How to cook in a Barbie Doll Kitchen

When we arrived in our apartment in July the biggest shock was the kitchen. Jack was even more troubled by it than I was. I’m not sure why since he doesn’t cook. Maybe he thought I was likely to develop serious depression or withdrawal from our beautiful new kitchen back home. Maybe he thought the food coming out of the kitchen was going to be as bad as the kitchen itself looked. I don’t know. I looked at it and thought, “I can deal with this.” I’m not sure why I was so upbeat. I was trying hard to develop a can-do attitude and be a more flexible person than I normally am. Moving abroad is a full immersion experience in being flexible and adapting. I was trying hard to get used to living in a somewhat dumpy apartment. I prefer to think of living in this place as very elaborate camping. That way I feel really spoiled. And after seeing some kitchens that others tolerate, I realize that I actually should feel spoiled at having a kitchen as large and as well equipped as we do. It’s all matter of perspective. And creativity. Maybe it doesn’t deserve the moniker Barbie Doll Kitchen after all.

Here’s what we’ve got in the kitchen: a small stove with four gas rings and a small oven. (What luck! Our friends Ann and Charlie have two burners, no oven.) One small fridge. A dishwasher and a washing machine. Two frying pans, two pots, a couple of knives, two metal pans to roast or bake in and a couple of casserole dishes. Actually, that’s incredible now that I think about it. Here’s what I bought: an electric kettle, two replacement frying pans when the handles broke off the ones we started with, a box grater, a hand held blender (I can see now that I probably shouldn’t have bought this, but I was thinking I needed it to make gazpacho), a silicon spatula, and a paella pan from the Rastro.

For a rolling pin I use a vermouth bottle. I don’t really like the vermouth here, so the one bottle I bought never runs dry and is always on hand. There is virtually no prep area, mostly the top of the dishwasher. And there’s not much storage to keep a decent stock of staples.

I cook more without recipes than I ever have before. This is necessary because the markets are always closed when I need to buy ingredients at the last minute, so I’m forced to make due with what’s in the fridge. I have recently purchased 1080 Recipes which is supposedly Spain’s Joy of Cooking (mine is the English translation). I still find most of the recipes a little scary (they don’t look very good to me), but I am looking for ways to use all that stuff in the markets that I don’t understand. (Adapt. Adapt. Adapt.)

Innovative cooking techniques

During a low moment when I was looking for excuses for my grumpiness, I googled cooking in small kitchens to see what would come up. Mark Bittman makes a compelling argument to quit whining about a small kitchen and get back to it, in my case, get back to feeding my family something that makes them feel good – hopefully physically and spiritually. Sometimes they just have to grin and bear the misery of the food explorations and frustrations. But mostly they are remarkable good natured about what is presented.

This is what I’ve discovered. A few good ingredients go a long way, and being forced to be creative with the equipment at hand is good for me, good for my cooking confidence, and entertaining to watch if nothing else.

Besides my make-it-up as you go meals, I can make a mean Spanish tortilla, can whip out my favorite pimientos Padron in minutes, and I’m working on putting that paella pan to good use. And here’s how I know I’m doing okay in my Barbie Doll Kitchen. One day at lunch Alex shared a bite of his tortilla with a kid at school who said, “This is really good. Is your mom Spanish?”