Cooking small dishes with a lot of flavor

[Rickard Fransén]

I really have done my best at trying to find this topic in the search area but with no luck, so I'll start a thread for it and thank anybody in advance should the topic allready exist and I get a link to it!

One of my favorite candy is chocolate truffles, the reason for it is that those small chocolate balls pack some really intense flavor at a low calorie cost and the taste will sit in your mouth for up to an hour. Now I'm looking to steer my normal food cooking in the same direction. I want to get as much input as I can on making side dishes, sauces, meats and more that pack alot of flavor in small portions of food.

Sauces - Instead of having to drown the meat and potatoes in a sauce to get alot of flavor from it, I want to be able to just dip the meat in the sauce and get the same amount of taste from it, could I tweak "normal" recipies to do this or do I have to have major changes to recipies and think differently/use different techniques?

Meats - Do I in some way kick up the flavor of the meat either by selecting better cuts, season it better, prepare it in different ways or do I simply leave the flavor explosion to the sauce and/or side dish?

Side dishes - All those small well tasting things you get in the restaurant, the pickled leeks, the tasty garlic cloves etc. I never seem to find recipes for these things, maybe because there are only restaurants who are interrested in making these small side dishes because they get the volume in the cooking from all the costumers they have? I feel that most recipes is for the normal meals eaten by 4 people who like quantity before quality?

[liuzhou]

Can I make a small suggestion. You probably didn't find a topic like this because it isn't a topic. It's four different topics rolled into one. I do see your 'taste' point, but that applies to almost every thread here.

One thread about candy, sauces, meat and side dishes is unlikely to get much meaningful response.

Try asking each question in the individually relevant areas.

[Rickard Fransén]

Thank you for your suggestion! I guess when I started to write the topic I saw the philosophy of trying to get concentrated, powerful flavors in to everything that you are cooking as a topic that could be seperated from the cooking rather than going in to detail about how to fix a certain area. I see now that I got away from that philosophy question and headed straight in to the details anyways.

I'll try starting out within one field and then go from there as you say, thank you!

[rotuts]

sounds like to should study Tapas. the real thing From Spain.

[Baselerd]

I might be misinterpreting what the OP wanted, but I feel like my cooking aligns quite well with what you describe. I have gotten a lot of inspiration from books like the Modernist Cuisine (which is all about super concentrated flavors) and some of the high end restaurant cookbooks. Eleven Madison Park is a good one - the plated recipes may look intimidating but in the back there is a huge list of recipes for side components (purees, pickled, jus, stocks, crumbles, etc). Cooking a nice cut of meat can really be elevated with the addition of a side component like these.

[gfweb]

Thai and Japanese cooking does what you are looking for. Glutamate-rich stuff like seaweed, soy and fish sauces...smoking meat... can add lots of taste without being a gloppy sauce. The tapas suggestion from Rotuts was smart.

Would you tweak standard recipes or just start out new? Guess it depends on the recipe.

Pickled veg are easy and can be quick and have lots of room for different spices and sweetness and acidity. Epicurious has plenty of recipes which can be modified to suit your situation. I find quick pickled onions to be a great addition to several dishes and salads.

[rotuts]

probably won't find Choc. truffles at a (E)Spanish tapas bar. But you will find this:

http://spanishfood.about.com/od/tapas/r/gambasajillo.htm