I’ve been thinking a lot about taste lately. About how it’s not a hypothetical concept that can be easily explained. It is an experiential process. Meaning, I can talk until I’m blue in the face about how to taste things and what to look for, but until you actually taste, you can never know what I’m talking about.
Yes, I know, you have taste thousands if not millions of things. But what I’m talking about is tasting with purpose. Tasting for seasoning. Tasting to know what to add to make food better.
With all of this in mind I have come up with an experiment that you can easily and cheaply do at home, that will demonstrate the core principles of flavour and taste.
Here’s what you will need…
1 hot house or beef steak tomato (if you don’t like tomato the experiment can be done with cucumber)
1 tsp of Sea Salt or Kosher Salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp vinegar (white, wine, cider, or a variety)
1 glass of water
That’s it. That’s everything. Easy enough right?
Here’s what you do.
Take the tomato and cut six even slices off of it. Season one slice with a nice pinch of salt and pepper. Season one with a nice pinch of sugar. Another one with vinegar. One with salt, pepper, sugar, and vinegar. And the last two leave plain.
Still with me?
Now Taste
Start with one of the plain tomatoes. Take a bite. Chew it. Roll it around in your mouth. Think about how it tastes. Does it have a strong tomato flavour? Is it acidic? Is it sweet? Is it bland? Really think about the flavour coming out of the tomato. Even if you don’t have the words to match what your tasting, that’s fine. Take a sip of water and rinse your mouth.
Now take a bite of the tomato seasoned with salt and pepper. How is it different? Is there a bit of spice from the pepper? Is the tomato flavour more pronounced? Is it sweeter? More acidic? Take a sip of water to cleanse your palate and move on.
Now, take a bite out of the tomato seasoned with sugar. What does that taste like? Again, is it sweeter? More or less acidic? Is the tomato flavour more or less pronounced? Take another sip of water.
Take a bite of the tomato seasoned with vinegar. What’s that like? How is it different from the rest?
Finally, taste the tomato seasoned with everything. What’s that like? Is the flavour more intense? Does it taste better? What’s different? Take a bite of the plain tomato again and compare it with the fully seasoned one. Can you notice a difference now?
Take that second slice of plain tomato and using the ingredients you just used, season it to your taste. Make it taste as good as you possibly can using the salt, pepper, sugar, and vinegar. Take a bite. If it’s not as good you think it can be season it a little more. Taste again. And adjust until it’s what you want.
What’s the point?
The point is, that this how food is seasoned. All of it. Salt, pepper, sugar, and acid are the main flavouring components that we add to food to enhance it’s flavour. Learning how this ingredient react with each other, and how they change the flavour of the main ingredients is the key that leads to more balanced and more flavourful food.
Conclusion
This experiment is not going to make you a master chef. But, with a better understanding of flavour and seasoning you can start down a path to making better food. You just have to keep tasting and adjusting. Eventually, it will become second nature.
I seriously hope, that you do this experiment. I think that you will be blown away at how different a slice of tomato can taste with just a bit of seasoning. And I promise, that if you do this, you will start to understand everything I’ve been saying about flavour and taste from the beginning.
There is a trap that we all fall into with side dishes. We prepare them one way for so long that we forget there are other ways. We become numb to their flavours and we bore our palate. It’s easier to not think about it and just cook things the same way over and over.
Today, we are going to get out of that slump. We are going to look at some common side dishes and different ways that we can jazz them up.
You might be sitting there thinking; “Why?”. Well, don’t you deserve it? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a few tricks up your sleeve? Wouldn’t it be awesome to not just eat the same thing over and over? I think so. If you do too, than let’s get to it.
Green Vegetables
Broccoli, green beans, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, can all be pretty much treated the same way. The cooking times will change but other than that a method that works for one will work for the other.
Now, the first two things I have to say are pretty basic. Number one, don’t over cook them. Cook the vegetables only until they are tender but still have a bit of bite. Mushy vegetables aren’t fun.
Number two, season them with salt and pepper and grease them up with butter or olive oil. If you do nothing else from this post, do this.
Acid
A bit of lemon juice or even vinegar can make the flavour of green vegetables pop. However, if you are going to add acid to them, it has to be after they are cooked. If the acid is added to soon it will turn them from bright green to a grey green colour.
So, if you have some steamed green beans or asparagus, or any other green vegetable add a bit of olive oil or butter. Season with salt and pepper. Finish with juice of half a lemon.
Along with the oil and lemon hard cheeses like parmesan and asiago go really well with green vegetable. You can grate a bit of cheese over them after they’re cooked along with the lemon and olive oil.
