I insist: I am not an inept cook. In fact, beyond never giving myself food poisoning, I am usually quite sure that something I have created is awful, when it is merely ugly and delicious. I walked home after my triumphant, grammatically-correct purchase of sausage (which left me, of course, dreaming of buying all sorts of meat products, the names of which I know in neither Polish or English. And of course, the physiology of which is probably mysterious as well. But I was empowered! And ready to cook!) I thought I'd planned the best meal ever: lots of peppery broccoli with a wee bit of fennel, and then sausage with my Strong and Old Polish Mustard, chosen at random from the local shop.But I put the kiełbasa in a pan and covered it with water, just like I would any other raw sausage in the world. Because, at the end of the day, don't we all want a little bit of that crispy brown fat from the pan on the sides of the sausage link! Yes. We do. But this sausage would not, did not cook. For 15 minutes it looked like it does in this photo, refusing to claim the "whiteness" that defines it! I poured water over it, drank a beer, listened to music. Finally, I covered it and waited, resigning myself to over-cooked sausage. Why?! Why would cooking leave me in this time when I can't even order a drink anywhere without revealing my cultural discomfort!
Actually, I'm being dramatic because that steaming pan of sausage conjures up the urgency that I felt while watching the meat luxuriate in its water bath. It was fine, turns out white sausage doesn't really look white, even when it's definitely cooked. And! It was still totally "knusprig" and juicy, even if I could never focus for the intense hunger the long cooking process added. So there.
awesome, awesome post. and that mustard looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteGreek grammar update: we've just learned numbers (other than our old friends, five and six - the stoically undeclining pente and hex), and now we can sacrifice any number of goats and send any number of soldiers across the bridge. The delights of dual endings are just inches away from us now. I would like to use my new-found knowledge to buy two sausages in Ancient Greece. I just have to learn the word for sausage. Apparently - or so wikipedia tells me - there is mention of a kind of sausage in Homer. And he was a fairly loyal believer in the dual -- when it comes to sirens, though - strangely - not when it comes to knees.
ReplyDelete-- Alex.