Garnish: Call it Food Porn or Food Art

Nothing complements a dish better than a beautiful garnish, a platter is incomplete without a garnish. A garnish is what enhances your craving for a particular food. In other words it the drive behind food art is a perfect garnish. A garnish has to wisely laid over a food. Delectable garnishes are known to give delectable flavors to any dish. There are traditional garnishes, but that should not give you goose bumps.

You can begin with a simple herb dressing for instance. The herb dressing can be made by simply placing a bunch of herbs over the dish or crushing the herbs in olive oil and vinegar and pouring it as a dressing over barbecued steak, pork, salmon or any such BBQ stuff. Then you can decorate it with onions, lime and canned carrots to give it a perfect finish.

Today I will tell you about a simple yet ethnic Indian Garnish and its usages. It is made out of dried onion flakes, and all you have to do is fry 6ounces of onions in 8 ounces of oil, until crisp, but you have to be sure that the onion slices are not over- fried, remember they have to be just crisp and rosy. The usages of crispy rosy onions can be used in the following ways as a garnish and a flavor enhancer:

1.As a traditional Biryani garnish(rice steamed with meat and vegetables), the Indian version of Turkish Pilaf. The crispy onions are sprinkled over the cooked Biryani and a mixture of rose water, saffron and milk is sprinkled over it or aroma, and lastly it is topped with mint and coriander leaves.

3.Crispy onion is crushed over fried rice, mashed potatoes, cooked lentils and chutneys as a garnish and a flavor enhancer.

The oil that is left after frying the onions can be used for frying purposes.

So you see, garnishes made from simple ingredients can also make your mouth water. If you still, don’t have some doubts then look at the above photo and call it a Food Porn or a Food art…it is barbecued chicken breast garnished with crispy fried onion rings.
More about Garnishes at Blue Suit