Cooking My Style

I can cook. Most of the time I love cooking. I'm not a great cook like my mother though, but I believe I'm quite adept in the arts. I can follow other people's recipes and even make slight improvements to my liking. However, I have this problem when people start asking me about recipes. If I make something (lessay, a cake) based from a recipe in a book or magazine, I'll just copy the recipe verbatim for them. Well, what if people ask the recipe for something that I made, something that didn't need any fixed recipe?

Here's my standard cooking procedure:

1. Open the fridge and freezer, checking the content.
The content vary from time to time. It depends on whatever the maids have bought from the market or whatever I fancy. Sometimes it also depends on what isman feels like eating. Right now our fridge and freezer contain ice, a snapper steak, minced beef, minced chicken, chicken's breasts, chicken sausages, frozen vegetables, french fries, vanilla ice cream, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggs, beancurd, green vegetables, carrots, champignon mushrooms, cheese, mango juice, lychee juice, water chestnut juice, mung bean juice, plain water, mayonaise, blackberry jam, barbeque sauce, tomato and chili sauce, butter, apples, papaya, and something for dogs to chew. We meant to give it to Joker the dog eons ago. Joker belongs to good friends of ours, the twins. I wonder... is Joker still alive? Maybe we should get rid of it, hmm.

Yeah, yeah, I check the fridge and freezer that often.

2. Open the spice cabinets, checking the content.
Right now we have masala powder, salt, pepper, sage, thyme, rosemary, sugar--well you get the idea. There are so many of them.

3. Ask him what he wants.
If he's on Warrior's Diet, I'll start with chicken and vegetable soup, fried or roasted chicken (can be substituted for fish, squid, beef, anything that we happen to have), and then perhaps pancakes or something equally sweet and satisfying.

4. Start to cook.
If, for instance, I decide to roast chicken's breasts, I might use different spice and sauce everytime. When I'm feeling lazy I just mix a bit salt, pepper, and barbeque sauce for the chicken. Our favorite is the combination of lemon juice, a bit salt and pepper, barbeque sauce, soy sauce, sweet and spicy chili sauce, and crushed garlic.

I think my cooking is okay. My brothers love my spaghetti and rissotto. My dear angel, Andi Saptono, loves my macaroni schotel. Many people seem to agree with him. Several times, I was asked to give the recipe for my macaroni schotel. I couldn't, really. How can I give a recipe like this?

Ingredients for Macaroni Schotel:
- Macaroni
- Minced beef or chicken
- Tomato sauce
- Garlic
- Onion
- Oregano
- Milk
- Flour
etc.

For I never measure the ingredients whenever I want to make macaroni schotel. Or some other dishes, for that matter. Some say it is unwise, yet I believe that it's better this way. I can unleash my creativity in cooking and still be sure that my cookings will taste good.

One day I dream of opening my own cooking school. Instead of being drilled with exact measurements and recipes, the students will be asked to explore and experiment until they can cook without bothering to open the written recipes.

And perhaps, the world may change...