Real Chefs Don’t Use Recipes……..ok I can buy that. But here is the thing. In a restaurant when you make the same dish over and over again night after night afterawhile you don’t ever need to look at a recipe because you have made the dish so many times that its ingrained into your cooking soul. For your old favorites and mine too, the dishes that we grew up on at our parents and grandparents knees are ingrained into our cooking soul but some of the newer ones you may want to reach for that cookbook!
That being said there are a few principles that are helpful to helping you cook dishes and create dishes
Principle #1: A little spice goes along way
This is probably the toughest one to remember. Alot of people cook off the “smell test.” If they can’t smell it then there’s not enough in there! This in incredible dangerous and has led to over-salted and over-peppered or over seasoned food in general. Don’t let this happen to you!
Principle #2: Learn what things go with what
Just like how wine goes with different dishes different vegetables go together and with different meats. For instance, Beef and the strong flavor of bell peppers goes well together, but these things with pork can be overwhelming. Green vegetables with chicken is always a great choice but very few go well with beef. If you know your flavors then you can choose your foods! This is also goes for spices knowing what spices go with what foods is a handy skill to have and that goes into learning flavors. Take some dishes you know and look at their spice list draw some general themes and you’ll be on you way to learning your flavors!
Principle #3: How meat should generally be cooked
Regardless of the cooking style there are some general principles about meat. If you are grilling or using indirect heat (smoking) then the Beef should NOT be brown throughout it should be pink in the center. If you are stewing or baking beef then braise ahead of time. If you are woking beef then it should be cut thin and cooked throughout. If you are baking then it should be warm throughout but not brown. You begin to see the idea. Different cooking methods have different rules. Of course for poultry of any kind and pork these meats should be cooked throughout but if you are going to put pork in something else braising ahead of time helps keep flavor in.
These three principles should be a great guide to helping you develop some principles about food and cooking that will help you create some new dishes of your very own and learn how to really create gourmet foods!
For recipes of our own here at Gourmandia please see: http://www.gourmandia.com
