Sometimes, there's more to cooking than dinner

I returned to work last week from a vacation that gave me plenty of time to rest, relax -- and cook.

For me, cooking is a form of relaxation. I can go only so long without a good, heavy-duty session of cooking. Without it, I feel out of sorts. I can tell something is missing.

I'm not talking about the kind of cooking that is done just to get dinner on the table. No, this is cooking that I do for myself -- to satisfy a craving and to stretch my cooking muscles.

This past month I had time to cook a bunch of things that I don't routinely make.

I made a great batch of hummus, cooking chickpeas from scratch. I've learned that home-cooked chickpeas make a world of difference in hummus, especially if you remove the skins from the chickpeas.

I also made some French country-style pate, one of my favorite foods. I hadn't made any in about five years. It's a heady mix of ground pork, liver and spices.

I ground my own pork for the pate from a large pork butt. I had most of the pork butt left after I made the pate. So one day when I didn't need to leave the house, I put the butt in the oven, set it at 250 degrees and left it in there for 12 hours.

Making pulled pork

If you read the Winston-Salem Journal's food blog (www.journalnow.com/dishingitout) a couple of weeks ago, you'll know that I wasn't making barbecue, just pulled pork. That's because true barbecue has the smoky flavor that comes from a live flame or hot coals. Still, it was cooked long and slow in the same fashion. This method makes the meat amazingly tender and juicy. I pulled it into shreds and tossed it with a little Piedmont-style barbecue sauce. It was ridiculously good.

The other week, I rediscovered a dish that I learned more than 20 years ago when I cooked in restaurants. It's a simple dish of shrimp, tomato sauce and feta cheese. I hadn't made it in a long time. Both of my kids actually liked it, and my wife said that it was one of the better dinners we had had in a while.

I'm not usually one for combining cheese and seafood. But I make an exception here. The succulent shrimp are bathed in sauce, and the feta adds a great acidic tang that nicely complements the shrimp.

I'm not sure who created this dish, but it used to be served as an appetizer at the Zevely House when I worked there. With some rice or pasta, it becomes an easy 30-minute entree.

Here's how I make it:

Shrimp in Tomato Sauce With Feta

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

Pinch crushed red-pepper flakes

Pinch dried thyme

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

1½ to 2 pounds large shrimp, peeled

½ cup crumbled feta cheese, or to taste

1. Place the oil in a large, ovenproof skillet over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and heat it slowly until fragrant, about 5 minutes. (This is a good time to peel the shrimp.)

2. Stir in the red-pepper flakes and thyme. Stir in the crushed tomatoes. Gently simmer 5 to 10 minutes.

3. Heat the oven broiler. Evenly distribute the shrimp over the tomato sauce. Cook gently until shrimp are partially cooked, about 3 minutes.

4. Sprinkle the feta over the shrimp and tomato sauce and broil just until the shrimp are pink all over, about 3 minutes. Serve immediately over pasta or rice if desired.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

■ Michael Hastings, the Journal's Food editor, can be contacted by phone at 727-7394, e-mail at mhastings@wsjournal.com, or mail at c/o Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102. His most recent columns can be read on our Web site at www.journalnow.com.