Making Do

These days, it seems that everything is more complicated than it needs to be. Where cooking is concerned there are hundreds of cookbooks, thousands of recipes, uncountable food blogs every one promoting its own spin on a recipe or technique, as if a teaspoon or five minutes of baking or a certain method of mixing is really exclusive or copyrightable. But really, isn’t cooking generally pretty democratic? Each of us has the ability to make our own kitchen decisions, to add or change a little here and there, to re-invent dinner based on a whim or circumstance. We each have the power to be our own boss in the kitchen.

For me, and for many other cooks that I know, it is not so much about following directions to the letter to get a picture-perfect recipe replica (although that can be satisfying!), it is more about the creative flow that happens when I step into the kitchen. Lately, I have been talking to some Maine cooks about their own inspirations and joys in the kitchen. My Other Mother is the one who recently proposed the idea of “making do” – of using what you have instead of letting one missing ingredient get in your way. Since that conversation, I have talked with many others who savor the adventure of making do.

Part of making do is allowing food to be very, very simple. A six-ingredient dish (or meal!) can be even more satisfying than one with twice as many ingredients because its flavors are stronger and truer and less complicated. Allowing lentils, or kale, or carrots, or chocolate to shine with minimal accompaniment is many times more interesting than muddying up the palate with a pinch of this and a dash of that and any number of other ingredients. My own tomato and avocado salad is a great example of this. For two such fantastic foods, there is really nothing much needed to make them better than they already are -- a drizzle of olive oil and a dusting of sea salt is plenty enough enhancement. The mystique of gourmet French cooking, with all of its steps and sauces and preparations, has given rise to the impression that fine dining must be something difficult, complex, even unattainable for the average cook. But I believe that we know better … cooking good, simple food is possible for everyone, it is not exclusive or elusive at all.

Making do is also about being flexible enough to see a creative opportunity where someone else might see an insurmountable roadblock. How many times have you been reading through a recipe – or in the middle of cooking! – and realized that you were missing some “critical” ingredient? The last-minute trip to the store for that missing ingredient often expands to a mini shopping trip and you come home $25 later with the one ingredient you “needed” …. and five other things that you didn’t. Instead, what if you use your imagination and creativity to substitute that missing ingredient instead of going out to buy it? Many times, substituting in a recipe can improve it … whether making it lower fat, changing a flavor, or just making it more interesting to your own palate. By adding your own creativity you make the food your own, and earn bragging rights when you share it with your friends: “taste what I invented!” you can say when you sit down to eat together.

In this culture of over-abundance (and perceived scarcity!), making do is also about being content to use what we have. Our pantries and refrigerators are usually brimming with jars and bottles and packages that we once thought we needed and are now just gathering dust. How about using something that you already have? All of us have enough food in our homes to feed ourselves for quite a while, and yet we are always grocery shopping for something else. Every week I catch myself thinking “what do I want to cook this week?” instead of “what do I have to cook?”, but why not reverse the questions? That conscious shift to making do with what I have instead of imagining what I want is something that I’ve been working on. It may not always be easy, but there is real satisfaction in using up a quarter jar of dried beans, the heels of bread, or re-purposing some leftover rice from a meal in the past. Somehow, my meal gains a little more character when I know that I have made do with something that might otherwise have been wasted.

Philosophy in life and cooking are so frequently similar. Making do is about cooking in the present, being satisfied with what is available to us, being open to making small changes in our plans. In the end, maybe the most important question that we can ask ourselves every day, whether in the kitchen or elsewhere in our lives, is not “what do I want?” but ”what do I have?”. And then be creative and make do.