Okay, so what’s your secret??

If I had a buck for every time I’ve been asked that question I could retire in style. I take it as a compliment not as an invitation to a long dialogue. So I always answer loudly, and somewhat facetiously, “MORE BUTTER!” It’s a good line and it always gets at least a chuckle, but there is more than a little truth in it. In reality I have no secrets, and I think that those who claim to have a ‘secret’ recipe or a ‘secret’ ingredient that they can’t or won’t tell you are jerks and very probably liars too. Virtually every good home cook or good chef I have met gladly shares any new thing they have discovered. When I come up with something new I’m on the email right away telling my chef pals all about it. More often than not it is something that some people have been doing for years. Almost every day I get email from someone telling me about something ‘new’. Almost any good cook/chef can taste and smell and see something new and ‘secret’ then go right home and duplicate it. There are exceptions though – I spent forever trying to make green chile before I knew what a tomatillo was and couldn’t do it. Then I tried for a long time to make a hot Swedish Christmas punch called ‘glug’ – I failed miserably because I had never heard of cardamom. And a person who doesn’t know what cumin is will play hell trying to duplicate any Tex-Mex dishes. I finally figured out how to fake ‘tomatillos’ but there’s no faking cumin or cardamom. So the next time someone tells you that it’s a secret recipe – just sneer derisively and mutter ‘right’. Maybe suggest they talk to someone about low self esteem and power trips. I usually just laugh and say “secret this!”

So, I don’t believe in ‘secrets’ but I know lots of ‘tricks’ that can make almost everything you cook taste better. Instead of recipes – I’m gonna use the next couple newsletters to give you some tricks. The first two ‘secret’ ingredients (tricks) I’m gonna deal with have the almost magical ability to make things better without giving any taste of their own. I guess that qualifies them as ‘secret’ ingredients and the first of these is chicken stock. Here’s everything I know about chicken stock: First, ignore the cook books and celebrity chefs that want to make this complicated. You don’t need to add herbs, spices, vegetables or anything else. Just chicken parts – (skin bones, necks, wings, backs, feet – pretty much every thing but at the feathers and the cluck-cluck) and water. You can even use left over cooked chicken or turkey carcasses. Bring it to a boil – then turn it down to a simmer. You can’t overcook it– just don’t let all the liquid boil away. You’ll probably get a funky gray foam collecting on top. Skim it off and give it to the dog. After a few hours – let it cool and strain it through a colander or strainer. If you’re some sort of food purist you can filter it through cheesecloth or a kitchen towel (I almost never do). Taste it! You’ll be surprised to find it tastes like dishwater and you’ll be convinced that you screwed up or I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. Don’t despair – just start adding salt and tasting - pretty soon your dishwater has turned into a wonderfully rich chicken broth. If you were to now add some cubed chicken, vegetables, some chopped parsley, a little garlic and a bay leaf you would have a wonderful chicken soup. If on the other hand you were to add a whole bunch of sea food you would NOT have a chicken soup with fish in it – you would have instead a wonderful, rich Caldo de Mariscos (sea food soup). Whenever I make stock at home I freeze a bunch in plastic containers or even in plastic bags. WARNING!! Frozen chicken stock looks just like frozen lemon or lime juice. So be careful if you don’t want some strange lemonade or really sour soup. I use chicken stock in almost everything, spaghetti sauce, bouillabaisse, soups, beef stew, moles (mo-lays), cooked salsas, even in chili and no one has ever said “ hey, this beef stew tastes like chicken” Nope, they ask “what’s your secret”? One more thing -- then it’s on to ‘secret’ (trick) number two. We use so many chicken breasts at the restaurant we always have the fresh bones to make stock, but I know making stock at home can be a pain in the butt. Canned stock is now available in almost every market. It’s all pretty good but some of it is pretty salty. So, be careful about adding salt if you used canned. Don’t use the powdered chicken soup stuff because it tastes like powdered chicken soup stuff.

Secret number two is – you guessed it – MORE BUTTER!! I add some butter to everything I saute or fry. No matter what kind of oil I’m using I add a little butter. Something especially nice happens to olive oil when you add butter. That’s no big news I’m sure. What might surprise you is that I toss some butter on almost everything else too. For instance: my cooks make bouillabaisse most everyday at the restaurant and I trudge into the kitchen to taste it. If they added butter I can’t taste it, but if they forgot the butter I can tell. Same with spaghetti sauce stir in a chunk of butter it doesn’t change the taste but it makes it better. I throw some butter in all soups, stews, chowders, chile, even into my red beans and rice. Here’s an easy way to check these tips out. The next time anyone in your house makes spaghetti sauce or even if you use a jar of store bought use chicken stock as part or all of the liquid and stir in some butter when It’s finished cooking – don’t change anything else, make it the same way you always do, it will taste the same as usual –only better. Another easy experiment is to make a can of Campbell’s tomato soup the same way your mom did when you were a kid home from school with a cold. Then stir in a pat of butter and a pinch of tarragon, but you gotta promise not to tell anyone I said to use canned soup. Next time you cook a steak, when it’s done – brush a little melted butter on it. It makes the steak look all nice and shiny and no one will taste the butter but they will all ask ” hey, what’s your secret?” Just smile and tell them ……………..‘MORE BUTTTER!’

Okay one more secret (trick) then I gotta go do my nails. Most every one uses chopped parsley as a garnish. What lot of people don’t know is that chopped parsley is one of those ingredients that makes things better without changing the taste. I throw a handful of chopped fresh parsley in whenever I’m sautéing stuff for a stew, or soup, or beans or Italian stuff or especially Cajun dishes.

That’s all for now. If you try any of this stuff, let me know how it works out.

Spencer