One of the most basic and oldest forms of cooking is roasting. It is a simple process where meat or vegetables are cooked in a hot oven for a period of time. It is something that you have probably done even if you don’t know it. Though roasting is a basic cooking technique there are some important things to know in order to get the most flavour out of your food. These few simple tips will improve the overall quality of the food that you choose to roast.
Whether you plan to roast pork, chicken, beef, or lamb there are a few things that you want to keep in mind. First of all, don’t cover things while you roast them. Covering will cause your food to steam as opposed to roast. So, if you are roasting a chicken and cover it, you won’t get nice crispy skin. It will be slimy, and chewy. This brings up a second point. The surface of meat that you are roasting should be dry. Moisture on the surface will prevent skin from crisping, and meat from browning. This will give your food a grey appearance and a bland flavour. Although moisture is bad when roasting, fat is good. Basting with fats such as butter or bacon grease will cause skin to brown and crisp and meat to get the beautiful brown surface.
The temperature at which you roast depends on the size and fat content of what you are roasting. The higher the fat content the more forgiving it is. For example; a piece of pork shoulder, which is beautifully marbled can sustain a longer amount of cooking and remain tender. A pork tenderloin on the other hand is so lean that it is prone to over cooking. Larger, fattier cuts of meat can be cooked on a low to medium temperature (300°f – 350°f) whereas smaller, leaner cuts can be cooked on medium to high temperatures (350°f – 450°f). You can also use a variable temperature cooking technique where the roasting is started at one temperature and finished at another. This is often done with turkeys. To insure that the bird is cooked through it is roasted for a long period of time on a low temperature. Near the end of cooking, the temperature is turned up in order to brown the skin.
Medium sized pieces of meat (between 2-6 lbs (1-3 kg)) can be seared (cooked in a pan with a pit of oil on medium high heat for a short amount of time) prior to roasting in order to get an even brown colour on the surface. Alternatively, the roasting can be started on high heat and finished on low heat to attain the same result.
Seasoning with salt, pepper, herbs, and spices should be done prior to roasting in order to evenly distribute the flavour throughout the item. Be thoughtful about what ingredients you are using to season. You do not want burnt pieces of garlic or herbs flavouring your meat. Generally, I keep my seasonings basic when roasting, sticking to salt, pepper, and maybe one or two spices. I then heavily flavour the sauce.
Using a high-sided roasting pan, preferably with a rack, is your best option for roasting. The high sides cause the heat in the pan to circulate and having the meat elevated above the surface of the pan on a rack allows that circulating heat to fully surround your meat and cook it more evenly. If you don’t have a rack you can rest your meat on a bed of vegetable which will help to flavour your meat. Use a pan that isn’t so big that any juices that leave your meat will evaporate. You want to collect these juices for your sauce.
The things to keep in mind are…
Make sure the surface of your meat is dry.
Baste with fat.
Do not cover.
High heat for smaller learner items.
Low heat for larger, fatier items.
Variable temperature cooking works well for very large pieces of meat.
Season prior to roasting, but be wary of what you are seasoning with.
Use a high-sided roasting pan preferably with a rack when roasting.
There are few things better when you are feeling down than a bowl of homemade soup. Be it pureed, cream based, or broth based, soup has a unique ability to lighten the spirit and lift your health. It can be quite simple like chicken noodle, or relatively complex like bisque or consomme.
No matter how simple or complex your soup may be, there are a few universal truths that will help guide you and improve the overall quality. These are simple things that anyone can do. There is nothing here that is going to totally blow your mind or anything like that. However, I can guarantee that if you make these subtle yet important changes to your soup making process your soup will be better than it is now.
The quality of the pot you use matters. If you use a thin aluminum pot you risk buring heavier ingredients to the bottom. This happens because the heat from the burner is not evenly distributed causing hot spots on the surface of the pot. A heavy bottom pot will allow the heat to evenly distribute and will be much less likely to burn. Of course, no matter what type of pot you are using you want to make sure to stir your soup every once in a while to prevent sticking which will lead to burning. This is especially important when making a cream based soup.
