There are many reasons why I love to cook. One of them is that diet culture doesn’t exist in cooking.
Salt, fat & sugar are elements deeply appreciated in cooking that can be manipulated to provide different flavours, please different senses & add to the overall experience of eating/cooking.
My favourite channel on TV is channel 33 i.e. the food network channel. Poor Jake falls asleep each night with me listening to & watching Nigella Lawson whip up amazing dishes & pronounce words with extreme dramatisation. #ifyouknowyouknow
I can’t tell you how many hours I spent as a kid imagining & (actively) pretending I was on a cooking show as I made my ham, tomato & mayonnaise sandwiches in the kitchen.
My Oma was a Chef & I have fond memories with her of cooking waffles in the kitchen with a tonne of sugar. I don’t ever remember there being talk of “toxicity”, badness, guilt, worry, needing to do something to counteract it… just love & joy. When did elements of food become something people are so afraid of? Probably around the same time diet culture decided to manipulate it so.
Remember that your body digests food & breaks elements of food down to utilise them. Depending on what that element of food is, it might break it down to use for: energy, fuel for our brain & body (hint: this is what sugar is broken down to be used for), muscle synthesis/growth, tissue repair, hormone creation, immunity, neurotransmitter signalling, mood regulation, brain communication, body temp regulation, for the building blocks of our body incl. bones, nails, skin, hair, blood, muscles, brain. Food directly aids in all of this! In fact, these functions will be significantly compromised without enough.
You can trust that your body will utilise whatever it is to the best of its ability. Your body literally has your back. Aren’t our bodies amazing?
One of my favourite things that my mother in law has always said is “if you can read, you can cook”.
I’m grateful to have access to produce, eyes that allow me to read recipes, hands that allow me to create, people to provide food for/enjoy with, & the means to be able to do all of the above.
Once upon a time I had an incredibly disordered relationship with food & my body. I’m therefore insurmountably grateful for the support I received along my own journey to be able to show up & live my life in line with my values, & now be able to help others do the same.
Guesses on what I was making in this photo?
Homemade Gnocchi Recipe
Ingredients
🥔 800g Potatoes
🥚 1 Beaten egg
👩🍳 2 Cups flour
🧂 Pinch of salt
Method
1 – boil the potatoes (skin on) in salted water till cooked. Once cooked, drain potatoes & peel.
2 – pass the potatoes through a potato ricer & into a bowl. Add the flour, egg & good pinch of salt. Mix until you have a nice pliable ball of dough.
3 – prepare a work area & dust it with flour. Take the dough, a piece at a time & roll it out in your hands until you have rolls about 3 / 4 inch in diameter. Cut the tubes of dough into pieces about 1 inch long.
4 – with a fork, holding the tines against the work surface, use your finger to press a piece of dough gently against the fork & roll it slightly then letting it fall to the table. The result should be gnocchi with an indent on one side from your finger & a pattern on the other side from the fork.
5 – handle the gnocchi carefully so they don’t lose their shape. Place them on a lightly floured plate. Keep them apart so they don’t touch one another or they’ll stick together.
6 – bring a pot of water to a boil & then add the gnocchi carefully a plate or two at a time. When they float to the surface they are ready, just remove them with a slotted spoon & set them in a strainer to drain off the excess water.
Burnt Butter & Sage Gnocchi Recipe
Ingredients
🧈100g Unsalted butter, chopped
🍃 16-20 Small sage leaves
🥔 800g Gnocchi, cooked (above for homemade recipe or store bought is fine)
🧀 1 Cup parmesan, shaved or grated
🧂 Pinch of salt, to season
Method
1 – place chopped butter into a large frying pan over medium heat. Cook until melted then add sage leaves to pan. Cook butter & sage leaves, swirling pan often, for 4-5 minutes or until sage leaves are crisp & butter has turned a deep nut-brown colour. Season to taste with salt & pepper.
2 – add gnocchi to frying pan & toss to coat in burnt sage butter. To serve, divide gnocchi among bowls, spooning over any burnt butter that is left in the fresh pan. Sprinkle with parmesan & enjoy
3 – optional, add a squeeze of lemon. That’s it!
