Taste, Tweak, Repeat!

I have never considered a recipe something that needs to be followed.  I usually only follow them loosely.  I think of recipes more as a vague guide telling me one possible solution that could work for a given set of ingredients.

I personally love to use the “taste, tweak, repeat” method.

This has often led to greatness

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However there is a risk it can lead to disaster

Regardless, I always enjoy the process.  I think of it as channeling my inner Italian grandmother who has a sixth sense when it comes to cooking

It’s also great because I can insert additional steps if I want, like adding wine…

…to the food

…or to myself.

Over our years together Chris developed a desire to join me in the kitchen.

He began by acting as my sous-chef, keeping me company, while picking up cooking techniques.  However, he picked up the taste step much easier than the tweak step.

Then he found this Cook’s Illustrated book, which combines great recipes with the scientific method!

The book explains the basic techniques behind each recipe, and goes into the different scientific trials they did to develop it.  It’s kind of like my “taste, tweak, repeat” method, but it uses more data points than just me for the process…and their results are a bit more repeatable the next time you’re making the dish 🙂

This method really clicked for Chris  His inner Italian grandma is beginning to shine in the kitchen!

Today I used the book to come up with a way to cook the fresh green beans we got at Bishop’s Orchard.  Of course I still applied my “taste, tweak, repeat” method to the scientifically tested recipe a little bit…My taste buds are a weighted data point in any dish I cook after all!

The green beans are coated with a mixture of breadcrumbs and chopped almonds, which have been toasted and seasoned with garlic and herbs de Provence.

Now for the best step in the scientific method…sampling 🙂