A common mistake made when making soup is that all of the ingredients are added at the same time. The problem is that not all of your ingredients will cook at the same time. It takes much longer to cook a piece of carrot or potato than it does to cook peas. You must be aware of the cooking times of your ingredients when making soup or you run the risk of having some ingredients way overcooked and some way undercooked. Think of your starches as well. Things like rice are much better cooked separately and then added right before the soup is served. If the rice is cooked in the soup and aloud to sit it will continue to absorb liquid which will not only make for mushy rice but you will have to added more liquid to your soup diluting the flavour.
The only thing worse than an under seasoned soup is an over seasoned soup. Seasoning with salt and pepper throughout the cooking process, and tasting as you go, will help to prevent over or under seasoning. Generally, a soup should be seasoned at least three times. Once in the very beginning, once in the middle of cooking, and once just prior to it being served. This will allow the seasoning to evenly distribute throughout the soup and will give it a more uniform flavour. This will also allow the ingredients being cooked in the soup to absorb some of that seasoning and find an equilibrium. Bare in mind that ingredients like potatoes will absorb a lot of salt. Because of this you may think that you have added enough seasoning, taste your soup a few minutes later and it now tastes slightly bland. Also, things bacon or corned beef will add to the salt content of a soup so be careful when using ingredients like these not to over season.
The simpler your soup is, the higher quality your ingredients need to be. If you are making a soup that has fifteen ingredients it is easy to use up some of the vegetables in your fridge that may not be the freshest. However, when making a soup that has two or three ingredients, those ingredients must be the best then can be. The reason for this should be obvious, those ingredients are all your are going to taste. If they taste even slightly off, your entire soup will taste off.
Get the most flavour out of your ingredients by roasting or sauteing prior to adding them to your soup. This is especially helpful for pureed vegetable soups like tomato or squash. Roasting will develop a deeper, sweeter flavour. When making a stock to use as the base of your soup vegetable and bones may be roasted to intensify the flavour as well.
Another common mistake made when preparing soup is to over cook it. Some people believe that a soup should be simmered all day and all night. This is not true. There is an ideal amount of time to cook your soup, generally between one and two hours. Any longer than this and you are actually cooking the flavour out of it. It is however true that a soup generally tastes better the next day when all of the flavours have had time to settle into the ingredients.
Making soup is generally a pretty simple process. These guideline are meant to maintain that simplicity while yielding the best quality soup possible. Follow them and you will make better soups. The improvements may be subtle but you will definitely notice them and so will the people that you choose to share your soup with.
When it comes to cooking, leave the fancy to the professionals. A lot of people get caught up in thinking that they should be able to cook like tv chef’s at home. They watch the food network or other cooking shows and think, “Hey! They make that look so easy. I can do that.” If the show is intentionally demonstrating a recipe for you to recreate that’s fine. It’s when you start thinking that you can cook exactly like the people on “Top Chef” that you begin to have an issue. I’m all for trying new things and experimenting with different techniques or ingredients. What I don’t like is when people set themselves up for failure.
Comparing yourself and your cooking abilities to those Chefs you see on tv or in restaurants will lead you nowhere good. These people have trained for years to be in that position and to have the skills that they do. When you start thinking, “I can do that.” or, “She makes it look so easy, it must be” you’re building yourself up to something you can’t live up to. You’re trying to get fancy.
Setting realistic goals and being aware of where your skill level actually falls on the scale will serve you much better than pretending you’re Gordon Ramsay when you can’t even boil water. Being aware of your skills in the kitchen will allow you to consistently grow and develop your abilities.
