Easy Ways to Jazz Up Your Cooking

Are you and those you cook for getting bored with food? Same old stuff all the time? A lot of us are cooking at home more these days – whether we like it or not – and it can be a real challenge to give the menu a little pizzazz every day.

Here’s how I address these issues. I live in a household where variety in a menu is not only applauded but expected. That means that we usually have, on average, a couple of new recipes each week. To simplify our lives and limit trips to the market, we plan our meals a few days ahead. I start out by asking the critical voices what kind of food they’d like to try. Maybe it’s a different main ingredient or an unfamiliar cuisine. I might suggest something I’ve been intrigued by. When you think about it, ideas might come from meals outside the home such as recent restaurant fare.

On the beat

Many of my suggestions come about because I get regular email ideas from the likes of Food and Wine, Delish. Southern Living, and Eater. These sites, which are free, typically focus on seasonal foods. In addition, I occasionally check the food sections of newspapers I subscribe to, including New York Times Cooking and The Boston Globe and L.A. Times. In addition to these, some ideas come from Mrs. Farmboy’s collection of 20 years of Gourmet magazine.

Suppose you had an intriguing dish at a restaurant that you want to try at home, but need a recipe as a guide. I’ve found that the easiest solution is merely to sit down at the computer and use a search engine. Tonight, for example, we’re having shrimp scampi. I was interested in finding out if a Korean version existed. Sure enough, I found two recipes for the Korean style. Instead of the basil and thyme, the Korean version used oyster sauce, soy sauce, and Gochujang (Korean spicy sauce).

The main idea here is add a little twist to try something new and different. Besides catering to your food critics, you’ll have great results if you focus on whatever ingredients are available locally, especially seasonal vegetables. If you plan ahead, you can easily acquire any unusual dried herbs and spices from Penzey’s or from Smith and Truslow

Herbal notes

And you can easily add more interest to your meals with fresh herbs. Even if you’re not a gardener, you might clear a small patch in the yard for an herb garden. Growing oregano, thyme, chives, and basil takes no skill at all, and mint is a weed! There’s nothing better than fresh herbs from your own kitchen garden, and some, like rosemary, will do well in pots. Small indoor  herb growing kits such as the highly rated Aero Garden Harvest Elite are also an error-proof way to have fresh flavors on hand, even for those with a black thumb. Or try this one our friends recommended, Click & Grow Indoor Herb Garden Kit with Grow Light.

And if certain ingredients in a recipe you want to try are not readily available, consult the search engines for a substitute. No kaffir lime leaves? You can swap in lime zest or lemon zest. Can’t locate hazelnuts? Try almonds or macadamia nuts instead.

Even if you’re not a foodie, it can be fun to search online for a few minutes. I have a paid subscription to ckbk.com, a repository of more than 850 digitized cookbooks. It includes a weekly focus, and the most recent featured Australian cookbooks, calling the cuisine “some of the most exciting food on the planet.” The recipes combine local, fresh ingredients with an Aussie approach to other international foods. For an upcoming dinner with friends, I’m looking at a cinnamon-scented lamb or a summer vegetable pasta with basil. You might challenge your own critical audience to help you find a recipe for something they’d like to try. My experience is that it leads to interesting discussions about the ease or difficulty of the preparation and how they might participate.

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