Get Your Grill On

I’m itching to dust off my WSM and do some outdoor cooking, but in the suburbs of Boston, that’s not a possibility right now. Cold weather in March doesn’t mean that I can’t start working toward what will hit the smoker in April.

I’ve been flipping through some of my favorite cookbooks, looking for things I’d like to try. When I see a recipe, I usually think of ways to improve it, like adding ingredients, deleting ingredients, or altering the ratios to emphasize a favorite flavor more. As I look through lists of ingredients, I see some that are lovers, others that are good friends and some that are only mere acquaintances. A good example of the last group is thyme: I’ve used it in dozens of different recipes, but it’s always a bit player, never a star. Until last night.

A quick disclaimer: I hate Sandra Lee and her Food TV show Semi Homemade. Taking a cake by Sara Lee and adding a slightly-doctored store-bought frosting doesn’t give you the right to call it Sandra Lee. I say this only because what I’m about to describe sounds a little like Sandra Lee.

As I was about to say, flavor bootcamp started last night. I took an ordinary can of soup and microwaved it as usual, but this time with a heaping tablespoon of thyme. For a canned soup, it was fantastic, but that’s not the point. The point is that thyme and I are getting to know each other a lot better. And that I didn’t let a meal go by without learning something.

Did you ever see an episode of Top Chef where the contestants must taste and identify various foods blindfolded? Most of them have a hard time, and when a trained culinary student or aspiring chef can’t score a hundred, I don’t have to feel ashamed either. My next drill: distinguishing between basil and sage. The more I learn the different flavors that are available to me, the better job I’ll do when interpreting existing recipes and creating my own.