The reality of cooking is that anyone can do it. Literally, anyone can be taught to cook. Just because anyone can do it, does not mean that anyone can be great at it. You need to decided at what level are you going to be comfortable with your cooking abilities? It might be right now. You may already be fully happy with your culinary abilities and you’re just reading this hoping there is a sweet recipe at the end (there isn’t). If you are reading this because you’re hoping to get better, perfect! I have some advice for you.
Telling yourself that you want to be a better cook is awesome, but what does the journey look like and how will you know when you get there? I think that having open ended goals like this is good. It means that you are always striving to be better. The problem is that they are very difficult to measure. I am a big fan of setting an open ended goal like “I want to be a better cook.” but build that goal on the foundation of much smaller goals. Setting some smaller, more measurable goals will help define both the journey and the outcome. For example, if you say “I want to learn how to make butter chicken.” You can do it. It won’t take you a tonne of time, maybe you’ll have to make it a few times to get it perfect, but you can do it. Once you finally make that butter chicken, you have not only completed your smaller goal, but you have worked towards your major goal of becoming a better cook. In reality you have completed both your goals. You have made the butter chicken, and you have become a better cook.
I think the important part of all of this is to set yourself up for success. Setting actionable smaller goals that align with your skill level, and fall within the framework of your bigger goal, will actually lead somewhere. Imagine that every smaller goal, every small success, is a paving stone that you are using to building a path forward. You can definitely get to the end without them, but the path is going to be muddy, difficult, and treacherous.
If you want to be a better cook, become better at cooking specific things and you will become a better cook overtime. Don’t worry about trying to cook like they do on tv, that is not what home cooking is or should be. Cook things that you want to eat, stay away from the fancy, and set realistic goals that will lead you to becoming a better cook in the end.
The task of cooking can seem overwhelming. There are a lot a variables at play that can make your meal a success or a failure. There are multiple things you have to keep track of simultaneously which at times may seem next to impossible. In reality it’s way easier than it may at first appear to be. All you need are a few expert tips on how to stay organized in the kitchen and before you know it, you will be cooking for success.
Mise en place
In cooking we use a lot of French terms and words. None of these is more important than mise en place. If you are looking for the single biggest secret to any Chef’s success look no further than his or her mise en place. So…what the hell is mise en place? Essentially, it means being ready and having everything you need within arms reach. Prep! Read your recipe and have all of your ingredients and tools ready to go.
If you are making a dish and the recipe said that you needed to saute onions for two minutes and then add two diced carrots and two diced celery stalks what would be the better way to do this?
Option 1 – Dice your onions, put them in the pot and while those are sauteing dice your carrots and celery.
Option 2 – Dice your onions, carrot, and celery. Saute your onions for two minutes and then add your carrot and celery.
Option 2 would be your best bet. You likely cannot peel and dice two carrots in the two minutes it is going to take to saute the onions, let alone dicing the celery as well. This is where a lot of people get caught. They either burn their onions, or have to pull the pot off the heat which will extend and disrupt the cooking. Have everything you need ready. It will make things so much easier and more efficient. Be realistic though. If the recipe said to caramelize the onions for twenty five minutes before adding the carrot and celery, you could the prep them while the onions were cooking.
Working Clean
Something that I find helps me a lot when I’m cooking at home is having a sink full of hot soapy water at all times. When you have a second, wash a few dishes or wipe down your work area. It is really easy to get overwhelmed with dirty dishes and countertops when you are cooking. Stay on top of it. Not having such a big mess in your kitchen when the cooking is all said and done will make the entire experience much more enjoyable.
Having a sink with some hot soapy water is also a good idea if you are working with chicken, fish, meat, or anything where your hands are going to get really messy. You can just give your hands a quick wash in the sink and then once they are pretty much clean turn on the tap and finish the job. This works well when you are trying to not fully contaminate your kitchen with salmonella.
