They often write to me that I probably consider myself an ideal master of cooking, since in Zen I "distribute advice." At the same time, they add - in vain, oh, in vain!
The time has come for the truth.
Yes, I'm good in the kitchen (I'm perfect in everything). It's a joke, if anything, but if she outrages someone, I don't care if the Welkam is indignant, but it's nice to the one who writes nasty. And let it be better to write here than in real life to ruin your neighbor's mood
And if without banter, then I do not give advice and in no way teach. I share my experience - the experience of a person who loves to cook, loves to eat deliciously, and learns to cook constantly. Because cooking is an area of knowledge that cannot stagnate in any way: new techniques, new methods, new products, new gadgets appear.
And maybe my mistakes, for example, will help someone avoid culinary failures - what's wrong?
As for the ideal... I, for example, have "such habits" that greatly affect the result (that is, the dishes prepared) and which must be eliminated.
1. I am a very impatient cook
I constantly climb with a spoon / fork / spatula into a frying pan or saucepan - stir or turn the product. Too often I open the lid to check: how is everything steaming, fried, boiling? I can open the oven at an inopportune moment, which has a deplorable effect on the baking, if it is sitting there.
Don't do that!
If, during frying, the product has not yet set a good crust, stirring, firstly, will disrupt the frying process, and secondly, it will affect the final taste. If you open the lid of the pan during cooking, the temperature in it drops - not critical, but still. And in general - food does not like fussy ones.
2. I am a very arrogant cook
I love experiments too much and during them I rely too much on what some call "intuition." Is it about combining foods and spices? Or their replacement.
Intuition is, of course, good, but experience is better. And if there is no experience in combining certain ingredients, it is better not to experiment on large volumes - often it turns out to be rare muck, although, it would seem, there are nothing at all "improvements".
You know, I cooked pickled mushrooms here according to the recipe I found on the net. The muck turned out to be rare. No, the fact that it would be disgusting, I initially assumed after reading the recipe. Cooking mushrooms in a marinade is a perversion. This is to kill their structure, turning them into something rubbery. But I also added nasty things myself, putting 6 cloves instead of the recommended four.
So believe me - it is better to make a cheat sheet of spices (and combinations) and a table of "acceptability" of spices by products. Mushrooms, for example, absorb the taste and aroma of spices only on the way, and dense meat - more "independently".
I have known this for a long time, and I still step on the same rake over and over again.
3. I am a very sloppy cook
No, it's not about decorating dishes. I have no talent for decor from the word "in general". I'm talking about observing such technological nuances as cutting products. I can arbitrarily increase the size of the "cubes", I can cut vegetables that are supposed to be "salted" into plates or some - with straws, some - with diamonds... In general, if I get an attack of procrastination, I am my own dirty tricks I create.
Although I know perfectly well - the taste, appearance, consistency of the finished dish depends on the slicing. And nevertheless, no, no, but I'm starting to phony.
What "nasty habits" do you have?