The Culinary Libertarian Podcast Episode 56 Script
Here is the script mostly as recorded. I did make some improvisation along the way. I am including a link to the page for The Highwaymen, since they have a long and amazing history and theirs is a story worth learning.
I used to teach culinary school and had many glazed looks from young students when we would talk about making dinner. Not from a recipe, just cooking.
The look of confusion, sometimes complete with words, was to ask “how the heck and I supposed to do that?”
The “do that” part was how to take a pile of ingredients and make….anything.
It is almost as if they were on that TV show “Chopped,” and were presented a basket of Aloe cola, Lychee and Ramen noodles and Quick! Make dinner!!
Open heart surgery might seem more possible.
The question really is how am I supposed to know what to do–which means what’s possible–with a green bean or zucchini or eggplant.
There is not only one exact answer to that. But, of any of the answers, you can’t just go get some of “it” and be done. The “It” is in part reading cookbooks. If your first response is Ugh, then it might be a bigger challenge for you. That doesn’t mean you can’t do it, but what appears to come easily to one will be harder for you. But, maybe there’s something you do well and find easy. Painting, woodcarving, landscaping. I can’t draw well. I can’t. But but but, you said practice…Yes. I did. And, if getting better at drawing were important to me I would practice. But, it isn’t important to me. I would rather put my efforts to those things I at least have a chance to improve my skills.
So, am I saying if you bake poorly and have tried and still fail that you should quit? No. I am saying if you like eating baked goods and want to make something you want to eat, practice is how you get there. My drawings have never advanced beyond drunken 4 year old so I moved on.
Let’s keep the artist metaphor going, even if it gets stretched.
The palate is colors. Bases of whites or beiges or other light colors. Then there is the color which stands out. Reds and greens and blue and silver and gold.
The base colors are the main part of what we’re cooking. Let’s think beef. Pot roast or braised short ribs.
Those other accent colors are the garnishes or flavor components. We can see our herb containers as the many various colors of our food palate.
Let’s think about Van Gough’s The Last Supper in Café Terrace at Night.
The blue sky with the white stars is part of the base. The braising liquid, perhaps. And the black shadow buildings are structure but not really noticeable. That’s the flavor of the vegetables and wine in the brasing liquid. You know it’s there but can’t really taste it. Then in the foreground on the left is bright hot yellow and reds and on the right bright green and as our eye moves toward the center theres warm greens and oranges and a sprinkle of red and purple and maybe pink.
That has eye flavor. We may not even know were feeling that picture, or any picture, but the colors play on our senses. It also has an order to it, even if an imbalance. Look at the Fear and Loathing watercolor and it’s vibrant but chaos. It’s a mess in that it has no order. We can see vibrant but no order.
So, let’s take that short rib dish. The base is the beef with a good sear and the braising liquid and vegetables and herbs. There’s a great forward beef flavor and then a muted bouquet of vegetables and herbs. Just like a wine, cooking done well builds flavor levels.
We also need some side dishes for our short ribs. And here might be where that deer in a headlight look comes. What do I make and how do I do that?
Just like in those painting, those done well and poorly, the success is, in part, by compare and contrast. The paintings which hurt our eyes are visual tastebud chaos. It makes no sense. We remember it for all the wrong reasons. That painting which looks like you are there, such as those of the Everglades by the Highwaymen, those paintings have balance and order and vibrancy which works. They are impressive and they impact us in the right ways. The right ways are invoking a sense of place and a feeling of the place and a satisfaction which is almost a visual umami: the sum of the whole is greater than the parts.
Back to our ribs. They’re done, tender, a deep beef forward and the nuance behind. What does that need for a good palate balance? Mushy? Crunchy raw? What compliments that dish?
Let’s think to the flavors on our tongue. Bitter, sour, sweet, salty and umami. The ribs will be umami, maybe a bit sweet and rich, which is not a flavor but a texture, and that needs acid. Something to cut through the rich to make balance. Bright yellow against deep brown. But, what? Dill pickles is silly, of course. But a lightly vinegary coleslaw would work and it has the added addition of a crunch.
But, let’s think about acid and alkaline. On the pH scale, they are at opposite ends and serve a similar function to help cleanse the palate. Alkaline tastes bitter, and against rich they balance each other out. So lightly caramelized parsnips is a good idea, on paper. The parsnip has a bitter note with sweet, the caramelize is light carbon, also bitter and sweet so we’ve got a way to cut the intensity of the rub with a contrasting flavor.
When we start to think about how to build a dish, let’s think first of the background, or the main course. What’s the center of the plate? What are its flavor characteristics and texture characteristics? What will work better, contrast or compatible—or both?
