WHAT THE KIDS ARE UP TO IN THE KITCHEN
No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers. ~Laurie Colwin (1944-1992)
Who are you who have steadfastly maintained that cooking is difficult? Let me see your hands. Okay, now. Here are three gentlemen who will prove you dead wrong. Ranging in age from, I’m guessing, fifteen to twenty, they are enterprising young adults who demonstrate daily that cooking is not as difficult as many people like to believe.
MINIMALISM WORKS
Surviving and testing college dining is the tag line for Minifridge and Microwave and Coconut Sticky Rice & Mango was the inspiration for today’s preparation: Coconut Rice & Fresh Fruit. Chris has done it the college way – using a microwave – but I’ve adapted it to conventional cooking. Either way, it makes a light and fluffy dessert that can be paired with almost any fresh fruit. And Chris’ site proves that you can cook with minimal equipment. Higher education should always include such resourcefulness.
COOKIN’ UP FUN
Tommy is a teen compiling a website of his cooking efforts at Cook Up Fun. Family health issues inspired him to take up the mantle of head chef for his household, and he’s willing to share his creations with you. Although he’s not posted since May, he has some guest posts by his drivers’ ed teacher, whom he chastised for buying frozen pie crust, directing traffic to his own scratch recipe. Way to show ‘em how it’s done, Tommy!
A CHEF IN THE MAKING
Daniel, The Teen Cook, is cooking and blogging his way through high school, proving that anyone with the desire can learn to whip up kitchen creations to feed yourself and family. Although he’s tackled out-of-the-ordinary things like fried spring rolls, believe me, they are much easier than they look. After receiving the TimeLife Foods of the World book on Chinese Cooking I was making spring rolls and wontons with a vengeance before I was twenty.
DREAM FUEL
Cooking is not rocket science; anyone can learn. The trick is you have to want to. Desire is what fuels dreams, large and small. And this site, Stop Blogging And Cook, was created just for that reason: to help non-cooks begin to take the reigns and giddyap on some food adventures in their own kitchen. What could go wrong? You make something, you eat. Repeat. It doesn’t have to be complicated or costly.
Inviting friends over will reinforce your efforts because everyone likes someone to cook for them. Everyone. So give it a try. Even if you start out adding some fresh things to salsa from a jar, that’s a start. And if you don’t believe me, there is only one way to find out. Visit the above sites to see what they’re cookin’ up. And then try it yourself. I promise your results will be better than your expectations.
Today’s preparation is Coconut Rice w/Mango:
- I don’t want you to not make it if you don’t have sticky rice, and
- I like mango, but any sort of fresh fruit will do.
Americans don’t traditionally serve rice for dessert but, really, why not? Using whole grain rice like basmati or jasmine (white), forbidden (black) or brown (but brown rice doesn’t look nearly as pretty, I have to say), will give you sweetness and fiber as well as minerals and vitamins that are missing from parboiled or processed rice. The rich, black forbidden rice looks spectacular next to the deep yellow of a ripened mango. And the warm rice with the cool fruit is a very interesting combination.
So here’s the rundown in a nutshell: make the rice using coconut milk instead of water, adding a little sugar. If you don’t have coconut milk, you can toss the cooked rice with shredded coconut. You can also add raisins, dried cranberries (elegant with forbidden rice), or apricots, and decrease the sugar. Kind of like rice pudding without the pudding. Also good cold, for lunch the next day.
[...] is the original post: Stop Blogging and Cook » WHAT THE KIDS ARE UP TO IN THE KITCHEN Share and [...]