Food combining...does this match with that?
I recently subscribed to www.restaurantrecipesrevealed.com I found this so informative especially for people who are interested in cooking and anything that has something to do in the kitchen.
Feel free to copy the posting below.
1. How do I know if the ingredients are matching?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When it comes down to matching different ingredients with
others, cooking really becomes fun.
This is because there are virtually no limits to what you can do.
If you think you just came up with some new way to combine certain food items, you can be pretty sure, that a few weeks later you will pick up a magazine where you'll find a recipe with just that combination of foods.
First and foremost, it is a matter of how you personally feel about combining the ingredients in question.
If you are not sure, you can always apply the benchmark we've been talking a bout in the last session (– remember grandma?)
If you are less adventurous, let generations of cultures from around the world be your guide.
Think about what different cultures would
combine into their meals:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Look at the main ingredients you have available, then see if they would be compatible with, say, Asian cookery. If so, you can start to think about all the ingredients that are commonly used in Asian cultures.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Theme your meal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Theme your meal around Chinese, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Vietnamese, Russian, Korean or any other cuisine and then start to think flavours typical for these cultures.
Talking about Chinese for example, you may want to consider
bamboo shoots, sprouts, soy products, and different sauces such
as Hoisin. Think Garlic, Sesame, Ginger, Chili etc.
In the case of Italian for example you can imagine Tomatoes,
Olives, Garlic, Anchovies, Basil, Parmesan Cheese etc.
Initially, let the cultures you are familiar with guide you.
Flyers from your local take-away restaurants
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another easy way is to collect the flyers from your local take-away restaurants as you sometimes get them in your mailbox.
Use them as your inspiration.
The combinations they use in their descriptions are most likely the ones that are matching.
To achieve balance in your meal, just remember what we have
been talking about on Day 1 of this course.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Fusion Cooking
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
East meets West – North meets South – Land meets Sea
Some people call it confusion cooking...
If you are adventurous you may want to try your hand on
mixing ingredients from different cultures or origins.
What you will need to remember is again that it is mostly a
matter of personal preference.
One way to aid your thinking on this subject is again to follow
the way particular cultures are structuring their meals.
Example – Chinese:
You could use the traditional “beef with black bean sauce” as the theme of your fusion dish and start to consciously change it to grilled beef fillet steak with black bean & cabbage stir fry and then
start to build on that with adding more ingredients you feel comfortable with. (Maybe add mushrooms, rice, and noodles)
Another way to aid your meal could be to substitute one
traditional method of cookery with another maybe not so
traditional one:
Example – Beef Filet:
Often Beef filets are grilled or roasted, but who is to say that
you should not poach this piece of meat… from there you can
start to let your imagination go wild – should I go with a theme
of a boiled dinner or maybe go into the direction of the Japanese
Shabu-Shabu or even central European style caper or horseradish
themed.
One more idea you could base your meal on is simply to combine
the ingredients that are already in your pantry and let your fantasy
run wild:
Example – Pasta and Seaweed:
So in your pantry you find some spaghetti and also seaweed you
would like to use up. Here you would want to find something that
matches with the seaweed such as soy, maybe sesame, any
seafood or whatever else there may be available.
Say there is no seafood, but your seaweed is actually Nori (Japanese toasted seaweed sheets). Here I could see a meal either of a spaghetti with finely shredded seaweed through it, maybe a soy and chive butter sauce as the flavors or you could cook up the spaghetti, season them with any flavor you see as matching, make a salad out of the pasta and then make sushi rolls with this salad wrapped in the Nori instead of the traditional rice.
As you can see, the sky is the limit and as long as you follow some sort of a theme, you can virtually not go wrong.
There are very few flavor and ingredients that do clash in a way that would make a meal an absolute flop. Even then it would perhaps be a matter of personal preference rather than anything else.
