my boyfriend cooks for me: the secret ingredient is maple syrup

Saturday, February 6, 2010

the secret ingredient is maple syrup

My boyfriend's favorite ingredient to add to just about anything is maple syrup. He finds that it is the best way to insert a little sweetness without getting overly sweet, and it also has more depth of flavor than some other sweeteners.

Last weekend in an undocumented meal, my boyfriend made an incredible marinade for shrimp, and what was even more incredible was how easy it was to make: All he did was take salsa verde and add - what else - maple syrup. This made the perfect sweet-heat combination that was actually very reminiscent of some Chinese or Thai dishes. (Yeah, apparently Mexican + Canadian = Asian!). But seriously, this marinade was super-easy to make (we just combined two store-bought ingredients), but the flavor was really interesting and complex (and more importantly delicious). I would highly recommend trying it.

Tonight my boyfriend took the same marinade concept but turned it into a sauce/glaze. He also added cheese to the mix, which really emphasized the Mexican side of the flavors.

Roasted chicken with a salsa verde, maple syrup and cheddar cheese glaze

Black beans

Cherry tomatoes

Corn chips

Rice

1 comment:

KarlyFebruary 8, 2010 at 2:12 PM
Salsa verde and maple syrup...I never would have thought to combine the two!
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About Us

My boyfriend loves to cook and is very creative in the kitchen. Although the internet is often consulted, he doesn't use recipes. He does most (ok, just about all) of the "heavy lifting" documented here. He also happens to be an amazing artist - which may contribute to his excellent food plating and presentation - so check out his art store on Etsy (and see some samples at the bottom of the page).

I perform important tasks (mainly peeling and chopping onions) and provide ideas gleaned from hours of reading food blogs, recipes and menus online, as well as gentle suggestions (i.e. "Isn't the [ingredient] going to go bad soon? Maybe we should use [ingredient] tonight..."). I am also Head Photographer and Blogmaster.

About Our Blog

In an article in the New York Times Michael Pollan said that we spend more time watching "sport" cooking shows than we do actually cooking. And he said this like it is a bad thing. We hope that this blog proves that these shows, while not explicitly instructive, can be a wonderful inspiration.

Of course no one has the time or resources to cook like an Iron Chef all the time. Sometimes we decide to be adventurous and try more elaborate dishes, but generally we want to show that it isn't difficult to put together interesting, creative, and healthy meals any night of the week. We don't make a weekly plan, we don't decide what to make and then go get ingredients. We buy random fun and interesting things that catch our eye at the grocery store, and then figure out how we can use them.

So don't look here for recipes (for the most part the description of what we ate is all there is to it - "mashed turnip with horseradish" is mashed turnip with horseradish!), look here for everyday ideas and inspiration.

Aphorisms from the Professor: Brillat-Savarin

Saturday, February 6, 2010

the secret ingredient is maple syrup

1 comment: