The Ten Commandments of Cooking
Http://www.bigdaikon.com
1. Know Your Ingredients
Learning about ingredients and what the various "kitchen processes" (i.e. marinading, steaming, grilling, frying, roasting, chilling, blending etc.) do to them is a great thing to do. It gives you a framework in which to experiment and create new ideas, or to reproduce old ones.
If you are really interested in the food you're eating, read McGee's "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen". It's the closest thing cookery has to a bible. Open to any page of that and you will learn something that will blow your mind.
Did you know that Japanese Sanshou and Sichuan Pepper are not the same thing. Did you know that they are not even peppers? Did you know that they are a family called "sanshoo", which is more closely related to citrus and capsacins like chili, and that it is only the drying and smoking process that makes them more closely resemble the taste and texture of peppercorns? But the flavour of sanshoos are not like earthy pepper, sour citrus or spicy chilis. It produces a tingling, numbing sensation in the mouth. Did you know that cooking star anise with onion produces sulphurous compounds which enhance the flavour of meats? How about that jasmine tea, green tea, Japanese powdered tea, oolong tea, lapsang souchong, black tea etc. etc. all come from exactly the same leaf, just prepared in different ways?
The world is full of wonderful animals, vegetables and minerals which have amazing chemical properties.
Let's eating them.
2. Taste Food
And when you taste something, taste what it really tastes like, not what you think it tastes like. When painting a picture of a chair, an artist looks at a chair and paints what he sees. He doesn't just lob up and paint a picture of "a chair". The same goes for food. Many people will put something in their mouth and just taste what their mind tells them to taste. Doing this is no great experience, and it teaches you nothing.
Put a piece of pineapple in your mouth and most people will say it just tastes like pineapple, but what does that mean? Look at the components of the flavours in pineapple and you'll find flavours similar to cinnamon, green leaves, orange, parsley and ginger. (Strange example I know, but I just had some pineapple for lunch.)
Knowing what makes up flavours lets you develop them, mix them and enjoy them.
3. Think Cheap At The Supermarket
Whatever is cheap is what's in season, and what's in season is what tastes good. Of course, now with global logistics and off-season farming the way it is, you can still get almost anything you're craving. But if you want something that really shines, it's nice to have good ingredients.
4. Understand Seasoning
This means just two things - Salt and pepper.
These are the bases of almost all savoury flavour (and why I am such a big fan of pepper's close cousin, chili). These don't just add to the flavour of foods. They create flavour.
Try this, cook something without adding any salt or pepper at all. Then divide it into a bunch of different portions and season each one of them differently. Just with salt and pepper. It will blow your mind how different they all taste.
5. Mise En Place
This is fundamental. When the fire's blazing, the water boiling and the blood's rushing to your head, you don't have time to think about where you keep the onions or whether you've got enough brandy left to flambe that chicken.
Prepare yourself for cooking. That means everything should be cut, washed, arranged and prepared before you begin. This is why chefs on TV make it all look so easy. They' re prepped up the yin yang.
6. Buy A Kitchen Timer
How long has the pasta been in? I don't know. I think it was probably ten minutes after we started the movie so that's about, um... 10 minutes?
A kitchen timer takes all the stress out of things. With a timer you could bang some pasta in boiling water, set it for 7 minutes and even if you were getting a blowjob in between you'd still have al dente pasta for afterwards. Imagine making some pasta sauce and wanting to check it in 30 minutes - and then actually checking it in 30 minutes without having to look at the clock every 3 minutes.
Save yourself a lot of hassle. They're only like 1000 yen.
7. Cook From Scratch
It is a sad truth that many of us have never eaten "real" food. We have eaten the approximate facsimiles that supermarkets and corporations have prepared that simulate the genuine article. Even the term "milky" is now used to describe something insipid and watery. Try real milk. Out of a cow. It's not what we would call "milky".
