RECIPE RESCUE:
How to steer dishes that go awry back on course
by Kent Cisar
W
hat do sesame oil, fresh rosemary and Louisiana hot sauce
have in common?
They were part of one of the seminal cooking moments of my
lifetime. I was making a stir fry in a brand new wok. The veggies
were brightening and I wanted one last splash to add a new flavor.
I reached for sesame oil expecting a stopper lid, shook vigorously
only to find no such lid. My brilliant stir fry was now swimming in
sesame oil with precious little time before dinner. The dish needed
something else that had firepower to soften the sesame. I turned to
my fridge and found Frank’s Louisiana Hot Sauce and some fresh
rosemary from the farmer’s market. A couple splashes of hot sauce
and a couple sprigs of rosemary and the sesame oil all of the sudden
took a back seat. Low and behold, it actually tasted good, REALLY
good.
A mistake became magnificent and it happened on the fly.
Sometimes, the end result turns out better than the
original intention. Here’s how to embark on the task of
recipe rescue.
“Sometimes, the end result
turns out better than
the original intention.”
The three key areas of recipe rescue are preparation,
attention and accessibility. The most important stage
begins before you even pick up a knife. Reading the
recipe before actively starting the cooking process
provides ample time to venture to the store to grab that
extra item if needed. For specialty dishes, more advanced
planning is necessary because specific or seasonal
ingredients may not be readily available at your closest
grocer.
Take note of what you’re cooking often.
Nonperishable ingredients are much easier to have on
hand. Checking the regular ads of grocery stores offers
prime opportunity to acquire that extra bag of flour,
sugar or baking soda. Anytime you’re making a larger
amount of meat, seize the opportunity to siphon some stock and
freeze it. Home gardening is a chance to save an overabundance
of vegetables. Freeze a bag for that last minute need of peppers,
onions, carrots and others.
The quality of ingredients on hand can also make a difference.
Debbie Akyurek, owner of Savory Spice Shop in Omaha says “if
you use a higher quality of cinnamon, salt, pepper, cardamom, and
many other base ingredients, you don’t have to use as much of it
when making your adjustment. Often times you’re just trying to
move the needle a bit, rather than trying to completely overhaul a
dish at a moment’s notice”.
The last focus of preparation lies with the organization and
arrangement of your kitchen. Nick Evans, owner of the Cooking
Site Macheesmo.com, states he does his best cooking when he has
everything laid out in front of him and isn’t spending time searching
for things in the middle of the process. He adds that “it’s also
important for first time recipes to add 15-30 minutes of total time.
Being rushed can lead to unnecessary improvisations.”
Now that the kitchen and ingredients are organized, we’ve
moved to the attention stage of recipe rescue. The more active and
attentive you are with your dish, the more opportunity to make
the necessary adjustments in the flow of the cooking. For example,
on Thanksgiving this year I attempted a pomegranate molasses for
a Brussels sprout salad. I thought I followed the recipe exactly but
made one significant mistake. I reduced the juice and sugar at way
too high a tem \