How do you like your food?
Sept 27, 2011 10:57:29 GMT
Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2011 10:57:29 GMT
Over in the Superlux 661 thread I likened balancing the top end of their sound to the amount of salt one prefers in cooking. There's no right answer but nowadays I find that low or no salt has become the norm.
While traveling last week I bought a pack of prawn mayo sandwiches. Generously filled and made with a good granary type of brown bread - but OMG.. what I'd have given, Lord, for just a tiny sprinkle of salt.
And British supermarkets have been criticised for making their bread too salty when, actually, salt has been part of a bread recipe since long ago. In the TV show "The Great British Bake Off" they often tell the contestants off for 'not enough salt'. Good pastry needs a pinch of salt. Yorkshire pudding and pancake batters need a pinch of salt. The topping in an apple crumble needs a pinch of salt. And please don't give me new potatoes that have been given the plain boiled water treatment.
I'm not salt crazy... for example with a traditional British 'roast dinner' I will gently season the vegetables. But then I'll counteract that with a very punchy gravy; tasting and tweaking salt and sugar levels until I have pushed the flavour as far as I can without spoiling things. And, yes, I add both salt and a little sugar to my gravies and sauces.
And another thing...... very lightly cooked vegetables.... ?? Restaurants are into the quick blanch thing. Crunchy carrots, raw green beans. Brittle cauliflower... what IS going on.? I am not saying we go back to the old days where one's granny (or even Mum) would boil her veg 'til it collapsed into a pile of colourless mush. But restaurants seem to have gone too far with this.
The problem here is that we're all different and I'm particularly awkward when it comes to how I like my veg cooked. Take green beans... I like french beans lightly cooked. If they still have a bit of a 'squeak' when you bite them then that's good. And the colour should be emerald green. But... runner beans? Now they need a bit more of a traditional approach. Runners have a stronger flavour than French beans... and until they have had a time to cook they don't quite develop their full sweetness and nuttyness. So french beans crisp, runner beans soft.
Similarly, take broccoli and cauliflower. Push broccoli too far and it tastes of sulphur, turns yellow, and it falls apart. A quick cook, until you can just about push a fork into the stalks, is good . But on the other hand, cauliflower flavour betters as it cooks.... like runner beans it gets sweeter and more solid if you allow it to simmer a while. Of course, don't let it collapse - but don't hurry it either.
A tough cabbage - maybe a savoy, or mature spring greens.. a long, gentle simmer until the outer leaves give in. A white cabbage.. then your into something that needs a shorter time... slice it fine and cook it quick... even stir fry it?
How do you like yours? (With too much butter and a twist of black pepper of course)............
Derek
While traveling last week I bought a pack of prawn mayo sandwiches. Generously filled and made with a good granary type of brown bread - but OMG.. what I'd have given, Lord, for just a tiny sprinkle of salt.
And British supermarkets have been criticised for making their bread too salty when, actually, salt has been part of a bread recipe since long ago. In the TV show "The Great British Bake Off" they often tell the contestants off for 'not enough salt'. Good pastry needs a pinch of salt. Yorkshire pudding and pancake batters need a pinch of salt. The topping in an apple crumble needs a pinch of salt. And please don't give me new potatoes that have been given the plain boiled water treatment.
I'm not salt crazy... for example with a traditional British 'roast dinner' I will gently season the vegetables. But then I'll counteract that with a very punchy gravy; tasting and tweaking salt and sugar levels until I have pushed the flavour as far as I can without spoiling things. And, yes, I add both salt and a little sugar to my gravies and sauces.
And another thing...... very lightly cooked vegetables.... ?? Restaurants are into the quick blanch thing. Crunchy carrots, raw green beans. Brittle cauliflower... what IS going on.? I am not saying we go back to the old days where one's granny (or even Mum) would boil her veg 'til it collapsed into a pile of colourless mush. But restaurants seem to have gone too far with this.
The problem here is that we're all different and I'm particularly awkward when it comes to how I like my veg cooked. Take green beans... I like french beans lightly cooked. If they still have a bit of a 'squeak' when you bite them then that's good. And the colour should be emerald green. But... runner beans? Now they need a bit more of a traditional approach. Runners have a stronger flavour than French beans... and until they have had a time to cook they don't quite develop their full sweetness and nuttyness. So french beans crisp, runner beans soft.
Similarly, take broccoli and cauliflower. Push broccoli too far and it tastes of sulphur, turns yellow, and it falls apart. A quick cook, until you can just about push a fork into the stalks, is good . But on the other hand, cauliflower flavour betters as it cooks.... like runner beans it gets sweeter and more solid if you allow it to simmer a while. Of course, don't let it collapse - but don't hurry it either.
A tough cabbage - maybe a savoy, or mature spring greens.. a long, gentle simmer until the outer leaves give in. A white cabbage.. then your into something that needs a shorter time... slice it fine and cook it quick... even stir fry it?
How do you like yours? (With too much butter and a twist of black pepper of course)............
Derek