Imagine sitting down at a table, with a beautiful table setting, and presented with a beautiful plate of delicious food, plated and styled so nicely that you almost don't want to bite into it.
But you finally take the knife and fork and cut a small piece, ready to indulge your taste buds ... only for the dish to fall completely flat from the lack of flavor. Disappointing, isn't it?
Flavor is what makes a dish pop and stand out. Flavor is what makes a dish memorable and distinctive. Flavor is what makes you come back to a dish over and over again.
The question is, how do you infuse flavor into your food? There are multiple ways to do this, depending what you want the dish to taste like. Here are a couple of ideas:
1) High Heat: Cook your meat on high heat to make sure that it is cooked through and browned to perfection. This includes pan-searing, grilling and broiling your food.
2) Caramelize: Another form of browning food that helps to bring out the natural flavor of ingredients, like aromatic ingredients including garlic, mushrooms and onions. Make sure that your food is a perfectly golden brown to ensure that the perfect release of flavor takes place.
3) Using Fond: Do you know what "fond" is? Fond is a term for the burnt little bits at the bottom of the pan. Pour a little bit of wine or broth to release the bits and see how they add an extra layer of flavor to the dish.
4) Marinade: You've probably used marinades before. But they are also easy to make your own homemade marinade. Just make sure you have the three key ingredients; acid, herbs and oil. As long as you have those, you can make any flavorful marinade you want.
There are many other methods that you can use. I use this website to give me a few ideas, such as those above, to infuse additional flavor into my dishes. But one of the greatest ways to add flavor is to experiment. Try different techniques and tastes to see what you like and what works together.
We about the love of flavor and we gotta make sure we got plenty of that in your dish!
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