Making a plan
When you are cooking it is always a good idea to have some sort of plan or strategy mapped out in your head or even on paper. Prep lists help a lot with this and keeping organized. Write down everything you need to do, in the order you need to do it, and check things off as you go. If you’re following a recipe, read it thoroughly before starting. You do not want to be half way through cooking something and realize that you missed a big piece that needed to be predone or that there is an ingredient that you don’t have. Even if you’re just winging it, grabbing things out of your fridge and cupboard, have at least a broad idea of where you want to end up. Think about the ingredients you have and the basic flavours you want to use. Planning, is planning for success.
Rolling with the punches
The final bit of advice I have for you today is to roll with the punches. If something goes wrong, don’t let it destroy you. Move forward. If you are missing an ingredient, figure out another ingredient that you do have that could subin for it. Cooking is as much about thinking on your feet as it is about planning. The saying hope for the best but prepare for the worst is thrown around a lot in professional kitchens. No matter what happens you have to be ready to shift gears, alter your plans, and advance. This comes with experience but having this mindset will help you if and when something does go wrong.
I think that if there is one thing I want to leave with it’s that home cooking is not supposed to be perfect. Aim for a more rustic approach and you will find yourself much happier. Perfection is overrated and by its nature leads nowhere. Strive to always do better and learn more, and watch with amazement as your cooking becomes better and better every day.
When it comes to cooking curry, it can seem like a daunting task. The flavours are complex and layered, the techniques may be unfamiliar to those who primarily cook western cuisine, and the list of ingredients can seem endless. However, don’t let the perception of cooking curry scare you. While it is true that there are certain techniques and ingredients that are essential for creating a delicious curry, it is not as complicated as it may seem. In fact, with a little bit of knowledge and understanding, anyone can confidently cook curry at home. In this article, we will break down the basics of curry and provide you with the foundation you need to start experimenting and creating your own mouthwatering dishes.
THE BASICS OF CURRY
Is curry always hot?
Contrary to popular belief, not all curries are hot. While it is true that some curries can pack a punch of heat, others have much more subtle and nuanced flavours. The heat level of a curry is often determined by the type and amount of spices and chili peppers used, as well as the personal preferences of the person preparing the dish.
It is important to note that when you are cooking curry at home, you have complete control over the level of heat in your dish. If you prefer a milder curry, you can simply use fewer chili peppers or omit them altogether. On the other hand, if you enjoy a spicier curry, you can increase the amount of chili peppers or add in other spicy ingredients such as fresh ginger or mustard seeds. The choice is entirely up to you, so don’t be afraid to experiment and find the perfect balance of flavours for your taste buds.
While some curries may be hot, it is not a defining characteristic of all curries. You have the power to create a curry that is as mild or as spicy as you like, so don’t be afraid to tailor the dish to your own personal preferences.
Where to begin
Most, if not all, curries start with the same base; ginger, garlic, and onion finely chopped. The ratio I use for this mixture is two parts onion to one part ginger and one part garlic (1 medium-sized onion, 4-5 cloves of garlic, a thumb-sized piece of ginger). Often green chillies will be added to this mixture as well. Consider this mixture as one ingredient rather than three because it is such a common combination. Sauté the onion, ginger, and garlic in a considerable amount of fat. The amount of fat you use depends on a lot of things. I suggest adding as much as you think, then doubling it.
Generally, in western cooking, a cook would use a maximum of 1-2 tsp of oil. Someone cooking curry may use as much as a 1/4 c. We will get into the reason why a little bit later, but this is one of those counterintuitive things I mentioned earlier. The type of oil used is usually different, as well. Depending on where in the world, your curry is coming from the fat used could be ghee(clarified butter), coconut oil, palm oil, or countless other types. When sautéing the onion, ginger, garlic mixture, I prefer moderate heat. Heat any higher, and the risk of burning is too high.
Curry Spices
Now that you have a better understanding of how to build the foundation for a curry, let’s talk about the spices. One of the defining characteristics of a curry is the abundance of spices used to create vibrant and impactful flavours. In contrast to western cuisine, which often uses a smaller number of spices, curry relies on a generous amount of spices to bring depth and complexity to the dish.
