On Friday Fives on Food
Aug. 27th, 2018 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
danieldwilliam1, What is your favourite food?
I'm not sure I have a favourite food. Not in the sense of a single food that I'd be delighted to eat without exception for the rest of my days. Different foods do different things and are wanted at different times. I do have food favourites. Here are a few.
Tiramisu
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Roast Lamb
Bacon and egg sandwiches
Steak
Poached eggs on toast / Eggs Benedict
Fish Pie
Cucumber
Braeburn apples
Pastrami, tomato and gherkin bagels
2, What is your favourite food preparation method?
Mise en place
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_place
I went on a cookery course once and, along with some delicious recipes and useful techniques I learnt about the concept of mise en place. It's made a real difference to my cooking. I tend to be a bit of an improvisor in the kitchen. This (like actual improv) is made easier by being prepared in certain ways. Mise en place means that my cooking ingredieants are ready when I need to apply heat to them. I'm not scrabbling round trying to de-stone half a kilo of prune whislt the last of my broth boils off. It also forces me to think about my cooking processes and flavour combinations ahead of applying heat to things. Thirdly, the actual cooking is much less stressful and error prone and therefore much more likely to be enjoyable for cook and customer.
A genuine game changer for me.
3, What is your favourite cuisine or style of cooking?
I particularly like British Indian cooking (aka curry), Thai and tapas but I am also very much enjoying modern Scottish cuisine. If I had to chose just one it would be tapas as it's very versatile.
I like the snacking and grazing aspects of tapas. The intense flavours. The communal nature of the food. The passing and the sharing and a having your favourite thing.
4, Do you have any dietary restrictions and if so what are they?
I don't have any dietary restrictions, either physiological or ethical. Given that MLW gave me a diet cookbook for my birthday I am expecting to acquire some practical dietary restrictions in the very near future.
I probably have an allergy to something but I'm not sure what exactly. Something fish related, perhaps a bacteria that fish might have. Every few years I stumble upon whatever it is and become very very quickly very very ill. The first time it happened I thought I was going to die. One of the worst occassions was when MLW was away from home and I woke up on bedroom floor having passed out. It's not fun. I know now that nothing permanently bad happens and that the pain, fever, sickness and mental impact all fade after about four hours. If it happens I now just take a blanket to the bathroom.
5, If you could introduce the whole world to one ingredient to improve their culinary experience, what would that be and why
Perhaps the use of chocolate in rich beef dishes like chilli. It gives a nice, dry richness to the sauce. Perhaps cooking with port as that has a sweet robustness in a sauce. Perhaps raspberry jam with pork. But I think the main thing I would want to introduce everyone in the world to as an ingredient is a roux. Perhaps the biggest advance in civilisation up to and including steam power, antibiotics and Blues.
I'm not sure I have a favourite food. Not in the sense of a single food that I'd be delighted to eat without exception for the rest of my days. Different foods do different things and are wanted at different times. I do have food favourites. Here are a few.
Tiramisu
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Roast Lamb
Bacon and egg sandwiches
Steak
Poached eggs on toast / Eggs Benedict
Fish Pie
Cucumber
Braeburn apples
Pastrami, tomato and gherkin bagels
2, What is your favourite food preparation method?
Mise en place
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_place
I went on a cookery course once and, along with some delicious recipes and useful techniques I learnt about the concept of mise en place. It's made a real difference to my cooking. I tend to be a bit of an improvisor in the kitchen. This (like actual improv) is made easier by being prepared in certain ways. Mise en place means that my cooking ingredieants are ready when I need to apply heat to them. I'm not scrabbling round trying to de-stone half a kilo of prune whislt the last of my broth boils off. It also forces me to think about my cooking processes and flavour combinations ahead of applying heat to things. Thirdly, the actual cooking is much less stressful and error prone and therefore much more likely to be enjoyable for cook and customer.
A genuine game changer for me.
3, What is your favourite cuisine or style of cooking?
I particularly like British Indian cooking (aka curry), Thai and tapas but I am also very much enjoying modern Scottish cuisine. If I had to chose just one it would be tapas as it's very versatile.
I like the snacking and grazing aspects of tapas. The intense flavours. The communal nature of the food. The passing and the sharing and a having your favourite thing.
4, Do you have any dietary restrictions and if so what are they?
I don't have any dietary restrictions, either physiological or ethical. Given that MLW gave me a diet cookbook for my birthday I am expecting to acquire some practical dietary restrictions in the very near future.
I probably have an allergy to something but I'm not sure what exactly. Something fish related, perhaps a bacteria that fish might have. Every few years I stumble upon whatever it is and become very very quickly very very ill. The first time it happened I thought I was going to die. One of the worst occassions was when MLW was away from home and I woke up on bedroom floor having passed out. It's not fun. I know now that nothing permanently bad happens and that the pain, fever, sickness and mental impact all fade after about four hours. If it happens I now just take a blanket to the bathroom.
5, If you could introduce the whole world to one ingredient to improve their culinary experience, what would that be and why
Perhaps the use of chocolate in rich beef dishes like chilli. It gives a nice, dry richness to the sauce. Perhaps cooking with port as that has a sweet robustness in a sauce. Perhaps raspberry jam with pork. But I think the main thing I would want to introduce everyone in the world to as an ingredient is a roux. Perhaps the biggest advance in civilisation up to and including steam power, antibiotics and Blues.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-27 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-28 08:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-28 08:42 am (UTC)A lot of Spoons food is basically ready meals, and I'm by no means a chef, but there's a fair amount made on the premises. Mornings before opening were basically spent chopping.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-28 09:43 am (UTC)I've never worked in a professional kitchen (or indeed as a waiter). It always seemed hard work.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-28 10:01 am (UTC)