Get creative with recipes
Find that secret weapon for flavor
When I came across a recipe for sauerkraut as an ingredient in chocolate cake, I thought to myself, are they kidding? Yogurt in guacamole? Potato chips in cookies? Chocolate pudding with avocado as an ingredient?
Over the years I have come across (and prepared) dishes using such “secret” ingredients. Those of you who watch food television might recall “Iron Chef America,” where the chefs need to prepare dishes incorporating the revealed “secret” ingredient. Or, “Chopped,” where the chefs prepared dishes using a basket full of odd ingredients.
For a decade I produced a fundraising event for the foundation at the college where I am a faculty member. It was similar to “Iron Chef America,” where local chefs prepared an appetizer, entrée and dessert using the “secret” ingredient. Local food manufacturers provided the ingredient; Hooker Beer, Deep River Potato Chips, Superseedz Pumpkin Seeds, Lyman Orchards Apple Butter, and Willoughby’s Coffee, to name a few. The audience and the celebrity judges were amazed by the chef’s creations.
For those of you who have young children, sometimes you must be creative in getting youngsters to eat vegetables and other healthy food. This is accomplished by camouflaging those veggies in food they like. In other words, you have included a “secret” ingredient! Take a look at the mac and cheese recipe below.
I have been on the lookout for a cookbook dedicated to recipes using “secret” ingredients. Well, my search is now over, since “The Secret Ingredient Cookbook: 125 FamilyFriendly Recipes with Surprisingly Easy Twists,” by Kelly Senyi (2021, Mariner Books, an imprint of Harper Collins, $30) was recently published. Each recipe features an unexpected ingredient. For example, orange soda in sheet pan barbecue meatballs, bittersweet chocolate in Sunday Short Rib Ragu with Polenta, corn in Dinner Party Crème Brûlée.
So how did the book evolve? The author dreamt of the book’s concept for eight years. Senyei writes in the introduction, “It began while tinkering with a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, swapping out a portion of butter for cream cheese. The resulting cookies had soft, chewy centers that tapered off into slightly crispy edges. (Recipe below). I began experimenting with more surprising additions to classic recipes, and the results were (almost) all home runs.” Her recipe using pickle juice in a margarita, she writes was one of her comical failures.
Each recipe includes helpful headnotes and notes the secret ingredient incorporated into the dish. You’ll find chapters for breakfast, snacks, soups and salads, pastas, entrées, sides, desserts, and drinks (how about pickle juice in a Bloody Mary or stout in iced coffee?). Intrigued? Check out these recipes from the book. For the recipe for 30Minute Mac and cheese go to https://bit.ly/3Banrwq