On Apr 15, 2:11*pm, aem > wrote:
> There's fussy eating and then there's fussy cooking. *I like fussy
> cooking. *Not fussy in the sense of finding nits to pick or having a
> list of dislikes, but fussy in the sense of making extra efforts to
> ensure that a dish's appearance and aroma and taste all add to the
> pleasures of eating it. *I like cutting vegetables and meat for a stir
> fry or a stew or a salad 'just so' to make them uniform and
> appropriately shaped and sized for the dish. *I like ensuring that all
> the silverskin and fat streaks are cleaned away from the pork
> tenderloin or flank steak before I dry rub or marinate it, all the
> excess fat trimmed from the chicken. *I like making the gremolata to
> add that final touch to the osso buco. *I don't omit 'extra
> unnecessary' steps from traditional dishes, like the brandy flambe in
> coq au vin. *I'm happy to make a compound herbal/garlic butter the day
> before I'm going to use it so the flavors have time to permeate the
> mixture. *I've even been known to try the seven-sided potato shaping
> you see in classic French dishes (tournet? tournons? something like
> that). *I scissors off the pointy ends of artichoke leaves.
>
> And I always taste and smell during and at the end of cooking. *It
> drives me crazy to see tv cooks prepare a dish and serve it up without
> ever tasting it or at least giving it a good sniff test.
>
> I think part of this comes from having started serious cooking with
> Chinese stirfry dishes where the preparations take far longer than the
> cooking and tradition dictates things like whether to slice that
> carrot into coins, ovals (diagonal), shreds, roll cut or dice. *During
> my brief commercial kitchen stints I learned the same lesson:
> complete preparations are what enable efficient production of the
> final dishes. *Part of it came from slavish devotion to some of
> Julia's directions, too. *This is how you prepare Brussels sprouts....
>
> Oh sure, sometimes we're in a hurry, what with work and family.
> Fortunately, since retirement I'm able and willing to spend more
> time. *And I get positive reinforcement from an attentive and
> (usually) appreciative audience to add to the feeling of
> accomplishment. *When I was working I would sometimes do substantial
> amounts of prep work late at night for the next day's dinner. *Among
> its other pleasures, fussy cooking may be good therapy.
>
> Those who think I'm just anal or suffer from ocd, may pass on to
> another thread. *Those who want to say how or where they like to fuss,
> feel free. * *-aem

Me too . . . like you. Starts with stir fry. That'll teach you "mise
en place" as well! But then we got a baby and I slacked off for a
while. When she was about 5 and eating all grown up foods I went back
to fussing, Then my husband had his second heart by pass and I was
working so things got simpler again. Now I'm alone, have diabetes and
high blood pressure and high everything else they can measure, but I
still fuss when I cook for somebody else and I still cut everything
into matching size/shape for stir fry. Thank heaven I never really
liked to bake.
Lynn in Fargo
Cooking is good therapy AND good exercise!