Why do we cook? In my hiatus from the kitchen, I’ve thought a lot about this. What makes people, at the end of a long day of work or school or play, say, “I’m going to go into the kitchen now”?
Sustenance, I suppose, is a large factor. No one can live by ordering or dining out every day of the year, though lord knows I’ve tried. We need to eat to live and in order to eat well, we need to cook.
But cooking can be so much more than that. In one of my favorite books, Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate), Laura Esquivel writes of a woman whose tears fall into the wedding cake she is baking, which causes everyone at the wedding to weep. While that was a case of magical realism, I think that cooking and feeding others really does have the power to move people, set moods, uplift, bring to tears.
It is intrinsically linked to memory — certain dishes or tastes or even smells can mean so much. To me, the smell of onions and potatoes together will forever remind me of my grandmother’s aloo paratha, a potato-filled flatbread that will forever and always be the best after-school snack I ever had.
Food can bring people together, drawing friends or family around one pot, tasting and adding, laughing and screaming (if it’s my family at least), building memories. I notice this especially around the holidays, when my family all crowds into the kitchen, everyone working on separate dishes, getting in each others’ way, spending time together around the stove.
Why am I thinking about this now? Well, I’ve suffered through a weird bout of apathy with cooking over the past few weeks. Nothing inspired me — I couldn’t find any recipes that I wanted to make. (For someone who compiles a list of recipes on both her phone and in Google docs, that’s a real problem.) I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do in the kitchen, which led to questions of why I wanted to be there in the first place.
I can’t say that I have an answer to the “why do I cook” question either. I baked this cake last week, mostly because it gave me something to do. It was the first time I had been alone in the kitchen in a while, just me and the strawberries, the homemade buttermilk and the hint of lemon.
It was quiet, lovely, a nice reminder that sometimes, cooking doesn’t need to be anything more than something that you do, on a Thursday evening, just because.
Strawberry Buttermilk Cake
Adapted from Gourmet
I used sifted cake flour again, because yes, I’m still out of all-purpose. Yes, I walk by the supermarket at least 7 times a day, and yes, I went to the store to buy strawberries for the express purpose of making this cake, and yes, I still forgot to buy AP. Fact: I am the biggest disaster on Earth.
– 1 cup all-purpose flour
– 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/4 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
– 2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided
– 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
– 1 large egg
– 1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk*
– 1 cup fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced**
*If you don’t have buttermilk on hand (does anyone ever have buttermilk on hand?), pour a half tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar into a measuring cup and add enough milk to make 1/2 cup. Stir and let sit for at least 10 minutes. Voila, homemade buttermilk! And you didn’t even have to churn butter.
**I didn’t do this, so all of my strawberries sank to the bottom.
1) Preheat the oven to 400°F and butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2) Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and 2/3 cup of sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then beat in the lemon juice. Add the egg and mix well.
3) Using a wooden spoon, mix in the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour. Mix only until just combined. Spoon the batter into cake pan and smooth top. Scatter the strawberries evenly over the top, then sprinkle with remaining sugar.
4) Bake until the cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool before serving.
Keith says
the first picture is so pretty. and the cake looks good too!
Meg says
YUM! this looks delish!
Mili Shah says
LOOKS SO GOOD
Mallika says
Tastes good, too! Yumm…