HOW TO CREATE TASTY DISHES EACH TIME YOU COOK
I guess that most of the people who ever tried to follow any "superb" recipe created by a celebrity chef, at some point realized that the recipe is not really that nice after all. Could the chef have been wrong? Sometimes, yes, but there is one major factor to remember when following a recipe. You should NOT follow it strictly, unless it gives you the desired taste! Why is it so? A perfect dish has a perfect balance of flavors, and you cannot create it just by following a recipe (unless you're lucky!). The problem resides in the fact that the ingredients we use are not the same all the time - they have subtle or severe differences in flavors. So, a tomato in the hands of Gordon Ramsay may not taste the same as a tomato in your hands, even if they are both tomatoes. And this goes for any ingredient we use in cooking. The solution to this problem is obvious - we need to create our own balanced flavor in our dishes. We still follow a recipe, but we adjust it to the degree that we eventually end up with a tasty dish. (Of course, here I don't mention the necessary cooking skills needed to recreate a top chef's dish, which is a subject of great matter per se.)
BALANCE THE FLAVORS
There are several flavors that create the sensation of a final flavor. Most of them are known to most of us: sweet, sour, salt, bitter. We also need to consider spices, aromas, creaminess, and sometimes the so-called meatiness in a dish. To make a great dish we need to balance all these flavors - harmonize them, so to speak. To do so, we need to know how to enhance each of these flavors while we continuously taste our dish during the preparation. Let's go through each of these flavors step-by-step and see what we can do with them.
SALT
Salt is used as a flavor enhancer in so many dishes around the world, but it should be used with care. Remember that too much salt in your food (even if it doesn't taste salty) is health-deteriorating. Nevertheless, used with caution, we can really bring forward the flavor of many basic ingredients by adding some pinches of salt. Notice that salt should be added at the moments when the ingredient you want to enhance is added. If you fry mushrooms and want to live up their flavor, do it by salting them as you fry them. Adding salt afterwards will not have the same effect, due to chemical reasons. Just remember to not add too much, as it will spoil the food! Little by little, with continuous tasting is the best way to go if you don't know how much salt your dish needs. Instead of salt, you can use some salty ingredients, for example: soy sauce, parmesan cheese, bouillon, salt butter, bacon - each one of these fits well in certain dishes, and you should be able to decide on what to use and when.
SOUR
Sour ingredients can really add the extra taste to a dish. Sometimes though, you don't have any such ingredient in a recipe, and you may think that some acidity (sourness) could spice up your dish. What to do? Chefs usually find their rescue in lemon juice or vinegars, and you should learn to use them too. Sometimes, if the dish allows it, you can throw in some acidic fruits or vegetables as well.
SWEET
Sweetness, just as saltiness, should not be trifled with. Sometimes, just a little sweetness can enhance your dish, but be careful not to oversweeten it. The simplest way of adding this extra touch is of course by using sugar, either white or brown, depending on your needs. Other sweet ingredients are honey, sweet syrups, sweet fruits, and also some vegetables (sautéed onions, peppers, leeks).
AROMA
Aromas are these nice chemical compounds that we can smell and taste, but they are more complex to deal with than the above basic flavors. Here, your kitchen experience can really do it for your dish. The aromas you'd like to use should be sought after in vegetables and fruits - simplest things being onions and garlic, as well as carrots, celery, leeks. More aromas can be extracted from zest (orange, lemon), and of course - herbs. If you look at the common recipes, they usually include a big amount of aromatic ingredients to shape the final flavor.
SPICES
The most common spice we use is black pepper. Added usually at the end of the dish (although it can be added earlier if needed), it can really bring even more excitement to the final flavor of the dish. This little heat that pepper generates makes the food more lively. Aside from black pepper, we can also use chilli peppers or other hot spices or sauces. Of course, there is more than heat in the world of spices. Other flavorful ingredients to keep in mind are garlic, fennel, cloves, chives, mustard, curry, cumin, coriander, thyme, basil, rosemary - all with different flavors and effects! Bear in mind that if you use dry spices, they need some time to release their flavors, so they should be added in the beginning of the preparation. Dry spice sprinkled over the food at the end of the preparation doesn't taste that much.
OTHER FLAVORS?
We've covered the basics, and the basics should be learned and practiced until we go any further. One more flavor to remember though is the plain old milk or cream, or other dairy products, that can make the dish more smooth and mild. Use them if you think your dish is overworked or too complex, just to dilute the overflavored cacophony.
FLAVORS IN BALANCE
Now that you now how to think in terms of flavors, apply your new knowledge to your cooking. Always strive for a nice balance of all the main groups of flavors. In some recipes, you might want to add something extra that the recipe doesn't cover. Maybe some sweetness? Or something sour? Then you know what to do! Remember to always taste and taste and adjust the flavors until they come into the nice balance you want to settle. Then, every dish you make will be unique.