Cooking 'outside the box'

[marmalady]

I hope this topic will take off - There are a lot of us here who are quite adept at finding, assembling, and cooking from a specific recipe. What I'd like to do is open a discussion on how to get beyond the 'I need a certain recipe for a certain meat/veg/fish' way of thinking, to enable us to get outside that 'box' and be more creative.

As an example, debthecook mentioned some recipes specifically for 'black striped bass'; I suggested that maybe instead of looking for specific recipes for that particular fish, that we look for the 'type' of fish, best methods to cook that 'type', and go from there.

Outside of baking, which does require pretty specific measurements (although some room for play can come in), cooking to me is not an 'exact' science; once you have methods down; the basics of say, different cuts of meat; and what flavors appeal to you and go together, it's only up to your own creativity to decide how you want to prepare an item.

Any thoughts? Please jump in - I think this could be a fun discussion!

 

[JRsTXDeb]

when I try a new recipe - I will gather 3 or 4 cookbooks and look at the same recipe from different points of view - then I"ll take those recipes and pick the parts I like best, then add a little more or a little less depending on my mood - for anything other than baking - which I don't do much anyway!!! Then after I've tried it - if it's a do-over, I'll continue to make changes to my version...I've come up with some interesting combinations that way!
One of my favorites was to combine a recipe for cold avocado soup with one for cucumber soup and OMG I can put a couple quarts of that in the fridge and live off it for - well a couple days anyway!!!

 

[Michael in FtW]

I wish I could remember the exact quote I read somewhere once upon some time ago ... but it went something like: cooking is a fine art, a recipe is paint by number.

Baking is a science - of temperatures and ratios. You can play with flavors, but you have to stick to the basic formulas.

Cooking really allows you to get creative and explore far more with less restrictions. All you need is to understand basic techniques, your ingredients, and know what the base flavors are. It's like knowing that blue and yellow make green ... and you get to play with combinations to find the shade of green you want.

I guess I learned to "wing it" when I was a single dad with 2 sons ... and it was a couple of days until payday (and I didn't own any cookbooks). I just looked at what I had on hand, though "what would the Furgal Gourmet make out of this" - and went with it. Of course, my sons were also "Frug Fans" - so we often had a joint discussion on what to make. Humm ... cooking with kids before FoodTV had the idea ... :?

I'm also like TXDeb - I'll look at several recipes and try to imagine the flavors in my mind .. and pick and choose what I'll do with the recipe. I used to make beef stew the way my mother did ... but then I played around and discovered how much better it was with a little red wine and beef broth instead of water. My chicken noodle soup made with stewing the chicken with the bones (to get a real stock) and using the stewing liquid as the base for the soup instead of tossing it and using water like the recipe I had said to do. I've been making shrimp gumbo for years ... but recently I had the bright idea to boil the heads and shells to make a shrimp stock to use instead of water ... I gave one of my sons some and he called me the next day to ask what I changed in the recipe because it was the best I had ever made.

Yep, marmalady, once you know the basics - you're only limited by your imagination.

 

[luvs]

good topic, marm!
i don't really use recipes, 'cept for when i bake. and i don't bake very often at all.
some people- like my Mom- NEED a recipe for even the simplest thing, like instant mashed potatoes. she can't cook without one. and my Dad needs recipes for anything he hasn't been making for the past 25 years. all of thier food is basic and lacks creativity, and it's always the same dishes week after week.
i have a hard time using recipes, though. too restrictive.
i remember watching in fascination as my Grandpa just threw together a pot of instant potatoes when i was little. i think that's when i learned that you don't always need a recipe to cook.
don't get me wrong; i read cookbooks and recipes like novels, and i take mental and written notes, but measuring cups and measuring spoons and recipes are not kitchen items that i often employ.
i just made a curried carrot soup, and i had skimmed through recipe after recipe. not one of them sounded like something i'd like. so instead of following a recipe that didn't float my boat, i just opened the cupboards and fridge and started setting ingredients that just looked like they would work in a carrot soup out on the counter. my soup turned out yummy, but had i followed a recipe, i'd have probably ended up with a finished product that i didn't like very much at all.
i kind of just add as i go along, and sometimes charge blindly ahead and figure my recipe will turn out all right.
and i don't much worry about being traditional... if my food turns out yummy, and people smile and make that almost inaudible, 'mmmmm' sound as they're eating something i cooked, well... THAT'S what matters.

