An Introduction, and Proof That Food Doesn't Have to Be Complicated to Be Good
Let me introduce myself, and show you the power of simplicity with a 20 minute preparation of salmon and asparagus to teach you broiling, balance, and how proper seasoning can go a long way
If you don't know me, hi! I'm Ben.
I've loved food ever since I could eat, and have always had a deep curiosity for all things food and cooking. I have been cooking for about sixteen years, and in the last six years I have really stepped up my game. I have run pop-ups, led the catering of multiple 100+ person events, and cooked mountains of delicious food for myself, friends, and family. Every day, I voraciously consume cooking and food information in the form of videos, articles, and food at my favorite restaurants. By now you probably get it. I like food and I can’t help but tell you all about it. So, I’m spilling my brains and sharing the ever-evolving cooking system that has emerged out of my experiences.
Enter: this newsletter.
I’ll save you time and trouble sorting through hundreds of articles and videos, and put you on a fast track to consistently creating food you’ll love. This newsletter distills the most useful and important nuggets of information to help you grow into a cooking guru. You’ll impress yourself and your friends with the dishes you create and your knowledge of ingredients, historical and cultural context, and more.
This newsletter is an experiment, and as such is ever-evolving. I appreciate your feedback in the form of comments, emails, DMs, and any other form of communication. If you feel like something really helped you, or clicked for you, let me know. If you feel like something was confusing, there was too much information, or have general criticism, let me know! I view feedback as a gift, and I would love to receive it.
Currently, I'm formatting this newsletter to include a link to a 30-minute simple recipe, and a comprehensive explanation of techniques, habits, ingredients, concepts, and context (THICCs) present in the dish. THICCs (lol) for me are the foundation of any food.
Okay, now let’s apply those THICCs. This week we are broiling up some salmon (or maitake mushrooms) and asparagus.
Get the recipe:
Broiled Salmon or (V) Maitake Mushrooms and Asparagus
Come and cook it with us on Wednesday, March 3rd at 6pm PST (add to calendar)!
Keep in mind that this recipe is written as I like to eat it. If you want to put a spin on it in any way, I encourage you to do so. Once again, there are no rules here, and if you mess things up, it’s going to be fine! I mess up all the time while cooking, and I usually walk away from it with a decent dinner and lessons learned.
Now, let's get THICC. In case you forgot, THICC stands for techniques, habits, ingredients, concepts, and context.
I know there is a lot of information here, and I want this to serve as a reference you continue to revisit, so read as few or as many THICCs as you'd like, and feel free to skip to the recipe.
Basic focus:
broiling (technique) - Broiling is the process of placing food under an intense heat source like an open flame or a Salamander if you’re fancy. This is useful for cooking ingredients that cook quickly, or to finish a dish with a blast of heat (e.g. melting and browning some cheese). In this application, asparagus and salmon cook to a tender texture on the inside, while developing a slight crust on the outside. You probably don’t want to broil ingredients whose outside layer will burn before the inside cooks. For example, I wouldn’t put a potato cut in half directly into a broiler, I would first boil or steam it, then put it under the broiler to crisp up the surface. If I were to put a raw potato into the broiler I’d end up burning the outside while leaving the inside undercooked.
wash your hands (habit) - You’re touching food then eating it; wash your hands to make sure they are clean so your food isn’t contaminated.
salt (ingredient) - Salt is important in savory dishes to bring flavor out from ingredients. When cooking, always make sure you are properly salting your food.
black pepper (ingredient) - Pepper is a widespread spice used in a lot of cuisines, and lives on tables in many (not all) countries right beside salt. Pepper introduces a subtle and fruity, while simultaneously bold flavor, and is said to compliment a large array of ingredients and flavors. Caitlin Penzeymoog wrote this wildly in-depth article about the history of pepper and its different varietals.
olive oil (ingredient) - Olive oil provides a floral and fruity aroma and can range from spicy to grassy. It has a low smoke point (320ºF - 405ºF), so it would burn on a very high temperature pan, but it’s fine for most applications if you want the olive oil flavor. Legend has it olive oil runs through my veins.
seasoning (concept) - Add enough salt to most things, and they will be delicious. Properly seasoning food lets the ingredients speak for themselves. You can also season with MSG, sugar, and other flavor enhancers including spices.
Intermediate focus:
trimming, peeling (technique) - Some ingredients have less desirable parts; they may introduce a tough and stringy texture, bitter flavor, and even can be poisonous. Trimming and peeling these bits is often crucial for a good end product. In this recipe, we remove the bottom few inches of the asparagus stalk, and have the option to peel the stringy, cellulose-laden exterior to make it more tender.
clean as you go (habit) - When you have downtime (e.g. waiting for your food to cook), you can get a jump on cleaning up your workspace to save time and counter space. Washing your dishes and cleaning your space as you cook will reduce stress and time spent on the dish.
salmon (ingredient) - Salmon is an iconic fish known for its fatty and rich meat, and its light pink color. Fattier cuts of salmon are a bit more forgiving and can withstand a few more degrees than a leaner cut before becoming dry, but generally I like to air on the side of caution when cooking salmon and cook it to a nice and moist medium rare. A guide to pan-searing salmon can be found here and is cited throughout this article. This article also serves as a comprehensive guide to cooking salmon, but uses sous vide as the main cooking technique.
maitake mushroom (ingredient) - Maitake mushrooms (a.k.a. hen-of-the-woods) are a meaty and ridge-filled mushroom that have a strong and delicious natural flavor. I like to sear, roast, and broil them to transform all of those ridges into crispy, flavorful bits. Mushrooms generally are porous and absorb a lot of oil, so to avoid oil-logged mushrooms, go light on the oil, or use a method like this one where you can reduce the oil absorption by precooking the mushrooms.
salt (ingredient) - Salt draws moisture out of food through osmosis. Putting salt on an ingredient will dehydrate it, starting with the surface. This is useful when trying to create a crust or do anything that is impeded by moisture. For example, salting a ribeye steak and leaving it overnight will result in a more intense crisp because the Maillard reaction can occur more immediately without water having to boil off first. Joe Rosenthal expands on this in his article How to Steak.
