Chapter 6
Edible Artistry: Garnishes to Prettify Your Plate
In This Chapter
Understanding the basics of garnishing
Discovering garnishing’s rules and tools
Making your own garnishes
Recipes in This Chapter
Tomato Rose
Apple Wings
Cucumber Fan
Green Onion Brushes
Chili Pepper Flowers
N o matter how much my wife fusses over choosing my shirt, my jacket, and the right pair of pants, I’d always feel underdressed if I left home without a watch. And I think the same applies to my dinner. Now I’m not suggesting that you buy your roast chicken a Rolex (although a timer for your egg isn’t a bad idea). But just as the right accessory completes an ensemble, the right garnish goes a long way in transforming a simple dish into a memorable culinary masterpiece.
Chinese cooking is judged by four elements: color, smell, texture, and taste. Long before your guests take their first bite, they dine with their eyes and their noses, and few things get mouths watering faster than a dish that’s a feast for those senses. Enter the garnish. Like a snazzy silver belt buckle, the proper garnish — and “proper” can mean anything from a smattering of sesame seeds to a pineapple carved to resemble a fishing boat — gives a dish that “special something.” And although carving elaborate pagodas from carrots may be a task for the truly gifted, the everyday home cook can master plenty of simple yet elegant garnishes with a little practice.
Remember, a naked chef may be entertaining, but never a naked dish. Garnish it!
From the Simple to the Sublime: Garnishes that Run the Gamut
Among other things, Chinese imperial cuisine is famous for its beautiful and elaborate garnishes — each a miniature food sculpture in its own right. But not all garnishes have to take on such a grand scale. If you’re interested in injecting some garnishing flair into your next dinner party, you’d do well to adopt a start-small philosophy. Take heart in knowing that many of the most attractive ways to adorn your plate don’t require years of apprenticeship in a sculptor’s studio.
The basics
At the most basic level, a garnish can be as simple as one of the dish’s component ingredients scattered strategically atop the plate. Here are just a few examples of quick and easy eye-pleasers:
A sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds
Rings of sliced green onion
Sprigs of fresh cilantro
Thin, half-moon slices of citrus fruit, tomato, or cucumber
Nests or puffs of fried bean thread noodles
A bed of shredded lettuce or fresh iceberg lettuce-leaf “cups”
Deep-fried strips of wonton skins
Mint and basil leaves
A tomato cut into six or eight wedges
Let this short list get your mental garnishing-gears turning. Just take a look around your stash of ingredients the next time you’re in the kitchen. I’d bet that you can find the perfect edible accessory, ready for service, right in front of you. It’s really that simple.
The high end
But as much as I enjoy the simplicity — and appreciate the ease — of these subtle plate decorations, I must pay homage to the high end of the spectrum by telling you about the handiwork of the imperial artists/chefs. To call these sculptors merely gifted is to call the Great Wall just a stack of old bricks.
Garnishing was a specialty in the imperial kitchen. Chefs who are trained in this time-honored craft still often decorate hollow winter melons with bas-relief designs, creating bowls and soup tureens whose iridescent, closely shaved rinds make them look like pearly, glowing lanterns. And a gifted food sculptor can do truly amazing things with a carrot! I’ve seen carrot horses, fish, eagles, and dragons, each carved to the last anatomically precise detail.
Needless to say, these are handiworks of culinary professionals. So please, don’t try them at home — unless, of course, you crave the frustration of attempting to turn a clove of garlic into a blossoming magnolia. But you may want to test your mettle with some garnishes that go beyond simply scattered sesame seeds or an artfully placed orange wedge. If so, just head to the next section for tips and how-to’s to make completely doable garnishes that turn eating into an aesthetic journey.
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Figure 6-1: Some examples of the edible art of the Chinese garnish. |
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Preparing to Pare: Principles for Successful Garnishing
Before packing your bags for seven years of garnishing school, take a good look through this chapter. The garnishes here are easy enough for the all-thumbs crowd to tackle, yet deceptively impressive enough for the most discerning and sophisticated audience. I like to think of them as the garnishing equivalents of designer accessory knockoffs!
Garnishing 1-2-3s
It’s tempting for your imagination to write checks that your garnishing know-how can’t cash. Therefore, start slowly, familiarizing yourself with the basic garnishing principles before venturing out into more complicated terrain. Here are a few simple rules that will let you pull off a garnishing feat without going overboard:
A garnish should complement the dish it decorates. This is why a simple ingredient from the recipe often provides the best enhancement. Chinese cuisine prides itself in balancing appearance with aroma and flavor; hence, the most attractive garnish may still be unsuitable if it clashes with the dish’s other sensory attributes.
