The Experimental Cook

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO

The loving memory of Nalini

My dear wife and companion of 65 years

Who has taught me many of the skills of cooking

And encouraged me to experiment.

FOREWORD

Why this book?

We all need to eat, but not everyone bothers to try their hand at cooking. When forced into a situation of surviving by using their own cooking skills, many resort to some rudimentary basic meals, or takeaways or supermarket ready-made meals.

This is particularly true when older people are left to cook for themselves or for their spouse who has been the main cook in the house before becoming incapacitated. I know this situation very well because I have been through it. The worst case is when your partner has left you, or passed away and you are suddenly left on your own with no one to advise you.

The ability to cook something that one can enjoy and to vary the dishes from day to day, so that one can look forward to the meal rather than be bored with it, is essential in this situation.

What is different about the approach in this book?

The Experimental Cook is a different kind of book. It is NOT a cookery book, NOT an instruction manual nor a book on food technology and science; but a sort of guide to help and encourage you into the art and science of cooking by experimenting with the ideas, techniques and processes explained in this book. The aim is that you will be able to produce interesting and varied foods that you, and also others, can enjoy. We are not talking about gourmet foods, fancy cheffy dishes and complicated recipes; in fact here you will find very few recipes as such, mostly ideas that you can experiment and play with and develop using whatever ingredients you happen to have and the processes that you can easily manage. All you need is to want to start cooking.

This book is not about cooking dishes from a particular cuisine, it is just about understanding how to cook food. There are references to cooking meat and vegetables in Western, Asian and also Chinese style. You will find information about spices, and cooking curries and vegetables using them. The reason for including this information is that cooking curries and vegetables this way is a better way for experimental cooks to learn because one does not have to use exact proportions of ingredients and there is a lot of room for variations and experimentation. Besides, you can use curries in a similar manner to stews for serving with potatoes, mash, couscous or maybe even chips and you can serve stew with rice. Same with the side vegetables. Just use a little less spice if you want. You could say this is a sort of fusion cooking.

The alternatives

Of course you may say, ‘I can rely on takeaways or readymade foods from the shops.’ That may be useful for an occasional change or when you are too busy; but as a longterm solution and value for your money, it is not a practical idea. Ready-made meals and takeaways, besides being expensive and of doubtful nutritional value, could soon become boring. But cooking for yourself, you cook what you want and how you want. The cost would probably be less, the taste better and the nutritional value within your control, depending on which ingredients you choose and how you cook them.

So what would you achieve?

The reason this book is titled The Experimental Cook is because it is just that! After learning a few basic techniques (just enough for you to get going), you can start experimenting, learning through your successes and mistakes. There are many separate chapters that will help you along the way.

How to use this book: my suggestions

For an overall idea, please refer to the walk-through page that follows. It is recommended that those new to cooking should read Part I: The Science of Cooking and Part II: The Art of Cooking before attempting to try any cooking. However, for those who are eager to get on with experimenting, I have rearranged the order of titles in the contents page. I recommend that you read them in the order stated below. You can refer to the rest of the book as you go along and progress.

A WALK THROUGH THE BOOK –

A QUICK GUIDE FOR THE READERS

Starter chapters to get you going quicker

The following chapters will help you to make a good start and increase your range of experimenting.

1 Housekeeping and Kitchen Management

Useful hints and tips to look after your workplace and work safely and efficiently. Basic hints to look after your equipment and ingredients.

5 Your Laboratory

Get to know the common ingredients as chemicals.

6 Techniques and Processes

The various processes and techniques used in cooking. You will notice that different processes of cooking and food preparation produce different results. Once acquainted, it will help you to experiment with the right ones.

8 Disaster Recovery

Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. You can recover from some of them. Here are some ideas.

3 Equipment:

Equipment that improves your range of cooking experiments, and saves time.

4 Basic Ingredients for you to Make a Start

The very basic ingredients you may need.

9 About Morphing

How to change some of the ready-cooked, leftover or other food items into something else to make it more interesting to suit your taste. You may want to try these techniques if you are an absolute beginner, to gain confidence.

