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Message edited 3/3/2010 9:39:41 PM.

Re: "secret ingreident" spinoff: how do you figure it out ?

I cook a lot.... and taught myself how to cook authentic indian, middle eastern, morrocan... along with more standard western european fare

at least for me, ethnic cuisines tinge all my dishes, and become my 'secret ingredients'. My cream of spinach soup has cumin, tumeric, cayenne, garlic (all mexican and indian), fennugreek seed, ginger (indian), paprika (hungarian), along with the standard western ingredients (chicken broth, spinach, onion, and cream).

I know one of the poster's cocoa in chili secrets is another common technique in mexican cooking. Unsweetened is both sweet and savory, and is added to spicy meat sauces. It works wonderfully... which is to be expected since it comes from mexico... which has a huge array of foods, and many innovative techniques adopted from native americans.

sorry to drag on.... can you tell I'm obsessed with cooking

Re: "secret ingreident" spinoff: how do you figure it out ?

No, thats awesome, I would love to be a better cook and am looking for "secret" tips. Thank you!

Re: "secret ingreident" spinoff: how do you figure it out ?

my best advice for you is to pick a cuisine you love to eat at a restaurant (something asian, european....) and buy a really good authentic cookbook. then keep cooking from it, and you'll learn many of that ethnicity's cooking tricks

Re: "secret ingreident" spinoff: how do you figure it out ?

I think once you make something a lot and really get a feel for the taste (if that even makes sense), you'll begin to understand what would make it taste better, or what you can substitute other ingredients in the recipe for.

Re: "secret ingreident" spinoff: how do you figure it out ?

My only secret ingredients are
pepper puree for chili - I make it and freeze it for the winter

No sugar in my sauce - I just let it cook for hours to de-acidify the tomatoes.

Re: "secret ingreident" spinoff: how do you figure it out ?

For me it is usually a continuation of another recipe...

I had a broccoli dish that used nutmeg so I thought to use it in my soup..

I love rosemary so my DH and decided to try it once while we were cooking up some stew meat to eat with noodles and it was awesome so we tried in stew and it was great...

Re: "secret ingreident" spinoff: how do you figure it out ?

i put cumin in my ground turkey-- it makes everything taste really good!

Re: "secret ingreident" spinoff: how do you figure it out ?

Re: "secret ingreident" spinoff: how do you figure it out ?

For something easy you can try Goya Sazon. Put it on veggies, meat, rice etc

Re: "secret ingreident" spinoff: how do you figure it out ?

For me it is a matter of really understanding the flavors of different spices. For example... I never used Thyme in my cooking until I found a few recipes that called for it. I started to get a real feel for this seasoning and what kinds of things it married well to. Now I will toss it in things when I want that 'flavor'. There are other things too... like cheese. Like - my recipe for Stuffed peppers called for Mozzarella cheese. Because the overall flavors were not very strong - I felt that a combo of mozz, parmesan and Gruyere would give it a bit more of a punch - and it was EXACTLY what the recipe needed. The Gruyere added just the right amount of sharpness wihout being overpowering like a higher dose of Reggiano would have been.

So basically - I get a feel for the ingredients themselves - and then add them creatively into the pot!