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Learn
to cook by taste
September 2, 04
Suzanne Havala Hobbs
Are you ready to find your inner
chef? It’s not hard to do.
But first it may help if you discard some old notions about
what it takes to prepare good food.
Take recipes, for instance.
A recipe is necessary when the exact amounts of key ingredients
are critical to the recipe’s success. In baking, for
example, it’s important to get the proportions of dry
and liquid ingredients right.
Beyond that, however, recipes are optional. That little piece
of knowledge may be enough to set you free.
I took this advice to heart years ago and have been a free-form
cook ever since. The person who clued me in was Marc Friedland,
president of Talley’s Green Grocery in Charlotte. Marc’s
wife, Jyoti, teaches cooking classes at the store. Their approach
to cooking is food-based rather than recipe-based.
To make it work, you do have to know a few basics and be willing
to experiment with flavors.
For starters, you should know how to boil water, use an oven
and stove, and be aware of kitchen safety fundamentals such
as how to use a paring knife.
You also need to know what you want to make.
According to Friedland, it helps to know what you feel like
eating, whether it’s food with a Mexican, Caribbean,
Italian, or Chinese flair, something hearty or something light.
After that, you approach cooking like an artist does a paint
palette, experimenting with mixtures of ingredients. Some
will work, some won’t, but along the way you occasionally
may create a masterpiece. The more experience you have fiddling
with flavors, the more confidence you’ll gain.
By not following a specific recipe, there’s more room
for creativity. There’s a practical side, too. One of
Friedland’s standards at home is a vegetable stir-fry.
“I look around the kitchen and see what I’ve got,”
said Friedland.
He uses what he has on hand, combining ingredients that he
needs to use up or thinks will go well together.
“It doesn’t have to taste like the recipe as long
as you like the taste,” he said.
Other tips from the Friedlands:
* It doesn’t have to take a lot of time. “Really
nice food takes a long time – certain dishes that you
make just for special occasions,” said Friedland. “But
you don’t have to do that every time.”
* Find ways to combine foods you like. If you like beans and
rice, put them together and create a dish based on them.
* Dishes have certain basic ingredients, and after that you
can add and subtract. For example, chili is typically made
with onions, beans, tomato sauce, chili powder, and cumin.
You can add garlic, green peppers, ground meat or soy burger
crumbles, a bay leaf, a handful of cashews, a scoop of corn,
or a few raisins – or not. I often mix pinto beans,
kidney beans, and garbanzo beans together in mine.
* Don’t be afraid of herbs and spices. Friedland says
to “put them in by the handful.” That’s
especially true for herbs. If you don’t use enough,
you won’t taste them. If you find the flavor too strong,
cut back next time.
Cooking by taste rather than recipe has another big advantage:
“It takes me longer to clean up the kitchen than it
does to make a meal,” said Friedland.
That’s a big bonus at the end of the day when hunger
and pinched schedules make it difficult to devote a lot of
time to making dinner. It also makes it possible to eat meals
cooked from scratch, so you have control over the ingredients,
rather than relying on pizza, frozen entrees or fast food.
And there’s one last piece of advice from Friedland:
“The cook has to like the food.”
Satisfy yourself first. If you like what you fix, chances
are good others will, too.
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