Feb 15 The (Culinary) Butterfly Effect

Last year I was invited to a football game with a couple of wine reps and our distribution partner in Manitoba to hang out and have some fun.
A nice meal and a chance to watch the Bombers play?
Sure, sign me up.
As we walked up to our seats, one of the reps and I starting talking about food and meal-making in general.
He was telling me how hard it was to come up with a different meal every night and wanted some suggestions on how to break out of a cooking rut.
I told him, at least from my perspective, it would be much easier than he might think.
In short, I told him to look at the things he makes most frequently and to change one thing.
He looked at me like I was kidding but I was being genuine.
It really is as simple as that.
He still looked at me like I was talking crazy, but I explained that one dish can change drastically in flavour but changing one thing, be it one of the ingredients, one of the steps in the recipe or even the way the meal is cooked.
For instance, I said, look at tomato sauce, a pretty easy thing to make and have on hand.
I suggested loading up his next batch with fresh basil and no oregano or vice versa. I suggested omitting onions and going with sautéed leeks instead.
Go with diced tomatoes instead of crushed or even cherry tomatoes; toss in ricotta cheese or baby spinach; give it a healthy shot of balsamic vinegar.
As I was rattling off these variations, I could see in his eyes he never thought such a small change could make such a big impact on the end result.
And that my friends, is just changing one ingredient, we haven’t even talked about what would happen if we changed the prep of one of the items.
Say, roasting the onions in the oven first to deepen their flavour; simmering garlic slowly in olive oil and then adding at the end; using a immersion blender to turn the whole shebang into a silky sauce.
It’s so easy to add variation to a staple dish.
One of the things I make most frequently is brownies and it drives my wife bananas because I just like to make them, not eat them.
But the same “change one thing” applies to baking ruts too.
Normally, I make a batch that combines chocolate (in some form), sugar, eggs, and flour that is usually gently mixed together then baked.
One variation can lead to enormous change.
This time, I beat the eggs and sugar until they filled with so much volume, they nearly doubled in size.
Then, and only then, did I add the chocolate and flour.
Man, what a difference.
While my usual recipe produced some delicious brownies, altering the method resulted in a batch that had both a light and airy top and crust, almost meringue-like, while the centre remained nicely fudgy.
Just one change made a huge difference.
So my friends, if you find yourself about to make the same chicken, the same pasta, the same rice, remember, a small change can make a huge difference.