A friend of mine set out to prepare this wonderful 3 course menu for her finals, back then in school. The menu was perfect, the recipe so very straight forward, the display would make you salivate and the aroma, to die for. She followed the instructions to the letter, and the result - a disaster!
The potatoes and beef were under cooked, her sauce was bland, and the vegetables were soggy.
Oh let me add that my friend was a fantastic cook and I looked forward to her many meals. So what went wrong? She simply followed the instructions to the letter.
Truth be told, there's nothing wrong with following a recipe. I look at recipes all the time, even for meals I can prepare in my sleep. Recipes are not instructions but simple guidelines - there are no hard and fast rules. Let's not forget that recipes are written by people, like you and me.
Permit me to say, but most recipes are somewhat incomplete. There's what you call trade secrets but we like to refer to it as the 'SECRET INGREDIENT'.
This is that thing that sets your meal apart from others. And believe me no-one is going to write you a recipe that includes their 'secret'. The secret ingredient could be anything from a pinch of salt, a cube of sugar, that dash of lemon, to simply reducing or increasing quantities of a particular item, blanching rather than boiling, a type of marinade, or a simple substitute of one item with another. Wow! The possibilities are endless!
These, however, should be done with caution. I will be taking you through the menu planning process in subsequent posts, with a recipe or two. Ask your questions - I'll be here to help.
Come, join me in planning simple meals in a way that brings back to you the pleasures and joys of cooking.