Slightly toasted sliced almonds or hazelnuts can also be added into the mix along with the cheese, oil, and lemon. Doesn’t that already sound amazing?
Any one of this addition ingredients can be added individually to green vegetables. However, working in tandem they add a lot of depth of flavour for minimal effort.
Roasting
One way to cook vegetables is to steam or boil them. This is probably the most common way, but it isn’t the only way. Roasting vegetables in the oven draws out their natural sweetness and intensifies their flavour.
Roasting can be done with any vegetables. The process is really uncomplicated. Toss the vegetables with a bit of oil, salt, and pepper. Spread them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cook them on 400°F for 20-25 minutes for most green vegetables and 30-40 minutes for carrots and the like. They are done when they are tender.
Additionally, the same principles apply with roasted vegetable as they do with steamed vegetables. Lemon, oil, salt and pepper, cheese, and even nuts.
Carrots
For whatever reason, carrots seem to be a bit of a conundrum to people. They peel them, cut them, and boil the living hell out of them. When this happens, the carrots become soft and limp. They loose their flavour and often become bitter.
Like green vegetables, the first thing with carrots is stop over cooking them. And to season them with salt, pepper, and butter. Always!
Okay, when it comes to carrots a large portion of the nutrients are found in the peel. So, by removing that you are essentially throwing away a lot of the beneficial bits of the carrot. Having said that, of course you can peel them if you like. I’ll leave that up to you. Honestly, sometimes I peel them and some times I don’t.
Just like with green vegetables carrots do very well with roasting. Smaller carrots can roasted whole while larger carrots should be either split down the middle or cut into smaller pieces.
Carrots go really well with herbs like thyme, rosemary, tarragon, and parsley. If roasting the carrots toss them with oil, salt, pepper and fresh rosemary or thyme then roast. Alternatively, you can add rosemary or thyme to the cooking water. Fresh parsley should be added to the carrots after they are cooked.
There is a classic preparation for carrots that is called “Carrots Vichy”. Essentially, carrots vichy and carrots that are cooked in a light syrup of water, sugar or honey, vinegar, and tarragon. That syrup is reduced down and served over the carrots. It sounds amazing because it is.
All you have to do to make carrots vichy is peel and cut your carrots like you normally would and put them in a pot. Put enough water in the pot to just cover the carrots but no more. Now add 1 tbsp of vinegar (White Wine Vinegar preferably) 1 tbsp honey or sugar, 1 tbsp of butter, 2 sprigs of fresh tarragon and bring to a boil.
Once the carrots start to boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the carrots are cooked and the liquid is a syrup consistency. Season with salt and pepper and serve the carrots with the syrup over them.
Potatoes
There are so many different preparations for potatoes that it is impossible to list them all here. So, I’m going to focus on two main things. Mashed potatoes, and roasted potatoes.
Mashed Potatoes
There is a lot that can be done to jazz up mashed potatoes. Obviously milk or cream and butter goes along way. These should be heated up prior to being added to the potatoes so the potatoes don’t loose their heat. Also, salt and pepper. Always salt and pepper.
When it comes to mashed potatoes there’s really only three things that you change. The type of liquid added (milk). The type of fat (butter). And you can add additional ingredients. Let’s break this down.
Liquid
Obviously milk is pretty standard. Heavy cream can add a nice richness to the potatoes but it’s not something you want to eat every night. Buttermilk can add a nice lighter flavour.
Hot chicken stock makes a great addition and replacement for the dairy in mashed potatoes. It makes for much lighter potatoes.
Fat
Butter is without a doubt the most common addition here, however it is not the only one. Olive oil works well as does rendered bacon or chicken fat. Sour cream can also act as a replacement for the butter and will add that nice fresh sour cream flavour.
If butter is the fat of choice it can be added as is, clarified, or browned by cooking until it turns a nutty brown colour.
Additional Ingredients
Herbs of any kind can be added to the potatoes. Thyme, chives, and parsley are what I prefer. Just chop them up nice and fine and then mix them in while you are mashing the potatoes.
Garlic makes a great addition to mashed potatoes but people seem to be confused as to when to add it. I peel a few cloves of garlic and throw them right in with the potatoes as they are cooking. Then, I mash the garlic right into the potatoes. You get the subtle garlic flavour but none of the harshness that you get from raw garlic.
Roasted garlic is also very good in potatoes and would be added after they are cooked.
Bacon and almost any kind of cheese can be thrown in there too. Why not?
(for really smooth potatoes use a vegetable ricer rather than a masher)
Roasted potatoes
A no fail method that I got from a restaurant I used to work at is this…
Take baby potatoes, cut them in half if needed. Put them in a pot and cover them with cold, salted water. Put the pot on high heat and wait for it to boil. As soon as it boils, drain off the water and toss the potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper, and chopped rosemary.
