The rain peppered my windshield with glass stones. The world in the streets had turned into a color strip of variations, a swatch of darkened asphalt grey buildings and silver sky. I was driving through an industrial park, to see a guy about a knife. I parked out front of Eversharp, a little knife shop in the middle of NE Minneapolis. You really have to know about this place to find it. I popped open my black umbrella, which Christina and I bought from a drugstore on one of our caught-in-the-rain walks (it is really more of a prop than a shield, as it barely covers my shoulders) and walked carefully to the door. I was greeted instantly by a friendly man who reached his arms forward, as though he was closing in to give me a hug, but instead took the wrapped knife out of my hands and said "I'll sharpen that for you".
"Thank you" I said.
"No problem. You in the industry?" He asked, head turned to the side.
"I..." Just then Kevin, my new friend who had informed me about the shop came into the room. "Glad you stopped by", he said "Let me give you the nickel tour.."
In no time I was handling every knife in the shop, smooth handles, curved handles, some felt masculine, some feminine, some felt light and sleek as a razor blade, others were heavy and stiff, like a Samurai sword. I must have chatted with them for two hours, testing driving knives. They sell high quality knives at a major discount that have been used once for demo or photograph purposes, and then cannot be sold as new.
I bought a new set of Wusthof's at a majorly discounted price. As Kevin was rolling them into their case he said "Use these right away" as though he were instructing me on how to take care of a new pet.
"Don't worry, I will" I said.
I was in such a good mood driving home, that I had to call people and tell them. I realize that I might be a little cracked in this regard. I love grocery shopping and I loved the idea of having new cooking knives. A sharp knife makes all the difference in the kitchen and I was sure that having a brand new set of quality knives was going to be pure heaven. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home to find challenging produce to test my new knives on. Rutabaga, turnips, carrots, leeks (they can be slippery when cut), and I stopped abruptly when I noticed the lovely long stemmed artichokes lying like roses on the produce rack. I remembered the words of Christina "how come we never have artichokes if you love them so much" and I picked out two of them.
Artichokes are flowers. They remind me of my childhood, each of us would get our own artichoke and bowl of butter. We would scrape the buttery leaves with our teeth, they my father and I would split everyone else's artichoke heart because we were the artichoke lovers of the family. The stem has an edible core, which is really an extension of the heart. It was the perfect thing for testing out my new paring knife.. I whittled through the woody outer layer of the stem with ease. I used the serrated bread knife to cut off the prickly ends, and the chefs knife to cut the ends of the stems. Then I bathed the little darlings in vinegar water and set them in my tallest soup pot to steam. Then I set to work on the rutabaga and turnips, I peeled and diced them both into little squares.
Using my knew chefs knife was like dancing with a beautiful stranger. We both had the right moves but we were not yet acquainted with one another. We quickly learned how not to step on each others toes. I went for the leek next, with quick swish swish the leak lay in beautiful circles against the wood of my cutting board. I looked up and around, half expecting to be given an award for such a performance.
Leek, rutabaga and turnip went into the frying pan at once with a little salt and some ghee (if you don't have ghee you can use oil, but add a little butter at the end for flavor). I peeled the carrots with my new pairing knife. I own two carrot peelers, but I figured I would use the opportunity to get to know my knives better. The carrots went into the mix. When the leeks began acquiring a caramel brown, I removed the frying pan from the burner and added some salt and fresh ground pepper and a sprinkle of white wine vinegar.
Delicious comfort food for dinner!
If you live in the twin cities, I highly recommend www.eversharpknives.com
No comments:
Post a Comment