How to Cook: Salt, Pepper, Oil, Fire: Part 1

I promise that todays lesson will involve actual cooking. So far we’ve covered very basic kitchen tools and the five senses in the kitchen. Today we’re going to go from the frying pan to the fire, in a good way.

When life goes crazy and I still have to get a meal for my family that is both nutritious and delicious I revert to the most basic form of cooking I know, salt and pepper cooking. Before McDonalds, before Martha Stewart this is the type of cooking people used for “fast food” and “every day food”. You don’t need a fancy recipe or a lot of time, just some good food combined with salt, pepper, oil and fire.

The Best Ingredients

The first step is to get the best ingredients you can. The simpler your cooking the more each individual ingredient’s flavor will stand out on its own. Spices and sauces can cover up problems. If you take them away you need to make sure what is left is as good as it can be. Now, while you can spend a small fortune on good ingredients you don’t have to. The best thing to do here is look for what’s currently growing in your area. The closer it is to you the fresher it will be when you get it and the riper it will have been when picked. There is a world of difference between a tomato shipped from Mexico to my supermarket and one I bought at the farm stand in August. There is also a world of difference in price since I didn’t have to pay to have it shipped across an entire country. If (like while I’m writing this) you don’t have much (or any) local produce then go for the best you can. Look, feel and even ask to taste the quality. Check the labels and aim for stuff from a few states a way instead of a few continents away. I use the winter months as the time to fill my craving for tropical fruits, citrus and other items that are never in season where I am.

Salt and Pepper

The next step is simple seasoning. There was a time when I used to get so upset with my cookbooks when they said “salt and pepper to taste”. “How in the world am I supposed to know what to taste is? I didn’t write the recipe!” What might seem obvious to some people was not at all obvious to me. To taste means quite literally add a little, taste it, repeat until it tastes right.

Now here is the really hard part. For a while you have to except that you are going to get this wrong. Yes, I said wrong. I don’t care how smart you are if you are new to cooking to taste there will be a learning curve. The problem is food is changed by cooking so what tastes right before cooking may not be right after. Just ask my husband about the many batches of super salty greens we had for dinner. (Greens cook down a lot so you have to under salt for the final dish to taste right.) The good news is by doing it wrong you are also doing something right. You are building a subconscious taste library in your brain. After enough batches of over salt greens, followed by under salty greens you will have figured out that if your pan is 2/3 full of greens and you sprinkle a certain number of pinches of salt and grind so much pepper it just works. The key is to accept you have to do a LOT of practice to get to that point. Taste before cooking and seasoning, taste after each step, repeat.

Well, what about raw meat? How do I pretaste that? Well in this case you have two choices. The first is to just wing it. Make a wild guess and see how it works. Except that there will be some mistakes. I’d aim at under salting at first… it’s always easier to add at the table instead of subtract. You will probably have less willing victims , um I mean tasters, if you set out a salt shaker instead of a bowl of water to rinse the food in. The alternative is slower but can help you figure it out faster. Season very lightly and cook a small portion to taste. Repeat until you think you’ve got it right. This is good for when you have some extra time to experiment. Include your family if you can. Kids are usually more patient if they feel they are an important part of the process.

Next time we’ll continue this lesson with How to Cook: Salt, Pepper, Oil, Fire: Part 2

Are you new to this series? Check out How to Cook: Cooking Lessons from the Ground Up for a complete list of lessons.

Image: sweet potato by rosewx12 on flickr