Michael Symon's Live to Cook_ Recipes and Techniques to Rock Your Kitchen - Michael Symon [6]
The second way to improve your cooking is to master fundamental techniques, those techniques that span all of cooking. I’m not talking about fancy knife skills or anything showy. Just the basics. First and foremost, learn how to use salt, how to season your food, and, more important, when to season it. Learn how hot to get your pan; make sure your fat gets hot enough before you put the food in the pan. Sweating vegetables—cooking them down without browning them—is a critical facet of cooking and has a huge impact on the depth of flavor of a finished dish. These are not optional details but the very backbone of the preparation. Pay attention to these early steps, these fundamental techniques, which are discussed in special sections throughout the book, and your cooking will grow better every day.
I cook at my restaurants the way I cook at home—using excellent ingredients and solid technique—and whether it’s crispy sweetbreads or Mom’s pot roast, the ingredients are treated with the same respect. And that’s what’s in this book. Straightforward recipes for the food I make at my restaurants and the food I cook at home. Nothing is very difficult. Some dishes do take a little more time or involve a few more steps. Some require hands-on commitment from the cook, such as the risotto and the pierogies, and others you can do in between beers on the patio with your buddies. Some of the recipes feature ingredients that might not be standard in your local grocery store, such as beef and pork cheeks. I offer substitutions wherever I can, but you should know that these ingredients are available; grocery stores are becoming more willing to source ingredients for you if you ask them to. And there’s literally nothing that I can get that you can’t via suppliers in your city or via the Internet, which is a great resource for the home cook.
I think side dishes are undervalued in cookbooks, yet they’re so important at home. How often do we make complete composed plates for our families? Side dishes are so much fun, and so easy, that I almost opened the book with them. I sometimes think of what sides I feel like eating and throw a piece of quickly cooked meat in there for some substance. Next time you plan a meal, don’t start by deciding what the main dish is, a sirloin steak or side of salmon; instead, find a side dish that you like, braised endive or peas and pancetta—whatever looks great at the market—and build the meal around that. This is how we eat at home, how I cook at home. The composed plate is for the restaurant chef, and the only dishes I’ve presented in the book as complete plates are the fish entrées, because I think certain fish go really well with the side components I’ve suggested.
Otherwise the main courses are by themselves, though I’ll often suggest some sides for them. And the other main courses are served family style, because that’s my favorite way to eat: big platters of food for all to share.
I’m also excited by a few special sections in this book. First charcuterie, one of the most important branches of cooking there is—the one having to do with preservation, originally, but which we now practice because the flavors are so good: sausages, bacon, confit. I was almost surprised to find a whole pickling section develop as we created this book. I know I love pickles, but I didn’t realize how pervasive they are in my cooking. I use them all over, and in different ways, and I employ different pickling techniques. It’s yet another simple way to improve your cooking—to understand what powerful tools acid and crunch are. And the final special section is devoted to prepared sauces, which give you flexibility and versatility in the kitchen.
Shop Better
All food is not created equal. I repeat: The easiest way to improve your food is to improve how you shop. No matter how good a cook or chef you are, if you start with garbage you will end up with garbage. It