January Is Delicious
On Playing With Recipes
This morning I am contemplating whether or not it is feasible to throw a cup of grated carrots into the batter next time I make banana bread, because A.) we always have lots of bananas in various states of ripeness, which need to be dealt with and B.) I have chosen this year to tread into the thrilling waters of recipe development, a subject that has long intimidated me. (Note: having a properly functioning oven surely contributed to this endeavor.)
Last week I was looking up banana bread recipes and found one that sounded good, but it called for applesauce to replace part of the oil. I had no applesauce, though I could have easily just used the equivalent in oil. That didn’t sound appetizing, though. It sounded like a lot of oil. But I dimly made a connection in the way-back part of my head that reminded me that the applesauce was used to replace oil, and oil is fat, and what’s fatty? Sour Cream! And I did have reduced fat sour cream in my fridge. “It’s just banana bread,” I thought. So I made it, and lo and behold, it was delicious.
In fact, it went over so well that I decided to make another batch later in the week and double it, to have an extra for the freezer. This is where I went all Ina-Garten on the base recipe, penciling in my additions and notes, and afterward correcting my projections about the extra spices, etc and their amounts. It was fun. I was extremely pleased with myself.
A turkey meatloaf followed, with the goal of making turkey taste like beef. For this one, I read a number of highly rated recipes, then I spliced them together. The meatloaf was almost perfect; I learned that I’ll need to cut down on the breadcrumbs and increase the dry onion soup mix. But overall, it was good. The Husband ate it, and he’s not a big meatloaf person. What came from cherry-picking several recipes, and making allowances for our preferences, is a personal recipe of my own that includes a tangy sauce and lots of roasted peppers and onions for the Husband.
This is what I’ve learned so far about recipe development, with lessons from Ina Garten and Rachael Ray – the Divine Ina makes mistakes. She walks into her kitchen with a pencil and a notepad and works and scribbles and tastes and makes things over and over again. And Ray-Ray points out that creating new recipes is, basically, considering what flavors work well together and deconstructing a meal you are served in a restaurant into base components and flavors. Like sketching – it’s not a head, it’s a ball. It’s not a tree, it’s a long rectangle with smaller rectangles and lines flowing from it.
If you grew up cooking with your family and watching an adult throw things into the pot and add a pinch of this or that with a sure hand, you will wonder what the big whoop is all about. But for a self-taught cook, it’s a highly satisfying step.
