As the saying goes, "The beauty of a dish lies in its flavor, and the beauty of its flavor lies in its seasoning." With the right seasoning, a dish is a success; without it, it fails. This shows how crucial seasoning is to the quality of a dish. The deliciousness of a dish comes from both cooking and seasoning. Cooking is the process of turning raw ingredients into a dish through heating, while seasoning is the art of harmonizing ingredients and seasonings, using heat to eliminate undesirable flavors, enhance their natural umami, and increase the overall deliciousness of the dish. Cooking also has its own mathematical principles, and applying them wisely can elevate your dishes.
Borrowing Flavor from Other Foods
Adding flavor means introducing or borrowing flavors from other foods. While ingredients like tofu and various vegetables such as lettuce, potatoes, and wood ear mushrooms are highly nutritious, they are often avoided by many because they lack their own umami or have a very bland taste.
For these ingredients, we can use flavorful ingredients or seasonings to "add flavor," such as shiitake mushrooms, chicken broth, fermented black beans, minced garlic, fermented bean curd, shrimp roe, sesame paste, yellow bean paste, shrimp paste, oyster sauce, as well as oils infused with scallions, garlic, shiitake, star anise, chili, and Sichuan peppercorns. These can give vegetables and tofu a rich and savory flavor, as seen in dishes like Braised Bamboo Shoots with Shrimp Roe, Sesame Paste Smashed Eggplant, Stir-Fried Water Spinach with Fermented Bean Curd, and Oyster Sauce Lettuce. "Clay Pot Tofu" borrows the rich umami from chicken or meat broth. In "Moo Shu Pork," the wood ear mushrooms absorb the flavor from the meat and broth, creating a rich and enticing taste. Oils infused with scallions, garlic, shiitake, star anise, and Sichuan peppercorns are also great for "adding flavor," as in dishes like Shredded Potatoes with Chili Oil and Amaranth in Supreme Broth with Golden and Silver Garlic.
Removing Undesirable Flavors
Subtracting flavor means reducing or masking a food's taste. In contrast to ingredients that need added flavor, some have unpleasant tastes, such as the gamy smell of beef, lamb, seafood, and animal offal, or the slight astringency of vegetables like spinach, bamboo shoots, and bamboo fungus. These are difficult to eat if stir-fried or cooked directly.
For ingredients with a gamy smell, you can use the following methods to remove the odor: First, prepare the ingredients before cooking. For example, after scaling a fresh fish, rub it with dry flour, let it sit for a moment, then rinse it clean. This not only removes the fishy smell but also preserves its freshness. You can also blanch beef or ribs before stewing them. Second, use seasonings skillfully during cooking. Spices like Sichuan peppercorns, cinnamon, pepper, and star anise can react with the aldehydes and ketones that cause the gamy smell, reducing the odor and adding fragrance. This is commonly used for meats like pork and lamb. The fishy substances in seafood are often alkaline, so acidic lemon juice can neutralize them and remove the smell. Third, find good pairings. For example, white radish can reduce the gamy taste of lamb, tomato can mask the off-flavor of beef, and tofu can neutralize the fishy smell of fish.
Astringent vegetables often contain a high amount of oxalic acid. Blanching them before cooking will eliminate the unpleasant taste. Studies have shown that for vegetables like spinach and bamboo shoots, simply blanching them in boiling water can remove 40% to 70% of the oxalic acid.