Maillard reaction, browning (concept) - The Maillard reaction “is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavor.” Our salmon will develop a light brown crust when broiled due to the Maillard reaction. It’s important to note that caramelization ≠ the Maillard reaction. “Caramelization may sometimes cause browning in the same foods in which the Maillard reaction occurs, but the two processes are distinct. They are both promoted by heating, but the Maillard reaction involves amino acids, whereas caramelization is the pyrolysis of certain sugars.”
balance (concept) - Balance as a term is self-explanatory, but achieving it isn’t always so easy. Understanding how to balance certain elements will help you achieve harmony when cooking. In this dish, the rich fattiness of salmon and olive oil is balanced by acidic and bright lemon juice. In other dishes, heat from chilis can be balanced by sugar, bitterness with salt, and soft/mushy textures with crunch.
tenderness, texture (concept) - The texture of food is one of the most important concepts. When I’m trying to achieve a certain feeling or objective with a dish, texture plays a big part in informing the decisions I make around how to cook the ingredients. Texture is highly preferential; however, I believe certain ingredients can shine more brightly when prepared in certain ways. For example, I like my salmon tender and juicy. You might like it tough and dry, and that’s fine! Make sure to overcook your salmon to achieve those results (I’m not even being sarcastic, you do you).
water content (concept) - Water is a core component of most food we eat. It affects almost every other concept and characteristic of our food. Too much water in our pork skin and we can’t get that sheet of crackly crunchy goodness, too little water in our salmon due to overcooking will result in a tough and dry texture (when proteins are heated, fat and water are rendered, causing a dry texture). Pay attention to water-related details as you cook.
Advanced focus:
cutting citrus wedges (technique) - A Thai technique of cutting the lime around the core ensures the lime wedges are easy to squeeze, and results in more juice yield.
stable cutting area (habit) - Making sure your cutting surface is stable and doesn’t slip gives you more control over your cuts, and helps prevent accidents. Ingredients which are naturally unstable (e.g. spherical) can be stabilized by creating a flat surface to place face down on the cutting board. For example, when cutting an onion, slice it in half along the root to get two stable halves instead of trying to cut a rolling ball.
organized workspace (habit) - Keeping your workspace organized will make cooking feel less awkward, less stressful, and will have you feeling more effective and efficient. Some examples include pulling out all of my ingredients before starting to prep.
visualization (habit) - For operational efficiency and efficacy, visualizing the operations of a recipe allows you to catch mistakes before you make them, and ensures you have a bit of foresight into what you’ll need at certain points while cooking.
taste as you go (habit) - Tasting as you cook is like driving with your eyes open, it allows you to adjust seasoning, recover an imbalance, and so much more. You wouldn’t drive with your eyes closed, so don’t cook without tasting as you go. If I’m cooking for people other than myself, I like to have a couple of spoons or forks out for tasting so I don’t cross contaminate.
olive oil (ingredient) - Something to consider: olive oil when blended into water, such as in an emulsion like pasta sauce, can increase the taste of bitterness because polyphenols, a bitter antioxidant present in olive oil, are pulled out of the oil. Keep this in mind if you decide to follow the extension of the recipe where I mix some olive oil into ricotta. You can read Daniel Gritzer’s article to understand this better.
overcrowding (concept) - Putting too much food on a tray or pan, especially when trying to caramelize or brown it, can result in steaming the food instead of getting the high heat cooking you want. Make sure to space your food out, and cook in batches if necessary. In this case, make sure the asparagus has space between pieces so more hot air can make contact with the exterior of the asparagus.
insulators (concept) - Some ingredients have insulating properties that slow the spread of heat to other parts of the food. The Serious Eats article on pan fried salmon referenced earlier explains that “[Subcutaneous fat] serves both as an energy store for the fish, and as a means of insulating its body from the large temperature changes between ocean waters and the rivers is swims to during spawning season.” Salmon skin and subcutaneous fat provides a protective barrier that shields the meat from being overcooked when pan fried skin side down, or broiled skin side up.
sizing (concept) - Size matters. A filet of salmon that has a gradient from thick to thin will also have a gradient of doneness. The thinner part of the salmon will cook faster than the thick part. There is almost an identical amount of surface area for heat to make contact with the food, while there might be two times less fish to cook in terms of volume. Similarly, the base of the asparagus stalks will take longer to cook than the tips.
caramelization (concept) - When cooking certain ingredients, polysaccharides (a.k.a. complex carbohydrates) will break down into sugars, brown, and eventually burn. This brings out a natural sweetness and a deep flavor. In this recipe, we caramelize/brown the asparagus to deepen the flavor.
fat content (concept) - Ingredients with a higher fat content (and often more connective tissue) will be more forgiving and won’t overcook as easily as leaner ingredients. Although fat is rendered out through the cooking process, a good portion of the fat sticks around and provides moisture alongside the protein. In this context, certain varieties of salmon will stay moist longer than others due to higher fat content.
Clearly, what on the surface appears to be a simple dish, is actually packed with the techniques, habits, ingredients, concepts, and context that make it so damn tasty. Understanding these THICCs will help you build self-confidence in the kitchen, and just as importantly, mouthwatering food.
Next week, we’re playing with fire and eating with our hands. Stay tuned.