Traveling for an extended period is very different than a one-week vacation. In a week, I want to eat out every meal! But traveling for 10 weeks? I want some home-cooked food, some comfort food, and for me, that means a little bit of cooking.
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| Make-do Measuring Cups |
If you are not a home cook, learning culinary skills abroad might be a huge challenge. But if you do regularly cook at home, you can easily adapt your preferences and styles to the local offerings.
For instance, I love rice. And I really wanted to eat rice during my Curated in Residence! But not many restaurants in the UK or western Europe include rice on their menus.
So … I bought some jasmine rice.
My AirBnB had liquid measuring cups, but none like I’m used to at home. And the cooking instructions – even if I had a measuring cup or scale – were tiny and in a foreign language, making it extra challenging for my eyes and brain to know what to do.
Solution?
At home, the instructions on my bag of jasmine rice say 1 cup of rice to 1.5 cups of water. So my jasmine rice ratio is 2:3, that is, 2 parts rice to 3 parts water.
So I used what I had: espresso cups!
The first time I made rice, I used 2 espresso cups of rice to three espresso cups of water. Perfection – especially topped with a little French butter, regionally produced salt, and freshly cracked black pepper!
The second time I made rice, I really wanted risotto … so I cooked my jasmine rice almost the same way I would cook risotto at home. No stores were open on a Sunday evening in my little village, so I used what I had in the fridge. I've included the basic recipe in case you’d like to adapt it for your own traveling kitchen!
Mock Risotto in Switzerland
Mock Risotto Recipe
Ingredients:
* butter or olive oil
* chopped bell pepper
* chopped onion
* bacon, ham, or prosciutto, chopped
* one espresso cup of rice
* white wine (up to one espresso cup)
* one and one-half espresso cups of water or broth
* fresh tomato
* local cheese, cubed or crumbled
* salt
* pepper
* grated parmesan or similar cheese
Method:
Melt butter or warm oil in small saute pan. Add bell pepper and onion, saute for a few minutes. Add meat of choice and saute a little more. Add one espresso cup of rice and saute for 2 minutes, then add up to one espresso cup of white wine. Cook until wine is absorbed into rice, scraping bottom of pan to incorporate all the delicious bits. Add one espresso cup of hot water or broth; cook until mostly incorporated. Add a scant additional espresso cup of water or broth plus local cheese. Stir well, then cover until fully cooked. Add parmesan, salt, and pepper to taste. Serve while piping hot, topping with additional parmesan cheese and (if available) freshly cracked black pepper.
Voila! A delicious and hearty meal in just half an hour.
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