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One of the problems of staying in quarantine is that it’s really easy to overeat, either from boredom or from simple proximity. To keep from filling up on chips, crackers, and cookies, try to put your kitchen time to work learning a new skill or putting an existing tool to work in a new way. This is a great time to build a new skill and try some new recipes.
Embrace Your Inner Pioneer
While you’re home for long stretches, go ahead and try your hand at some pioneer foods. Sort dried beans, rinse with care, soak, and boil them until soft. Preparing your own beans gives you the chance to change and boost the flavor at many steps on the way.
Once your beans have soaked and softened, cook them in a mushroom stock for a hearty vegetarian dish. If you want some meat, add bacon and a bit of brown sugar to pinto beans for a Yankee bean flavor. Combine black beans with corn and salsa for a Tex Mex treat, or use navy beans and hominy for a southern traditional dish. If canned beans have hardened your taste buds against this versatile and cost-effective food, dried beans will change your mind.
Make a Great Cup of Joe
If your favorite coffee shop has been inaccessible, you may have discovered that you can, in fact, survive without an extra shot of espresso or your favorite breakfast croissant. Whether you take the time to roast your own green beans or grind your beans with a mortar and pestle, you can turn your coffee habit into a coffee meditational practice. That being said, instructors at the Calgary coffee academy reminds coffee fans that starting with a great product is one of the simplest ways to brew great coffee.
This goes for other fine foods and beverages. For example, if you’ve never made a flourless chocolate cake or come up with a working pie crust, now is the time to learn. Even if it’s not perfect, it will likely be very tasty!
Use All Your Tools
There may be tools in the pantry that you rarely use. If you want to try beans, put your crockpot to use. Many people own a wok but seldom use it. Chop up your veggies and cook some rice so you can learn to make fried rice that will keep your family happy and serve your budget. During the quarantine, make sure you pull out all the tools that have a lot of fiddly parts. Drag out the cake decorator and the mandolin. Get comfy with these tools so you can put them to use on a regular basis.
Reach Around the World
If you love Asian food, find a recipe for Vietnamese pho and play with it until you have a reasonable facsimile. The same can be said for making baba ghanoush, hummus and tabbouleh. Every culture has cuisine treats that you can make at home with a bit of experimentation.
There is a point to consider when trying new cuisines and recipes. Many of these dishes are cooked with very hot oil. If you want to learn to make a stir fry, invest in the right oil and load up your wok on a day you can open up the windows. If you’re working at a hotter temperature than you usually do, you may smoke up your house. Be prepared for a bit more mess in the kitchen than you’re accustomed to. As you get better at new dishes and new ethnic cooking styles, you will make less of a mess.
Maintenance
Now is a great time to learn to sharpen your own knives. Watch videos on how to manage a sharpening stone. Once your knives are sharp, be diligent about using a cutting board and protecting the edges of your kitchen knives in storage.
This is also a great time to season your cast iron, review all your bakeware to make sure nothing has rusted, and match storage container lids to the base. Part of the reason we get too busy to cook is that our kitchens just don’t work. Now is the time to fix that.
To make the best of your quarantine, try to learn skills that will make post-quarantine life easier, more efficient, and less costly. Most important, learn to treat yourself and your family to something special, effortlessly.