 

[Weeks]

On my kitchen counter are the following books:

The Professional Chef, 7th Ed. (CIA) - CIA Textbook.
On Food And Cooking: The Art and Science of the Kitchen (Harold McGee) - VERY useful science, covers all forms of cooking and bakery.
Le Guide Culinaire (Auguste Escoffier) - THE BIBLE
Culinary Artistry - Useful flavor matching guide.

Using the techniques and guidelines in these books, plus every now and then an idea picked up from a recipe, you can make anything... ANYTHING.

 

[ronjohn55]

My wife always says that this is the type of cooking I'm best at - no recipe, just grab some of this, a bit of that, etc...

It's definitely how I came up with bourbon/teriyaki chicken and rice....

John

 

[Otter]

I'm with JRsTXDeb - I try to find a recipe in three or four cookbooks. Sometimes one recipe is the clear winner, but more often than not I take the parts I like from several recipes and combine them.

 

[buckytom]

i take most recipes and try to sub things to make it a little healthier, which doesn't always work. but when it does, it fills you with a great sense of accomplishment.

 

[GB]

Great topic Marm!

I find that the internet is a great way to help me cook outside the box, although I admit this is something that I am not great at yet, but am striving to improve. I like to look up recipes online and get a whole bunch of them for the same dish. I then compare and see what things are similar and what the differences are. From there I can get an idea of other things I can try that might still work.

 

[Weeks]

My thought process, on a recipe runs like so:

I'll read a recipe on a site or wherever and think, "Wow that sounds good!" But something just won't click with me, or an ingredient will be hard to find, so I'll scrap an entire flavor set and start thinking about how I can take the technique and move the flavors in a new direction, such as taking a chili and instead of using steak, cayenne and jalapenos, use chicken, white pepper and poblanos with parmesan cheese and cream for a white chili. *shrugs*

 

[crewsk]

I just start throwing things that I think will be good together in a pot. 9 times out of 10 it comes out good. The only problem is that I forget to write stuff down & can rarely make the same thing twice. I love playing with recipes & tweaking them to suite my needs, taste, or budget at the time. It makes me feel smart!

 

[southerncook]

after a while, I think, it gets to be more technique, experience and an inner voice that says-do this!
I hope I don't get set in my cooking ways, even the oldest recipe of mine is ripe for the tweaking, but I will admit, there are some things I just have to make exactly, if just for the memory.

 

[mudbug]

I agree with most of you here - experience will teach you a lot, especially your mistakes!

Anyone paged thru "How to Cook Without a Book"? I haven't, but this topic made me think of it.

 

[ronjohn55]

Experience is the result of bad judgement - and I have a LOT of experience...

Don't know who said it.

John

 

[debthecook]

I like to eat well, but am stingy if I don't know how to cook something that's expensive, I want a tried and true recipe FIRST so that I won't have to throw out what I made with my own made up recipe. Believe me, I have thrown out ALOT of food over the years.

 

[Bangbang]

Other than Baking I almost never look at a recipe while cooking. I just put together what I think will taste good. I may look at different versions of the same recipe and do my own thing. It is an Art.

 

[norgeskog]

I learned how to cook when I was 14 and my mom began working outside the home. It then became my job to begin fixing the meal (including setting the table) and have it almost done when she got home. I gathered her limited cook book collection, one a gift to her in 1927 (it is a hoot to read) and a two volume GoodHousekeeping cookbook. I discovered wonderful flavors when I discovered herbs and spices other than salt and pepper. Her spice rack grew. I would follow the recipe the first time, then begin experimenting with other flavors. I took her handwritten cookbook and altered those recipes and renamed them as she would have had a purple fit. Then it just accelerated into what I do today. I have lots of cookbooks I use for ideas and then alter them to my taste. I always leave out terrigon, anise, as I dislike the flavor. I mostly cook with my favorites (which I grow) Italian parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, chives, marjoram. I use them all together sometimes and other times one or two. Also I add, although not all at once, just to change the flavor (these are staples in my kitchen), fresh ginger, garlic, soy, mirin, fish sauce, Franks hot sauce, hoison, Kitchen Bouquet, white vermouth, anchovy paste, tomatoe paste, EVOO, butter, breadcrumbs (I make), panko. With all of these I can fix a chicken brest every day of the week and it will never taste the same.

