Have you ever cooked something that you quickly put together with very few ingredients, a sprinkling of this and that, and have it turn out tasting so darn good that you attempt to make it again with what you consider to be the “right” ingredients, only to have it taste blah? If you answered yes, you are so not alone.
There have been so many occasions when I am tired, or not tired, and need something to eat that I cobble together a few ingredients, assembling them, improvising, creating at times something out of bare essentials. The results are more often deliciously surprising. I’d make a note to try making the dish, or sometimes it is a sandwich with “proper” ingredients not just the bits and pieces I had had available. Almost on every occasion whatever I make then turns out tasting fine but seems to be missing something, the taste or texture is just not right, and then comes the ah-ha moment. The moment in which I realize that when I made the dish, there was a certain freedom, haste, a lack of preparation and perfection with which I went about cooking. There was no pressure to produce food for anyone or an occasion. The only expectation and satisfaction that I had to live up to was my own.
The improvisation that takes place when we make those quickly put-together meals late at night or whenever we feel nibbly is really a testament to creativity. And if we are paying careful attention, we will also realize that in that moment we do not need to have a laundry list of ingredients to cook to survive or nourish. Too often, we get caught up in must-haves in order to cook, and that does not only extend to ingredients but at times tools and equipment with which to do so. We must get it right! And what is right? Right is relative. Right is subjective.
With fewer ingredients, we have the freedom to substitute and play around with flavours. When we let certain things cook for longer or shorter than is usual, we discover other textures, and depending on what the ingredients are, new dimensions of flavour. Take for example something with which many of us are familiar – fried ripe plantains. We can cook them, browning them to perfection or we can let the plantains cook a little longer charring in places. The plantains that are charred at the edges are a little chewy with a hint of bitterness that compliments the sweet softness of the rest of the plantains.
Speaking of fried ripe plantains, last year I was making ham sandwiches and I also had fried ripe plantains I had made. As I was assembling the sandwiches, I thought, what the heck, I am going to layer some of the ripe plantains in there. Oh. My. Goodness. The sweet caramelized plantains with the salty, smoky, meaty ham was an excellent paring that was just right for me. Since then I have been adding fried ripe plantains to most of my meat sandwiches. It’s my sandwich and I am free to put what I want in it.
Cooking with freedom gives us more latitude, the room to be flexible, and that gets reflected in our food in appetizing and enjoyable ways. Cooking with freedom allows for the changing of order in which we assemble ingredients in a pot or pan; there’s no need for rigid structures, go with the flow so to speak.
Let me share some of the off-the-cuff cooking I did recently.
I had some Baigan (eggplant) choka left back from the weekend, I added that to some fried potatoes along with 4 fillets of de-salted smoked herring. The entire thing was cooked in a base of sautéed tomatoes, onions, hot peppers and a sprinkling of turmeric. Man, I tell you, that was one of the best tasting combos I have ever eaten. I had it one day with rice and the following day with roti. I am not going to even try to replicate that taste and flavour because I know that I cannot capture it again, it was something to enjoy in the moment. Besides, I am not going to go to the lengths of making Baigan choka just to add it to fried potatoes, and smoked herring is not always in the house.
When we make Fried Rice, we feel we must always have soy sauce or similar type of Asian sauce to give it colour – that is so not necessary. Sure, the rice would look white, different, but the taste, right up there. Try it. And you don’t need special vegetables, as long as you have ginger, garlic and some hot pepper, you’re good to go.
Take some of the pressure off of precision cooking this weekend and cook with freedom – use what you have available, play with combinations of flavours and textures. If you don’t have enough garam masala for a curry, add in a little Chinese five-spice powder. And if you run out of mayonnaise and have yogurt, add that to the potato salad.
Cynthia
cynthia@tasteslikehome.org
