but man you are setting a pretty good standard for me to aspire to reach!
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