Chapters that will help you later to improve your skills

10 Making the Basic Spice Mixtures for all Curries and Vegetables

You can make virtually all the curries, vegetables and sauces using techniques and ideas in this section. You can use them for stews, goulash, soups, pies and other dishes too! This section also has a list of all the ingredients you may need and guidance on their use.

11 Useful Hints

Labour- and time-saving hints and tips.

21 Sprouting

This is a very much overlooked area for producing interesting, healthy and tasty additions to salads and other snacks. You will find techniques and some ideas here; the rest is up to you to experiment more.

Chapters to look through individually as you get along

The information contained in Part III, ‘Your Staple Ingredients And How To cook Them’ is the core of this book. It will teach you the basics of how to cook various types of food, irrespective of the recipes. This will provide you with the fundamental skills to tackle most of the common food items, to experiment with your own ingredients and processes, and to create your own recipes. I am confident that you will soon be cooking meals that you and others will enjoy.

For your reference at any time

25 The Chemistry of Cooking

This section explains the nature of different chemicals present in our daily foods, and the way they change and react during the various cooking processes. You will find it very useful as a reference to understand the science of cooking and help you in your experimenting with various processes and ingredients.

26 What Can I Do With These?

Sometimes one is left with leftovers like cooked items, vegetables and other odds and ends. Very often these are left to one side till they become unusable and are then thrown away. Actually, even small quantities of leftovers can be put to good use and are excellent for your experimentation. This section will give you some ideas.

And finally: Part IV: The Art Of Experimenting And Some Dishes For You To Try

The recipes contained here are sort of templates which you can vary. There are some simple ideas and suggested variations. You may not find an exact quantity of ingredients here but an approximate idea of the proportions of the various ingredients. This is done deliberately so that you will learn to experiment, and learn how to bring about the taste you like. After all, if you want exact recipes there are plenty of cookery books and online recipes. Following an exact recipe is like painting by numbers. What we are aiming for is a bit of adventurous experimentation. Do not worry; there is always some guidance about sensible proportions of various ingredients, so you will not go far wrong! You can always refer to Section 10 which gives information on most ingredients that you will need and guidance for their use.

LET’S START AT THE BEGINNING

This is probably not the first time you have had a go at cooking? Am I right? I say this because otherwise you probably would not have picked up this book.

You may have done some sort of cooking, or very little, or none at all. You might have tried and got frustrated and resorted to takeaways or junk food. Actually cooking – and we are not talking about gourmet or fancy cooking – is not too difficult to learn and is in fact an enjoyable pursuit. After all, you need to eat and eat well; then why not learn to do it properly? Using some of the techniques in this book you can produce interesting snacks and meals for yourself and for others as well. All you require is an understanding of the basics, some patience and some experimentation.

Like many practical arts, cooking is both a science and an art. A similar example would be watercolouring. You may ask what there is in common between watercolouring and cooking? Let me explain.

Like cooking, watercolouring is both an art and a science. Unless you have a natural gift, you need to know about different types and textures of paper to use, what the paints are made of, the various types of pigment and the way they work. You will also need to know different kinds of brush and how to use various strokes to produce the right effect. You have to understand how to mix different colours and how many are too many. The best way to learn the art of watercolour is by understanding these basic principles and then experimenting.

Cooking is just the same. Of course some persons are natural cooks and they do not need all this preparation. This book contains information on both the science and the art aspect and helps you to have a running start for experimenting.

In my particular case, having never done any sort of painting before, I was very much concerned about the final outcome of my painting during the workshops. My painting did not quite look l like the one I was copying nor like other people’s paintings. My teacher put me at ease by saying, Sharad, your painting is your interpretation of the one you are copying from. It has not got to look like other people’s painting. It is fine as long as you like it and are happy with it. Keep practising using the techniques I have shown you and you will get better and better. I will give you the same advice with your cooking experiments.

This analogy between the two arts is quite useful and I will be using it from time to time for emphasising my point. I think you will find quite helpful.

About the technique of experimental cooking

I would like to explain a bit more how the technique of experimental cooking will help you to break through the barrier of your inability to cook. If you take only one main ingredient, like lamb meat for example, you have many hundreds of different recipes available. This is because they are based on different combinations of other ingredients, spices and cooking techniques. They came about as a result of chefs experimenting with them. Of course you only get to see the successes! Any failures are looked at and improved till they get an acceptable result. In this book you will learn the basic techniques based on the science of cooking (see the reference section), the basic ingredients and their use and some ideas you could experiment with to combine these into some interesting recipes.

