Perfecting a Recipe
April 6th, 2010 by HHG
I have found one of my new obsessions, perfecting recipes! It’s like being back in the laboratory again, remember the scientific method and PIHEC? You start with a Problem, such as the alioli (Spanish garlic and olive oil mayonnaise) recipe you just followed came out way too strong and you are killing everyone in your family with dragon like garlic breath. Then you list all of the known Information, such as the amounts of ingredients and recipe procedure. Next you develop a Hypotheses, mine was that if I reduced the amount of garlic by half it might turn out better. The best part follows, Experiment. After testing the new recipe, I Concluded that I had a new problem, the bite of the garlic was gone but so was most of the garlic flavor.
New problem and inference, if I blanch or roast the garlic first, I might be able to use the same quantity of garlic as the original recipe but kill the burning sensation in my throat. Well these experiements carried on for quite a few hours. While it is simple to make alioli, it’s merely garlic, salt, and olive oil, plus I add an egg yolk to hold it all together, it is difficult to make the perfect alioli. And of course perfection depends on who is judging and more if your Spanish fiance is peering over your shoulder the whole time. Since I am an extremely critical judge of my own recipes, reaching perfection is almost an impossible feat and requires kind taste testers to tell you, “enough is enough, please stop now, you’ve made like a gallon of alioli and the last five recipes all taste great!” So, my perfect alioli recipe combines a mixture of blanched and raw garlic, a little bit of lemon juice, one egg yolk, lots of olive oil and salt to taste. One perfected recipe for the restaurant down, and at least 500 to go.
Here are some photos of recipes of dishes made during recipe testing.
Ajo Blanco y Salmorejo (Chilled Garlic and Tomato Soup)
Patatas Bravas (Fried Potatoes with our PERFECT Brava Sauce)
Rossejat con cigala (Typical dish from Catalonia, similar to paella but with short noodles, this one is served with a scampi)
Posted in Chapter Two: The Calm Before The Storm | Comments (0)