What are some of your favorite food tweaks? Where you take a standard recipe and add your own twist to it?
At yesterday’s BBQ, I did my cheeseburgers by adding carmelized onions on top of the burgers (after flipping) and then melting the cheese on top of that. Then, instead of standard lemon bars for dessert, I added plenty of fresh blueberries to the lemon custard to make them blueberry lemon bars.
How about you? Do you have any favorite food tweaks to share?
Bruce
This is no big secret, but I first had it over here.
Nutmeg in mashed potatoes.
Like Henry, I don’t think mine is a big secret. I often add either anchovy or dried porcini (re-hydrated and minced) to tomato-based sauces to give some some extra depth and umami.
Also, when canning roasted tomatoes, I’ll sprinkle just a tad bit of sugar on the tomatoes with the salt and olive oil to enhance carmelization.
I will get dried mushrooms of any variety that I can find at Costco and then pulverize them in a spice grinder into a fine powder. Will add the powder to tomato based sauces, meatballs/burger grind, stock for cooking rice and stock for pho.
Not sure this qualifies, but I keep small taco truck sized tortillas in our fridge. They are incredibly versatile for breakfast and late night snacks. Lightly scrambled eggs, barely set, topped off with some chopped left over brisket with some homemade salsa verde are great in the morning and if someone is hungry late after dinner, they go on the flat top while some chopped up left over BBQ (rib meat, pulled pork, or brisket) go into a double boiler to heat up and further render/moisten before being topped with chopped onion, cilantro, and hot sauce of choice. I’ve tried making my own tortillas. Not hard to do, but the store bought are better and quicker. Since every bodega sells tons of them to their mostly Latino clientele, I don’t feel bad for using store-bought.
Not my tweak.
Back in the states my best friend’s father made a sour cream raisin pie, and the crust was different. Pie crust with vinegar and an egg.
I like adding some honey to (most) homemade salad dressings, helps temper a bit of the tang from both vinegar and mustard while aiding in emulsification.
Not original, but here’s four:
a) adding star anise to sautéed onions in dishes like cottage pie, the combination has a meaty savour;
b) when de-seeding tomatoes for sauce based dishes, putting the seeds into a seive with a little salt for half an hour to extract the umami laden juice
c) toasting spices like coriander or fennel seeds
d) using vermouth instead of white wine in some dishes (scampi provencale say)
That is funny because the first cooking class I partook in Florence they called for nutmeg in gnocchi. I thought it weird but it works.
I do all sorts of weird stuff but my favorite thing to do is push the acid and salt limits in a dish. Not always appropriate but it can electrify things.
Tri colored bell peppers are always in the house. Pizza, Philly, Pasta.
Honey and nutmeg on thin crust cheese pizza.
Lemon and garlic on pasta.
Lawry’s Seasoned Salt and Seasoned Pepper if it needs seasoning.
Bacon in/on everything else. (Yesterday Carrie made me a sandwich of homemade smoked turkey, bacon, smoked gouda, hot sweet mustard and lettuce on dark rye.
Dried shiitake, fish sauce, soy sauce, anchovies, Parmesan rind, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika or pigment espelette, and many different mustards. I also use small bits of bacon/sausage as “spice” in many things. Right now add heirloom tomatoes and fresh corn to many things. Mike
I can’t remember where I heard about this, but the world’s quickest, bestest dessert is to drizzle a good aged balsamic vinegar over vanilla ice cream (and I often throw in a few fresh berries if I have them). Addictive! I’m sure others do this, but none of my family and friends have ever seen this before and they all love it.
Kenny, what are some examples where you’ve found pushing the limits of either of these (but in particular acid) worthwhile?
Maldon salt flakes over ice cream…any kind…every time.
Pinch of sugar when making tuna salad
Season wood cutting board (garlic and herbs) when cutting cooked meats
Small amount of aged sherry vinegar to add depth and sweetness
Nola gave me some tuna salad tweaks. Add chopped hard boiled eggs as well as minced capers. Add a little bit of sherry vinegar too!
Bruce
Yesterday’s tweak with the BBQ pulled pork: potato/onion hash, with BBQ pulled pork on that and then a poached egg on top. Brinner!
Bruce
Pecan oil over vanilla ice cream is fantastic in a similar but different way. For my taste, it’s better than any non-tradizionale balsamico in that role. Tradizionale balsamico is better, but wayyy more expensive. And good pecan oil is fairly expensive.
Forgot about the smoked paprika. It’s what makes Princess Rice to die for and a great enhancement for other dishes.
Pulverized nacho chips and cocoa in chili
Honey in all salad dressing. Even better is some Herbes de Provence and honey, throw in the microwave for 10 seconds or so and really bring out the flavour.
A splash of mild vinegar in a lot of things really brighten foods
Plain, non sweet yogurt with sliced banana and toasted hazelnuts mixed in and a very generous coating of moscovado or similar sugar on top is a super easy dessert and if done in a glass bowl is even fine for a dinner party. In the fridge for a few hours the sugar turns into a treacle.