I enjoy cooking most of the time. And I also take a certain degree of pleasure in being able to put together a meal that I want when I want it. However cooking is not always “perfect”. The more you do it the more you realise that you can always do it better and that you can improve on a dish.
Yesterday I wanted a steak sandwich or something along those lines. I wasn’t 100% sure what exactly I wanted, but I knew it needed to have melted cheese and some kind of bread that would be similar to sourdough.
This was the end result:
That’s steak with caramelised onion, cheddar and some chilli sauce. It was really really good, but it was far from perfect.
Taste was great and it really “hit the spot”.
But it wasn’t anywhere near “perfect”.
First off I should have been more careful how I cut the steak – it was a little bit too thick. The onion was good, but I probably did a little bit too much. And the cheese didn’t melt properly because I couldn’t find the thing to cover it.
But it was perfectly edible and I was quite proud of my creation even if it was flawed.
The next time I make it I know it will be better. I’ll tweak how I do things and I’ll try something slightly different. Maybe the bread will be thinner and maybe I’ll finish it in the oven instead of in the cast iron skillet. Iterating on my cooking is part of the fun of it!
Like doing smashed avocado with poached eggs:
Not absolutely perfect, but the avocado has the “right” colour.
Compare it to the one I did a week or so back with overly ripe fruit and when I burnt the toast:
The funny thing is that both versions tasted absolutely fine. Sure, the burnt one wasn’t exactly “ideal” and nobody really enjoys burnt toast, but it was still fine.
I just needed to keep a slightly closer eye on the toast and use slightly less ripe avocado…
I’m with you on this. I try cooking for myself from time to time (when the wifely unit is traveling) but some things that I thought I could do with my eyes closed are more complicated than that.