That scene in The Bear where Carmy is timing himself, going from the stove to the prep station reminded me of being in my own kitchen. I’ve no problem getting from my counter to the stove in 5 seconds. My kitchen is so tiny, it only takes me 2 seconds to walk between each space, and that’s if I’m being slow. You’d be surprised how much those little steps add up when cooking three meals a day, as is often the case for me. On an average day, my movement just from prepping, cooking and washing dishes adds up to about 4,000 steps. On days when I’m recipe testing, I can easily double that, especially with runs down to the basement for ingredients.
Food and kitchen equipment is stored all over my house since my kitchen space is very limited. The family room closet is really my pantry (16 steps and 8 seconds roundtrip). The back porch, right next to the kitchen is where my airfryer, slow cooker, pressure cooker, and table top oven live (7 seconds, 10 steps, including time to unlock the door). The front porch houses the china cabinet (20 steps, 10 seconds). And there’s the basement which is where canned goods and my home canned items reside (48 steps, 12 seconds).
My 980 square foot house is probably 400 square feet cooking themed. I often wonder if I really need all these things. I mean, left in a rental with a skillet, a knife and plate, I can get by. Much of it is from my past life as a full-time recipe developer. I’m hard pressed to get rid of any of it because who knows where life will take me. I miss working on recipes full time which is another reason I love writing this newsletter. It’s truly my happy space, even when my writing veers to heavier, grief-stricken places.
The kitchen is where I find my footing. Cooking keeps me grounded. Sometimes it’s the only thing I feel like I have full control over, except when it comes to making meringues because humidity has the last laugh come summertime.
Tracking macros brought me back to recipe development in a way. It’s encouraged me to look at some favorite meals in a new light, and also start cooking up some foods I’d normally love eating out. Living in a rural area, the good eating out options that are worth the drive and expense are meager.
That’s how I ended up making this Thai larb-inspired dish. I had most of the ingredients on hand, with the exception of the fresh herbs which needed a trip to the grocery store. Everything else was either in the fridge or one of my various pantries. I devoured it the first night I made it, making a mental note to prepare it again for lunch the next day. It quickly became an obsession, when I decided to eat it again a few days later.
Any ground cut of meat would be fine to use, so if turkey isn’t your thing, feel free to swap in pork, beef, lamb—even crumbled tofu can be swapped in to keep it vegetarian. If you run out of tomatoes as I did when I took the photo above, don’t stress. Food should be easy and adaptable. I add spicy pickled cucumbers I keep in the fridge in those instances. Fresh herbs are the non-negotiables here. You can use thai basil, too, if you can find it. The only time I have access to it is during the summer when I grow it in the garden.
If you can find fresno or some other fresh small chili pepper, feel free to use that in place of the red pepper flakes. My local store only sells it by the bag full, way more than I need normally, which is why my recipe uses dried red pepper flakes. As with all of my recipes for one, this can easily be scaled up to make more, serving as many as you’d like. Just be sure to scale up the size of your skillet, too. —xo, j.
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Next Week’s Recipe: Fluffy Yogurt Biscuits