For years, foodies like you and I have always preheated things that called for it. Got a frozen pizza? Preheat the oven. Want to grill some meat? Preheat the grill. Want to make a cake (hey, we have to consider our female readers also), preheat the oven!
It’s time to evolve the pre-heat into the next great concept of eating. It’s called Pre-eating!
What exactly is pre-eating? Here are a few examples. Let’s say you are making tacos. These take a bit of time to get all the ingredients into the shell (look for a future discussion about how to build your taco). If you’re like me and about to eat tacos, your mouth is watering, and you are just waiting to devour the juicy/flavorful Mexican treat. This is where pre-eating comes into play. What you do is, while making your tacos – say you want to make 3-5 first then sit down and eat – you make one before you make the other 3-5. By pre-making a taco, you can concentrate on eating that taco, while making the other tacos. This satisfies that immediate hunger, and the desire to taste the tasty treats known as tacos. This also gives you time to create your taco the way you want, to taste it, and adjust as you make the main set of tacos. Did you put too much taco sauce on? Too much meat? Maybe you want more cheese? Or, did you forget the sour cream? By pre-eating, we can solve our hunger pains, and conquer our quest to make the perfect food – in this case, tacos.
Another example: Tonight I was grilling some chicken, steaming some broccoli and wanted one more side dish (I also made a chocolate/banana/peanut butter shake for Little Food Gal – her favorite). I chose instant potatoes. In reality, instant potatoes are quite possibly the easiest food to make. Boil water, remove from heat, inset package, whisk to perfection. This poses another question: Have you ever made a packaged food where the amount of cups of water indicated on the directions is really enough? For example, the instant mashy P’s called for 2 cups of water. I put in three because I knew two would leave them dry and not edible. It’s the same with packaged rice – you always have to add like twice as much water as possible. Has anyone ever made packaged food successfully without burning the bottom of the pan, or having completely dry food by following the exact amount of water suggested on the package?
When I make instant potatoes, I like to sprinkle the salt and pepper in before whisking. I then take the fork, put it in the tub of butter, and add a heaping spoonful of butter in while I whisk. It’s a magical site, watching that butter melt away in your fast-developing batch of mashed potatoes.
Back to the topic of pre-eating. Why are instant mashy P’s good for pre-eating? Because while you are flipping the chicken and steaming the broccoli, you can sample the potatoes before you eat. You pre-eat samples of the potatoes between flips of the chicken on the grill, adjusting of the broccoli in the steamer, and so forth. I did a three step process: 1. Made potatoes, whisked them, sampled to see if there was enough salt/pepper/butter. 2. Added broccoli to steamer 3. Rotated chicken on grill. Repeat.
Then, when I was ready to serve up the chicken and broccoli I did it in reverse order. Chicken on the plate, broccoli on the plate – then potatoes on the plate. But before I put the potatoes on the plate, I took another bite to satisfy my hunger from the short trip to the kitchen to the table.
So, while pre-heating has been a part of eating for ages, it’s time to learn the tricks of the trade of the next great evolution in eating: Pre-eating! Try it next time you cook – you’ll love it.
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