Recipe Indexing

Like most people we have lots of cook books, myriads of recipe cuttings from magazines and the usual handwritten scraps of paper.

One wet day all the loose recipes went from a box into plastic envelopes and into a binder. This made finding a recipe index a little easier. Jean has an incredible memory for recipes. She can remember that so and so gave her a recipe for making Hunza Pie or there was a cutting from Women's Weekly on Malay Fish Curry.

The only short coming is where in the three large binders of recipes is the one that is required. When the binders were setup each page was numbered in indelible ink with the expectation that one day an index would be created. That just never happened.

But one day there was this brilliant idea. Some recipes just get used much more than others. A new folder was started called "Most Used Recipes". A simple process was implemented i.e. any recipes that were in regular use made their way into the new folder.

The next problem to solve was cook books and tracking recipes. A simple solution is of course to insert a book mark. This works well until the book marks equal the number of pages in the book.

Sometimes standing in the kitchen with a set number of ingredients and all you need is a guiding recipe to put these ingredients together in a tasty ensemble. Wading through the cookbooks for a couple of hours is one solution. Another was to build a spread sheet of interesting recipes. Showing the Book Title, Recipe Name, Page Number and a column for each of up to  five major ingredients.

Book	Recipe	Page	Ingredient 1	Ingredient 2	Ingredient 3	Ingredient 4	Ingredient 5
The Rice Book	Carrot Rice	115	Rice	Carrots
The Rice Book	Rice with chickpeas	114	Rice	Chickpeas
The Rice Book	Savoury Rice with Herbs	123	Rice	Mackeral
The Rice Book	Fried Rice	126	Rice	Mushrooms	Carrots
The Rice Book	Jamaican Rice and Peas	116	Rice	Red Kidney Beans
The Rice Book	Mexican Rice and Refried Beans	128	Rice	Red Kidney Beans	Tomatoes
The Rice Book	South Indian Rice Soup	153	Rice	Red Lentils	Tomatoes	Carrots
The Rice Book	Minestrone Rice	158	Rice	Haricot Beans	Cannellini Beans	Leeks	Tomatoes
The Rice Book	Green Rice Soup	159	Rice	Onion	Spinach
The Rice Book	Miso	163	Rice	Peanuts	Shallots	Tofu	Mushrooms

Each column in the spread sheet has a Filter button to enable sorting by Book Title, Recipe or Ingredient. The Filter button also allows a single ingredient to be displayed simplifying the research.

No, it wasn't a matter of sitting there for days accumulating the index. It was done a little at a time such as when looking through a book and finding some interesting recipes to try at a later date. Especially important were recipes that used a number of seasonal vegetables. Remember the food guidelines say 5 vegetables every day.

Our lives are not as regimented as this post may indicate. As much as we try to keep these things in an orderly manner much slips through the cracks. But then there are Espoused Theories and then Theories in Action and somewhere in between.

I understand that some people keep their lives simple by minimising the number of variables they work with but that has never been our style.

Things in the Garden, Cooking Inspirations

After morning chores took a stroll through the garden to see how things are progressing. Still lots of food ready to eat and more on the way - thank goodness we won't starve.

Broad Beans on Target

Kale

Garlic looking very healthy

Self Sown Fennel. Let it go to seed once.

Two of the many Self Sown Radicchio. Again let it go to seed once for a permanent crop

Celery

Coriander Flowering. When the seeds are still green and soft they will be used in various dishes to add flavour and crunch

Flowering Jasmine "Gladdens your Heart"

In some commentary on another blog, readers referred to inspirational books on cooking that had set them on the path to getting serious about preparing their own food. This was reminder of a few of the books that set the scene for our cooking.

Back in the early 1980's a passing acquaintance hearing we were about to prepare a special meal for friends loaned us Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking which was used to prepare an authentic French feast. Although not as easy to use as Julia Child's books it nonetheless forced some discipline in preparation and delivery and brought us into the world of French cooking and cooking for pleasure. Ten years later we acquired the box set of Elizabeth David's books but took out the pristine French Provincial Cooking and gave it to the stunned acquaintance who had forgotten that we never returned her loan. The dog eared stained original still holds a special place with us.

Not long after that The Cuisine of Paul Bocuse joined our shelves and brought creativity to the kitchen. Over the years cookery books accumulated on our book shelves, some just for their prettiness, others for specific recipes or techniques still used and others just because they were about cooking. When hunting for something new to do with a vegetable in over supply it's not unusual for us to sit with a dozen rarely opened books over coffee examining alternatives. Sharing the discovery process is not as easy on the web as it is with the hard copy.