To add the spices to your curry, start by heating the oil in a pan and then adding the ginger, garlic, and onions. Allow the vegetables to cook for 1-2 minutes until they are fragrant and soft. Then, add the spices and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes, allowing them to open up and release their natural oils. This is an important step, as it helps to bring out the full flavour of the spices and create a deeper, more complex curry.
It is important to note that the spices will absorb the oil if there is not enough present, and they can burn if the oil is too hot. Therefore, it is crucial to pay attention to the temperature of the oil and add enough to ensure that the spices do not burn. By following these steps, you can create a curry that is bursting with flavour and depth.
Curry Powder
When it comes to adding spices to your curry, you have a few options to choose from. One popular choice is curry powder, which is actually a British invention and not necessarily authentic to Indian cuisine. While curry powder can be used to make some tasty Indian dishes by adding additional spices, it is not the only option and should not be thought of as the be-all and end-all of making curry.
An alternative to curry powder is a spice blend called garam masala, which is more commonly used in authentic Indian cooking. Garam masala is a blend of spices that typically includes cardamom, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, pepper, nutmeg, and bay leaves. It has a more nuanced flavour than curry powder and can be found in the spice aisle of most grocery stores.
Keep in mind that both curry powder and garam masala can vary significantly from one supplier to the next, so it is important to read the label and choose a blend that aligns with your personal taste preferences. For those who want the most control over the flavour of their curry, making your own spice blend at home is a good option. While curry powder is a good choice if you want to make a westernized version of curry dishes, using a garam masala can provide a more authentic taste. Ultimately, the choice of which spice blend to use will depend on your personal taste preferences and the type of curry you are making.
One of the defining characteristics of a curry is that it is typically a braised or stewed dish, which means it requires some kind of liquid in order to create a saucy consistency and help the flavours meld together. When it comes to choosing the liquid for your curry, you have a number of options to choose from. Some common choices include stock, water, coconut milk, or heavy cream. Ultimately, the choice of liquid will depend on your personal taste preferences and the type of curry you are making.
If you decide to use coconut milk or cream in your curry, keep in mind that the high-fat content of these ingredients can diminish the flavours of the spices slightly. To compensate for this, you may need to add 5-10% more of your spice blend to the dish in order to achieve the desired level of flavour.
Regardless of which liquid you choose, it is important to add it in slowly and taste as you go in order to achieve the desired consistency and flavour. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try different combinations to find the perfect balance for your taste buds.
Other Ingredients
In addition to the base, spices, and liquid, there are many other ingredients that you can include in your curry to add flavour, texture, and visual appeal. The specific ingredients you choose will depend on the main ingredient of your curry, as well as your personal taste preferences.
For example, you may choose to add a bit of tomato to your curry, as it can add a touch of acidity and depth to the flavour. If you are making a fish curry, you may want to include bell peppers for added texture and flavour. If you are making a chicken curry, such as butter chicken, you may want to add peas for a pop of colour and a different texture.
The options for additional ingredients are virtually limitless, and you can get creative with what you include. Just be sure to consider how the added ingredients will play off the flavour of the main ingredient and the overall balance of flavours in the dish. If an ingredient doesn’t contribute to the taste, texture, or visual appeal of the curry, it may be best to leave it out.
Conclusion
I hope this article has provided you with the foundation you need to confidently make curry at home. While it may take some practice to get the hang of it, don’t be discouraged if your first attempt isn’t perfect. Keep experimenting and learning as you go, and you will soon be able to create delicious and complex curries with ease. Remember, when you break it down and look at the various components individually, making curry is not as complicated as it may seem. So go ahead and give it a try! With a little bit of practice, you will be making mouthwatering curries on a regular basis.
