Meal Prep

I learned from Claudia Roden, who brought the secrets of Middle Eastern cooking to this country in the 1960s, how to make this invaluable preserve, which adds zest to so many dishes. I even find that you can use a little of it in place of fresh lemons to perk up a dish.

I make this pastry dough on a leisurely weekend when I want to treat myself to a small quiche for lunch, or a fruit pastry for dessert. Then I store the rest of the dough in the freezer, so I’ll have it on hand if family or friends show up unexpectedly, or if I feel like making something for myself one night that requires a pastry topping, such as Beef and Kidney Pie (page 34). I use a food processor to make the dough, because it is so easy, and if you measure the pulses carefully as you are mixing the dough, you can’t go wrong. I learned from Lydie Marshall, that incomparable French-cooking teacher, the trick of saying “alligator” out loud to determine the length of each pulse.

Unlike other legumes, lentils do not need to be soaked, so they are convenient when you are putting together a relatively quick meal

Wild rice isn’t really a rice—it’s a grain—and the best of it comes from Native Americans in the upper Midwest who harvest it in the traditional way, beating the ripened grains into their canoes at harvest time. The cultivated variety is all right and takes a little less time to cook, but it doesn’t have the texture of the wild variety. Evan, being a loyal Minnesotan, always sent for wild rice from Blackduck, Minnesota, and I have kept up the tradition, ordering Slindee wild rice, as the producers are now known. It takes about an hour for wild rice to cook, so it’s not for a quick dinner. But it reheats perfectly, and I always make extra and enjoy it in a number of ways.

Since this is one of those staples that is nice to have stashed away in your freezer, I am giving proportions for a larger amount of sauce than you’ll probably have immediate need for. If you want to make less, just halve the recipe. Trying to make less than that really doesn’t work well. And, of course, you can double the recipe.

There’s nothing like knowing you have stashed away in your freezer good tomato sauce made from sweet San Marzano canned tomatoes. It comes in handy in so many ways. I usually make 3 cups of thick sauce, to freeze in 1-cup containers. You can easily double or triple that amount if you’re feeling ambitious and have enough freezer space.

This is a good way to make use of those unnecessarily large bouquets of parsley that we get at our supermarkets, as well as fennel fronds that usually go to waste.

This is a sauce to have on hand at all times. It keeps well in the refrigerator for at least a week if you film the top of it with olive oil (and refilm after you have dipped into it and taken some from the jar), and it keeps its bloom for a couple of months frozen. It’s a good idea to freeze it in an ice tray, and then store the cubes in plastic storage bags. That way, you easily can get at just the amount you need.

I prefer this sauce to any other for cold meats, fish, and poultry, or those innards that I like so much.

It is so easy to make a vinaigrette, the classic French salad dressing, that I can’t fathom why so many people living alone go out and buy bottled dressings. Not only do they pay more, but the dressing never tastes as fresh, and you can’t vary the seasonings as you wish. So I beg you to make your own vinaigrette as part of your cooking life. The amounts I’m giving will be enough to dress two or three small salads, but you can double or triple the quantities if you’re an avid salad consumer and want enough dressing to see you through the week. Just refrigerate the extra in a jar, tightly sealed.

Treat yourself once in a while to homemade mayonnaise prepared in a food processor. This simple version is delicious and light—and it takes about 5 minutes to whip up. It will keep about a week, but mine usually vanishes before that, particularly if I use some of it to make the Mediterranean Pistou Sauce that follows.

Every now and then, I get a yearning for a bit of warm, smooth, buttery-lemony hollandaise sauce to dip artichoke leaves into, to top a poached egg with so that I can enjoy that delicious flavor play of eggs Benedict, or to spread over a piece of grilled salmon—or other fish. But to make a small amount for just one or two servings of this tricky sauce (and then reheat what’s leftover)? Impossible, the pros would say. However, where there’s a will, there’s a way. So I experimented and managed to work out a method that served my purposes beautifully. Here it is.

Don’t throw away your chicken carcass or the package of giblets. Here’s a way of making a simple chicken stock (or broth—I use the terms interchangeably) that you’ll be using in all kinds of soups. This will produce only about 4 cups, so you may want to freeze the chicken elements until you have enough to make at least twice that amount.

This is something I’m tempted to make when my supply of rich beef broth is low. But maybe that’s an excuse. The truth is, I love eating these cuts, spooning out the marrow from the shank, and, in the second dish, sucking off meat from the little tail bones. It’s nice, messy eating, perhaps best enjoyed alone with a kitchen towel around one’s neck. I usually still have some meat left after lapping up these two dishes—just enough to make myself a pasta on a night when I want a quick supper. Then there’s the treasure of the rich beef broth to put away.

Store-bought beef broth works just fine, but—just as with chicken broth—it simply doesn’t compare in taste to the homemade version. The trick with beef stock is to roast the bones first in order to achieve a nice caramelized flavor.

Creamed soups are often used as a base ingredient in casseroles, and cream of chicken is among the most popular of choices. Trust us when we say that making this soup from scratch and using it in recipes will really make a huge flavor difference by highlighting the freshest ingredients and doing away with preservatives and artificial colorings. This soup is fantastic as a ingredient in recipes, but don’t be afraid to make it as a stand-alone dish as well.

There are some exceptions where homemade just makes good common flavor sense. This recipe boasts a lovely, woody mushroom flavor that doesn’t compare to the canned variety. It’s perfect for adding to your favorite recipes, such as our Oh Boy! Broccoli Casserole, page 131.