How to Read a Recipe

During the summer I had a chance to go down to Disney World and while there stopped in at a Cuban restaurant and had the most delicious deep-fried stuffed mashed potatoes. I had never been exposed to Cuban food specifically and decided there that I would learn this recipe and master it.

It has been about six months since my trip and I have tried this recipe on my own three times now and am really getting the hang of it. Each time they come out better than the last, and I am slowly creating my own recipe from the ones that I initially found.

So for you, the new cook... I think it's important that you see how this process works and how a more experienced cook looks at a recipe and learns how to cook something completely new. Becoming comfortable with this process is as important as learning techniques in the kitchen!

So after a week or two after getting back from my trip it came about that I was going to be spending a Saturday all by myself at home, and I wanted something to do with myself.

To someone completely inexperienced in the kitchen cooking looks like a lot of work, but to me it's a nice way to spend a day at home relaxing, working on my computer, and having a few drinks. So, as it were, I found myself having no idea how to make the recipe I wanted to cook and staring at the Google screen you see above.

I had no idea which one of these recipes were the best, or the most authentic, or the most like the ones I had on my vacation! After a little clicking around this is what I was confronted with:

http://www.tasteofcuba.com/cuban-papas-rellenas.html

http://www.thecandidappetite.com/2012/08/03/cuban-potato-balls-papas-rellenas/

http://icuban.com/food/papas.html

Three different recipes! Three different ingredient sets! Three different styles!

"I like different parts of each one! I don't want to make their recipes, I want to make the one I remember eating! The one I ate definitely had olives... but two of these recipes do not. Does that mean I should ignore them and focus only on the one that does? Wait... what's this? One of them has capers and raisins? The ones I ate definitely didn't have capers or raisins, but that sounds good..."

So right here, this is lesson number one: When you look at a recipe the first thing you do is look at the ingredients. Look up a couple different recipes and see how they differ... what do you think sounds better?

Next, you want to look at techniques. One of these recipes called for mixing egg yolks into the mashed potatoes. I've never tried that before. It sounded interesting.

Another recipe called for adding a splash of the brine from the olives to the meat.

And so on... find a few recipes that you like and compare them. See how they're different and pick the method that you desire. Unknowingly what you are doing here is making yourself familiar with the technique that you will be using. If you're going to use olives, do they get added before or after you add the onions? If Recipe #1 has olives but not onions, and Recipe #2 has onions but no olives, and if you want to incorporate both olives and onions then what are you going to do? Answer: Read the recipes, see how the onions are cooked, see how the olives are cooked, and then pick make up your mind! The worst case is that you're wrong and you learn something and improve it the next time around.

Once you know the ingredients and have a game plan for the technique the rest is easy! This is what I was left with after looking at the different recipes:

With that I was ready to go grocery shopping and get ready to start cooking!

Equipment

A lot of inexperienced cooks believe that they are prevented from a wide range of recipes because they lack the proper equipment in the kitchen. This is nonsense! My lifestyle has demanded that I move around quite a bit over the last decade of my life and the result is that I've never invested in any equipment that I would ever take with me. Each new city means an entirely new set of equipment. Having quality equipment is important, and desirable, it makes your job in the kitchen much easier to accomplish, but you can still do so much with very little.


Below you will find the essentials that you will need for any recipe found here:

1. A cutting board. This is one of the few items on this list where you will really see a difference between a cheap one and a proper one. Get something large enough to work on, and then a smaller cheap one.
2. A proper kitchen knife. Ideally two. It doesn't have to be expensive.
3. A knife sharpener.
4. A measuring cup, and measuring spoons
5. Three or four wooden spoons
6. A deep plastic ladle
7. A spatula
8. Tongs
9. A large heavy skillet
10. A lighter non-stick frying pan
11. Large stock pot
12. Medium stock pot
13. Small stock pot
14. Several baking trays
15. Large glass bowl
16. One large plastic bowl, and several smaller ones
17. A whisk
18. A colander
19. A wooden kitchen mallet
20. A potato masher
21. A vegetable peeler
22. A can opener
23. Cooking gloves or hot-pads

Couple of points:

• Don't fret! You can find just about all of this for under $100, or even much cheaper if you stop by a second hand shop.
• You do not need all of these for every recipe. You can acquire what you need to start and then add to it over time.
• Luxury items like mixers, garlic presses, and food processors are worthwhile investments once you have the bare essentials covered and you know you enjoy cooking!