I had a friend over who professed to love pesto, but she had never tried pesto other than out of a jar. I happened to have some basil, parmesan and pinenuts on hand and made some. She couldn't believe how good it was. (No, I wasn't trying to sleep with her.) How many of you have eaten a pie made with homemade pastry? How many of you have made your favourite dish from all raw ingredients.
Trust me, it's worth it.
8. Give It A Rest
Flavours need time to come together and reach equilibrium. This means both before and after cooking.
Before cooking, meats will benefit from marinading or aging. You can even age red meats in your fridge. Vegetables, poultry and seafood too will accept flavours well before they're cooked. Although with all things, save adding salt until you're ready to cook, unless you're trying to draw the moisture out of things.
After cooking, almost all foods will benefit from resting in a warm place for a few minutes. For all roasted, fried or grilled meats this is absolutely essential, but for even things like stir-fries a couple of minutes left alone will bring the dish back to a nice temperature to eat, thicken sauces, and develop flavours and aromas.
9. Clean As You Go
It's just not worth cooking if at the end of it your kitchen (or in Japan, your whole apartment) looks like a post-airstrike Lebanese hospital.
If you've done your prep well enough, there should be plenty of "downtime" while you're cooking to wash a few dishes or put things back in the fridge or cupboard. Throw stuff into a bin as you go. Rachael Ray recommends that you keep a big bowl on the bench to put everything into. While that may also be a good idea, she's an idiot so don't do anything she says on principle. Just hang a plastic bag from the nearest cupboard handle and throw all your crap in there.
The cleaner the environment is, the more you'll be able to concentrate on the food.
10. Talk To People
Call your Mum and ask her how she makes her lamb chops. Every time you do that you get a happy Mum and a recipe for lamb chops. It's win-win.
Ask the chef who just made a meal you like how he did it. Ask the butcher or grocer what's good today. Ask your girlfriend if there's any particular dish she'd you to make for her. Ask the fishmonger which fish he'd take home for dinner if he was going to eat one tonight.
Everytime I ask my grandma how to make something, she shouts at me impatiently and indicates that I am a complete idiot for not knowing how to make it already. But I know that secretly, it makes her day.
1. Know Your Ingredients
Learning about ingredients and what the various "kitchen processes" (i.e. marinading, steaming, grilling, frying, roasting, chilling, blending etc.) do to them is a great thing to do. It gives you a framework in which to experiment and create new ideas, or to reproduce old ones.
If you are really interested in the food you're eating, read McGee's "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen". It's the closest thing cookery has to a bible. Open to any page of that and you will learn something that will blow your mind.
Did you know that Japanese Sanshou and Sichuan Pepper are not the same thing. Did you know that they are not even peppers? Did you know that they are a family called "sanshoo", which is more closely related to citrus and capsacins like chili, and that it is only the drying and smoking process that makes them more closely resemble the taste and texture of peppercorns? But the flavour of sanshoos are not like earthy pepper, sour citrus or spicy chilis. It produces a tingling, numbing sensation in the mouth. Did you know that cooking star anise with onion produces sulphurous compounds which enhance the flavour of meats? How about that jasmine tea, green tea, Japanese powdered tea, oolong tea, lapsang souchong, black tea etc. etc. all come from exactly the same leaf, just prepared in different ways?
The world is full of wonderful animals, vegetables and minerals which have amazing chemical properties.
Let's eating them.
2. Taste Food
And when you taste something, taste what it really tastes like, not what you think it tastes like. When painting a picture of a chair, an artist looks at a chair and paints what he sees. He doesn't just lob up and paint a picture of "a chair". The same goes for food. Many people will put something in their mouth and just taste what their mind tells them to taste. Doing this is no great experience, and it teaches you nothing.
Put a piece of pineapple in your mouth and most people will say it just tastes like pineapple, but what does that mean? Look at the components of the flavours in pineapple and you'll find flavours similar to cinnamon, green leaves, orange, parsley and ginger. (Strange example I know, but I just had some pineapple for lunch.)
Knowing what makes up flavours lets you develop them, mix them and enjoy them.
