Is Last Minute A Personality Type?
there are some people who prep –
and others who leave everything to the last minute. I do both. To demonstrate this point, I spent all evening writing lists and ideas for today's newsletter. I even wrote a few lines when they sprang to mind. But I knew I wasn't going to finish it until ten minutes before I sent it (at the usual indeterminate time), because I like to work down to the wire (does anyone else always just think of Iris from The Holiday when they say that phrase, or is it just me?). Anyway, instead of finishing this newsletter, I watched three episodes of Four Weddings And A Funeral (yes it's a 2020 adaptation, yes it's 100% fondue, yes I'm addicted) and made homemade mayonnaise (s/o Samin Nosrat) at 9pm for a tuna salad that I weirdly ate with turmeric rice and some leftover dahl.
And so here I am, 8.27am, frantically typing and thinking about the fact that I need to get to the butchers for 9.30am so I can resume my ritual of solo roasting a chicken to level up (and also bc I've run out of chicken stock).
Last minute is my personality type. Something that runs through my veins, much like stubbornness and probably a lot of olive oil. It perfectly sums up a lot of my cooking – the idea of prep (making lists, planning to get ingredients) and the reality of my lack of follow through (it's raining, I'm tired, it's too far, I can probably make something out of the tins in my cupboard, if not Deliveroo?).
Perhaps it even sums up our Christmas meal because five days before Christmas Day, I assumed I'd be eating my mum's famous sausage meat stuffing (it's life changing), lying by our fire in a food coma and probably consuming two too many bottles of white wine on Christmas Eve (it's a tradition). Instead, we had to pivot our plans and make room for a London Christmas for two. Which was, by the way, amazing and beautiful and I'm very grateful for it still.
And so we shopped. We bought all our vegetables from the Horniman Sunday market (fuelled by an excellent breakfast burrito c/o Route 66). Muddy Charlotte potatoes; dark crunchy cavalo nero; deep red cabbage; leeks longer than my arm; rainbow carrots in orange, purple and gold; a box full of Jerusalem artichokes; bulbous beets, splendid sprouts and palatable parsnips. Then I stood in an hour-long queue at the local butchers hoping they wouldn't run out of chickens (they hadn't).
We thought about prepping. You know, peeling the potatoes and par-boiling them the night before, arranging carrots in trays and salting the chicken beforehand. But on Christmas Eve we followed my tradition, drank a lot of wine and ate crab linguine out of a massive bowl listening to our favourite record and fell asleep on the sofa. The next morning, bright eyed and excited for a drive through the city, we delayed prep until we returned.
From 12-2.30pm, between family Zoom calls, multiple sips of fancy champagne and me sneaking bites of whatever I was cooking, we cooked more dishes than fingers on our hands, and then happily feasted until there was little more to eat. The highlights? Creamy leeks, sprouts and kale with nutmeg and pancetta; bread stuffing we totally made up; XXXL pigs-in-blankets. At 4pm, another bottle of wine in our bellies, we realised we'd forgotten to cook the artichokes.
Here's to those last minute meals, eschewing prep for more adventurous scenarios, and to making mountainous meals in the face of it all.
Happy new year,
Cat x
easily the best tacos i've ever made.
Look, this (yet another unmeasured and unplanned) recipe isn't sponsored by Cool Chile, purveyors of Mexican food goods, but it might as well be (anyone got a contact?) because everything I used is from there (thank you to my local convenience store for being so incredibly De Beauvoir and stocking it).
Here's what I used for two people (which made leftovers for breakfast tacos):
One small sweet potato
One small romanesco broccoli
Two avocados
One lime
Natural yoghurt
Coriander
Feta
Quarter red cabbage
Agave
Half a large white onion
For the beans, I diced half an onion, through it in with the black beans, dried chiles and the sachet of Mexican epazote with enough water to cover the beans twice. I cooked them for about two hours (bring to a boil then simmer) checking on them after an hour, popping on the lid, then adding water and seasoning where necessary. Paprika snuck in there, even though it wasn't in the instructions. But I'm a rebel with a serious seasoning cause. I added two hefty tsp of mole poblano paste bc it's tasty (but not technically the correct way to use it, I know!).
For the filling, I chopped up a sweet potato into thumb-sized chunks and broke off the florets of the broccoli. I oiled up a cast-iron pan on a medium-high heat, added the veg and about 4 tbsp of al pastor marinade. After about five minutes I popped it into the oven to cook for around 20 minutes.
I finely sliced the red cabbage and placed it in a non-stick pan with some oil, the juice of half a lime and a couple of tsp of agave, frying it up on a medium heat for five minutes, sometimes covering with a lid to get some moisture in (if not, add a splash of water).
We made a simple guac with two avocados, the juice of half a lime, some flaky sea salt and a few twists of pepper. We also made an enriched yoghurt sauce with crumbled feta, olive oil and salt.
Most importantly we kept the tortillas hot by heating them in a non-stick frying pan on high, flipping then popping them in a foil parcel, opening and sealing every time. Once they were all in there, we just kept that parcel in the oven until we were ready to stuff our faces. And if you have leftovers, highly recommend repeating this but with paprika-spiked scrambled eggs, strong coffee and lots of sriracha.
food stories.
– This piece of investigative journalism from Rachel Handler on the bizarre bucatini shortage in America shook me to my core, via Grub Street.
– Another one by Rachel Handler bc she just gets me, an interview with Nancy Meyers where she discusses getting high and eating croissants like Meryl Streep in It's Complicated, via Vulture.
– This piece is around Thanksgiving, but still resonated – Tejal Rao on why home cooks are experiencing burnout, for The New York Times.
– For anyone interested in the scandal behind Passalacqua, the Italian winery that fell from grace in 2020, via The Cut.
leftovers.
I've got a couple of things heating up in the pan which are Since No One Asked related and I'm v excited to share them. I'm planning on being way more prepared, and a little less last minute (although can a leopard ever change its spots? Stay tuned). Which means putting more time into SNOA as a platform for food stories and conversation. In the meantime...
– Reignited my love for potatoes, will be making these Berber & Q hasslebacks asap.
– I believe everything Bre Graham cooks to be wonderful and delicious, these lentils are no exception.
– My 2021 breakfasts will consist of Turkish eggs and salad like Botanica's in LA.
– MISO BUTTER WHITE ONIONS, that is all.
– Alexis Nikole letting us in on all the mushroom foraging secrets, hell yes.
– This bitter leaves wallpaper is so me it hurts that it's no longer available.
– Will be watching It's Complicated, as reminded by the wonderful Celluloid Homes.
and if you like what I'm putting down?
Tell your friends! Tell your family! Tell your lovers!