Patience my dear, patience

It's already Monday and I apologize for being late with this week's blog. I hope you haven't been too impatiently waiting for me. I know, I have had my patience tested last week more than once. Let me say though, it's been to the benefit of my cooking.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, we have finally started to cook and after my first knife skill practical last Monday (see photo left), this week it's been all about different cooking method's, les cuissons as it is called in French.
I had to learn that some of those techniques really require more time and patience than I have appreciated until now. I've learned that I can listen, smell, observe, and touch (within limits of course) the food and it will tell me exactly when I can add the next ingredient or move on to the next step in the recipe. It's quite simple really but once I understood it ... oh so liberating. I admit, I have never been the best follower of a recipe, I like to make the recipe my own by 'tweaking it'. Depending on what I have in the fridge or how much time I have or even how confident I am on the day, that my version of the recipe will be better than the original. I know so far it's probably been a bit of an arrogant, or perhaps adventurous, assumption that I can improve on a previously tried & tested recipe, but in my defense, on most occasions the food turned out well. I guess the emphasis is on most occasions. Deep in the back of my mind, I always felt that there may have been a portion of luck involved. Now though, that I am learning the basics it will be luck no more, but pure knowledge! And hopefully that will someday turn into valuable experience, and then I'll be able to confidently read recipes, ignore them totally, and still turn out amazing food. Sounds good? Well, it sounds very good to me.
To give you an example, by looking in a pan I have always been able to differentiate between boiling water or simmering water. Big bubbles vs little bubbles, right?? Right. Subconsciously, I probably have been distinguishing the difference between boiling and simmering water by listening to it as well. The nice thing is, the same principle is applicable to every cooking method.
So, based om my culinary textbook, to sear is 'to brown the surface of a food quickly at a high temperature'. That means the fat should be almost smoking before you add the meat; the sizzling in the pan after you've added the meat should be an 'angry' one and you should see the meat concentrating i.e. shrinking a little. If the meat releases water or it's juices and it starts 'bubbling' i.e. cooking in it, the pan isn't hot enough. You won't be able to brown the meat until all the water has evaporated and the meat itself will become tough and dry. Next, don't move the meat until it is ready, that means don't tear it off the bottom of the pan. The meat will, for lack of  a better phrase, 'release itself from the pan' and you will be able to turn it easily without tearing it off the bottom of the pan.
The contrasting cooking method to searing would probably be sweating. For example, to quote the same culinary textbook, to sweat vegetables means 'to cook them slowly in fat without browning, sometimes under a cover'. This means that, before adding vegetables, the fat should not be smoking, but a drop of water should just gently 'dance' on the surface of the fat. After adding the vegetables you should have a slight, almost 'harmonious' sizzle, not an angry one. There should be no browning of the vegetables, but they should turn translucent. And here you should also be able to smell the aroma that the vegetables are releasing during this process. Only when you can smell the aroma of the vegetables should you move on to the next step. Otherwise, whatever flavor profile you are trying to build will not be happening.
And coming back to the title of this week's blog, the release of the seared, browned meat from the pan as well as the sweating of vegetables without browning will take time. Sure, the cooking times will be different but both cooking methods require patience so as not to destroy the texture of the food, and to ensure release of the flavor of the food while cooking it.

I hope these explanations of different cooking methods make sense to you. Unfortunately it is difficult for me to show you those techniques in pictures but I included a picture off my Beef Goulash which I cooked last Saturday, taking all of the above into consideration. It tasted great and I only needed half the usual herbs and spices to create a really good flavor profile. So, perhaps now you'll be sufficiently intrigued to more closely listen, smell, observe and touch the food you cook. I certainly have.

On a slightly different note, I have had a lot of feedback from you regarding posting any comments on this blog. I am sorry to tell you that I think you currently need to have a gmail account to be able to post comments. I am hoping to be able to change that, but have not found a way yet if or how it is possible. Please do not hesitate to contact me on my gmail account: h.ashcroft.13@gmail.com with any comments and feedback regarding this blog. Please be patient with me; here too I am still learning. 
Have a nice week and I will have more stories to tell next week.