Inspired by the “fowl-mouthed” celebrity chef, this lively, weeknight-quick dish from the Blue Kitchen archives first appeared in February 2009. Recipe below.
When children are very young, their first experiences of playing with other children are actually playing next to other children. They don’t truly interact with one another, but for them, playing side-by-side is the beginning of their social lives. There’s a school of thought in cooking that mirrors this experience, the idea that putting ingredients next to one another actually achieves some meaningful interaction among them.
You know what I mean—recipes that include instructions like “lay sprigs of rosemary around the roast” or “place a whole peeled apple in the chicken cavity”… Or my favorite, recipes that instruct you to rub lamb chops, steaks, slices of baguette or anything with a cut clove of garlic. In my experience, this technique is a perfect way to waste a clove of garlic and five or so minutes of your life. It adds nothing to the flavor of anything, so far as I can tell. Ingredients have to fully commit to a dish and mix it up with the others to have an impact on the final taste.[Read more here…]
That was a fun post. And yet another lesson in how important it is to read recipes critically.
“Or my favorite, recipes that instruct you to rub lamb chops, steaks, slices of baguette or anything with a cut clove of garlic.”
I’m so happy to find I’m not the only one who has found this to be utterly tasteless. I much prefer spreading mashed roasted garlic after sprinkling with garlic powder. (Gasp! Garlic powder! Sacrilege I know, but it does evenly impart the flavor to the exterior of whatever you’re cooking. Except I don’t use it on bread.)
I love the way your mind works when it comes to food, Terry. You have a great connection between your taste buds and your brain.
Thanks, John! I often find myself tweaking recipes, at least the second time I make them.
Dani, we use garlic powder every once in a while, mainly with Cajun or creole recipes. And when we’re making mashed potatoes, we cook mashed up garlic cloves right with the potatoes. Beautifully spreads the garlic flavor throughout when you mash them.
I’ll have to try that with the mashed potatoes! (I wouldn’t use garlic powder in mashed potatoes.)
I knew very little about Gordon Ramsay (other than that he was foul mouthed) when a friend recommended the British version of Kitchen Nightmares. I LOVED it. He seemed to truly care about the restaurants he helped, and most of the time I had the feeling that if they failed it was despite his best efforts (far too many restaurants are owned by people with no business owning restaurants it seems).
The American version was quite the disappointment after that. I respect Ramsay as a chef and like to think his on screen persona is more a product of producers and the need to sell shows to American audiences than the man himself.