A garnish works its magic by way of contrast. What’s the use of having a garnish if it blends right into the main dish? A camouflaged garnish doesn’t do much for the balanced yin-yang aspect of the presentation. By contrasting textures and colors, you’ll not only bring the dish’s elements into sharper focus but also make it a more satisfying sensory experience at the same time.
The home cook’s most foolproof garnishing choices are the simplest. Don’t get carried away. It’s “garnish,” not “garish.” Overindulging in complicated garnishes or using too much of the same garnish will only detract from, not enhance, the dish. You don’t want your guests to wonder what, exactly, they’re supposed to eat. So don’t get carried away.
Don’t use the same garnish over and over in the same meal. For one thing, a single garnish probably won’t “match” every single dish; for another, it won’t make an impact if you overuse it. Remember that you don’t have to garnish every plate.
All garnishes have to be edible. Here’s where I put my foot down. No aluminum foil, no twigs, no matchsticks, and no Barbie dolls — unless they’re made of sugar. (Flowers? Fine, but only so long as they’re edible. Ask your florist which ones haven’t been sprayed and are safe to eat.)
After you’ve taken all the previous suggestions to heart, the most important guideline is to be creative and have fun. You’re going to need patience and practice, but after a while, you’ll develop the necessary carving proficiency and stealthy garnish-seeking sense. Before you know it, you’ll be spotting potential pagodas where, before, you only saw potatoes.
Preparation issues
Every trade has its tools, and garnishing is no exception. A custom-made, professional garnishing kit in China is a real bag of tricks. It includes cleavers, scoops, chisels, scalpels, scrapers, and plenty of other pieces of equipment that seem more suitable for a surgical bag than a kitchen cupboard. But as good news to all you amateur garnishers, you have it much easier than the pros in China. To create the garnishes in this book, you need only a few common utensils that you probably have in your kitchen already. Check out this list to find out.
A Chinese chef’s knife works well for some of the less delicate garnishes.
Paring knives or kitchen scissors make quick and safe work of the precise cuts that smaller garnishes require.
Small metal cookie cutters in any shape you like easily cut figures out of sturdy vegetables; choose cutters about 1 to 2 inches in diameter, or no bigger than the diameter of a wide carrot or cucumber.
Bamboo skewers or toothpicks poke eyeholes into animal-shaped garnishes. (The tip of your paring knife works well in a pinch.)
For garnishes that need soaking, have a medium bowl of ice water at the ready.
Your sharp knives deserve only the firmest, freshest, most colorful foods on which to work their garnishing magic. Rotten tomatoes don’t make very perky tomato roses. Be picky when selecting produce for garnishes. Also, to keep items such as apples, potatoes, and pears from browning after you carve them, soak them in a bowl of ice water with a squirt of lemon juice before you start carving them.
And if you’ve reached the end of the meal and no one has dared eat your stunningly lifelike garnishes, save them, sealed safely in a zippered plastic bag, for the next dinner party. Just refresh them in a bowl of ice water for about 10 minutes if they look a little tired.
Getting Down to Business: The Garnishes
In this section, you find the instructions for making a few of my favorite simple yet elegant garnishes. All of them are easy enough for anyone with even rudimentary knife skills, and the necessary equipment is probably already in your kitchen drawers. Go ahead and impress your guests with your creations.
Tomato Rose
This one’s a real classic. Practically everyone has at some point had one dish or another decorated with a delicate tomato rose. Now you can make as many as you’d like, yourself.
What you’ll need: Sharp paring knife; firm, ripe tomato of your choice
1 With a paring knife, begin slicing a paper-thin piece of the tomato’s skin, 3/4 inches wide, at the nonstem end of the tomato, as shown in Figure 6-2. Continue to slice in a circle around the tomato until you have one long strip.
2 Holding the nonstem end of the strip, curl it up to form a small pistil. Continue to curl the rest of the strip into a circle to form the shape of a rose (see Figure 6-2).
Remember: Use a ripe yet firm tomato to get a rose with the ideal form and shape. Roma tomatoes make attractive smaller rosebuds, while large or beefsteak tomatoes make the best fully bloomed roses.
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Figure 6-2: Making a flower out of a tomato. |
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Apple Wings
This is a simple way to turn an apple — a firm, unblemished, red one is best, such as a Macintosh, Red Delicious, or Rome apple — into a spectacular three-dimensional plate decoration.
