The culinary word is buzzing. And I’m not talking about drugs or booze-that’s another post. I’m talking about recipe adapting, stealing, cooking techniques and being under the culinary influence of other chefs and kitchens.
Recently, two big news sources, Lucky Peach, the quarterly journal published by McSweeney’s, written by Chef David Chang and writer Peter Meehan, and Will Write for Food blog by culinary author and coach, Dianne Jacob, dished originality vs. influence.
Bloggers have been adapting (and sometimes stealing) recipes since blogging came into existence. Chefs, cooks and kitchens around the globe are influenced by each other since cavemen rubbed sticks together. Well, maybe that’s a stretch, but think about it for a nano-second. Is there such a thing as an original recipe or cooking technique?
Whether you’re a home cook, Chef or culinary élite, you’ve been influenced by something or somebody. Family, friends, school, experiences, cookbooks and food product marketing all contribute to the wide world of recipe development and cooking.
What came across loud and clear in both articles was the need for honesty in recipe writing and cooking.
Tell the world about your culinary influences.
Take this recipe for Lobster Quesadillas. I’d like to think I’ve created something special here, but really…it’s a quesadilla. However pedestrian this dish is, or how unique my method, I was influenced by my own experiences, the colorful packaging on the tortillas, and pictures I’ve seen on the Internet.
But my own unique perspective for this dish began with one sweet, yellow onion and two Caribbean lobster tails.
Lobster Quesadillas with Green Chilies & Caramelized Chipotle Onions
Prep time: 30 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes
Yield: 4 Quesadilla’s
- 4 tablespoons of sweet butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large sweet yellow onion
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 teaspoon chipotle chili pepper
- sea salt
- black pepper
- 2 lobster tails
- 3 ounces of canned chopped green chilies
- 3 roasted red peppers
- 8 slices of pepper-jack cheese
- 4 flour tortillas
- Salsa and sour cream (optional) on the side
- Thirty minutes before you poach the lobster tails, peel and then slice a large onion in 1/4″ slices. Rinse with cold water and dry on a paper towel.
- Heat a large skillet on medium. Melt four tablespoons of butter and one tablespoon of olive oil. When the butter sizzles and the foam subsides, place the sliced onions in the pan and season liberally with cumin, chipotle pepper, salt and black pepper. Stir to coat, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for thirty minutes to caramelize. Stir occasionally.
- While the onions are cooking, bring water to boil in a large stock pot. Remove the lobster meat from its shell (use kitchen shears or seafood shears), rinse in cold water, removing the vein, and trim any inedible skin from the tail meat. Wrap the tail meat in cheesecloth and place in boiling water for six minutes. Place the cooked lobster in a bowl. It will continue cooking while you prepare your quesadilla cooking station.
- Heat a large skillet or flat griddle on medium. Chop lobster into bite-sized pieces, tomatoes, peppers, avocado, etc. I used chopped green chilies, roasted red pepper and Pepper-Jack cheese.
- Place a tortilla on to the heated cooking surface. Cover the entire surface with cheese and half of the surface with caramelized onions, lobster meat (use a quarter of the tail meat for each quesadilla) green chilies and roasted red peppers. Fold the quesadilla in half and press. Repeat the process using all the onions and lobster meat.
- Cut the quesadillas into sections and serve with salsa and sour cream. I used peach and pineapple salsa to complement the spicy flavors of this dish.
What are your cooking influences? Is there someone special in your world that you’d like to mention? When you adapt a recipe, what do you different to consider it yours?
