Cooking is an enjoyable pastime for me. I believed that at one time it would be the career path that I would follow. More so than working as a martial arts instructor and teaching others about meditation, stretching and breathing. Life isn't quite so easy that you can see the end of the road in only a few decades. Though the things that were taught to me from my time in kitchens help in different aspects. Today, I wanted to talk about making spinach puffs.
Spinach puffs, a savoury snack good for dinner parties, birthdays, late-night munchies and a lazy lunch. Puffs come from the layered pastry dough that is used in different sweets. Of course, pastries not only come in the sweeter varieties but in savoury ones as well. The first I had heard of this idea was from the animated movie "The Emporer's New Grove." The happy-go-lucky character "Kronk" was quite proud of his own. When you put effort into something for long enough, why wouldn't you be proud to show it off? It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I actually tried to make these for the first time. Luckily, the recipe I followed and my previous training helped me make these a bit faster. Even without the proper preparation of space.
Proper preparation when cooking is essential so that there is no time wasted spent looking for all the ingredients and tools that you will need that day. Bowls, ingredients, measuring cups/spoons, pans, ovens should all be easily accessible with as much space as you need. Space can be quite a commodity in kitchens with multiple people working at the same time. Communication is just as important since there are quite a lot of safety hazards as well. At home, less so than a commercial kitchen. Tools should be clean, kept in their proper areas and maintained. Once those requirements are set it would be a good time to start cooking.
Who you make the food tends to determine what you will be making. Family and friends will be much nicer when you mess up. Customers paying you will always tell you what they think outright. The ingredient you use, cooking methods, time of cooking and so on all change the end result. It is quite a fickle thing to cook for someone else; cooking for yourself is a lot easier. You would be able to understand your own tastes at least. Another individual's taste would be much harder to discern. Cultural differences might also change this not only from the regions in a single country but continents as well. Taking this into account when cooking for others. The best person to experiment with new flavours on is yourself.
The creation of the end product when trying something new is always an imitation. There is a saying that "imitation is the greatest form of flattery," but we always begin by imitating others to learn. While imitation is the first step it can be easy to get stuck onto this part. Following a recipe is only the first part of understanding how to cook. What techniques were used, what flavours, fresh or preserved? As you learn to understand the reasons for these steps you come to understand cooking. To move past recipes written down by others and start creating your own. Simplicity is preferable when cooking from home. So starting out with practising the basics will yield better results. Mistakes when learning to cook are unavoidable. So just remember them for the next time.
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