CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
1686
I’d like to get to this point, but I’m not really very close yet. With most pasta dishes I make (e.g. clam linguine and shrimp scampi are family favorites) and some American style dishes (casseroles, chili, stews, roasts, etc.) I know what I’m doing and don’t need the recipe. Some Chinese-influenced stir-fries, too. But only a few of those that I’ve done repeatedly.
But with Thai, Indian or West African/Haitian dishes, even if I have a good grasp of all the ingredients, I still can’t recall the amounts to use and/or which are for the meat/tofu/paneer marinade, vs. which go in the gravy, so I always have to consult the recipes. Same with making pho, each time I have to carefully follow a recipe.
And I say this after having made murgh makhani (butter chicken) at least six times in the last two months (it is a favorite of my MIL, who’s not well, so I’m happy to indulge her and everyone else loves it, too).
You’d think I’d have it down by now… but nope, I have to pull up the recipe each time. At least I finally got smart a few weeks ago, and bookmarked the two I’ve been hybridizing and made myself some notes about how I’m using bits from each for the whole.
I was a professional chef for 23 years because the smell of my father’s cooking and the wintery drift of fireplace smoke were my two favorite sensory experiences and I wanted other people to feel the way I did about food because of them.
Well, I’m glad you took my advice and came over here. There’s a BBQ thread going on that you should step in (I mean “contribute to”). Welcome Matt. Join our NYC group meals.
