Tasting Notes 5/31/2008

I recently read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan - great read, by the way - and I've started making changes to my diet. I've never been a huge fan of processed food and ingredients, I prefer to make things from scratch with what Pollan refers to as "whole foods". So I've got that much going for me already. What I need to incorporate a whole lot more are leafy greens, and maybe stop cooking so much of the vegetables that I do eat. I'm also trying to eat more fruit, so wish me luck! Good fruit is hard to find in the city.

I think it's funny how Western chefs are uniformly fascinated by the flavour profiles of Asian foods and spices. As someone who grew up with easy access to an entire range of Asian foods, I often take them for granted. I once watched a segment on TV where the chef was waxing lyrical about star anise, and my first reaction was to scoff. Kaffir lime leaves as a "secret" ingredient? You've got to be kidding me. But now that I know much more about cooking and have developed a greater appreciation for food in general, my reintroduction to all things Asian has been bittersweet - pardon the pun. It's almost like a light went off and I feel I can taste the distinction between flavours much better now. Harnessing the knowledge of these flavours in the preparation of classical Western cuisine, though, has proven a lot more difficult. There is so much more that I do not know; so much more, from a culinary perspective, for me to rediscover about the foods that I grew up eating. But at the very least, I now know why they taste the way they do.

Maturation is a funny thing, eh. It doesn't always come easy, and it doesn't always come quickly, but in some form or another it comes to us all whether we expect it or not.

I was totally manipulated into making dinner this past Saturday but I guess I didn't have anything better to do, and we all have to eat, don't we? I tried to incorporate some form of "Asian influence" in my dishes but am sorry to report that it didn't come off quite the way I wanted it to. The food still came out tasting ok, but the Asian influence was muted and not used particularly well.

To start I made a watercress and frisee salad with avocado and parmigiano-reggiano - a pretty standard classical preparation. I made a soy, lime and ginger vinaigrette to go with it, which - apart from adding a tang to the dish - didn't really add much else.

I also made Barolo-braised shortribs, which I usually love, but this time added five spice powder and kaffir lime leaves. Unfortunately, I couldn't taste them in the final product because the wine overpowered everything. Also, I usually use celery in the braising liquid but did not have any handy this time round - and I could taste its absence. It was still pretty delicious, and I was particularly happy with the sauce. I had reduced the braising liquid further and added sugar and honey for a sweet note to round out the savoury, and I thought it worked remarkably well.

Dessert was a spectacular failure. I had planned to make strawberry napoleons but my custard did not solidify in time and I had bought the wrong kind of phyllo dough. When you go into battle you should always know your weapons and in this case I did not. I found out later that using the egg-whites along with the yolks in making custard helps the custard solidify. You learn something new every time, so I guess this failure was not for naught. Next time, I'm also using heavy cream instead of milk. Bah.