PART I: THE SCIENCE OF COOKING

As stated before, cooking is a mixture of science and art. Knowledge of science will help you to appreciate how the different cooking processes work, why you have to follow a certain method for some ingredients and why some of your preparations did not come out as you expected, even though you followed a perfectly good recipe, so that next time you can make the necessary adjustment or correction. Sometimes you may even come up with your own variation; that is experimental cooking for you.

You do not have to follow any recipe exactly. The best way to learn cooking is to use a recipe as a template, but then change the ingredients you have and the processes you can manage. Chefs do this all the time and come up with their new recipes. Use standard recipes of your choice as a template or guide and experiment with them. Do not worry about making mistakes. Even experienced scientists have come up with new knowledge through some of their mistakes while experimenting. Understanding how the processes work will help you a great deal in your experimentation.

You will find some essential scientific explanation behind the various processes throughout this book. The scientific explanation is kept to the essential minimum. However, for those who want to know more, there is a section on the chemistry of cooking in the reference section.

1

HOUSEKEEPING AND KITCHEN MANAGEMENT

You can make cooking an enjoyable experience by practising good housekeeping and planning your activities and menus well in advance. Once you start practising and see the benefits, it will become a habit.

Your workplace

General

Your kitchen is a workplace. Like any other place of work you need to organise it so that you can work safely and efficiently and also enjoy yourself while working. After all, you have a limited time at your disposal, you need the rest of your time for other activities such as your hobbies or looking after your spouse etc. Here are a few simple rules which might appear to be obvious but are often overlooked.

Safety first: many of the accidents in the home take place in the kitchen. Keeping your kitchen clean and tidy and knowing where everything is helps to make your kitchen a safe environment to work. Do not leave sharp tools like knives or peelers lying about the work top; clean and put them away every time you use them. If you spill any liquid or water on the floor wipe it up and ensure the floor is not slippery. A slippery floor is one of the most common causes of falls in the kitchen, especially among the elderly. It is a good idea to have a packet of plasters nearby in case you cut yourself.

Organise the basic dry ingredients such as spices neatly and label them so that you can get at them quickly. Put them back in their place after each use.

Make sure you know what you have stored in your fridge/ freezer; check regularly if any items are going off and discard them. Clean out the interior from time to time.

While cooking

Most of the ‘mess’ starts when you are cooking. Pots and pans accumulate on the worktop, the sink gets overloaded with unwashed items because the draining board still has many things that have not been dried and put away. A familiar picture? You are not alone! I have gone through this. One of the best pieces of advice my wife has given me is to tidy up and keep the area around the hob clear after each process. Put that chopping board away even though you may want to use it later in the next process. Clean the knife and put it in its place. Clear the backlog of the sink and the draining board. If you keep doing it there will not be so many items to deal with. Then, when you finish cooking and take your food to the table, you will not have so many items to clean when you finish your meal!

Planning

Good planning will help you to work efficiently. Plan your menus for a few days at a time, preferably at the beginning of each week. That way you can match your workload to the other activities you have, such as hospital appointments, recreational activities, meetings etc. You can cook something ahead of a busy day or have an idea to rustle up something quickly from a few ingredients and use the stir-frying or morphing ideas explained in a later part of the book.

I like to use a small white board that has a magnetic surface with the days of the week printed on it. I have it stuck on the fridge with my main activities, the menu for the day and what I need to take out from the freezer for the next day written on it, and I update it each week.

You can do many ‘part processes’ in advance, even a day before your busy day, such as marinating meat or fish or even chopping onion, as we shall see later in the book. Once you get into the habit of thinking ahead you will not be caught out not having any idea of what to cook. One advantage of being an experimental cook is you will soon be able to deal with those ‘last minute crises’ of having to change your menu or running out of a particular ingredient at the last minute!

Distractions

Imagine this scenario:

You have put something under the grill which needs only about two or three minutes to brown. The telephone rings or there is someone at the door, a neighbour perhaps. You leave your workplace and forget all about the grill until