As you experiment, you will learn from your audience what combinations are particularly good matches.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the next Lesson, we will learn about another aspect –
Food Texture
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Until then thanks for your interest
Feel free to copy the posting below.
1. How do I know if the ingredients are matching?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When it comes down to matching different ingredients with
others, cooking really becomes fun.
This is because there are virtually no limits to what you can do.
If you think you just came up with some new way to combine certain food items, you can be pretty sure, that a few weeks later you will pick up a magazine where you'll find a recipe with just that combination of foods.
First and foremost, it is a matter of how you personally feel about combining the ingredients in question.
If you are not sure, you can always apply the benchmark we've been talking a bout in the last session (– remember grandma?)
If you are less adventurous, let generations of cultures from around the world be your guide.
Think about what different cultures would
combine into their meals:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Look at the main ingredients you have available, then see if they would be compatible with, say, Asian cookery. If so, you can start to think about all the ingredients that are commonly used in Asian cultures.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Theme your meal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Theme your meal around Chinese, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Vietnamese, Russian, Korean or any other cuisine and then start to think flavours typical for these cultures.
Talking about Chinese for example, you may want to consider
bamboo shoots, sprouts, soy products, and different sauces such
as Hoisin. Think Garlic, Sesame, Ginger, Chili etc.
In the case of Italian for example you can imagine Tomatoes,
Olives, Garlic, Anchovies, Basil, Parmesan Cheese etc.
Initially, let the cultures you are familiar with guide you.
Flyers from your local take-away restaurants
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another easy way is to collect the flyers from your local take-away restaurants as you sometimes get them in your mailbox.
Use them as your inspiration.
The combinations they use in their descriptions are most likely the ones that are matching.
To achieve balance in your meal, just remember what we have
been talking about on Day 1 of this course.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Fusion Cooking
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
East meets West – North meets South – Land meets Sea
Some people call it confusion cooking...
If you are adventurous you may want to try your hand on
mixing ingredients from different cultures or origins.
What you will need to remember is again that it is mostly a
matter of personal preference.
One way to aid your thinking on this subject is again to follow
the way particular cultures are structuring their meals.
Example – Chinese:
You could use the traditional “beef with black bean sauce” as the theme of your fusion dish and start to consciously change it to grilled beef fillet steak with black bean & cabbage stir fry and then
start to build on that with adding more ingredients you feel comfortable with. (Maybe add mushrooms, rice, and noodles)
Another way to aid your meal could be to substitute one
traditional method of cookery with another maybe not so
traditional one:
Example – Beef Filet:
Often Beef filets are grilled or roasted, but who is to say that
you should not poach this piece of meat… from there you can
start to let your imagination go wild – should I go with a theme
of a boiled dinner or maybe go into the direction of the Japanese
Shabu-Shabu or even central European style caper or horseradish
themed.
One more idea you could base your meal on is simply to combine
the ingredients that are already in your pantry and let your fantasy
run wild:
Example – Pasta and Seaweed:
So in your pantry you find some spaghetti and also seaweed you
would like to use up. Here you would want to find something that
matches with the seaweed such as soy, maybe sesame, any
seafood or whatever else there may be available.
Say there is no seafood, but your seaweed is actually Nori (Japanese toasted seaweed sheets). Here I could see a meal either of a spaghetti with finely shredded seaweed through it, maybe a soy and chive butter sauce as the flavors or you could cook up the spaghetti, season them with any flavor you see as matching, make a salad out of the pasta and then make sushi rolls with this salad wrapped in the Nori instead of the traditional rice.
As you can see, the sky is the limit and as long as you follow some sort of a theme, you can virtually not go wrong.
There are very few flavor and ingredients that do clash in a way that would make a meal an absolute flop. Even then it would perhaps be a matter of personal preference rather than anything else.
As you experiment, you will learn from your audience what combinations are particularly good matches.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the next Lesson, we will learn about another aspect –
Food Texture
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Until then thanks for your interest
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