Musings and Mutterings
From a simple craving, to a fully coursed out meal, there are a number of ways to approach your cooking. You might want to wow people, maybe just yourself, or possibly you are craving something from your childhood. You obviously want to make the best possible tasting dish you can, but how do you go about doing it. The recipes listed here are created in a way to maximize flavor and texture. There are other ways to prepare the majority of dishes here, but I feel that the extra effort that I add onto these dishes gives you a superior final product, even if it takes a touch longer in process.
When you're making soup you want to think about the final product of your soup. Are you serving it immediately, are you holding for a service, etc. Any starch, or item that will absorb the broth in any thing you're making should be added right before you serve it, as opposed to while you are cooking it
One of the things you pick up working the in the restaurant business, is how to use your ingredients to the fullest potential. There’s a definite talent involved in creating unique and interesting dishes based primarily upon product on hand. It’s not about using bad product, cause that is trash. It’s about recognizing when you won’t go through enough of one product at the same time as the others, and to balance the scale so that everything stays as fresh as possible. Look at the ingredients you have, see how you can manipulate em, and see what you can make.
One step you can take to further enhance your soups, is to make your own stock. If you use your own stock, you will be starting your soup at a higher level to begin with, so the final product will be more flavorful.
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I would recommend starting with your own chicken stock, and vegetable stock. They are fairly easy to achieve, and are a great way to fully use your whole chickens, and to use up your vegetables scraps .
When you first start cooking, you should follow the recipes you are reading to see where they take you. The more you cook, the more you'll recognize how the processes behind what you are doing changes the flavor of the final product. A good recipe followed, will make a good dish, but it won't be truly yours. To make it truly yours is when the fun starts.
The majority of cooking you do, is open to your personal interpretation. I have always viewed recipes as templates to be referred to, but not always followed. There are a couple of things to remember while you are making your dishes that are always applied. You need to taste while you cook. You want to layer your flavors by lightly seasoning throughout the cooking process. Also think about how you are preparing each item in the dish, to give you the optimal final product in terms of texture, and appearance.
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When cooking food the idea is to layer your flavors by adding seasoning throughout the cooking process. This builds the flavor and gives you depth to your creations so that your bites of food are rounded out and not flat.
I can't stress the importance of using fresh herbs in your cooking. The flavors you get are much more robust than the dried or ground herbs and spices. For this reason I recommend a simple herb garden. You can use a box planter in your homes that you can grow almost all year round.
Another aspect of soups, really cooking across the board, is balancing your flavors. Some of your final dishes will be sharp in a flavor profile, like if you're making a chili crusted dish, or a smoked meat dish, or even a soy forward dish. A flavor profile which is frequently neglected is acid. Finishing a soup with lemon juice or vinegar, adding pickled vegetables, or starting your soup with a vinegar or sour base will enhance the final product provided it's balance. Additionally this applies to almost every dish you cook.
There are a lot of base recipes you can have on hand that will elevate your dishes. Using simple base recipes such as preserved lemons, roasted garlic, and homemade spices will create an additional layer of flavor to the meals you create.