Cooking Without Recipes

At the last meeting of the Belhaven Garden Club, I put on a demonstration detailing how to cook without recipes. They bought a load of groceries and hid them under a towel in the kitchen. When the class started, they pulled back the towel and I had to come up with multiple recipes for what I found there on the counter. It was lots of fun and I had some very attentive students. Since then, I have received several requests for the recipes of the dishes I prepared. In the spirit of the class, I will now give you the instructions on how to cook several different dishes without a specific recipe. So...this is not a recipe.

Step One – Things you need to always have in your kitchen.

There are certain staples that you should keep on hand at all times if you want to be able to cook without recipes. Having these items around will allow you to shop opportunistically and take advantage of meats and other items when they are on sale or marked down as a “manager’s special” (which usually means they are right up against the “sell by” date.

1.      Olive Oil

2.      Butter (not fake butter)

3.      Decent red and white wine (NOT cooking wine)

4.      A variety of herbs

5.      Chicken and beef stock (I use Better than Bouillon)

6.      Milk

7.      All Purpose Flour

8.      Pasta

9.      Rice (even the expensive Basmati is cheap and it’s worth the difference)

With the items above, you will never find yourself in a panic over what to cook.

Step Two – Shop like you are broke

Some type of meat is ALWAYS on sale. When the price looks right, buy a bunch of it and stick it in the freezer. Most every grocery store has a partition in the meat department where they have dramatically marked down the meat that is nearing the “sell by” date. Buy it. Freeze it. When frozen vegetables are marked down to under $1 per package, buy a freezer full of them.

Step Three – Cook like a restaurant chef (that is about attitude, not skill)

When a restaurant sees that it has too much of something, they create a “special.” When the waiter comes out and goes through a list of specials, he/she could just as easily say, “We have way too much spinach and our flounder needs to be cooked before we have to throw it away. With this in mind, our chef came up with a flounder/spinach dish that is not usually on our menu. Next week, we won’t have this particular problem so the dish will not exist. The Founder Florentine is served with a mixture of vegetables that we usually don’t serve together, but alas they are at the end of their shelf-life also.” Don’t get me wrong on this. Restaurant chefs are not trying to pass off old food on patrons as a special. They just know when they have too much of something and try to use it all up BEFORE they have to get rid of it. Generally, the special is the best thing on the menu because the chef have given careful thought to making regular ingredients in the kitchen sound even more appetizing than the rest of the menu. You need to think like that.

Step four – Don’t Panic, think ahead

When you are cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, take a look in the freezer and see what meats you have. Take out a package and let it thaw in the fridge overnight. The next evening you will have a meat that is ready to cook. This will serve as the “base” of your meal. Since you already have pasta, rice and perhaps potatoes (your starch), not to mention a freezer full of frozen vegetables, you only have to think about what meat you want to cook and how. Then you just think, “Would I rather have pasta, rice or potatoes to go with that _______ (insert meat name here)?” You can even ask the kids, “Do y’all want butterbeans, peas or green beans with your ____________ (meat) and _____________ (starch).”

Now you have your menu. The starch can be cooked in about 15 minutes and the vegetables take 4 minutes in the microwave. That leaves only the meat and its sauce to think about.

Pick an herb or two (oregano, thyme, rosemary) and get them out of the cabinet. If you want, pick a base note (onion, garlic, leeks) and chop them. Or you can just use a seasoning blend.

Now you have a meat and its flavors (herbs and base note). Pick a stock that matches your meat (chicken stock for lighter meats, beef stock for red meats). Pick a second liquid that you are interested in having that night (milk, cream, wine, beer etc.), this is not mandatory, but will add more flavor. Get out some butter and cut a few pats.

Decide if you want gravy or a sauce. If you want gravy, get out some flour.

Heat a large iron skillet over medium heat on the stovetop. Add a bit of fat (olive oil, canola oil, whatever oil, butter, bacon grease etc.). If you are using garlic or onion, put it in now. If you put in onions or garlic, let them cook for a bit before adding meat. When you add the meat, let it cook until well browned on one side and then turn it over only once and let it finish cooking on the other side. Remove the meat from the pan and set it aside, wrapped in foil or in a bowl, covered in foil.

Now make the sauce or gravy. If you want gravy, add a little more fat to the pan and a bit of flour. Stir them together until they look like a thin paste. Add liquids. If using multiple liquids, start thin and work to thick. In other words, stock or wine before milk or cream. If making a sauce, start with wine or beer and then add stock. You can also add jams, jellies or preserves to get a sweet sauce. You might want to play with different mixtures as you build confidence. As a rule of thumb, use the following guidelines

Fat+flour+stock+milk+butter=savory gravy

Fat+flour+stock+wine+butter=wine cream sauce

Stock+wine+butter=wine pan sacue

Stock+butter=au jus pan sauce

Stock+fruit+butter=sweet sauce

When you add the liquids, allow each one to reduce by ½ before adding the next one. When you add the butter at the end, turn down the heat and stir it around just before serving. When you are making the sauce, taste it and see if it needs more of the same seasoning you put on the meat.

Just before you serve the meal, take the bowl or foil pouch that holds the meat and add any juices back to the sauce and stir.

This may all sound complex, but the whole process is just a few steps with multiple choices. Essentially you: (1) pick a meat (2) pick your spices (3) pick a liquid that will become your sauce (4) cook your meat (5) deglaze your pan to make your sauce.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to call me or schedule a class. In a small group, this concept is much easier to learn.

Bon Appetit!

~Tom

www.ivyanddevine.com