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002: Taste Your Food

The main difference between a pro and a home gamer is the amount of tasting that occurs during the preparation, from start to finish. One of the golden rules is every time something goes into the pan, season and taste. The amount of seasoning in your food will be determined not by teaspoons, grams, or any measuring tool, rather by the feeling in your fingertips and your developing palate. One way you can think about the seasoning process is by answering a simple question; how close to fully seasoned is this at this moment?

It is a good idea to make a distinction here between seasoning and flavoring/other. When we talk about seasoning, we are always talking about salt, and pepper if you’re into it. Everything else that could go into the pan is not seasoning although it may be a salty product like parmesan, soy sauce, or bacon.

Q: How much salt should be in pasta water?

A: Enough so you can taste it. “DO NOT MAKE THE PASTA WATER SALTY LIKE THE SEA!” Your sauce will be seasoned and balanced with acid, and if your pasta is too salty you cannot save it.

Q2: How much salt should be in pommes puree and how do I ensure full seasoning, but not kill it with too much?

A: Enough so you can taste it. You are starting with cold water so you can taste it immediately when it hits the burner and taste it again every 5m until the potatoes are done. You will be adding seasoned cream, butter, and potentially more salt later so do not overdo it in the beginning.

Q: I’ve put too much salt in the dish, can it be saved?

A: Well, maybe. If it is a soup or stock, you can discard half of the liquid and replace it with water. Bring it up to the simmer and taste it. If it is a vegetable dish, you can add some water or stock and discard the juices when you give it a stir. Repeat as necessary and be careful. If it is a gratin, casserole, or other layered dish, then no.

Seasoning Guidelines:

  1. If you are tasting it from the beginning, you shouldn’t be caught off guard by the amount of salt in the dish.
  2. You can mess it up at the beginning, the middle, and the end. Small amounts of seasoning at every stage.
  3. If you do over season it, do not continue! Take a step back and evaluate where the dish is in the prep and make an executive decision.
  4. If you go into salvage mode, you are still on the hook for tasting the food for the rest of the way. This learning experience will teach you way more than you think!
  5. If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t serve it. Chalk it up to experience and try not to be so heavy-handed next time.

I am beating a dead horse about this seasoning thing, but I assure you your food is likely under seasoned. The next time you are cooking, make a mental note about how many times you added salt and how many times you tasted it. It should be more than ten.

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001: Prepare to Prepare

Cooking ought to be enjoyable, and the number one detractor for the grand majority of people is time management. Sure, this is related to cooking skills and the order flow of operations, but, before you turn on the burner, fire up the grill, or get your R2D2 looking pot going you need to have the big picture in mind. How many people am I cooking for? When do I want to serve it? Given the recipes, how much time do I need to complete the dishes? Do I have the ingredients to make the dishes? This is not a Zeno issue but inexperience with culinary multitasking can be paralyzing. Fortunately, we are here to help.

If you are an enthusiast, you ought to have the fundamental tools handy. These include but are not limited to a sharp kitchen knife, cutting board, a saute pan, tasting spoon, a fish spatula, and the usual suspects. From here, you are equipped to make dishes that fall into the category of “one-pan-pickups,” which is lingo for the dish is fired and finished in one pan. An example would be sauteed salmon, piperade, and sauce du jour.

Method:

  1. Heat the pan, add the fat (neutral oil or clarified butter), heat the fat, and add the product. I wish I made that up.
  2. Pat the salmon dry with a paper towel and season with salt.
  3. Add the salmon to the pan and give it an honest 10 seconds.
  4. Reduce the pan to medium leave it alone.
  5. Follow the doneness (color change) from the pan side, and when it is 1/3 up the way of the fish, use your fish spatula to gently and with finesse, flip it over, then give it an honest 20 seconds. Remove the fish and place on a sizzle platter or holding plate.
  6. Defat the pan, AKA dump the excess fat out, and put the pan back on to medium low heat.
  7. Add your julienned onions and red peppers to the pan and sweat. Season with salt.
  8. Some time will go by. Stir the veg with your spoon and taste. Season again. Taste again.
  9. Once the veg has reached the desired doneness, in this case soft, turn up the pan to medium.
  10. Add a knob of butter and let it foam.
  11. Add garlic and parsley, stir. Smell the transformation.
  12. Deglaze the pan with white wine and reduce until almost dry.
  13. Season, taste, Season again, taste again.
  14. Remove the veg and put onto your sizzle platter or holding plate.
  15. Add a knob of butter to the pan, add shallots, sweat.
  16. Add garlic and parsley, sizzle, smell, add white wine and reduce until almost dry.
  17. Add some flavorings (Dijon mustard, chopped olives, capers, etc).
  18. Add parsley and a squeeze of lemon.
  19. Taste, season, taste again, season again.
  20. Put the pan on low and add the salmon back to reheat gently.
  21. Taste the veg again and adjust seasoning as necessary.
  22. Plate the veg, then the salmon, taste the sauce one last time and plate it up.
  23. Add the finest parsley you can cut, a few drops of lemon juice, and some cracked black pepper.

I know what your thinking, that’s a lot of steps! Sure is, but it is the longhand version of how the order flow works while using the usual suspects. Once you have your prep done, from the time the salmon hits the pan to putting it on the plate is less than 15 minutes. It only works this way because you thought your way through it, cut your vegetables to the correct size, and tasted your way through the dish. IT can be done, and you can do it too.

What I would like you to do is answer the following three questions and write down your answers so that you can objectively think about them.

  1. What style of cuisine do I enjoy cooking the most? Why?
  2. What regional cuisine is my absolute favorite? What are the three flavors you enjoy from this cuisine?
  3. Do I have the requisite equipment to cook these dishes?

Don’t look now, but you’re preparing to prepare to begin cooking those dishes.

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About The Chef

We the people. The strong. The parents. We are united in the quest to provide nutrition to our families and ourselves, but let’s face it…we ain’t got time for that! My name is Chris and I am the Sheetfaced Chef. My mission is to not only share some tips and tricks to kick start your cooking game, but also to entertain you along the way. We will have live cook-a-longs, weekly technique videos, an “ask-the-chef” feature and much more, so put those kids down, turn the lights off and let’s get sheet faced! See you in the morning.

About the Chef: Chris is a former professional (Certified Executive Chef, CEC) who spent some time in fine dining restaurants in California, the Basque Country in Spain, but really found his way in the teaching arena in the top culinary arts schools in Southern California. His forte is in high labor cuisine with obnoxiously priced ingredients, but, as a home gamer he has adapted the mentality to the realities of a limited home kitchen. 

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The Usual Suspects:

Ingredients:

Shallots

Garlic

Parsley

White Wine

Butter

Lemon

These are the foundational ingredients in your flavor building repertoire. If you’ve never used shallots before, they are small onions with a mild flavor like red onions. They are indispensable in regional European cuisines and if you can find them in your local markets, I highly recommend you pay up for them and start using them wherever you use onions in your cooking. The other ingredients are what cooks call aromatics which can create fragrance, flavor, and depth to the food. 

The usual suspects are a simple way to learn how to make food taste great! If you are brand new, great! If you are a home-gamer who wants some new ideas, also great! What we will do over time together is discover 1) the typical sequence of how to use them as a “finisher,” 2) how to layer them in to longer prep dishes such as soups, stews, and braises, and 3) Cool things you can do with the ingredients individually.

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