Kiss Your Food
Posted by Al Rosas on Cook Smarter.
Keep…It…Simple…Stupid… As The Organic Chef, one can only imagine the acronyms that I have heard along my voyage across the culinary sea. There are more sayings than there are roaches in a dirty diner. First in, first out (or “F.I.F.O.”) and the ubiquitous “T.I.P.S.” (to insure prompt service) and, of course, the six “Ps,” which requires an article in itself. K.I.S.S is the one that I just can’t seem to get rid of because it works, especially with regard to cooking techniques.
With the task at hand, how exactly do you KISS your food? This is how you start. What we have lost focus of is what we already know. Everyone knows that the freshest ingredients are certainly the best and “farm fresh” is a quality we can all recognize. Find a local source for your foods, all your food, and this includes meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, dairy, herbs, edible flowers … anything you can think of and can’t or don’t grow on your own. I know some of you folks are city dwellers, but then you really have no excuse, your farmer’s market is available.
Buying local has many advantages, here are two: lowering our carbon footprint and supporting our local farmers. Another advantage of being loco for local (http://www.locoforlocal.com/) is that it will teach you and your family about the seasonality of foods. I can promise that meeting your local farmers will be something of an experience for you, your children if you have them and it will change the way you see your food (and farmers) from that point on and will be worth your effort. Characters are welcome and very present in farming, I know just from the looks we get from our “city folk” when they come to my farm.
Once you have got hold of your fresh fodder, don’t try to use all of it in one meal. Try to plan out your dinners. Try not to use more than 5 ingredients per dish. The fresh ingredients that you have gone though the trouble to find will never let you down. They don’t know how, they only know how to be fresh and tasty. Let your mouth enjoy the meal without having to call in your brain for assistance in interpretation.
Guests shouldn’t guess what’s in the dish. Instead let them enjoy the simple flavors you have put together for them. They will appreciate your food and will appreciate your K.I.S.S. and you might just get one back.
