I started watching TV cooking shows in the late 90s (e.g. Good Eats, Iron Chef, Naked Chef etc.) and I would just cook what I saw for my friends. They were all “wow ChickenLady you’re such an amazing chef” for a few years until they started watching that shit themselves. Then they were all “you should have used white balsamic vinegar and black garlic in that”.
Butter is missing from this
Maybe in America, not in Spain
And in Dinamarca!
How does butter smell good?
Butter smells good when cooking something, must be a subjective thing but to me it smells really good.
Oh, I thought they meant while cooking by itself like when using it instead of oil when there is none.
If you don’t know about brown butter, I am sad for you.
My wife was making dinner the other night. As she was getting ready to chop an onion, the 6 year old wandered into the kitchen and commented “That’s big garlic!”
She refused to believe it was an onion. Then she skipped right back out of the kitchen. We just laughed.
Sounds like a case of past life memory.
the picture correctly includes double dose of garlic, but i’m missing the paprika and lard/bacon. source: i’m originally from hungary.
Wow, I hate to bring up Spanish smoked paprika then.
I love me some smoked paprika!
Smoked anything, as well. My guilty vegan addition to too many meals is Liquid Smoke it smoked paprika. Makes nothing ingredients like bland beans and tofu actually taste like something.
The jury is out as to whether these delicious ingredients will cause cancer. Probably not any more than me overcooking everything to get a delicious char, this setting off the smoke alarm whenever I’m allowed near a burner.
to get a delicious char
Didnt knew sou could eat a char
You can, but you can only take one byte
Also use some wine for even more smells! Even when cooking Western food, I’ve grown fond of using a little bit of Shaoxing wine, and replacing a bit of salt with a dash of soy + fish sauce for more complex umami
I always use wine when cooking anything with tomatoes in it. Tomatoes (and other vegetables) have a lot of flavor compounds that are alcohol-soluble and the wine brings them out.
I didn’t know that, thanks for the fun fact!
I see you’re a man of culture as well.
For European cuisine, I like replacing salt with anchovies as they are basically just salt with benefits.
Have you ever tried cooking your own Jamaican Jerk marinade? Pimento, chili, garlic, onions, thyme and ginger, nutmeg, cloves plus soy sauce. And since that is supposed to cook for hours… your kitchen will smell lovely for days.
Ooh interesting! Will have to try that.
Never even made Jamaican food! Do you have a go-to recipe or chef/youtuber you’d recommend for jerk marinade/Jamaican flavours?
Yes, there is one Youtuber who makes super authentic Jamaican stuff called Feed & Teach. Watching his videos is worth it for the Patois alone.
This is the basis for the jerk sauce I was talking about, and this will make your kitchen smell nice.
Very very cool! Thank you for the links
I feel like one of the garlics could be replaced with a shallot.
But then there would be less garlic :(
Should be clarified butter or a a more neutral oil.
Using olive oil for sauteeing isnt the worst but it’s kind of mid. Heat will bring out bitterness and the smoke point is low. Save your olive oil for finishing dishes or using in cool/cooled preparations, where its aroma and fruitiness can actually shine instead of getting dulled by heat.
If you let olive oil get hot enough to hit the smoke point for a sofritto you’re doing it wrong…
You’re still going to get off flavors and waste money in the process.
If the whole Mediterranean region cooks with oil that way they’re not “off flavours”, are they? Then they’re just the flavours of the regional cuisine.
I didn’t say you can’t, I said it’s a bit mid. Most traditional Mediterranean cooks keep two kinds of olive oil- cheap, refined olive oil for everyday frying and roasting, and more flavorful extra-virgin olive oil for salads and drizzling over finished dishes. Regular olive oil is milder and better suited to higher heat, so you’re not burning off expensive aromas. extra-virgin is basically olive “juice” with all the peppery, fruity notes you actually want to taste, so it is best used raw or at low heat. Outside that region, though, most people (at least here in Canada and I would guess the US as well) just have one bottle of extra-virgin and use it for pan frying too, which works okay but is a bit of a waste of its flavor and price.
Right, thanks for clarifying 🙂 I agree, don’t use extra virgin for frying. Still, I don’t think it gives off bitter flavours whatever you do unless you treat it really bad.
In Denmark, we traditionally cook using butter, but I like to use whatever fits the dish I am doing.
And when you can’t cook at all just throw in some butter and/or bacon at the end and BOOM!..tasty and delicious!
You can also drizzle olive oil and za’attar on top of anything and basic bitches like me will think it’s fancy.
Go to an international grocery store and buy a jar of anything you have trouble pronouncing.
Like surströmming
I’d be unsure how to prepare it in a way that my American palate would enjoy it, but fermented fish as Asian ‘fish sauce’ is mighty tasty when used correctly, so it’d be worth a shot. My google search (I was pretty sure it was similar to lutefisk, but wasn’t sure how) had an AI overview question of ‘is it illegal to open surströmming indoors?’, which I thought was funny.
So many things taste great after a fermentation that we don’t always notice the process: cheese, sourdough, beer/wine/liquor, kimchi, (some kinds of) pickles, etc, including meats such as salami and chorizo. Why not a fish?
I may be misreading things, but if you’re going to pick on a regional specialty… pick on durian :P I’m assuming it’s like coriander, in that some find it pleasant and others disgusting based on their genetics. I’m in the latter category for durian. Foods for me are like pokemon: Gotta try 'em all.
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Some only once.
What I’m picking on is the idea of going into the international grocery store and buying some random thing. I’ve cooked all over the world with a variety of ingredients, many of the dried, fermented, salted…randomness is fine if you’re cooking for Ted Allen otherwise at least look it up first.
I wasn’t trying to be antagonistic, just defending “gross” foods. I absolutely agree that one should know what they are doing before inflicting it on others… but if cooking for yourself or others who are in on the adventure, there’s no harm (except maybe nausea) in trying things without knowing what they are.
Put black garlic in everything.
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Garlic, onions, and butter are my holy trinity
Secret to my mushroom, tomato, or any other sauce that needs umami
spoiler
Then ginger, cardamom pods and cinnamon sticks.
Image is missing cooking cream and basil.
Cream is a crutch. Well, sometimes. Mint relatives are good.
Since I’m lactose intolerant and so is most of my family, cream usually isn’t used so I wouldn’t be aware if it sends a particularly pleasant smell.
Soffritto 🤌
