Cooking--Creating Balance in Meals?!
Cooking--Creating Balance in Meals?
I am learning how to cook and create an entire meal, but am having a bit of trouble with balance. I hear chefs on TV talk about balancing the meal, and I am not sure how to do that. For instance, when you have an entree such as lemon chicken, do you serve something else that is lemony, or sweet, or bland? How do you balance the flavor of the lemon with your side dishes?
Answers:
I use these ideas to help plan balanced meals-
colour, make sure all the meals are of different colours
instead of
cauliflower soup, chicken in white wine sauce with creamed potatoes and parsnips then rice custard
make
roasted capsicum soup with fresh basil
chargrilled chicken on kumera puree, baby beansand a corn and black olive salsa
berries meringue stack with pistachio praline
textures
always crunchy and smooth things in a meal,
ie- a chicken snitzel sandwich with lettuce and mayo
always a balance of sweet, savoury, bitey/perky and salty
thai salad- palm sugar , lime juice, fish sauce and chilli
Do you plan on being a contestant on iron chef??
To be very honest, it really depends on what you like. It's about interpretation. I think that it should be what tastes good to YOU.
I personally like lemon with flavors that are mildly spicy (like any fresh ground pepper) and fresh herbs (for example, for my taste it goes well with fresh dill, cilantro, basil and thyme). There's an endless amount of recipes out there that you can experiment with and prepare to your own taste ( I never follow a recipe perfectly...unless it's a backed good.) Your taste buds will tell you when something balances when nothing in the dish tastes too strong. (does that makes sense?)
I guess the only advice I could give you is that you should try things together-you might be surprised what you find balances.
Get a few ideas thru research and trial and error. Keep trying.
Here's something basic. When serving pasta with a tomato based sauce ; serve a salad with an acidic dressing like zesty italian or parmesean italian as this will compliment the flavor of the sauce well and compliment the garlic and or herbs in the bread.
Try this right here
it's a balanced Meal
INGREDIENTS
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 pounds dried figs
1 lemon, sliced
12 chicken thighs
salt to taste
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon dried parsley
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, brown sugar, vinegar and water; set aside.
Place figs and lemon slices in the bottom of an 11x16 inch baking/roasting dish. Arrange chicken thighs on top, then pour vinegar mixture over chicken. Finally, sprinkle with salt and dried parsley to taste.
Bake/roast at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) for 50 minutes, basting frequently (turn figs if they begin to brown).
With a slotted spoon, remove chicken, figs and lemon slices from baking dish and place on a warm platter. Skim fat from cooking juices, then pour over chicken as sauce. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve.