Zest


One of the funnest things about cooking dishes with a lot of ingredients is being able to ask the eaters if they can taste the secret ingredient (or two) that you've put in there.  As a novice cook, I've 'put in' all kinds of secret duds over the years, or secrets like, say, capers, that probably should have been withheld in the first place, seeing as my own audience is almost all kids under 15.  But then sometimes you get one right, and what you just cooked yourself has that same wonderful and complex flavor that you hear the Food Network judges so often articulate in shows like Chopped or Iron Chef.  I had been reading a book called Ruhlman's Twenty: 20 Techniques, 100 Recipes, A Cook's Manifesto two nights ago in the chapter called Acid: The Power of Contrast, in which he elaborates on the point that acidic liquids like citrus juices, vinegars and mustards, although often overlooked as primary seasoning techniques, are actually second only to salt in enhancing taste in ingredients, and should be staples close at hand.  He said the first of importance, "by a good mile or so," is lemon juice.  The next day I decided I wanted to make some Boboli home made pizzas, and happened to find a recipe in one of Bobbie Flay's cookbooks Bar Americain.

This recipe was to be bacon, parsley, some gruyure cheese, caramelized onions, and garlic on handmade dough.  It looked excellent, but I wanted to add a few of my own ingredients to a pizza and ended up putting-in thick smoked bacon, baby portobello mushrooms sauteed in garlic along with chopped red peppers, a bit of broccoli for coarse texture, parsley, gruyere and mozzeralla cheeses, plus one secret ingredient.  At first, Jan guessed the parsley, then the gruyure.  Not quite.  What was that final 'spring' of taste you get when you bite down into the pizza? Something, something that added a splash of flavor.  If you look closely on the surface of the pizza above, and on the pizza we made, it is the shavings of lemon zest that added that extra something

Ruhlman goes on to say, "More foods than not are elevated with the addition of lemon juice.  Always have a lemon on hand.  Salt, onion, lemon – a kitchen without these items is handicapped."  All of this, to me, would make for a defense for creating and enjoying complex foods as long as ingredients don't become garbled.  Most of what we cook could use heightening by contrast.  Deep smoky bacon.  Lemon zest.