When I was 20 I lived in the upper flat of an old Victorian House in Dallas, TX. My downstairs neighbor was a clothing designer, Carole...where are you, Carole?
Carole wanted to be a better cook so she hired a chef from a really nice restaurant to come to her flat and make dinner from her fridge. This was fairly economical as, at that time, chefs were just the same a anybody else, just trying to make a living at the thing they loved doing!
And she invited me down to learn, too! So, we two watched a master chef create something wonderful and tasty and pretty to look at from what we thought was nothing.
That experience has stuck with me throughout my life. Remembering that night, the quiet in the neighborhood, the breeze through the kitchen window, the chef patiently explaining what he was thinking and doing and why, the smell of the layers of herbs, spices, cream, chicken, vegetables gently simmering on the very old Chambers stove.
We ate the dishes together with candlelight, conversation and good china and silverware and cloth napkins!
The taste of the first bitesatisfies and takes one on a food journey…
The next year I got married and made Baked Alaska!
My latest food creation was a stir fry from my fridge. I had some cooked farrow and a little cooked rice and pulled out vegetables from the fridge and a few snap peas, lettuce, shallots and cherry tomatoes from the garden. I threw together a sauce for the stir fry and we had giant shrimps. I made a nuc cham dipping sauce for the shrimps, which the technique I learned starts with balancing the flavors. First start with a base of warm water adding Sour (lime juice) and Sweet (sugar) until balanced, add Salty (fish sauce) get it balanced and then add Hot (peppers and garlic). Let the sauce sit about 30 minutes for flavors to blend, the adjust the balance as needed.
Cheers and Happy Cooking! Come on you know you want to write a WFD Diary! Join in!
What’s for Dinner? is a Saturday evening get-together where friends share recipes, talk about good food and help others answer culinary questions.
We welcome you to our virtual table every Saturday evening 4:30 PT/7:30 ET. If you would like to write a post for an upcoming date just send a message to ninkasi23!