I told D that since I had MLK day off I would cook her anything she wanted to make up for the fact that she had to go to work, but she had to choose a new recipe. I was surprised when she chose a very healthy soup from Bon Apetit magazine. I mean, mini-meatballs with shredded zucchini and roasted poblano peppers in a beef broth with onions and more shredded zucchini? Mmm...that was right up my alley.
I roasted the poblano in the oven at 400 degrees for 45 minutes turning every 15 until it looked like a deflated balloon. The aroma was enough to reach my perma(thanks to my students)nantly clogged nose...mmmm, again. Roughly chopped it was added to ground turkey, along with shredded zucchini, grated onion, garlic, and Panko bread crumbs. I rolled them up into 1 inch balls of goodness. Mind out of the gutter please. They looked good enough to eat raw, so I did. Kidding kidding. Next up the broth. This is where it all went wrong...so wrong. I halved the recipe to begin with so of course I halved the spices in the broth too. Maybe I should have reduced them by about 95% because my nose was running while the broth was simmering across the kitchen. The recipe called for dried poblano pepper but I couldn't find that. I figured regular chile pepper would be a decent substitute. Apparently poblano pepper powder is powder for sissies because adding the same amount of chile powder to the broth created a flaming hot cauldron of taste bud destruction.
Now, anyone who knows me well knows that I can tolerate heat, both temperature and spiciness. I'm the guy that asks for the 4-alarm, skull and crossbones, wings of death and then asks for hotsauce. D on the other hand, not so much. I think if it was physically possible she would have melted my face with her firebreath. She was not happy and was definitely in some physical pain, which pained me, cause it was my fault. The really sad thing is that we could tell that aside from the nuclear burn, the soup tasted GOOD. The meat was tender, the broth had good flavor(until it killed you), and I wanted to like it. We even tried diluting it. I added TWICE the broth and it made it bearable for me but D was not even willing to go near it for fear of flashbacks.
Moral of the story as given to me by D and asked to all of the contestants of Top Chef whenever their food sucked? Did you taste your food while you were cooking? The answer? No, so it's better to add spice later because you definitely can't take it away. It's a good thing tastebuds are not like brain cells or else we both would be a bit dumber.
The moral is to taste your food while you are cooking it... don't wait until the end :P
ReplyDeleteAnd when adding heat or spices, add a little bit at a time