Ad lib in the kitchen again! I have a friend whose family always made a meal out of popcorn on Sunday night. I believe they had some kind of Sunday afternoon supper that was more substantial. Anyway, I flirt from time to time with that tradition. Tonight I made popcorn again and an idea struck me like a lightening bug.... I saw on the menu of a nearby gourmet sandwhich shop an option for their fries... Truffle salt. Since that is one of my favorite flavor blasters, I was game to try popcorn seasoned with some drips of pure melted butter and shaken about with truffle salt. If you like the flavor truffle - this is great! It is so like an American to take something so SERIOUS as truffle salt and put it on a snack thing like pop-corn. Herbert is the chef at a farm B&B in Southern France where we stayed. He gave me the low down on truffle usage. Never toss it in a stew or anything complex. the flavor needs to be noticed against the most simple ingredients like a scrambled egg. Popcorn is pretty simple indeed and it was tastey!
Recently I bought some delicious dried Porcini linguine at a favorite Italian Market in Seattle's Pike Place Market. For a simple meal, I tossed the cooked hot pasta with a few tablespoons of rich organic cream and a scattered teaspoon or so of Truffle salt. Not sure if I had a little parsley or anything but it was delicious. I also add it to cream of mushroom soup, omletes, risotto, and any number of other things that I can't think of right now.
How do you use Truffle whatever... salt, oil, the real thing. And if the real thing, how do you afford to buy it?
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Is there something better than "perfect science" in the kitchen? How about the fun of improvisation. This totally experential type of cooking adapts to the moment. Every recipe is either created new or revised to better fit the moment. No recipe is ever the same twice because every day has different circumstances. Why should it be? Perhaps the moment is inspired by a basket of local food from the farmer's market. Perhaps it is adapting to the food needs and tastes of a friend. Maybe it is the romantic notion of seasonal food dishes. Other times it is a journey into another place and time. Instead of arm chair traveling, how about dinner table cultural odysseys? You do the best you can with the knowledge you have. And everyone has a good time.
If your goal is exotic cuisine, or simply rearranging the food at hand, this approach to food is fun. Cooking outside the book, the cookbook, this is the best!
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Improvisational Cooking
Is there something better than "perfect science" in the kitchen? How about the fun of improvisation. This totally experential type of cooking adapts to the moment. Every recipe is either created new or revised to better fit the moment. No recipe is ever the same twice because every day has different circumstances. Why should it be? Perhaps the moment is inspired by a basket of local food from the farmer's market. Perhaps it is adapting to the food needs and tastes of a friend. Maybe it is the romantic notion of seasonal food dishes. Other times it is a journey into another place and time. Instead of arm chair traveling, how about dinner table cultural odysseys? You do the best you can with the knowledge you have. And everyone has a good time.
If your goal is exotic cuisine, or simply rearranging the food at hand, this approach to food is fun. Cooking outside the book, the cookbook, this is the best!
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Isobel Davis is the author of this site and is responsible for all the creative content including images, writing and recipe inventions. She holds the copyrights to everything published on this site unless otherwise noted.
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2 comments:
Well, I have never heard of Truffle Salt, but I almost made popcorn for dinner last night! Our nieces, aged 7 and 9, sent us a package at the holidays to make this concoction: 2 pan/packages of Jiffy Pop (because we don't have a microwave and apparently you are not expected to be able to make popcorn if you don't have a microwave--duh!) and a package of Nestle White Morsels. Note that they cannot call them White Chocolate, as they are basically just sugar with some corn syrup, I think. The recipe is: "Pop popcorn, spread on cookie sheet and cover with "white morsels" and put in oven until melted. Enjoy!" In the wake of the gluttony that is the holiday season, I could not bring myself to prepare this treasure.. though I did break open the morsels when I ran out of chocolate chips when making cookies last week. Now I have 2 Jiffy Pops that I have to make sometime, or save as an Emergency Preparedness Supply. Maybe I should get some Truffle Salt? (*kidding!*)
You have me laughing! Jiffy Pop has a special place in my heart from growing up. It seems like the thing we would buy in those dusty grimmy supermarkets that live near campgrounds. We would cook it up over an open fire with mixed results, but it tasted great no matter what. In great anticipation we would open the pregnant foil cover, get nipped by the steam, and enjoy a handful or two of delicious Jiffypop flavored pop corn. Unvariably, the majority of the kernels were either slightly burned or not popped at all. We even nibbled on the burned ones.
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