Building Blocks

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The most important thing my father taught me about cooking was that it's much like Lego. Get to know your basic building blocks and you're pretty much ready to rock 'n roll in the kitchen...

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One of the other most important things he taught me was that both ingredients and basic principles have a life of their own.  Acquaint yourself with the intrinsic qualities of your ingredients and how the underlying cooking methods and sauces work and you're on the road to culinary adventure without fear.

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This section is about enabling you to locate both those basic building blocks and styles of sauces or the other basics. But, it's also to help you dial all the way back to the "backbone" of creating dishes and how these fundamental elements should be used, among other things.

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• Top 12 versatile ingredients

• Celery stalker and mirepoix

• The rules of risotto

• A stodgy, dodgy history of risotto

• Señor Onion

• Rice is nice; twice or thrice

• Nut your squash

• Pasta basta

• Painless grilled peppers

• Why the sea matters

• Tomato Classico

• Your Thai green basic

• Classic Italian beef ragu

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