FLAVOR TIPS Recipe
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Ingredients: Cooking is all about building flavors. Put your micro-biology and chemistry to work. Everyone around your table will be grateful for your knowledge.
1. Build flavors as you cook. Season each part of a dish perfectly. When the parts are combined, the finished dish will be divine.
2. Vegetable and meat dishes often begin by sauteing onions in a little fat. The Italians throw in a few hot pepper flakes, a dash of salt and a chopped garlic clove, cooking all together until onions are translucent, the aroma deepens and the garlic begins to color golden (browned garlic is bitter), then the other ingredients are quickly added. It is the Italian way to build flavor.
The French add flavor by using freshly grated nutmeg on vegetables, but not enough that the nutmeg flavor is pronounced; you only know if it is missing. For meats, they utilize freshly ground allspice, and of course, salt and pepper.
3. Cook to taste -- not to follow a recipe.
If a dish needs a touch of acid, add a little lemon, lime, even some pomegranate juice, or a drop of good vinegar. And would you believe, that instead of lemon juice in an apple tart, mustard works admirably.
For a hint of sweet, there is honey, all the different kinds of sugars, molasses and treacle and of course, orange juice,
To mellow flavors or bring flavors together, a fat is your best friend. Rather than cook with butter, I prefer to add it when the dish is finished so that the butter flavor isn't lost in the cooking process. When you've created a deglazing sauce, finish it with some heavy cream and/or a little butter, swirling it in so it melds into the sauce rather than melting and floating on the surface.
Always taste a dish before serving, and correct the seasonings. When the dish is plated, sprinkle a few grains of salt over each dish, along with a grinding of pepper. That gives an up-front flavor hit in the mouth, reducing the total amount of salt and pepper needed. And leave the salt and pepper shaker in the kitchen. If guests ask for salt and pepper, just smile and say, "the dish is perfectly seasoned", which it should be.
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Directions: |
Directions:
Substitutions:
Rather than thinking in terms of butter, cream, oil, etc, think fats. That way, if your recipe calls for one fat, you can substitute another, and the results will be intriguing, different, and sometimes better than the original recipe.
When dealing with acids, think anything sour.
If a dish needs a sweet, think of fruits, processed sugars, etc.
Remember, recipes were created from ingredients on hand. While some foods marry beautifully with others, all foods settle in nicely with a wide array of flavors.
Be adventuresome. You'll be surprised and pleased at your own creations.
Cooking by technique:
Food is cooked by moist heat and dry heat. Basically, that is all you need to know.
We saute a tender dry ingredient in a little fat, over fairly high heat, turning once. The idea is to brown the ingredient, which caramelizes the exterior, adding flavor and eye appeal. But caramelizing demands a dry surface (use paper towels) and I like to dust the surface just before sauteing with a spice, like cumin or a spice blend like Turkish Seasoning plus salt and pepper. A sauteed item dredged in flour tends to absorb extra fat.
Moist heat is cooking with a lid, or boiling. Boiled meats suffer from a rubbery consistency caused by chemical actions that we don't have to explain because you know how they work. Moist heat cooking takes low temperatures and long cooking times. The crock pot is an example, but an oven does a fine job if you have a good heavy dutch oven. Before cooking, browning an ingredient gives increased flavor but its messy and not everyone has the time. Use dried herbs when braising.
Roasting is dry heat, of course, and is excellent for meats, fish and vegetables. Rubbing a fat on the surface of any item prior to roasting helps retain moisture and encourages browning. The Thanksgiving turkey is an example of roasting, but when recipes call for a liquid in the pan and a cover, then the turkey braises. That isn't a bad thing; just different and it takes less precision because the window from perfectly-cooked to over-cooked is much wider.
Measuring:
Measurements should never be strictly followed (baking is an exception). Each person's ingredients vary in quality and flavor. It is up to the cook to coax as much intrigue out of the ingredients as possible.
Using measuring spoons is a terrible waste of time, plus they have to be washed. Eyeball many ingredients. For salt, pour a teaspoon in your palm; remember the size and never measure again.
For herbs and aromatics, eye ball their size on the cutting board. If you have one tablespoon more or less, lightening will not strike. Throw what you have into the pot and get on with it. Then, too, you might not have enough of one herb; use a mixture. Or maybe you ran out of onions; use a bit more garlic.
Herbs:
Fresh herbs tend to lose their flavor after 15 minutes of cooking. They should be added toward the end of cooking, while dried herbs and strong flavored herbs (rosemary, oregano, parsley, thyme) tend to retain their flavor during cooking.
To maximize flavors in quick dishes, such as quick pasta sauces, add herbs at the beginning of cooking and also at the end.
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