Learning culinary lessons, one garnish at a time

Lost for words, I have not been able to take the time to write about food in sometime. Yet, I find that somehow food has been incorporated into my daily life with or without will. I finally recognized that I do not have to be an expert at such definitions and subject matter to write about it, but reflecting on the pure joy of the action can provide the same, if not better, inspiration.

Garnish, my friends, is not just about the noun.....

gar·nish (gär'nĭsh) n.An embellishment added to a prepared food or drink for decoration or added flavor.

Source: (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/garnish)

....it is also about the verb:

gar·nish (gär'nĭsh) v. To decorate (prepared food or drink) with small colorful or savory items.

Source: (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/garnish)

You see, garnishes are not only placed strategically to make a dish look better, although I have to admit that was my first impression of a garnish, but garnishes may be added to give a dish a distinct flavor and bring it to the next level.

This weekend I experimented with two dishes, both of which are examples of my learning curve, but tasty nonetheless. Let's start with the first, the tasty 3 cheese lasagna. I chose a recipe that omitted the tomato element altogether, for a variety of reasons, one of which was the audience. The purpose in choosing the Italian favorite, was to expand the palette of the audience and to attempt to convince that all lasagnas are not the same. If that was the only mission, then I surely accomplished what I came to do. Alas, the victory was not all that victorious.

Substituting main ingredients make for heavy risks, and in this case it certainly did nothing for the dish. In fact, omitting the eggplant altogether instead of attempting to replace with ground beef would have been a wiser choice. The ground beef turned out quite bland even though it was cooked in a sea of red onion, garlic, and fresh basil. My audience and I decided that in order to give this dish what it needs to accomplish, then omitting the ground beef altogether would sensationalize the cheese to it's expectations. However, we have not yet given up adding meat to the dish. We also agreed that the spices in an Italian sausage would indeed complement the creaminess of the cheese and bring out the sweetness of the onions. The dish is not a failure, but yet a learning experience.

I must say that the garnishes used on this dish not only added small flecks of color, but also gave a zippy taste. Garnishes of choice: lemon zest and fresh basil.

Secondly, we tried a simple breakfast dish and "simple" is the perfect descriptor of it's taste. I was sorely disappointed in the lack of flavor in this dish. My audience and I decided right away it was missing something. Was it a garnish? Where the tomatoes and green onions enough to keep the audience's attention? Was it the brand of cheese that lacked flavor?

We decided that a variation of "all of the above" is the answer to the question. Several things could save this dish:

Cheese: Use Sharp cheddar and Monterray Jack instead of ColbyJack. Colby is too mild and gives hardly any flavor.

Eggs: Add flavor! The only spice in this dish was pepper. Clearly, this was not enough. We decided that adding a few dashes of dill not only perks up the eggs, but the tiny green flecks make a lovely garnish.

Hash browns: This was admittedly our mistake, but we used the square hash browns instead of the shredded. This will not happen again, as it made the dish quite starchy.

Filling substitution: The recipe called for "deli ham" and what we purchased really had zero flavor. I was disappointed that this could happen, but strangely enough I think bacon may be a better meat option for this dish.

Alas, we have lessons learned. Neither dish has been taken off our list, but simply critiqued for later improvements. We cannot give up on just one try. Because as we all know, chefs can, in fact, have bad days in the kitchen. As for garnishes: As a noun, we can learn what makes a great garnish and what doesn't, in aesthetics and in taste. As a verb, we can garnish our way to a tastier dish!

Here's to another educational culinary adventure. Cheers!