On being more creative in the kitchen/fusion!

[BAPyessir6]

I love making things to a T in the kitchen, but I also like to flex my cooking knowledge/creativity and try to "make things work" by throwing stuff together. If you've ever seen Chopped on food Network, it's that same idea. People get a few ingredients and try to make dishes with it. (Say, a dessert using/featuring prunes, cream cheese, and animal crackers. Or an appetizer using tofu, tomato paste, and prosciutto)

Mostly I only do this when I have to use X ingredient up before it goes bad or I just have a ton of it, but I want to improve these cooking muscles. Is there any way to improve doing this, or is it a "just do it more and more" idea?

Shop with no grocery list? Force fusion dishes by choosing 2 random countries once a week?

The most recent 3 random kind of "fusion"/weird combo dishes I did within the past week were:
1. Cabbage rolls filled with pizza (pepperoni, cheese, tomato sauce, rice)
2. Carbonara using butternut squash in the sauce and red pepper flake to cut the sweetness of the sauce (egg, Parmesan, a little cream, butternut, basil, black pepper and bacon since I can't find guanciale)
3. A simple pork fried rice white shiro paste (miso!), cabbage, and apple. I fried the cabbage to a good golden to give it a nice char/smokiness that paired great with the apples I got from the orchard. I sprinkled some smoked Gouda on it too and that made it nice!

In my mind, this isn't super out of the box, but I wanna work on this nonetheless. Any ideas?

 

[caseydog]

2. Carbonara using butternut squash in the sauce and red pepper flake to cut the sweetness of the sauce (egg, Parmesan, a little cream, butternut, basil, black pepper and bacon since I can't find guanciale)

I've seen carbonara done with spaghetti squash on YouTube. It looked good

Using bacon is okay when you can't find Guanciale or Pancetta. Ya' gotta' do what ya' gotta' do. There is NO cream in carbonara. Never!

CD

 

[Badjak]

I think it is just a matter of trying things out, accepting sometimes it will go wrong.
For me, cheese on rice is a firm no. But thats me and a combo I won't even try.

One of my recent one was Thai red curry butternut with white beans.
Worked a dream, but you won't find it in Thailand

 

[boom]

No cheese on rice for me either. (Or seafood).

But yea, I can go entirely (we call it - IRON CHEF; “and the secrets ingredient is…”) experimental in the kitchen easily. But it has to be a riff on an actual dish for me.

Especially fun reworking leftovers.

 

[dragnlaw]

I've put cheese on rice but only in certain dishes and it is not the main focus. Risotto's often grate a bit on.
Honestly can't think of any other times that I have.

 

[boom]

I've put cheese on rice but only in certain dishes and it is not the main focus. Risotto's often grate a bit on.
Honestly can't think of any other times that I have.

ahhh...I stand corrected. Risotto is the exception!! thanks.

 

[Badjak]

I can understand risotto..
Didn't think of it
(Not a risotto fan though)

 

[dragnlaw]

Favourite

Mushroom Risotto = heaven on earth = food of the gods​

 

[boom]

tomato (from a garden fresh)risotto is my fave.

 

[rodentraiser]

I'm constantly looking for and saving new recipes. Out of the 15 recipes I posted for November, 13 are new ones. I try to pick stuff I think I'll like, but sometimes it's hit or miss and sometimes those misses are huge. It's a learning process.

Usually I can cobble a few items together that will use up all of something I'm going to have to buy for a recipe that I don't want to keep around. Like this month, I bought blue cheese crumbles and I'll use them all up in two different recipes.

It's fun, but there are other days I want to be rich and just have a cook who can make hamburgers like McDonald's. *sigh*

 

[Jade Emperor]

The way most chefs use their imagination to create their own dishes revolves around what I call “food dance dating”.
Start with a main ingredient. Let’s say it is beef fillet.
Next dance step is to think about the flavours that beef would “date”.
Mustard? Broccoli? Potato? Choose your weapon.
The next dance is to partner up with an ingredient that the beef might not normally dare to date.
Mango? Chickpeas? Nasturtium? Here’s the chance to get all creative. You probably won’t get it all right at first go, but over time you will find those little revelations that are truly inspiring and, most of all, really tasty.
Try thinking of things that you might normally associate with a different dish and try them with something you might not have thought of.
The biggest challenge is to know what not to put together.
A good example is given above - cheese and rice (risotto exception) screams cheap arse uni student.
You need to imagine how flavours will work together and push some boundaries, but keep in mind when to step away. Many ingredients do the dance because they simply flow into each other so beautifully.
A huge mistake is to just look at what you have in the pantry, throw it all together and say “it’s my own creation! Fusion, even!”
No, it’s lame.

 

[Aunt Bea]

All of my creations have been out of necessity and hunger.

It’s amazing to me that something simple can generate universal interest and appeal with endless imitations and variations of the original.

Buffalo Chicken Wings ‘n’ Things is one that immediately comes to mind.

 

[dragnlaw]

No, it’s lame.

tarnation - I just got shot down....

 

[dragnlaw]