I am not one
that loves the spotlight, I don't like public speaking. I usually just prefer to blend in. There are two situations where my personal
preferences are overshadowed; cooking for others and my opinions. The latter, you may say I can help, but I
really can't. I only speak when I know
I'm right (I said this in a sarcastic voice).
As I have
said before, I cook out of love for those I serve, I don't cook for the
attention. I don't cook for praise and I
never ask if you enjoyed my food. Of
course, I care about how people perceive my food, if they enjoy it or not, but I hate the feeling of soliciting some
positive feedback so I keep quiet.
I cook quite
a bit for my church during the fall and winter.
During the summer, I cook almost exclusively at my church's summer camp. This is my service, provided to people I love
and I get uncomfortable when people compliment my food. I don't think I cook anything too amazing,
everything I cook is homemade, just like I cook at home. Maybe part of the uncomfortable attention I receive
is partially due to the fact that I'm a guy and the cooking has traditionally
been handled by the ladies. I, however,
think it has to do less with me and more, if not everything to do with the preparation. More specifically, how seasoning is applied. Recently, Food Network personality Michael
Symon said something that I have thought for years but have been unable to put
into words. He posted the following on
Twitter; "If you don't cook with salt and your friends say your food
tastes good, they are lying". I couldn't
agree more, but allow me to expand on this thought. People always compliment food that is properly
seasoned. The ability to properly season
food and understand how to develop more complex, deep and memorable flavors in
meals lays entirely on the shoulders of your ability to master the use of salt
(and other things!).
I have heard
people say how they wished they could recreate a dish from a certain restaurant
that they love. It's not so hard, just
use more salt than you normally use. It wasn't
by accident that one of the first products I decided to sell was a super
premium, high-end salt. For a home cook,
mastering the use of salt and other seasonings will translate into consistently
better food, faster than any technical mastery.
To highlight
this point, today I made some of my "famous" Roasted Corn Salsa. Famous is in quotations to emphasize how the
use of this term is not my own. Using
the term "famous" to describe my own food seems somewhat conceited,
but this salsa has a reputation around my church's summer camp. I made this a few years back and it has been
a perennial favorite ever since. I
learned the basics of this recipe while working in the kitchen of a restaurant
years ago.
A few years
back, I had a dinner to cook at "The Camp". I was shopping and stumbled onto a crate of
50 or so ears of fresh corn. I couldn't
help myself and impulsively bought the case of corn. Now what?
I had a dinner that night and had to find a use for 50 ears of
corn. I remembered the salsa recipe and
went for it, with a few modifications.
It's fresh, it's pretty easy to make and always leaves a great impression
on the crowd. The secret...just use good
salt! I'm not kidding. There's a few other unexpected ingredients
but that's basically it.
So now that I've
proven my point, there are just a few other matters to address. As I write this, I am preparing for the
anti-salt argument. All I say is prove
it. Prove that salt is bad for me, prove
that its worse than any processed food and prove it without the help of some ancient
medical journal. The human body requires
salt. I require salt and your taste buds
require salt, you may not know it yet.
"Trust
no man unless you have eaten much salt with him." - Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106-43BC)
For my Salsa Recipe visit my store listed below:
Hi! I'm a new follower from BellasBNS team on Etsy. That's neat that you cook for your church's camp.
ReplyDeleteThanks Brenda! I'm glad you read my blog!
ReplyDeleteThis looks amazing!!
ReplyDelete