Last year I was set my biggest culinary challenge ever: I agreed to be a recipe tester. I answered the request of a foodie, fellow blogger and a very talented lady who was working on a cookery book. The recipes quite simply needed to be tried and tested.
Now while I often choose a recipe and start cooking with my cookery book open, by the third ingredient it is always firmly shut and pushed aside in search for more counter space to litter!
Everyone has an own cooking style. I am a normally a fairly tidy person but I admit: I cook in an absolute mess…no workspace would be big enough! My husband is always surprised I am able to work in such a 'chaos', like a mad scientist and very occasionally as I become verbal, I may even sound like Gordon Ramsay, but The proof is in the pudding and I don't get many complaints! And I do always tidy up afterwards.
I don't often measure ingredients but work to 'feel', a pinch of this and a handful of that. Often in a recipe salt and pepper is added to taste, well I firmly believe that this applies to many other ingredients too. Everyone’s taste buds are different and can tolerate and/ or desire a lesser or higher degree of spiciness or sweetness. While I am guilty of spicing things up, I often reduce the amount of sugar. Ok baking is an exact science and a cake recipe a scientific formula and should therefore be accurately adhered to. But mainly I cook with reckless abandon...I am the boss in my kitchen and I love it!
But now I had an assignment, it was necessary to follow the recipe to the letter. Could I succeed? The requirement was simple to cook the food and provide good honest feedback in the form of a questionnaire.
Well I can be strict and I take my commitments very seriously. The exact ingredients had to be purchased, no substitutions possible, this itself proved quite a challenge. For some products I needed to search much further a field than Katwijk. Halloumi cheese was an example, practically no one had heard of it! Another example is smoked (Spanish) paprika (and now I wonder how I ever lived without this wonderful natural flavour enhancer!) and dried lavender (suitable for consumption)
Many ingredients I had purchased for my recipes needed to be 'protected' (I live with three hungry eaters...all male!) so I my ingredients were labelled with the writers name on and DO NOT EAT! This resulted in a very comical sight, both in the refrigerator and in the cupboards.
I had full faith in the writer and set about the challenge before me as I dusted off my scales! I started with great expectations but soon discovered this was going to be more difficult that I realised! Not that I had difficulties following the instructions, which were very clear and precise. But sometimes I almost had to physically contain myself to stay on the path. And honest feedback... hmm it is very difficult to be critical of someone else’s own creations. My family didn't completely appreciate the change of diet. Having said that we do eat varied and I am always willing to try out new ingredients on my hungry guinea pigs. But to be fair the dishes I started off with included ingredients that they are not too fond of, namely pulses. Secretly I was quite enjoying it, the relief often on their faces when they asked if it was a test recipe or one of mine was clearly an indirect compliment to me! And then I started getting direct compliments, this was interesting, I was at last being appreciated for all my slaving away in a hot kitchen! Their reactions were very amusing but at the same time it was unfortunate that they were judging dishes on a preconceived conception. As I reeled the recipes off they became more open and started to appreciate and enjoy the new dishes. And some were true masterpieces.
I must just add I do take it all very serious, I have signed an agreement, so I am sorry but I am unable to reproduce any of the recipes or divulge the finer details of the cookbook. I did take photographs so I have given you a sneak preview to whetten your appetite ...I hope your interest has been awakened enough to want to buy the book. Watch this space, I am sure it will be available very soon.
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