Taste, good food, cooking

My block says, as it does every day, ‘Good Morning Diana; and what is it about you that you’d tale to us today’!

Well, I shall start with taste, good food and cooking. Perhaps a banal issue for most of my readers; and who could care when there are too many excellent cooks in the world, and tens of thousands, -should I dare to say millions, of tasty culinary creations that one finds in books, television shows, and served in restaurants; home-made, ethnic specialties, elaborated recipes of all colors and textures that contribute to our perception of food and eating habits; and, that endeavor to satisfy our palate.

So, when I discover cooking a few years back, I found that the activity is a kind of balm; a method for cooling the mind and passions sometimes we humans find difficult to keep in check; and that, visualizing and waiting for the end result, mouths water and lavished tastes and aromas mingle into a harmonious whole and to a pleasurable anticipation.

I am into ‘healthy meals’, I’d say; replacing butter to oil and incorporating lots of herbs and spices into fresh, and good quality ingredients that would refine taste; the secret of healthy, pleasurable food.  So, each time I cook my meals is like I perform small experiments in mixing elements, changing textures and picks in flavors, trying to transform simple food into ‘master chef’ dishes; and though my efforts are eatable, they don’t often carry the intended success!

I believe television and books encourage the mind to be fertile; whenever food programs are on TV, I am keen to watch great (and not so great), world-known chefs laboring in their kitchens. I am fascinated by the easiness with which they use the knife, cutting vegetables, carving meaty chunk into portions, and fast putting salads and dressings together while explaining the recipes. It seems a routine sub-activity to them, an easy-peasy, fast and clean necessity in cooking, compared to my own messy handling of the utensils and stuff. I struggle then to write it all down, and when I do I cannot read it afterwards.

So I am a fun of Gordon Ramsey and try not to miss any episode of his series; in particular the ones in which he cooks for and with each of his children. Then, it is that Jaimie Oliver, whose books and shows make cooking easy and I find always time to watch him performing. My next ‘must’ should be to get his book of ‘cooking with just five ingredients’ and feel the pleasure he gets when he tastes his own dishes, on TV.

I also adore Greek food; living in Greece, it seems natural to keep within the limits of a Mediterranean diet. Occasionally I’d post here a recipe or two from my preferred ones, fiddled a bit to make it lighter but without compromising the delight of the taste. As a start, I’d start with the ‘Greek Mousaka’, the way my beloved mother used to prepare it for her family.