Today, I want to take a deep dive into the world of green vegetables. I want to talk about why your green vegetables are turning grey when you cook them, and what you can do to prevent this and impart the most flavour during cooking. When cooked, green vegetables should still be green. They should not be mushy, slimy, or grey at all. There are some things that you may be doing which could be having an adverse effect on you green vegetables. Below is a list of five things that you can do or not do to improve how you cook your green vegetables.
Don’t over cook them.
Over cooking green vegetables is the surest way to turn them grey and mushy. With things like peas and broccoli you are really just trying to soften them. Peas may burst open a bit, which is fine as long as you remove them from the heat immediately after they do. When cooking broccoli you really just want the stem to be fork tender. This just means that you can easily stick a fork in it. Cooking green vegetables just to the point that they are cooked, will yield a more flavourful, texturally pleasing, and nutritious vegetable.
Don’t boil the with a lid on the pot.
Boiling green vegetables with a lid will make it much easier to over cook them which obviously is not what you want. The only time it is okay to cook green vegetables with a lid is when you are steaming them. Steaming takes much less time than boiling, and yields more nutritious vegetables. There is a greater risk of over cooking when steaming however due to the higher heat involved. If you are going to steam vegetables like green beans and broccoli understand that they will cook in 2 – 3 minutes.
Don’t cook the with baking soda.
I don’t really know why anyone would cook green vegetables with baking soda (or any vegetable at all for that matter) but don’t do it. Baking soda will turn your peas, broccoli, green beans, asparagus, or whatever, slimy, mushy, and grey pretty much instantly.
Don’t cook them with acid.
Lemon juice or vinegar can add a nice touch to asparagus, green beans or brussel sprouts after they are cooked. However, adding any kind of acid to green vegetables during the cooking process will destroy their colour and leave you with unattractive grey vegetables. Save the acid until they are already cooked.
You need to season them.
Green vegetables are delicious on their own, but giving them a bit of help with just one or two ingredients can to bring out their natural flavour and really enhance your dining experience. Once they are cooked, add a bit of butter or olive oil, salt and pepper, lemon juice and chili flakes, fresh herbs, parmesan cheese, the list goes on and on.
Your mouth has a short attention span. It gets bored, and fatigued when everything feels and tastes the same. Your mouth likes excitement, it craves playfulness and new experiences. Your mouth needs contrast in order to stay happy. What do I mean by contrast? I mean different textures and flavours playing off of each other in a harmonious dance of intrigue and delight. I mean a balance of experience. High points and low points, bright and soft, vibrant and mellow. Every bite should be different from the last but carry with it a hints of its predecessor. The bites should be different but familiar.
Everything I just wrote sounds super fancy but when its broken down and looked at up close it is really simple. Not only is it simple, but once you understand it, it will change how you cook and eat forever. It will up your cooking game to a degree that will surprise you. So what am I talking about? Really simply I am talking about adding texture and pops of flavour to your food. That’s it. Let me explain.
Imagine you are making a stew. You cut all of your ingredients the same shape and size, and you put them all in the pot at the same time. You then proceed to cook the life out of your stew. You cook it until everything is mushy and it all tastes exactly the same. The parsnips are indistinguishable from the carrots, and oh, is that a potato or a piece of turnip? It all tastes and feels the exact same and it is boring as hell to eat. I’m not saying it’s bad, its just boring. If you simply cut your ingredients into different shapes and sizes, and added them to the pot in stages you could have a completely different dish.
Mexican cuisine is really good at contrast. You have stews and braises with these deep intense flavours with an underlying heat, contrasted with pops of sweet from fresh pineapple, bites of sharp crispness from raw onion, freshness from cilantro, a bit of acidity from fresh lime. These are just a few of the components at play in one dish. Your mouth never has time to get bored because every bite is something new yet familiar.
