I like to think I am a fairly good cook. I like to bake, I love making soup (which is why my I like winter so much). I find it incredibly easy to roast a chicken or a nice hunk of pork/beef/lamb and can't understand why some people find it difficult. Then again, Mr. M can't understand my problem with maths. I've had my share of disasters as well, but usually things turn out ok.
Recently I have been cooking a lot of recipes from this celebrity chef. Now, I've had flirtations, if you will, with celebrity chefs before. When I try a recipe the first time, I want it to work. I want it to look like it did on tv or in the photos on your blog. If I try a few recipes I see on tv, or on your blog, well then I buy your cookbook. If the recipes don't work, I move on.
There are a few people in the blog-o-sphere that won't steer you wrong. David's recipe for ricotta herb tart was first made one Christmas holiday - I ended up making it 4 times in one week. Deb's recipe for grown up gingerbread - well, all I can say is that it will make you want to slap yo mama.
Once you try a recipe (and it comes out JUST LIKE THE PICTURE!) if you are confident enough in your cooking ability, then you start to tweak to your individual taste. While I always made pumpkin pies according the recipe on the label on the tin of pumpkin, I tweaked the spices because I like a bolder flavour in my pie. A recipe should either be a building block or inspiration for you. Some recipes you don't mess with, because they are perfect the way they are. And sometimes, well you aren't paying attention because the dog keeps trying to jump up on the counter or something, and you just stuff things up.
I made chocolate chip cookies today. This is the third time in the past two weeks I have made choc chip cookies. Normally I use the toll house chips that I beg my mother to send me from the US, but I went through my supply of chips like Grant through Richmond. For two years I used the chocolate I bought on clearance from here for brownies. I had the brilliant idea of using this chocolate for the choc chip cookies instead. Except when I was creaming the sugar and butter, I realised I had used the wrong measuring cup; instead of dumping in three 1/4th cup measures of castor sugar, I had dumped in three 1/3rd cup measures (yes, I know, that's a full cup).
Bugger. However, I wasn't about to throw away all that butter and sugar. I backed off the brown sugar a bit and kept going. What I got was a cookie that spread a little bit more, but was crispy and chewy in the middle. The slight taste of salt on the back of your tongue made you eat more than your fair share.
The moral of this story - don't panic if you make a mistake. You might discover a new recipe.
Comments