Your ingredients for a great recipe?

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Posted at 5:35PM, 08 February 2011 by Lulu Grimes - Deputy editor, olive magazine

Every time I think about new recipes to write I ponder this question. It could be a simple yet stunning idea done really well; a dish that uses fairly ordinary ingredients with new levels of skill; a clearly written recipe that inspires confidence in the kitchen, or a flavour combination that you'd never thought of, but heck it works. Or perhaps a dish that comforts you or links you to a particular culture or person, or simply a recipe that you make again and again and everyone loves it.

Brilliant food photography that hooks you in and you can't go past without wanting to eat it

Maybe your visual sense is just as important - brilliant food photography that hooks you in and you can't go past without wanting to eat it. I've come across plenty of those.

I suspect that all those answers appeal to someone out there, but where do you come across great new recipes? Do you always need a recipe of Delia's informative proportions or are you happy just to be inspired? Nigel Slater is adored but there is always someone who does not buy in to his 'vagueness on some measurements'. Nigella Lawson is loved and hated in equal measure for her TV show, but I've rarely found a cook who thinks her recipes are dreadful (provided they can get past the language).

For me, it is the obscure books and recipes on scraps of paper that I find really interesting. The instruction manual from a Thai cooking class that you can only follow if you were there in the first place and translate your hastily scribbled notes in the margin; the pudding granny used to make that, shhhh, uses marge and not butter; or the recipe clipped from a magazine or paper that you stick on the fridge and intend to make (you love the way it looks and sounds) but never quite do. But you still love the idea of it.

What makes a really good recipe for you?

Comments

pinkie

8 February 2011, 3:44PM
pinkie

I look for twists on tried and trusted. I am tempted by 'gastroporn' photos or well written blurb , for example by Nigel Slater . I also like the truely outrageous and unexpected, I may only try it once or it may become one of the tried and tested awaiting a twist-I wont know if I don't try.

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tordis

15 February 2011, 12:08PM
tordis

When it comes to cooking, I hardly ever follow a recipe to the letter - oftentimes, I swap ingredients, change proportions and make it mine. However, with baking, I stick to what the recipe says. I tried a more liberal approach, but found that it only leads to disasters.

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Cassandra Amy Rose

15 February 2011, 12:59PM
Cassandra Amy Rose

A recipe just has to catch my eye before I try it, which means photography for me is essential, esp. if the name of the recipe is so posh you can hardly pronounce it, I think it helps to have a idea of what the recipe is (hopefully!) gona turn out like. I too like mixing and swapping ingredients but agree with tordis, if its a cake follow the recipe a carefully as possible. Overall just enjoy the cooking!

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Nina

15 February 2011, 6:48PM
Nina

the photography usually grips me as well, but I always check if the ingredients are to my liking. I try to cook what I like in a different way every week, at least once!! I go a lot on what is said about the recipe as well.

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Elyse Baker

16 February 2011, 1:22PM
Elyse Baker

THIS IS REALLY TASTY

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johnhsv

17 February 2011, 6:11AM
johnhsv

First, I've got to like the basics of the recipe ingredients to even begin looking at the detail - photos help but are not the "Hmmmm, I wonder...." Second, comments from others concerning their recipe trial will intrigue as well.

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lbaxter

17 February 2011, 3:47PM
lbaxter

Nothing puts me off a recipe more than a list of ingredients longer than your arm! With 2 young kids it's got to be something that can be knocked together quickly after work - switching from pot to blender to oven to grill just doesn't work.

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Ratatouille

19 February 2011, 4:26PM
Ratatouille

I think food has a link into the earth that produced it. When I am looking to cook something I just think of the place: the weather, the land and it's produce; that will give you the list of perfect ingredients everytime! italian? olives, tomatoes, onion, oregano, pork... asian? rice, mangoes and pinneaples, seafood, soy... And ofcourse get the best ingredients; only quality ensures a good dish everytime.

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Kevin Anthony Ashton

22 February 2011, 1:00AM
Kevin Anthony Ashton

My ingredients for a great recipe is one that works. As a chef and food writer it is imperative for me to test and try my own recipes before I offer them up for publication. Even when I review a cookbook I will try at least half a dozen of the recipes before I write the review. That is why Deliah is still such a favourite. We all have different skill levels at cooking and therefore my aim when writing a recipe is to never presume. Even as a chef, I usually try the recipe verbatim before putting my own slant on it.

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Adam John Clarke

21 July 2011, 1:30PM
Adam John Clarke

I find food fiction the best sourse of inspiration ... THE HEAT OF THE MEZZOGIORNO is truly amazing ... some of the descriptions of Italian food is to die for ... it's available on Amazon. The chapters really are dotted with lavish indulgence and mouth-watering depictions of Italian food. It has everything, afternoon tea with cucumber slices, epic feasts with tables cluttered with platters of meat and cheese, and OH MY GOD - the chapter on chocolate is divine!!! "It was just as the primo was being cleared away, said from lips moistened by the rich tomato and basil sauce that accompanied our crispy Orecchietta, that our hosts likened Frankovich to the FÃ¼hrer."

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LiesbethM

30 December 2012, 8:30PM
LiesbethM

I'm drawn by the ingredients and the picture of a dish. Like a lot of other people I give a recipe my own twist by adding or deducting some ingredients. For me there is only one real "turn-off" with a recipe and that is a picture in which the dish is just too perfect. When I'm cooking I'm either a total slob (in the good way) or a super perfectionist. The time I baked cupcakes for example I strove for perfection. I wanted my cupcakes to look exactly like those in the picture. You can probably guess that was the only time I made cupcakes!

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