Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Undercooked, Oversalted and Full of Fat

Are we the only ones?

Gloria and I have been enjoying the new TV cooking obsession, but we get more than a little annoyed with the way celebrity chefs dictate how food should be cooked.

Both of us like our meat to be well cooked – but the chefs insist that it needs to be practically dripping blood. Recently I realised why – bloody meat can be cooked in a matter of minutes. On the other hand, a good well-done steak according to their directions would take around 40 minutes to prepare.
Do the arithmetic. Rare (raw!) steak gets people in and out much more quickly, giving the restaurant a better turnover of customers.

The other gripe I have is the obsession with salt. They continually refer to seasoning the meal they are cooking. Or they complain if a contestant has not adequately "seasoned" their dish. What they mean is they personally like to throw tons of addictive salt into the food they are preparing.

When I eat a meal I prefer to taste the meat, the veggies, the herbs and spices. If I wanted them masked by salt I’m totally capable of picking up the salt pot from the table and sprinkling a bit (or a lot) on my own food.

And their idea of mashed potato is very misleading. It would be better named mashed butter with a hint of potato to hold it together! When I make mash I can actually taste the spuds – and THAT is what I want.

Last night at home, we had a vegetarian risotto created and prepared by Gloria. It had no butter and no salt. It was moist with a good consistency and tasted wonderful. We could actually taste individual ingredients like pumpkin and spinach...
And the best part is – I’ve been given leftovers for my lunch at work today.

3 comments:

Sr Crystal Mary Lindsey said...

Ah ha, The way to a man is through his stomach...
I use vegie salt brought from most supermarkets in the salt section.
Its yummy...
Hey, you might get a visitor for dinner one day.
Put the kettle on. LOL

Onesimus said...

I realised a while ago that the saying "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach" was most likely referring to cardiac arrest and not love.

Covnitkepr1 said...

Speaking of "mashed potatoes"...try this.
Buy a bag of Yukon Golds, bake them, I remove the peel after baking, then mash them...then taste them. No salt...no butter..no inhancements.

It's amazing how good a potatoe can taste with out all the minerals and vitimans boiled out. That would hold true for most any vegetable.