Why you don’t need to stick to the recipe
From www.lookitcookit.tumblr.com
Recipes - and I’m not talking about cakes and pastries here - are for those who are hesitant about cooking. This is what I mean:
When you are baking it’s essential to stick to the recipe, so you get the perfect balance of the main ingredients: eggs, sugar, butter and flour. For almost anything else - soup, sauces, marinades, seasonings - you can substitute some of the ingredients and vary what you add.
Here is an example. I found a recipe for cooking beef quickly, in a moderate oven. I had little faith that it would work as the recommended cooking time was 12-16 minutes in a 180C/350F oven. Quick cooking is usually done under a grill, or roasting at a high temperature.
I was determined to try out London Broil with date syrup and pomegranate. Only problem was I had no date syrup or pomegranate. Also I didn’t have red onion, fresh garlic cloves or parsley, so that makes five ingredients I was missing. The original recipe suggests marinading a cut of beef called London Broil (thin and with almost no fat) in a sweet syrup and cooking it briefly in a moderate oven.
For my London Broil without date syrup I marinaded the meat (500g) in a mixture of 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon grated ginger and 1 tablespoon golden syrup (as opposed to the 250ml suggested date syrup). I put everything in a ziplock bag and left it in the fridge for several hours, then cooked it as instructed: 8 minutes on each side. To my surprise (and amazement) the beef came out tender, slightly pink and with a delicious flavour.
While it was cooking I steamed some basmati rice with a few slivers of cinnamon bark and boiled some fine green beans. I must admit it would have looked prettier with the pomegranate seeds, but otherwise the irreverent way I fiddled with the recipe meant that the dish I produced was more to my taste and seemed very successful.
The Chicken and Plums I put up recently was also tweaked a bit. Instead of the required fennel seeds, coriander seeds, demarara sugar and red wine vinegar with chicken on a bed of celery, I used onions instead for the roasting and a similar marinade to the one described above.
So, do try experimenting. Keep an eye on the suggested timings, but vary the flavours and spicing to suit your taste. Trust me. It will work.