04-12-2007, 04:00 PM
This is somethng I discovered about a year ago. Making truly world class food is not nearly as hard as it sounds. There's only a few things required.
I'll gve the example of a Gumbo created recently.
Creativity: I'm not talking about creativty in how you cook, as far as that goes, I don't think you should make any more than personalized changes to tradtional recipes.
I'm talking about creativity in how you acquire the ingredents you use to cook with. For instance, the roux (equal parts butter and fat mied and browned) is always considered the most important part of a Gumbo. And while all flours are created equal here, all fats are not.
I knew I had to get only the absolute best for this. We make slow baked ribs a couple weeks earlier and I saved the drippings forjust this purpose.
Research: You can't just follow a single recipe most of the time, even though that's what most people do, just pull out Joy-of-Cooking and follow it to the letter.
But In reality you need something more. for the Gumbo itself I just used a simple chicken and Sausage recpe from the the Gumbo Pages, just because the major recipe doesn't make much of a difference.
But for the seasoning recipe, I took several reputable recipes I found and combined them, picking between parts I liked.
And before I even tried I went tothe websites of great creole chefs and creole food forums looking for the proper way to do everything. That's where I learned that only pork fat would make a great Gumbo roux (hence the rib drippings) and where I also learned that Gumbo is at it'sabsolute best cooked in a cast iron pot, and so got my old camping pot out and seasoned it earlier in the day.
There will be more on cast iron in another topic.
Freshness: Wherever possible, you must demand the freshest ingredients. I'm a major fan of farmer's markets. Here in Portland we have the best pure organic farmer's market on the west coast.
But seeing how it was march it wasn't open, but that didn't mean I had to make too many concesions. It's true vegetables from Costco and Cash & Carry, but I can still manage to get what's needed.
Mostly it was in the seasoning. I avoided use of powdered ingredients when possible. In place of garlic and onion powder, I used garlic and onion frappe which I made myself hours earlier. I also used fresh basl, oregano, and thyme from our pots instead of dried.
Well, this was only me seccond attempt ever at Gumbo (the first was a disimal failure). But I had it critiqued by my very own Cajun neighbors, and they said it was among the very best they ever had, better than in any restaraunt they've ever eaten in.
Thing is, I've never had any formal training, or any training whatsoever in cooking. I'm entirely self taught, and I'm only 22 years old.
Like I said, world class food is much easier to make than most people think, so long as they do their research, get the best ingredients, and think outside the box in terms of where they get those ingredients.
In the end it's the ingredients that make the meal, not the skill of the cook.
I'll gve the example of a Gumbo created recently.
Creativity: I'm not talking about creativty in how you cook, as far as that goes, I don't think you should make any more than personalized changes to tradtional recipes.
I'm talking about creativity in how you acquire the ingredents you use to cook with. For instance, the roux (equal parts butter and fat mied and browned) is always considered the most important part of a Gumbo. And while all flours are created equal here, all fats are not.
I knew I had to get only the absolute best for this. We make slow baked ribs a couple weeks earlier and I saved the drippings forjust this purpose.
Research: You can't just follow a single recipe most of the time, even though that's what most people do, just pull out Joy-of-Cooking and follow it to the letter.
But In reality you need something more. for the Gumbo itself I just used a simple chicken and Sausage recpe from the the Gumbo Pages, just because the major recipe doesn't make much of a difference.
But for the seasoning recipe, I took several reputable recipes I found and combined them, picking between parts I liked.
And before I even tried I went tothe websites of great creole chefs and creole food forums looking for the proper way to do everything. That's where I learned that only pork fat would make a great Gumbo roux (hence the rib drippings) and where I also learned that Gumbo is at it'sabsolute best cooked in a cast iron pot, and so got my old camping pot out and seasoned it earlier in the day.
There will be more on cast iron in another topic.
Freshness: Wherever possible, you must demand the freshest ingredients. I'm a major fan of farmer's markets. Here in Portland we have the best pure organic farmer's market on the west coast.
But seeing how it was march it wasn't open, but that didn't mean I had to make too many concesions. It's true vegetables from Costco and Cash & Carry, but I can still manage to get what's needed.
Mostly it was in the seasoning. I avoided use of powdered ingredients when possible. In place of garlic and onion powder, I used garlic and onion frappe which I made myself hours earlier. I also used fresh basl, oregano, and thyme from our pots instead of dried.
Well, this was only me seccond attempt ever at Gumbo (the first was a disimal failure). But I had it critiqued by my very own Cajun neighbors, and they said it was among the very best they ever had, better than in any restaraunt they've ever eaten in.
Thing is, I've never had any formal training, or any training whatsoever in cooking. I'm entirely self taught, and I'm only 22 years old.
Like I said, world class food is much easier to make than most people think, so long as they do their research, get the best ingredients, and think outside the box in terms of where they get those ingredients.
In the end it's the ingredients that make the meal, not the skill of the cook.