Spread the potatoes out on a parchment lined sheet pan and roast at 400°F for 35-40 minutes or until the potatoes are golden brown on the outside and soft in the middle.
Rice
In the interest of brevity I am going to talk only about basmati rice. First of all, the standard cooking process for basmati is 2 parts water to 1 part rice. To that add a bit of butter or oil and salt and pepper. Bring the rice to a boil over high heat. Put a lid on the pot, turn the heat to low and let simmer for 17 minutes never opening the lid. Remove the pot from the burner and let sit for another 17 minutes again not removing the lid. Now, fluff with a fork and enjoy.
Cooking liquid
The water can easily be subbed out with chicken, beef, vegetable, or mushroom stock depending on what you’re doing. Coconut milk can also replace all or some of the water.
Aromatics
1 bay leaf and two cloves add a very nice flavour to a small pot of rice. As does any kind of herb.
Pre-Additions
Pre-additions are items added prior to cooking. Mushrooms can be added as can onions, garlic, carrots, chilies, tomatoes, and celery. All of these ingredients will add a unique flavour to the rice. They should all be cooked prior to being added to rice.
Post-Additions
Things that can be added after the rice is cooked include citrus zest and juice. And soft herbs like cilantro, and parsley.
Conclusion
I hope that this helped you see that vegetables don’t have to be boring at all. With a few minor adjustments, basic vegetables and side dishes can be made into something that people will remember and ask about.
Just remember, it doesn’t take much effort to do anything I just talked about. It mostly just takes a little forethought and care.
This week, in my new Monday morning Segment “Getting to know” we will be getting to know butternut squash. The idea with this segment is to pick one ingredient a week and look at every aspect of it. The goal is for all of us to gain a deeper understanding of our ingredients.
What is Butternut Squash?
It may come as no surprise to you to learn that butternut squash is a member of the squash family. I mean, it’s right there in the name.
Technically a fruit, like other squashes, butternut squash is a winter squash with a sweet and buttery texture and a hard outer skin. The skin is yellowish and the flesh is a deep orange. The more ripe the squash the more orange and sweet the flesh will become.
Butternut Squash has a thin cylindrical neck and a large bulbous body which contains the fruit’s seeds. The entire fuit including skin and seeds is edible save for the stem.
Butternut Squash Uses
Because of its sweetness and texture butternut squash makes velvety puréed soups, and sauces. It can also be roasted, grilled, braised, stewed, deep-fried, steamed, or boiled.
When roasted, grilled, or steamed butternut squash holds it’s shape well and can be served as a side dish, or even tossed in salads or pastas. Boiled, it can be mashed like potatoes or puréed into a soup.
The point is that butternut squash is very versatile and delicious.
How to buy butternut squash
When buying butternut squash it should feel heavy and sound hollow when tapped on the bulb. Avoid buying a squash with soft spots or bruising. Check the stem for mold. If any is present try a different squash.
How to prepare butternut squash
There are three main ways to prepare butternut squash for cooking.
The first and most common way is to cut the neck off of the squash (across the dotted line in the picture). Once the neck has been removed the bulb is cut in half and seeds are scooped out. Then with a knife or vegetable peeler the squash is peeled, cubed and cooked.
Another common way to prepare butternut squash is to cut it in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, drizzle with oil, and roast in the oven. The squash is cooked when soft.
The final technique is used much less often. Essentially, you put the whole squash in the coals of a fire, rotating it every 15 minutes or so until it is cooked through.
Flavours That Go With Butternut Squash
When roasted, the flavour of the squash becomes more intense and sweeter. For this preparation a pairing of stronger flavours won’t over power the squash. Cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, and curry will balance well with the sweetness and intensity.
Boiled and steamed squash has more subtle flavours which can easily be buried if you’re not careful. Lemon and parmesan add a nice compliment to the squash. As does thyme, rosemary, sage, maple, and honey.
Butternut Squash Soup Recipe
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
With only a few ingredients this soup is uncomplicated and delicious. A Sunday afternoon staple.
Over the weekend I was hired by this very nice family to do a dinner party for nine people. One of the side dishes on the menu was garlic mashed potatoes. I boiled the potatoes with a couple cloves of garlic and then mashed them with cream and butter. After they were mashed I passed the potatoes through a fine sieve to make them extra smooth and creamy. I seasoned the mashed potatoes with salt and pepper and served them.
