• Do we really need another Cookbook

    Guest Blog by Al Brown 
    www.albrown.co.nz

    I have a very small office out the back of our house next to my test kitchen and for the whole month of January.....


    Porcetta

    I’m working directly with my wonderful chef Haydo, as we develop, taste and try to create five recipes a day for ‘Stoked’. It takes a huge amount of organisation, for each one has at least three components, like little recipes themselves, within the main recipe. So typically we are actually creating and testing about 15 recipes per day…

    All are designed for six or more people, so you can imagine the amount of food that is left at the end of the day. My wonderful neighbours may have begun to get sick of fish near the completion of my last work, and I can assure you they will be struggling with this year’s meat fest too.

    10 hour smoked brisket; Spiced ‘Pulled Pork’ shoulder; Char-grilled Skirt Steak with Habanera Mustard, blah blah blah. It can only be a matter of time before I see the white flags come out as I cross the street with another kilo or two of protein weighing heavily on the roasting dish covered in foil! The upside for me of course is I can practically borrow what ever I want or please after the testing and recipes are complete…. I’m thinking weed eater, chainsaw, trailer, boat….actually boat is probably pushing it a bit, but you get the picture.


    Ribs

    So anyway creating the dishes is obviously the fun part, however writing them up has to be the most mind-numbingly laborious task there is, especially for cooks who, typically, after getting proficient at their craft, need not measure ingredients nor explain technique. After you have written ….’take a suitable sized saucepan and place on medium heat’ or ‘season with flaky sea salt and fresh black pepper’ for the thousandth time it does get somewhat arduous.

    What I heard recently that is of interest to me is on average, only two recipes are ever tried out per cook book……Does that sound right? I would be interested to hear your thoughts on that one. A bit like buying a whole CD for thatone song you like..


    Ribs on the Grill

    Meanwhile it’s not all doom and gloom, because there is definitely a great feel of satisfaction garnered from creating a recipe that reads well, prepares well and most importantly eats well. As I have said many times in the past, recipes are for sharing. By all means change them, add to them, make them your own, but promise me you’ll pass those culinary love letters on……

    By the way I have already mentioned it previously, but if any of you reading this have some quirky BBQ set up or smoker etc, or you know of someone who has, send a pic or make contact, as it may end up gracing one of the pages of ‘Stoked’!


    Argentine BBQ

    Peace, Love and BBQ
    Posted 21/01/2011 3:33:20 p.m. (0 comments)

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