Cook's Country (June/July 2012)
Questioning what you're doing in the kitchen, and why you're doing it, can be a powerful thing.
We're not talking about doubting yourself. You shouldn't. We believe in having confidence in the kitchen, and storming ahead in the face of recipe adversity -- be it overflowing pots, less-than-ideal ingredients or equipment that just won't cooperate.
Instead of a lack of confidence, we're talking about having awareness in the kitchen: looking at what you're doing and why you're doing it, and being able to see the effect it will have on your finished dish.
In our experience, this comes with time and practice. When we first started getting serious about cooking, we were very "safe" cooks. We almost exclusively made things that we grew up eating, or that seemed like easy meals for young twenty-somethings to make. But once we moved in together and had the space to entertain friends, we got more ambitious. The recipes got progressively more complicated, the ingredients a bit more elaborate. And then we started The Bitten Word, and things escalated from there. Suddenly we were often cooking things far outside our comfort zones, and we were delving into dishes that previously would have made us cringe.
Looking back over the course of these last five years, we can see many changes to our cooking styles and methods, but we can also see that when we're cooking on our own -- meaning not using a recipe from a magazine or cookbook -- we're playing it less safe. We're a bit more aware of how each decision in a dish can elevate or diminish the finished product.
But we still have a long way to go in this culinary journey. We want to be cooks who are not only aware of every move we're making in the kitchen, but who also question the methods we use, those habits we've picked up as we've learned to cook. America's Test Kitchen -- the publishers of Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country -- does this better than anyone else. The cooks there will reexamine methods that everyone takes for granted, subjecting them to testing that either reinforces or disproves those methods. Often, they end up with a recipe that's a big improvement on the traditional method.
This recipe for Marinated Grilled Skirt Steak is a perfect example.
Continue reading "Post-Grill Marinated Grilled Skirt Steak" »