Let’s think about a piece of salmon, even if you don’t like salmon. Salmon is interesting from a flavor in that it is a strong flavor but also a rich flavor. What do we add to that rich flavorful fish? Crunchy is tough to do without being cliché, and by that I mean fried spinach of fried leeks or something rather idiotic. I used to do it when it was all the rage, but it is messy, doesn’t eat well and loses crunch as soon as it gets wet which is pretty much as soon as it is plated. So, that salmon dish is from a menu I ran at a restaurant in Tallahassee. Crunch came, but in another way which happened to also bring bitter: bitter greens. Also, bitter greens—coleslaw—would work for the ribs. We did creamed corn and braised escarole with that salmon and it was a true joy of a dish. It was rich for the addition of the creamed corn, but the two veg were in balance and the escarole had enough bitter to also negate the salmon. The sear on the salmon, a good color was also bitter so the whole thing worked.
Back then to our center of the plate. What is it? Knowing what kinds of flavors work with or against that center of the plate items leads us to now consider the produce section is a slightly new way. Napa cabbage or bok choy sautéed with some onions, a dash of vinegar and maybe some red pepper flakes is a very nice side dish that now adds more to the plate than just green.
Think about the flavors combinations you like. What dishes did you have that you remember and think about the flavors which made that work. Turmeric has an acrid taste, which sounds bad, but sautéed with diced zucchini and diced tomatoes brings a flavor and color as a good foil against fatty and acidic.
Just like the painter gets better at painting by painting, the cook gets better at cooking by cooking. Test ideas. Read cookbooks by authors you trust. Get ideas and find a way to make them your own.
Caramelization is a complex flavor of both sweet and bitter. Burn, of course, is garbage.
Some of the best sources for good ideas about flavor combinations are Chinese cookbooks. There are scores of excellent Chinese cookbooks. One of my favorites is Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine. She comes at Chinese cooking from her roots but brings a western bent so thinks of flavor combinations as I’ve been discussing them by adding non-traditional ingredients.
If you’ve been listening a while to the podcast you know I have some extensive training in Classical French cooking. That’s pretty precise and only after a certain level of skill is interpretation possible, for mastery of the basics is complicated. Escoffier makes suggestions of pairings for the exact same things we’re talking about. Italy is a much easier food to cook and find balance. The key difference between Classical French and Italian is the Italians are first about flavor where Classical French is technique first and from that comes flavor. The Italians, no, not all of them, will overcook a green bean if it tastes better and worry less about al dente. One of the many best teachers in his books about flavor is Mario Batali. Yes, he’s has some issues in the news. If you are one of those for whom one bad past deed undoes the canon of work, try Lidia Bastianich. But, bad deeds does not undo that Mario is an excellent cook and knows how to get flavors.
When you amble into the produce section and see those veggies on display, think of Degas and Monet and Georgia O’Keefe and Dali. They all had the same medium—paint—but each found very impressive ways to use that. If you don’t like southwestern flavors, that just means you have 95% of the rest of the world of flavors. Coastal food is different from inland. Regions vary and in all those places, find the flavors you like. Cooking is like painting, you have to do it to get better at it. You might fail. Start again.
I have been focusing on the painter just to keep the metaphor going, but maybe you don’t really get painting.
There was a fellow who wanted to work in the kitchen with 0 restaurant experience, but was very eager and was a trumpet player. I gave him a shot. I couldn’t yet speak to him about food as a cook but I could as a musician. Now, I don’t want to suggest I am able to play, I can’t, but I can discuss how a trumpet player plays. Miles Davis or Dizzy are excellent examples. Think of the recipe as the basic notes. The song—the recipe–is good as is. But, in jazz, they call improvising “steppin’ out” and Miles and Dizzy are two of the best. They are seasoning the recipe of music. Adding color or spice, if you will. Contrast or compatible notes to create something greater. That’s what we’re going to do with our food, with this axiom: Less is more. That means properly cooked and seared and seasoned food is good as is, but one or two teaks will make it better. More is just more and muddies the flavors. And, that right there, knowing when to stop, is the line between a skilled cook and a learning cook.
I’m going to put a link to a pickled eggplant recipe which I deduced from an Italian place in Boston. I simply loved this condiment and it was served with a veal dish, Saltimbocca maybe. It was acid to cut the rich intended to take a small bite with a big one. It is also a fun lesson that you can cook an eggplant in a completely unexpected way and get something really great and I’ll spoil the surprise and say the eggplant is boiled. Just a few seconds and pull it out, allow it to drain and then into the pickling mix.
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I rambled a bit after this. The talk aways are, make the eggplant dish and practice cooking. Read some books and make some food and develop the skills.
I hope this was useful or helpful to you. Drop me a note here, dann@culinarylibertarian.com to let me know if you want more of these from the solo episodes.