So, how do you add contrast to your everyday cooking? Well, again there are a lot of ways this can be done. It really all starts with thinking of things in a slightly different way than you’re used to, and being open to new combinations. One of the easiest ways to add contrast to your food is by adding dried fruit. Things like dried apricot or raisins go surprisingly well with a lot of different flavours. Poultry and pork for example go really well with anything kind of sweet. Adding fresh herbs like cilantro, parsley, sage or thyme once the dish is finished cooking can add little pops of flavour. Going back to the stew example, if you were adding cabbage to the stew you could instead of adding big chunks of cabbage and cooking it for a very long time with everything else, slice the cabbage very thin and add it close to the end of cooking. This will give you a bit of crunch and a break from the soft mushy textures.
Cooking in contrast really will elevate your food. It will excite your diners, and make eating an overall more enjoyable experience. If you want practice I suggest you look up some authentic Mexican recipes. I do not mean TexMex or what most people consider Mexican. I mean real Mexican recipes. That truly is the best example of cooking in contrast that I can think of.
I talk a lot about how important it is for people to be able to cook and feed themselves. I give lots of tips and tricks that can save you time and money in the kitchen. I talk about a lot of aspects of cooking that can help you but I seem to be missing one or two key pieces. The first and most important thing that I feel like I haven’t covered enough is where people should start. If I’ve sold you on the idea of cooking being important, and you’re ready but you have zero experience, where should you start? Where is the best place to begin?
Cooking is like just about anything else in life you try to learn, if you don’t enjoy the subject matter, you are not going to be invested. Cooking is also slightly unique in that if you are learning math, after a lesson all you have is some full pages, with cooking after a lesson you have a plate of food. If you don’t want to eat that food what is the point of cooking it? I think the best place to start your culinary journey is to choose five things that you love to eat and learn to cook them really well. It doesn’t matter what these things are. It doesn’t matter how simple or complicated they may seem. Success is the greatest motivator in life. Find success in cooking with a few dishes, simple or complicated and this will motivate you to learn more.
Being able to cook five things really well will give you a foundation on top of which you can start to construct your culinary knowledge. As I have said many times, the more you cook the more you will develop your love of cooking. This is true because the more you cook the more you learn, the quicker you become at it, and the easier it becomes.
What five things should you learn to cook? I have no idea. This really is up to you. Your list will looks a lot different than my list, and a lot different than your best friend’s. It really should be things that you love to eat. If you don’t really like something it is going to be hard for you to learn to love to cook it. Choosing things that you already love will make it fun for you, it may also save you some money in the long run because you won’t have to buy it every time you get a craving. Your five things will reflect your tastes and your preferences, and will be different than anybody else’s. So, what do you love to eat? What are your five favourite dishes? Do you love pizza? Pad thai? Gnocchi? Whatever it is you can learn to cook it, and you should.
If I were starting out today, had never really cooked anything before and read this what would be the five things that I would choose to learn to cook?
Corn Chowder
Shepherd’s Pie
Split Pea Soup
Pizza
Bolognese Sauce (Meat Sauce)
I would choose these five things because these are five of my favourite things to eat. They are all fairly simple but they teach me a decent array of skills. What are your five?
Once you chose the five things you want to learn to cook you need to seek information. Use the internet or cookbooks to find recipes but be aware that the recipes you find may not match the image you have in your head of your dish. What I mean is that there are thousands of recipes for butter chicken, some of them taste like what I believe butter chicken tastes like, some of them don’t. When I follow one of the recipes that doesn’t match what I want it can lead to the perception of failure. Really though, you have just learned that this recipe is not the one you want and you can move on to the next. Eventually, you can read recipes and figure out if it will match what you want or not.
It takes time to master anything, even the most simple dish. Be patient, enjoy the process, and surprise yourself. Even though nine butter chicken recipes in a row might not be the one you want, when you hit that thenth, when you make perfect butter chicken after months of trial and error, you will be intensely proud of yourself and your accomplishment, and so you should be.