What you’ll need: Sharp paring knife; firm, clean, red apple; 2 cups water mixed with juice of half a lemon
1 Cut an apple in half and place the two halves on a cutting board.
2 On each half, make two diagonal cuts, angling the knife inward to cut out a small wedge (see Figure 6-3). Carefully place the wedge in a bowl of 2 cups water mixed with the juice of half a lemon to prevent discoloration.
3 Cut out four more wedges, each 1/4 inch wider than the previous one, using the same technique as noted in Step 3. Place each in the water-juice mixture.
4 Remove the wedges from the water-juice mixture and reassemble them in their original order, stacking the smaller wedges atop the larger ones, as shown in Figure 6-3.
5 With your thumb, gently press the edges of the stacked wedges to spread them out and form the layers of “feathers” in the wing, as shown in Figure 6-3.
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Figure 6-3: Making a wing out of an apple. |
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Carving out a niche: Garnishes in Chinese cuisine
To appreciate fully the importance of garnishes in Chinese cuisine, we need to understand the dichotomy that is ever-present in Chinese culture. China is full of contrasts — between the ancient and the modern, Confucianism and Communism, and, of course, between yin and yang. But instead of conflicts, these contrasts actually create balance, and this intricate balance has kept Chinese life and cuisine interesting for thousands of years.
The Chinese attitude toward visual presentation of food reflects that contrast. From modest homecooked meals to elaborately garnished banquet dishes, the basic philosophy of garnishing remains the same: Contrasts create balance, and balance brings beauty.
Cucumber Fan
This elegant garnish echoes graceful folding fans — classic artistic elements in Chinese culture. Make sure to use English or pickling cucumbers for these garnishes because they’re firmer and have smaller seeds.
What you’ll need: Sharp paring knife (or Chinese chef’s knife if you have sharp knife skills); firm cucumber with few, small seeds, or seedless cucumber
1 Cut a cucumber in half lengthwise. Cut off the ends.
2 Trim off the sides of the cucumber halves to give each one a rectangular shape, as shown in Figure 6-4.
3 Make thin slices, about 1/8 inch wide, from the top of the cucumber to the bottom. Do not cut all the way through both ends of the cucumber, but rather leave one end intact so it forms a “hinge” that holds the cucumber fan together (see Figure 6-4).
4 Push down on the hinge end with your fingers to fan out the slices. Or, alternatively, fold every other slice inward to form a fan pattern. Both options are shown in Figure 6-4.
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Figure 6-4: Step-by-step instructions for making a cucumber fan. |
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Green Onion Brushes
I love the sense of whimsy that these little brushes add to a dish. Make single or double brushes as directed and mix them up among the dishes in a meal.
What you’ll need: Sharp paring knife; green onion; strip of green part of green onion, blanched to soften slightly and tied into a ring (optional); bowl of ice water
1 Trim the root end and green tops on the green onion, as shown in Figure 6-5.
2 To make a single-sided brush, make repeated slashes into the green onion, starting at the top and extending about a third of the way down the length of the onion (see Figure 6-5).
3 To make a double-sided brush, fully slice off the bottom of the root end, making it the same diameter as the top of the onion (see Figure 6-5). If you wish, slide the ring of green onion or red pepper onto the center of the onion. Make repeated slashes on both ends of the onion, as directed in Step 2.
4 Place the onions in a bowl of ice water for at least 1 hour, until the slashed ends curl up to form the brushes shown in Figure 6-5.
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Figure 6-5: The steps for making single or double green onion brushes. |
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Chili Pepper Flowers
Jalapeño and Fresno chiles are ideal for this garnish because of their size and firmness. Use any color you wish, but just make sure to buy what’s fresh and available in the market.
Chiles have oils that irritate the skin and mucous membranes in the eyes and mouth, so wear gloves when working with chiles unless you want your fingers and everything they touch to burn. And don’t touch your eyes and mouth with the gloves either.
What you’ll need: Kitchen scissors or a sharp paring knife; small, firm peppers such as jalapeños or Fresnos with stem end intact; bowl of ice water
1 Using kitchen scissors or a paring knife, cut off the tip of the pepper to the desired length. Keep the stem end intact.
2 Make 4 or 5 lengthwise slits around the pepper to form 4 or 5 petals (see Figure 6-6), being careful not to cut all the way through to the stem end. Trim the tip of each petal to a point.
3 Remove the membrane and seeds of the chile. (These parts can really make you “feel the burn,” so be careful here.)
4 Place the pepper in a bowl of ice water for at least 1 hour, until the “petals” start to curl up a bit (see Figure 6-6).
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Figure 6-6: Turning a chili pepper into a flower. |
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