ALERT: Oregon leash laws will be strictly enforced Saturday when theOREGON DUCKS LICK the WASHINGTON HUSKIES

 

[southerncook]

I learned how to cook when I was 14 and my mom began working outside the home. It then became my job to begin fixing the meal (including setting the table) and have it almost done when she got home. I gathered her limited cook book collection, one a gift to her in 1927 (it is a hoot to read) and a two volume GoodHousekeeping cookbook. I discovered wonderful flavors when I discovered herbs and spices other than salt and pepper. Her spice rack grew. I would follow the recipe the first time, then begin experimenting with other flavors. I took her handwritten cookbook and altered those recipes and renamed them as she would have had a purple fit. Then it just accelerated into what I do today. I have lots of cookbooks I use for ideas and then alter them to my taste. I always leave out terrigon, anise, as I dislike the flavor. I mostly cook with my favorites (which I grow) Italian parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, chives, marjoram. I use them all together sometimes and other times one or two. Also I add, although not all at once, just to change the flavor (these are staples in my kitchen), fresh ginger, garlic, soy, mirin, fish sauce, Franks hot sauce, hoison, Kitchen Bouquet, white vermouth, anchovy paste, tomatoe paste, EVOO, butter, breadcrumbs (I make), panko. With all of these I can fix a chicken brest every day of the week and it will never taste the same.

ALERT: Oregon leash laws will be strictly enforced Saturday when theOREGON DUCKS LICK the WASHINGTON HUSKIES

I have some things that just require tarragon. mainly fish dishes, but also crab salad. A wonderful addition. but if you don't like it, you don't like it.
kinda like cilantro.

 

[-DEADLY SUSHI-]

Im a rosemary guy myself. Garlic, basil and olive oil is a key too.

 

[norgeskog]

I learned how to cook when I was 14 and my mom began working outside the home. It then became my job to begin fixing the meal (including setting the table) and have it almost done when she got home. I gathered her limited cook book collection, one a gift to her in 1927 (it is a hoot to read) and a two volume GoodHousekeeping cookbook. I discovered wonderful flavors when I discovered herbs and spices other than salt and pepper. Her spice rack grew. I would follow the recipe the first time, then begin experimenting with other flavors. I took her handwritten cookbook and altered those recipes and renamed them as she would have had a purple fit. Then it just accelerated into what I do today. I have lots of cookbooks I use for ideas and then alter them to my taste. I always leave out terrigon, anise, as I dislike the flavor. I mostly cook with my favorites (which I grow) Italian parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, chives, marjoram. I use them all together sometimes and other times one or two. Also I add, although not all at once, just to change the flavor (these are staples in my kitchen), fresh ginger, garlic, soy, mirin, fish sauce, Franks hot sauce, hoison, Kitchen Bouquet, white vermouth, anchovy paste, tomatoe paste, EVOO, butter, breadcrumbs (I make), panko. With all of these I can fix a chicken brest every day of the week and it will never taste the same.

ALERT: Oregon leash laws will be strictly enforced Saturday when theOREGON DUCKS LICK the WASHINGTON HUSKIES

I have some things that just require tarragon. mainly fish dishes, but also crab salad. A wonderful addition. but if you don't like it, you don't like it.
kinda like cilantro.

Southerncoo, I replace tarragon (thanks not only do I not like it, I cannot spell it) never liked licorace. For fish I would use dill or lemon thyme, and cilantro is an acquired taste I have not acquired. My pallet likes it but the stomach wants to return it.