3. Think Cheap At The Supermarket
Whatever is cheap is what's in season, and what's in season is what tastes good. Of course, now with global logistics and off-season farming the way it is, you can still get almost anything you're craving. But if you want something that really shines, it's nice to have good ingredients.
4. Understand Seasoning
This means just two things - Salt and pepper.
These are the bases of almost all savoury flavour (and why I am such a big fan of pepper's close cousin, chili). These don't just add to the flavour of foods. They create flavour.
Try this, cook something without adding any salt or pepper at all. Then divide it into a bunch of different portions and season each one of them differently. Just with salt and pepper. It will blow your mind how different they all taste.
5. Mise En Place
This is fundamental. When the fire's blazing, the water boiling and the blood's rushing to your head, you don't have time to think about where you keep the onions or whether you've got enough brandy left to flambe that chicken.
Prepare yourself for cooking. That means everything should be cut, washed, arranged and prepared before you begin. This is why chefs on TV make it all look so easy. They' re prepped up the yin yang.
6. Buy A Kitchen Timer
How long has the pasta been in? I don't know. I think it was probably ten minutes after we started the movie so that's about, um... 10 minutes?
A kitchen timer takes all the stress out of things. With a timer you could bang some pasta in boiling water, set it for 7 minutes and even if you were getting a blowjob in between you'd still have al dente pasta for afterwards. Imagine making some pasta sauce and wanting to check it in 30 minutes - and then actually checking it in 30 minutes without having to look at the clock every 3 minutes.
Save yourself a lot of hassle. They're only like 1000 yen.
7. Cook From Scratch
It is a sad truth that many of us have never eaten "real" food. We have eaten the approximate facsimiles that supermarkets and corporations have prepared that simulate the genuine article. Even the term "milky" is now used to describe something insipid and watery. Try real milk. Out of a cow. It's not what we would call "milky".
I had a friend over who professed to love pesto, but she had never tried pesto other than out of a jar. I happened to have some basil, parmesan and pinenuts on hand and made some. She couldn't believe how good it was. (No, I wasn't trying to sleep with her.) How many of you have eaten a pie made with homemade pastry? How many of you have made your favourite dish from all raw ingredients.
Trust me, it's worth it.
8. Give It A Rest
Flavours need time to come together and reach equilibrium. This means both before and after cooking.
Before cooking, meats will benefit from marinading or aging. You can even age red meats in your fridge. Vegetables, poultry and seafood too will accept flavours well before they're cooked. Although with all things, save adding salt until you're ready to cook, unless you're trying to draw the moisture out of things.
After cooking, almost all foods will benefit from resting in a warm place for a few minutes. For all roasted, fried or grilled meats this is absolutely essential, but for even things like stir-fries a couple of minutes left alone will bring the dish back to a nice temperature to eat, thicken sauces, and develop flavours and aromas.
9. Clean As You Go
It's just not worth cooking if at the end of it your kitchen (or in Japan, your whole apartment) looks like a post-airstrike Lebanese hospital.
If you've done your prep well enough, there should be plenty of "downtime" while you're cooking to wash a few dishes or put things back in the fridge or cupboard. Throw stuff into a bin as you go. Rachael Ray recommends that you keep a big bowl on the bench to put everything into. While that may also be a good idea, she's an idiot so don't do anything she says on principle. Just hang a plastic bag from the nearest cupboard handle and throw all your crap in there.
The cleaner the environment is, the more you'll be able to concentrate on the food.
10. Talk To People
Call your Mum and ask her how she makes her lamb chops. Every time you do that you get a happy Mum and a recipe for lamb chops. It's win-win.
Ask the chef who just made a meal you like how he did it. Ask the butcher or grocer what's good today. Ask your girlfriend if there's any particular dish she'd you to make for her. Ask the fishmonger which fish he'd take home for dinner if he was going to eat one tonight.
Everytime I ask my grandma how to make something, she shouts at me impatiently and indicates that I am a complete idiot for not knowing how to make it already. But I know that secretly, it makes her day.
posted by Achiminie Chadoo at
11:33 AM
