28Oct

Making a Beautiful Meal

Something I consider and play with when I am preparing a meal is how to make it visually appealing. This is where the artist in me comes out as I think about the colors and shapes of the vegetables, herbs and other ingredients that will make up the “work of art.”  When you think about it, isn’t food more appetizing when it is beautiful and created with care?

These considerations don’t have to take long.  In fact, before you know it, you will simply be thinking about them while you’re making dinner.

These are some different aspects to think about:

Colors:
Try to bring some variety to the dish so that it’s not all one color.  You can start learning a little bit about colors and how they work together simply by experimenting.

One dish I make is very beautiful simply because of the colors – pink/red salmon, green spinach, and orange peaches.  I would call this a very “complementary” colored meal.

Also, nutritionally speaking, it is better to have an array of colors on your plate.  This is because the differently colored foods tend to contain different vitamins and minerals your body needs.

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28Oct

Spontaneity and substituting ingredients

Life happens and inevitably, there will be days when you go to the store and you find out that a few of the items on the shopping list were simply not available at the store you went to.  It is usually pretty rare that main ingredients aren’t available at more stores – they are usually pretty stocked up on meats and seafood.  However, there are definitely occasions when I have arrived at the store and been surprised that there isn’t a particular fish available.  This can happen when a certain fish is out of season, especially if you are looking for wild fish.

It is usually one or two of the other ingredients needed to make a recipe that sometimes goes missing in the grocery store.  Personally, I live thirty minutes from a large store with a large selection of organic and fresh foods, so it is not very easy for me to just go back the next day when the produce guy tells me they will have fennel available.

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