My philosophy on cooking is that as a chef it is my job to take quality ingredients, pair them with complimentary ingredients, and complementary techniques, and do my best not to screw it up. It is my opinion that cooking is much more about subtraction than addition. What I mean is that if I am thinking about a dish I want to create I imagine all the possibilities, and then I start striping away. I do this until all I have left is the simplest, most delicious version of the dish. The more things you add, the more complicated the dish is and the more muddied the flavours become until you can’t even distinguish the original ingredients at all.
It is more difficult, and requires more skill, to know what not to add to a dish than what to add. Simplicity, is incredibly difficult but it is to me, the key to being a great chef or a great home cook. If you don’t believe me, if you are sitting there thinking of all the dishes you love that are loaded with ingredients, and you think I’m full of shit, think about Italian food. Real Italian food. Not the meat sauce that you make using fifteen herbs and spices from you cupboard. I mean real Italian food. The key to Italian food is exactly as I just described. Delicious ingredients, simply prepared, and not messed with. There is a reason why Italian food is loved the world over.
What does this all mean and where is it coming from? Well, I’m telling you this because you need to starting thinking about food not as a daily hurdle that needs to be overcome so you don’t die, but rather as an enjoyable relaxing part of your day. The key again, is simplicity. The more complicated you perceive cooking to be the less you are going to want to do it. Now, as I said simplicity takes skill. You need knowledge in order to really make this work. Not a lot of knowledge, but enough. That comes from practice and research. Practice by cooking regularly, and thinking about your food in terms of what you can take away to make it delicious rather than what you can add. Research not by sitting in a dusty library for hours on end, but by googling how to videos, or reading blogs, or anything.
Cooking is a part of who we are, it a massive piece of what separates us from other animals on this planet. Stay connected to yourself and your heritage through cooking. Most importantly, keep it simple stupid.
We buy the perception of time everyday in the form of convenience foods, fast foods, and pre-made meals that are marketed to make us feel as though they are saving us time. When considered this way, our time is relatively cheap. These “foods” all contain cheap calories and little to no actual nutritional value for fairly little money. The question is, how much do you value your time, and do you put a higher value on the quality of time rather than time itself?
The thing about time is that it is our one true currency. Unlike the money in your bank account however, you never know how much time you actually have. It could be a day or it could be sixty years, you really never know. As currency you need to really think about how you want to spend it. You definitely want to pinch seconds in certain areas, but in other areas the benefits might just outweigh the cost. As you don’t know how much time is left in your ledger, you need to think about quality.
This brings us back to what you eat. We have all heard the old adage “You are what you eat.” take this to heart. Think about the quality of the food you are eating and think about how that affects your time. I liken it to oil. So, oil is relatively cheap. It is cheap because we are not building the actual cost into each barrel. I’m talking about the associated environmental cost for ourselves and future generations. Cheap calories are the same thing. You are not considering the long term effects on your health, well being and time. Just like with oil, if these costs were built in, no one would be able to afford these “cheap” calories.
What it all comes down to is short term versus long term thinking. We all want what we want now. Not tomorrow, now. We don’t think long term as individuals or as a society we think only of the present. If we thought long term, and our actions reflected that, we would not have a multi billion dollar industry built around the idea that we have better things to do than feed ourselves. Of all the things that can be done to save us time, lowering the quality of our foods should not be at the top of the list. It should be the absolute last thing we are willing to sacrifice. We are what we eat. Food is our fuel and just like with a car the better quality fuel you put in it, the longer it will last and the better it will run.
If you want something to sacrifice in the name of time turn off your tv, log out of facebook for a few hours, and stop scrolling through instagram. You have plenty of time, you just have to get real with yourself about how you are spending it, and what that’s worth to you. Just like time is the only true currency, health is the only true credit. Everytime you buy and eat a convenience food, or premade, salt laden meal your moving funds from one ledger column to the other. Keep this in mind, because the interest is building, and some day it will be collected.
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