Develop Flavor Using 3 Old Cooking Techniques

Quote du Jour

    Always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need. ~ Julia Child

Tomorrow's Post will be a Plant-based Tamale Pie Recipe
The recipe includes Cashew Cream - previous post - and uses a cooking technique to build flavor that was new to me, but it's been around as long as people have been cooking!

From Dubious...

A major obstacle for me was figuring out how to build flavor in savory dishes without using butter or oils. Sautéing in butter or oil is a standard cooking technique to layer flavors, beginning with onions, garlic and ending with—if adding “heat”—a pinch of hot pepper flakes. Ah, me of little faith…I found the answer in a Julia Child cookbook. 

Develop Flavor Using 3 Old Techniques

1. Seasonal

The most flavorful ingredients are fresh ripe fruit or vegetables.

2. Stock

The French use stock, a flavorful (and thrifty) broth made from vegetables and herbs, to build flavor in savory cooking including sauces, soups and stews.

3. Sweat

Don’t sauté (or boil) — to develop flavors. This old cooking technique releases the freshness in ingredients to enhance flavor. In a small amount of liquid (no fats or oils), the vegetables that serve as the flavor base in a recipe are heated until they release moisture, or sweat. 

Here’s how:

     A. Heat a saucepan over medium heat

     B. Add enough liquid—water, vegetable stock, wine, fruit juice—to cover the 

         bottom of the pan. 

     C. One at a time, add the vegetables that will serve as the flavor base in the 

         recipe, starting with the ingredients that take the longest to cook. Through 
         the sweating process, add additional liquid as needed to prevent 
         sticking and scorching of ingredients. 

         Gently stir as the ingredients soften. (Piggy's showing off...he's moving 
         the ingredients around by tossing them...which could make quite a mess!) 

         

         Until you get comfortable with this process, start with the suggested order 

         below. Simmer each vegetable for several minutes before adding the next 

         (if using).

                                                1. Onions 

    2. Shallots 

         3. Garlic 

              4. Celery 

                   5. Carrots 

                        6. Peppers

                            7. Mushrooms 

After adding mushrooms, cover pan and steam for a few minutes. Mushrooms are loaded with water, and steaming helps release their deliciousness. I often add a squeeze of lemon, a bit of wine or wine vinegar - something acidic - at this point. Cover the pan for a few minutes to continue to grow flavor.

...to a Diet of Distinction

Now I prefer the fresh flavors that result from sweating vegetables in water or stock. I’d come to believe that butter and oils blur and obscure flavor when I stumbled upon confirmation for this in the Cook’s Illustrated Magazine, March & April 2013, page 30, “fat has a dulling effect on taste.”

Wheee...no bacon fat is very good for my heart!