Potato Mountain - Preparation

preparation, cut, change

Creativity In Preparation

Preparation allows for so much creativity that you could simply choose an egg and one other ingredient and serve them different ways everyday for a month. When preparing food, especially something you've tried before, consider preparation options. Vegetables can be julienne, chopped, diced, sliced, crushed, slivered or cut into chunks. They can be roasted, fried, sautéed, broiled, baked, steamed or raw. They can be served in, over, around, next to, under or on top of. How you cut meat or vegetables or pasta affects how it looks and subsequently how it tastes. My wife never ate the carrots I cut up for her lunches. Then, she found them cut into rippled slices. She loves them that way. 'They taste better' she insists and 'I can scoop the dip better.' Hey, I'm not going to argue after all, I'd rather have a whole asparagus spear than a spear cut into pieces!

So, preparation is a great area to really get fresh and creative. Once you've poached, boiled, fried, scrambled, basted, roasted or hard-boiled an egg you can start all over by frying in different oils, basting in herbs, roasting with veggies etc. Every change you make will inspire a new idea and you'll find it very easy to all of a sudden know thousands of recipes simply because you are developing a technique to change things....to get out of the box. Once you get out of the box, the world of cooking gets very big and wonderful. You don't need to be a chef; you don't need to know food history or even most cooking terms. You just need to change something and pretty soon it will come natural. Remember all of those cookbooks in your cupboard? How many recipes have you actually remembered? Probably few if any, but by practicing small changes such as changes in preparation, you are writing your own recipes!

Preparing food is simply assembling it in a fashion that will appeal to your taste, look, smell and feel. Change the texture (like the rippled carrot slices, and you change the recipe. Change the method of heating and you change the recipe. Change is good and preparation is fun with endless possibilities.

Remember, as we discussed earlier in the book; creativity is the product of marrying your education with your passions.

It's Gonna Be A Great Day!