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Fundamental Concepts in the Kitchen
At its most basic level, cooking is nothing more than taking food ingredients and heating them up. Our Neanderthal ancestors found that, with fire and a stick, even tarantulas were tasty treats. They were not concerned with menu planning, spice combinations, texture or presentation. Thanks to the microwave oven, Sarah Lee and Lean Cuisine we can leave those details to other people. Now we can have perfectly normal Neanderthal lives where the only decision is whether Salisbury steak goes better with beer or burgundy. Unfortunately, living on nuke-n-pukes takes a huge bite from the monthly budget. While most guides to cooking concentrate on providing recipes with step-by-step instructions, I feel that the fundamentals are most important. By understanding basic methods and spice combinations, you are not constrained to following somebody else's instructions. Instead you will be able to use them as tools to be creative and to know instinctively how to avoid disasters. By taking over the 4 decisions made by the frozen food industry and spending 30 minutes of your time, the food budget can be slashed by more than half. Those 4 decisions, again, are menu planning, texture, spice combination/flavor, and presentation. Each of those decisions comes from a palette that allows you to select singly or in combination. An artist can chose from palettes of colors or media to make either a textured oil painting or abstract water color. You can also select combinations from various palettes to make a rich stew, a crispy taco or a spicy Indian shrimp.
Menu planning –
The important part in menu planning is to select foods to provide a balanced diet. All nutritionists agree that having a good balance is the key to your good health. They disagree on how much of which group constitutes a good balance, but it has been my experience that good health and optimum weight control results from allowing 40% to proteins, 35% to minerals and 25% to carbohydrates.
Proteins –
All of the meats and most legumes are sources of protein. The choice from the protein palette is connected to the choice of texture and flavor. For me, the choice depends on what is in the refrigerator or what is on sale. The red meats are rich in iron and not extremely high in cholesterol. The white meats (chicken, turkey, and pork) are less chewy and lower in cholesterol. When cooked properly, seafood is most tender, but in many cases highest in cholesterol. Some will contest that tofu is the tenderest and has no cholesterol, but this book is not written for vegans.
Minerals –
Vegetables are your greatest source for minerals but some are connected to the choice of carbohydrates. Many vegetables are very high in minerals, yet have practically no calories. Onion, Spinach, lettuce, green beans, kale and collard greens are good examples. Though tomato is a fruit, it belongs in the mineral group.
Carbohydrates –
The fleshy vegetables such as potato, yam, peas, lima beans and corn are rich in minerals but all have a lot more calories because of their starch content. Grains like wheat and rice are high in starch but are also good sources for minerals. Processed grains (flours) are used to make breads that are widely varied in texture and flavor. Despite the federal nutrition pyramid, I maintain that putting this food group as the foundation layer is the highest contributor to America’s problem with obesity.
Texture palette –
When people think of texture, they generally consider things being crispy, chewy, tender or mushy. The same food can be cooked by different methods to achieve excellent results at either end of the spectrum. A potato can be sliced and fried quickly to make potato chips. On the other hand, the same potato can be boiled, mixed and served as mashed potatoes with butter. The fundamental cooking methods have the greatest impact on the food’s texture. Baking will give a casserole a crispy top crust and tender contents. Stewing will achieve the same tender contents and does not make the kitchen feel so hot, but the dish will not have a crispy crust. Sautéed in an uncovered skillet with low heat, dishes will be thick, rich and tender. Fried quickly with high heat, the food will have a crispy or chewy outer layer and be tender inside. The same effect is achieved with a wok. Fried in a deep pot of oil will also give a crispy outer layer and is best for foods that are breaded or covered in a fritter batter. Broiling in the oven or over a bed of charcoals allows the cook to apply sauces/marinades to the food as it cooks and get an outer layer that is chewy/crispy and rich in flavor.
Spice palette –
Spices have the greatest impact on flavor. In most American and European cuisines, spices are used to make subtle changes that enhance the basic flavor of the dish. In Mexican and Asian cuisines, the impact is more dramatic. Spices are those products that are used to affect changes in flavor, aroma and taste. The spices affecting only taste are salt, sugar, cayenne, baking soda and crushed vitamin C pills. The ones affecting mostly taste but also impacting flavor include honey, pepper, lemon, and vinegar. The others affect mostly flavor and aroma. You are free to mix different spices and meats in nearly any combination. Just as a budding artist will find that mixing paints indiscriminately results in an off color, you will find that the same thing happens with flavor. But the artist learns how the colors interact with each other by experimentation and so should you. You do not need to test with an entire dish. Move a sample of your sauce or meat from the pan to a teacup. Sprinkle a smidgen of an experimental spice on the food and taste it. You will learn volumes.
Each country has a characteristic mixture of spices and you can see how the combinations change as you go from boarder to boarder.
Basic methodology and spice combinations
Japanese
Indian
Cajun
Greek
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