Sunday, October 23, 2011

One powerful yet simple ingredient

One simple ingredient can often make all the difference when you’re cooking. And now that’s more true than ever. The ingredient in this case is black pepper—freshly ground, of course, instead of pre-ground and packed in a tin. Freshly ground peppercorns pop with flavor and fragrance, becoming a true flavor, not just background noise, and you can control the grind, from fine to coarsely cracked.

Which got me thinking about when I was getting into cooking. I remember always being nervous when I came to the bit in a recipe when it said ‘season to taste’. I knew that meant adding salt and pepper. But how could I possibly know how much? For years I’d just add a few grinds of pepper and a pinch of salt and hope for the best. That was until I had a bit of a seasoning revelation. 

It was a very long ago... when i was a little girl and use to bug mamma in the kitchen when i learnt this small but very powerful trick from her... I was assisting my dad in kitchen trying out a simple tomato soup (ohhh its was wonderful i can still remember the TASTE)

After tasting, she inquired as to whether we’d seasoned it and got us to taste as well. I thought it was pretty good, but at her insistence we added a more salt and freshly crushed pepper. A second taste and the difference was staggering. With her encouragement we continued to salt and taste. Each time the soup tasted more alive and vibrant, not salty but fresh and good.

It was then that I realised that this is what seasoning is about – tasting and tweaking – or fine tuning to bring out the best in the food. After that, I felt more confident with the whole seasoning thing and began to experiment with my own cooking. I like to think of seasoning as an art that I’m continuing to practice and improve.
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