12 Days of Deliciousness: Day 1/ January 2022
It’s time! 12 days to Christmas = 12 days of deliciousness—an ode to the best things I cooked the last 12 months. Let’s do this!
Drumroll, please……January: a month of cold, of darkness. A month of resetting. A month of detoxing. And, in 2022, a month of @alisoneroman stews. Well, only three, but still: standouts.
I jumped on that dill cabbage stew bandwagon asap. And fell in love. It’s amazing. It’s warming and hearty, but also healthy and cleansing. There is a reason this woman’s recipes go viral. Try this one. You’ll see.
After the dill+cabbage situation, I revisited the (stupidly) “controversial” chickpea stew (aka #thestew). It’s still incredible, and got me thinking today about provenance and “cancel culture.”
So what if she used turmeric and other non-Western spices, and didn’t call the dish “Moroccan” or whatever? Should everyone who uses saffron in a dish be required to call their creation “Iranian” because of saffron’s geographic origins? Not in my book. I’m sorry: no. And, as for Roman herself— well, she got “cancelled” for saying she didn’t want to market her cookbooks to the same audience as a woman who ALSO EVENTUALLY got “cancelled”- FOR BULLYING A POOR KID AND TELLING HIM TO KILL HIMSELF. Now, both of these women have since been uncancelled/reinstated/whatever you want to call it. It’s just all so silly.
Also, I made another of Roman’s stews last January— spicy white bean with (kale instead of) broccoli rabe: also amazing. And, btw, I do have a problem with a recipe writer I generally admire calling a recent Iranian dish “tachin”….when it is VERY MUCH NOT TACHIN— so I wish he would have left that reference to my culture’s food out of his post rather than incorrectly using it—these things go both ways.
And, finally, Alison Roman is friends with one of the best non-Ansari sibling combos ever — @evajanebly and @danscostudio — so she’s got to be good people. And if she’s not? Whatever. Who cares. These stews are 🔥. And the best things I cooked in January ‘22.