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- Mar 26, 2005
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- lmashton.com
Depends.
First, the disclaimer. I've been cooking - entirely from scratch - my entire life starting when I was five. That's not a typo. I'm now in my 40s, so that's a fairly good long time. So, lots of experience under my belt.
With baking, I always follow a recipe, but I also make substitutions and changes with abandon.
With cooking, it depends. If it's something that I've never eaten before in a cuisine I'm unfamiliar with (because, yes, I do this), then I follow a recipe. I'll make substitutions based on available ingredients where I am because, let's be honest, I frequently have to do this anyway. If it's something I've had before and know generally speaking what's in it, then I'll follow the recipe sort of. If it's something I'm really familiar with or a cuisine I'm really familiar with, then I throw things together with abandon.
It's the familiarity that determines what I do.
As for most successful dish - that depends on the audience. For my Canadian family and other foreigners when they visit, Sri Lankan dishes that my mother in law taught me - curried chicken, roast chicken, chilli potatoes, pol sambol, gotukola sambol, tamarind fish curry, mustard chicken curry, and so on. But my Sri Lankan family prefers the Canadian/foreign stuff of mine - like brownies and Nanaimo bars (which they inhale, by the way). Because the Sri Lankans in my life can get Sri Lankan food anytime they want, so they prefer the novelty stuff. Which is also why the Canadians/other foreigners prefer the Sri Lankan stuff.
First, the disclaimer. I've been cooking - entirely from scratch - my entire life starting when I was five. That's not a typo. I'm now in my 40s, so that's a fairly good long time. So, lots of experience under my belt.
With baking, I always follow a recipe, but I also make substitutions and changes with abandon.
With cooking, it depends. If it's something that I've never eaten before in a cuisine I'm unfamiliar with (because, yes, I do this), then I follow a recipe. I'll make substitutions based on available ingredients where I am because, let's be honest, I frequently have to do this anyway. If it's something I've had before and know generally speaking what's in it, then I'll follow the recipe sort of. If it's something I'm really familiar with or a cuisine I'm really familiar with, then I throw things together with abandon.
It's the familiarity that determines what I do.
As for most successful dish - that depends on the audience. For my Canadian family and other foreigners when they visit, Sri Lankan dishes that my mother in law taught me - curried chicken, roast chicken, chilli potatoes, pol sambol, gotukola sambol, tamarind fish curry, mustard chicken curry, and so on. But my Sri Lankan family prefers the Canadian/foreign stuff of mine - like brownies and Nanaimo bars (which they inhale, by the way). Because the Sri Lankans in my life can get Sri Lankan food anytime they want, so they prefer the novelty stuff. Which is also why the Canadians/other foreigners prefer the Sri Lankan stuff.
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