It’s been all summer long that I’ve been practicing cooking unique dishes for lunch, in order to pack in a single plate the whole lunch with all the flavours, but most of the times I end up with flavourless bowl of food which tastes like nothing but salt and I’m beyond mad.Here’s an example of what I do:>pan, olive oil, onion: sauté everything until the onion becomes translucent >add rice or whatever cereal I’m using, toast it for 3 minutes >cover with whatever liquid I have (veggie broth, stocks, the cooking water under the steamed vegetables, normal water infused with herbs)>add salt e and a bit of oil >let everything simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed >add the cooked protein (today it was leftover cod from yesterday’s dinner)>when the liquid is gone, turn off the stove and add oil, mix >put the steamed veggie, a zucchini, in a mixer with oil and salt and mix until a cream has formed >dress the rice and other ingredients with it>wa laIt tastes like nothing, I can’t feel any single ingredient of what I think it’s a balanced set of ingredients.I’m mad because every day I spend 40 minutes cooking and unless I use tomatoes and fatty stocks, the flavour isn’t there.>in b4 add spices I use them, but the goal here is to add them to complement, not to give flavour, also I want to make simple dishes with few ingredients cooked correctly.Help me anons.
butter, more salt, more acid (rice vinegar, lemon juice)
>>20843724Interesting, do the elements individually have flavor through the process? For example the stock before adding, the veg before puréeing, and the meat? Does it smell flavorful while preparing?
>>20843724I really enjoy this picture
>Oil>Oil>Oil>OilHave you tried using less oil?
>>20843774Yes to all, it's when they're combined that everything lose all the individual flavors or most of them.It's as if the water is washing away the tasteful notes even though it gets absorbed, and the worst thing is that the cereals which absorbs the infused water tastes nothing like the herb/spice/veggie infused in the broth.>>20843815I use little oil, really.
>>20843724Some thoughts:1). Maybe add a pinch of brown sugar, some mirin, honey, etc? 2) Your broth may be paradoxically washing out the flavor. Consider a more concentrated broth. 3). Alternately, braise your (non-fish) meats as well as your hardier vegetables, then throw the rice/barley/whatever into the braise pan.4) Starchy foods mask flavor, experiment with the surface area of the flavors in proportion to the starch as well as how their flavor intensity is impacted by cooking. ex, fried rice. Cooking the rice in the pan you seared chicken in so the browned residue adheres to some grains, waiting until the end to add the diced whiter bulb end of the green onion5) Layer the flavors in a bowl, don't just jumble them around. Later of meat, layer of veggies, layer of rice. Again, starches can wipe out flavor.>>20843815Or he could try a different fat, butter, sesame oil.
>>20843862Thank anon, I'm taking note.When I have, say, beef stock and the meat I cooked into it, the flavor stays the mostly because when the water evaporates the fat adheres to the cereals/pasta, however the most difficult part is the veggies.I found that cooking them from raw, in pieces, throwing them with the cereals boiling in the broth is better than adding already cooked vegetables, but then again I don't understand why if I add a cream of mixed cooked veggies with salt and oil, which is tasty by itself, loses all the flavour after I dressed the finished cereals.
Bamp
>>20843724I'm not really sure what flavour profile you were aiming for, and what were your expectations.From what you described, there's just not that much going on there, flavour-wise.
>>20843724I don't read any browning going on. Translucent aromatics taste like nothing to me but brown onions are like candy enhancing even the blandest of slop. But what do I know I'm bored of low heat slow cooking too.
>>20843724don't just mix everything together. I prefer to make some plain white rice, and a savory stew or something to eat side by side. and like others said you should brown your meat and veggies in oil first thing.
>>20843724Use chicken bullion and also a decent butter.You can also try blanching your veggies instead or steaming them for less time.
>>20843724You probably need more onion, garlic, etc. Most recipes never use enough. More acid like >>20843750 says too, that's something else that a lot of recipes underutilize. I've had people tell me my beef stew is amazing and the only difference from what they did is that I added just enough vinegar.Soy sauce is also a really simple and easy flavor enhancer that can be added to almost anything.
