Farmer Confession: I’m a Lazy Chef
I’m gonna let everyone in on a little farmer secret: I spend all day, every day, growing amazing and nutritious foods for our communities . . . and then I eat cereal or boxed mac’n’cheese for dinner. When I first started farming (and eating cereal for dinner) I felt like I wasn’t living up to the perceived small farm lifestyle standard: spend the day growing delicious food and then spend the evenings cooking delicious meals from whole ingredients.
But reality hit pretty quickly: farming is exhausting. When I come inside after a days work, covered in soil and hay, the last thing I want to do is stand in my kitchen and prep ingredients for a complicated dinner. I found I’m not the only one . . . farmer friends were eating quick meals of chips for lunch or microwaving hot dogs for dinner.
After a few seasons it became my mission to use the food we grew for our own meals, not just our market sales. I needed to transform into a chef . . . maybe not a gourmet chef, but at least a lazy chef . . . or maybe a lazy gourmet chef?
It took a little bit of practice, but eventually, our dinners were transformed into quick, easy and amazing meals. Here are my three lazy gourmet chef principles that anyone can employ:
Principle #1: Not all pork chops are created equal
Using quality ingredients is essential to becoming a lazy gourmet chef — but you may not know a quality pork chop until you’ve had a quality pork chop. I grew up in the suburbs, with two parents who worked full-time and cooked on a budget. They definitely did not source dinner ingredients from local farms, but out of convenience and necessity found them in the nearest chain grocery store. It wasn’t until I was in my twenties, cooking on my own, and only a few blocks from a local farmers’ market that I realized the difference in the ingredients I grew up eating and the fresh ingredients from the farms down the road. With good ingredients, I don’t have to rely on smothering the meal with additional sugar, fat or carbs, but instead can rely on the actual flavor. High quality ingredients mean I need less of them and I get more flavor.
Principle #2: You don’t need gadgets, but you do need good tools
We have a really small kitchen and can’t afford the space to store a bunch of one-use kitchen gadgets. That’s why, when everyone began raving about the Instant Pot, I steered clear: no need to add more junk the back of the kitchen cabinets. When we were gifted one last Christmas, my world changed and I realized how wrong I had been. Suddenly, with this electric pressure cooker, I could prepare meals with my own ingredients very last minute. Didn’t thaw out that chuck roast? Throw it entirely frozen in the instant pot and dinner is ready in two hours. Want to make perfect, quick, no fuss rice? Throw it in the Instant Pot. That freezer burned chicken thats been hiding behind the frozen veggies? throw it in the Instant Pot. Having the right gadgets is more important than having all of the gadgets.
Principle #3: “Keep it Simple Stupid!”
As I’ve declared before, I’m a lazy chef. If a plan for dinner has more than a few steps, or creates more than a few dishes, I’m not going to use it. Eating seasonally, with fresh ingredients, allows me to make plenty of one pan meals packed with flavor. My favorite simple dish: root vegetables chopped up, with half a chicken laid on top and thrown in the oven to roast. Another favorite: the one skillet dish. Pick your ingredients, dump it in, cook it down and then devour. Simple, quick, easy, delicious.
That’s all it takes. Really.
Over the last few farming seasons, as I drag myself inside after a busy day, these principles have served me well. I’ve been able to enjoy the food that we grow and have become quite the lazy chef. Anyone with a busy schedule can utilize these techniques and enjoy their own successes of lazy gourmet cooking.
