GENIUS HACK: SERVE WITH SPOON

You know the drill: one person wants more chilli, another says no to cheese. How to please everyone? Here's a smart food stylist's hack that keeps them all happy.

Inspired by chef Sam Kane’s genius hack at Berts Bar & Brasserie in Sydney’s Newport (Jill Dupleix Eats, June 24), here’s a way to please all the people at the table, all the time.  Without sacrificing your own commitment to style and good taste, of course.

Instead of assuming everyone wanted lots of chilli with their bucatini and clams, Sam just placed a generously large spoon filled with fruity, fermented chilli on the plate next to the pasta and sent that to the table. Bingo – everyone’s happy.

It’s a hack much used by clever food stylists. When a dish starts getting overwhelmed by its number of ingredients, they take one out and serve it separately, in a small bowl or a spoon. They don’t want everything looking the same.

The recipe may end with “toss together and serve”, but instead, the stylist will group one or two components, so that the camera – and the eye - has something to focus on. Instead of mixing everything up, colours and contrast are retained.

The tricks I’ve learned doing food for photography, funnily enough, are now the same tricks I use in my kitchen to keep things bright and fresh. This hack is just one way to think a little differently about cooking and serving food, one spoon at a time.

Here are ten ideas to get you started:

# Add a spoonful of anchovy-spiked salsa verde to a platter of sausages, grilled chops, or wedges of roast pumpkin.

# Send out a spoonful of cherry compote with hot buttered scones.

# Two spoons are even better – one of Dijon mustard and one of horseradish cream for roast beef, or a beef stew.

# Add a spoonful of lemony parsley and garlic gremolata to pasta with mushrooms and walnuts, as shown here ⬇

# How good would it be to have a big spoonful of hot, crisped, diced bacon to scatter over your spaghetti carbonara at the table? Or over anything, really - like fried eggs for breakfast.

# A spoonful of mango chutney with a chicken curry.

# A spoonful of coconut cream with a Thai pumpkin soup.

# A spoonful of chopped preserved lemon and coriander for a chicken or vegetable tagine.

# A spoonful of quick-pickled red onion rings for a tuna, Nicoise or Caesar salad.

# Lovely, warming bowl of miso and pumpkin soup scattered with sesame seeds, good. Lovely, warming bowl of miso and pumpkin soup with an extra spoonful of mixed black and white sesame seeds and togarashi, that addictive mix of (more) sesame, chilli and seaweed, better. Recipe right here ⬇

EASY MISO PUMPKIN SOUP

Tippetty tip: Cook the pumpkin in water, then use that cooking water as a base to build your dashi broth. Makes sense, right?

• 1 litre water

• 20 g instant dashi powder

• 2 tbsp mirin

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 to 2 tbsp miso paste

• 200 g Hokkaido or other pumpkin, peeled and chopped

• 1 zucchini, finely sliced

• 6 fresh shitake mushrooms, trimmed and sliced

For the togarashi spoonfuls:

• 1 tsp white sesame seeds

• 1 tsp black sesame seeds

• 2 tsp dehydrated minced garlic or onion

• Half tsp flaked sea salt

• Togarashi sprinkles, to taste

1. To make the togarashi spoonful mix, heat the sesame seeds, dehydrated garlic or onion, sea salt and togarashi in a small dry pan for a minute or two until it smells nice, then cool.

2. Place pumpkin in 1 litre of lightly salted water and bring to the boil, then simmer until it is almost, but not yet, cooked.  Add zucchini and mushrooms and simmer for 3 minutes. Add dashi powder, mirin and soy sauce, and simmer for 2 minutes (top up the water if you think you need more).

3. In a small bowl, whisk a ladleful of the broth with the miso paste until smooth, then pour back into the soup and heat through, without boiling.  Serve hot, with togarashi spoonfuls on the side for adding as you like.

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Thanks for reading (and liking, commenting, subscribing, knock yourself out). Copyright © 2020 Jill Dupleix.

I would like to acknowledge that I live, work and play on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and wish to pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging. I fully support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to be enshrined in Australia’s Constitution.