Kitchens

My brother-in-law just renovated his kitchen and the former chef and caterer seemed as pleased as punch about it. They installed some sleek and handsome dark wood cabinets and apple-martini green counter tops, new range and fridge, new flooring, a new picture window waiting for the new table. It is now a sunny and efficient place to do some serious cooking.

We have given some thought to kitchen renovation, though it has mostly been, if you'll pardon the pun, on the back burner, behind other more pressing expenditures like painting the exterior. We are mostly happy with our current kitchen, which is not beautiful but very serviceable. It passed the litmus test that kitchens in other houses we looked at mostly did not of having enough storage space for the considerable batterie de cuisine resulting from the pooling of a former professional chef and a longtime hobby cook. It has a gas cook top, granite counters, adequate counter space and enough other accouterments to work comfortably. We can keep equipment like the Cuisinart, Kitchen-Aid and Vitamix ready to go. There is room for a table where we can eat meals together.

Kitchens do not a cook make. Henry whipped up fabulous meals in his old kitchen. A friend of mine in Paris used to host dinner parties for eight cooking in a kitchen where she barely had room to turn around and which Martha Stewart would not have deigned to enter.

Beyond the necessary rudiments, the pleasure in a kitchen that's shiny new is largely aesthetic. That's important, but it has less to do with food and more with overall quality of life.

That said, we would not mind improving the quality of our life by someday having a kitchen that is more aesthetically pleasing. Henry's wife, Laura, suggested starting to keep a folder of things we like because kitchen renovations famously entail a lot of choices. A quick look online resulted in a new folder for bookmarks and some appealing links.

When I was renovating the loft in Paris, I spent years planning my dream kitchen (we sold the loft before installing a permanent kitchen). It is already fun, from an aesthetic point of view, to make these plans. Our initial thought is something more rustic, or least somewhat less sleek, for cabinets and furnishings. Farmhouse style of the Provencal or Italian persuasion is a starting point. For instance, we both like the idea of a big farmhouse style sink. One of the houses we looked at when we were in the market had a very pretty Provencal style kitchen that kind of stuck with us, though the house itself had other flaws that kept us from bidding.

Perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing kitchen I've had is the one in the barn I lived in for a year in Princeton. The kitchen, like the rest of the living space, had been renovated using much of the barn's original wood. It was essentially an expanded galley kitchen, but it had a window with a nice view, lots of light, and a decidedly rustic touch.

So this will be a long-term project, but it might be nice to start thinking about it now.

Beanpot

It's hard to strike the right balance between furnishing your kitchen with special equipment and avoiding clutter. It's been easy to resist a pannini grill, but I bought a cazuela from La Tienda and regret to say I've gotten little use out of it.

But a recent Epicurious recipe for Tuscan beans included a whole discussion about the merits of a terracotta beanpot. Though the beans tasted great cooked our Le Creuset dutch oven, I took the plunge and got a 5-quart Piral beanpot from La Cuisine in Alexandria. We've been getting these nice heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo and we really like bean dishes. Plus, the plain terracotta version I got is decorative enough to sit out of the way on the top shelf of the hutch.

Seasoning consisted of simply immersing it in water for three hours. So the maiden dish for the new beanpot was Red beans Basque style from Janet Mendel's My Kitchen in Spain. I used the Santa Maria Piquito beans from Rancho Gordon -- little pink beans that are supposed to hold their shape well.

RG's beans in general do not have to have an overnight soak. Putting them in to soak the same morning and leaving them for four or five hours will generally cut the cooking time to an hour or so. As with the Tuscan bean recipe, though, this one just suggested putting the beans on a slow simmer for two or three hours.

For this recipe, you put 1 lb or rinsed beans into the pot with 6 c. of water, add an optional ham bone (which I didn't have), 1 large carrot cut into chunks, 2 bay leaves, a small green pepper chopped, and a half onion chopped. You bring the water to a boil and add a Tbl of olive oil, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pot and cook for an hour.

You then add a cup of cold water to "shock" the beans and cook for another half an hour. Then add another cup of cold water and 1 leek white and tender parts chopped, 1 lb potatoes peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes, 1 Tbl salt and 4 oz of chorizo or any pork link sausage (I used hot Italian sausage from Broad Branch). You cook for another hour or so until the beans are tender. Three optional condiments to serve with it are cooked cabbage, sauteed red onion slices, or mild pickled green chiles (I opted for the red onion).

The stew was delicious. The spicy sausage added just the right amount of heat, but I would probably add a bit more sweet sausage, especially in the abscence of the ham bone. I'd love to try it another time with the ham bone, though, if anyone can tell me where to get one. I got several meals from it over the week and never tired of it. We sauteed more sausage one time and more red onion. Another time for lunch I just sprinkled cubes of feta cheese on top and that worked.

Did I have to have a beanpot to cook this recipe. Probably not, but it certainly came out nicely and was fun this way.