Cooking Under Quarantine: What I Learned During Week One

Like many people these days, my virus vision is on high alert and at the store I can’t help but notice the multiple touch points and pass-along opportunities the supermarket presents: The frontline checkout clerk and bagger touch hundreds if not thousands of items hundreds of people have touched. Gloves or no, it’s a risky situation for them and for the people buying food. While hand-to-hand transmission appears to be low, experts recommend thoroughly rinsing vegetables and cleaning bottles and boxes and bags when you get home. I’ve also set up a iPhone, car-key, and eyeglass sanitizing station by the kitchen sink. I loaded a used soap dispenser with a 70/30 mix of rubbing alcohol and water and keep it by a stack of C-fold towels.

Driving around town looking for that ¼ cup of crème fraîche obviously does not fall into the category of essential travel. Cook with what you’ve got. Leave out an herb. Sub in a spice (chipotle and smoked paprika are one-for-one substitutes). The open secret in food media is that most food editors, writers, stylists, and recipe developers don’t cook from recipes. It’s not that they’re intuitive savants born with an innate knowledge of what goes with what, but are confident enough to go off-script. And this is an off-script moment if there ever was one. So brown that butter, swap lemon juice for vinegar (or vice versa) and if the only parsley you can find is curly, then you do retro you. Make chili with chickpeas and chicken satay with almond butter, and build a salad from celery. This is the time to experiment and gain that confidence. No labneh lying around? That’s what yogurt was made for. Just load it into a fine mesh strainer and let the excess water drip out into bowl. Top with dill or whatever fresh herb you might have, some sumac or smoked paprika, and call it a dip (or instant sauce for grilled meat and poultry).

After stripping the woody stalks from a bunch of kale, I chopped them up, cooked them in salted water, tossed them with olive oil, salt, and a magical chili powder from Majordomo Meat and Fish. We had crunchy salty snacks that evening, and frittata, grain-bowl, and salad components for the next two days.

Move beyond the monolithic slab of meat and use said proteins as a secondary element rather than the honking star of the show. It’s cheaper, will stretch out your meat supply, and, frankly, is much better for your health. A little leftover corned beef, pimenton chickpeas, black rice, and the last of the broccoli is a perfectly balanced (and cheap-ish) dish.

We got into the habit of keeping some frozen peas on hand as ice packs for bumps and bruises for the kids when they were little. My wife threw some into the food processor with some parmesan, mint salt, garlic, and a little lemon juice and made an addictive dip that rivals guacamole. Fighting words I know.

Grill as much as possible. My pyro impulses have flared up and I’ve been cooking outside, because a) grilling makes things taste good. Even if it’s just a jalapeño. And b) cooking over fire is transporting and calming.

Capers, pepperoncini, dill pickles, and other brined things sprinkled on a piece of meat, a salad, a simple bowl of rice and beans, or that fifth quesadilla of the week elevates the dish. Here they add briny tangy pop to the rich swordfish (anointed with comforting brown butter).

Any darned meat can be the basis of deeply flavored, super satisfying bulgogi. All you really need to hack a decent approximation is soy sauce, finely chopped ginger, brown sugar, finely chopped garlic, and a toasted sesame oil. I improvise mine but if you’ve got the ingredients, try this Korean-style beef and noodle salad.

A stack of corn tortillas will take you halfway to brunch, lunch, or dinner. Are they getting stale? Toast ’em on the burner and nobody will ever know.