After dinner, one of the guests came to me and said that they didn’t really like mashed potatoes. Growing up, their mother, who was there, would just boil potatoes, mash them and that would be the end up it. No one in the family really liked mashed potatoes. But, they loved the potatoes I served them. The mother actually had two helpings.
This got me thinking about how a small amount of effort and thought can take something so boring like straight mashed boiled potatoes, and make it something truly delicious. And so today’s post is dedicated to mashed potatoes and how you can them the star of any meal.
Mashed Potatoes
There are four main components to a great bowl of mashed potatoes. The potato itself, fat, the liquid you use, and the seasoning. I’m going to break down all four of these categories and give you some examples of different ingredients you can use to make your mashed potatoes pop.
The Potato
I don’t want to make you over think this. More than likely, whatever potato you have been using to make mashed potatoes is absolutely fine. There are some things that you should keep in mind though. When making mashed potatoes I prefer to use a mealy potato over a waxy potato. You end up with a much nicer texture and flavour. So use russets or a white potato over yellow waxy varieties. That’s all I’m going to say about choosing potatoes. Again, I don’t want you to over think this.
The Fat
Okay, this is where the fun begins.
More often than not butter is the go-to fat for mashed potatoes and there is a reason for that; It is absolutely delicious. But, there are other fats that can be used to achieve different flavours from your potatoes. There are four fats other than butter that I am going to suggest and they are as follows:
Bacon Fat – Save that rendered bacon fat, strain it through a coffee filter, and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. Add a tablespoon or two to a pot of mashed potatoes instead of butter. Your taste buds will thank you.
Duck Fat – Duck fat is kind of hard to get a hold of, but if you can get some, and you want the creme de la creme of mashed potatoes, whip it in just like bacon fat or butter.
Chicken Fat – Say what? Yup chicken fat, or schmaltz for my Jewish friends. Same thing as the other two examples,
Olive Oil– Olive oil makes a great addition to mashed potatoes when combined with lemon rather than dairy as the liquid. It’s not going to be like your traditional mashed potatoes, but it will be delicious none the less.
Liquid
Typically the liquid added to mashed potatoes is milk. It’s what’s in the fridge, so it’s what you use, and it’s perfectly fine. There are of course some other liquids that can be added to potatoes to make them decadent. No matter what liquid you are adding to your potatoes, heat it up first. A lot of people out there have a tendency to add cold liquids to their potatoes. This cools the potatoes down and makes them harder to mash.
In terms of how much liquid to add, it’s hard to say. I like really creamy potatoes, so I add quite a lot of liquid – but it’s really up to you. Just keep adding and mashing until you get the potato texture you are looking for.
Cream– A very simple and delicious substitution for milk is heavy cream. Yeah, it’s fatty. Yes, it’s rich. But, god damn is it delicious.
Buttermilk – Buttermilk adds a really nice “fresh” acidity to potatoes. If you have never tried buttermilk mashed potatoes you seriously don’t know what you’re missing.
Chicken Stock– Chicken stock makes a great addition to mashed. It’s lighter and more flavourful than dairy, but you do miss out on some of the richness. Delicious none the less.
Lemon Juice– Lemon juice is a very specific addition. When paired with olive oil, this combination makes a Greek mashed potato called Skordalia. It’s absolutely delicious.
Seasoning
Seasoning encompasses a lot of different things. The most basic seasoning is salt and pepper which should always be used. I’m serious, season your mashed potatoes before they go to the table. Season them with salt and pepper, taste, season again. Proper seasoning with salt and pepper alone can create mashed potatoes to die for. What else can you use to season your mashed potatoes?
Bacon– Yup, add some chopped up cooked bacon. You can never go wrong with bacon. Just remember that bacon is salty, so season with salt and pepper after the bacon has been added so you know the true flavour.
Cheese – It could be cheddar, blue, curds, parmesan, swiss, it doesn’t matter. If you want potatoes you can’t stop eating, add some mother flippin’ cheese.
Sour Cream – A few tablespoons of sour cream never hurt anyone.
Chives – A bit a fresh chive combined with bacon and sour cream mixed into your buttery, creamy potatoes… oh my god that sounds so good.
Carmelized onions – You will be blown away at how good mashed potatoes are when you mix in some caramelized onions. It doesn’t even seem fair.
Nutmeg – A little tiny bit of nutmeg will is a great way to add a little “je ne sais quoi” to your mashed.
Obviously, this is not a complete list of things you can add to your potatoes. It’s just a short list to get you thinking of the possibilities. What I hope you take away from this is that there is no excuse or reason for your mashed potatoes to be bland or boring. When given a little bit of TLC, mashed potatoes can be the absolute star of any meal.
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.
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