Looking at Garnishing Techniques - Part I

 

Before looking at some specific garnishing techniques, I?ll just recap on how to choose a suitable garnish.

One of the easiest and fail safe ways is to look at the ingredients you are using and see if there is anything there that you can single out to use as a garnish.   Although you are replicating one or more of the ingredients, you don?t need to use the same form that is in the dish.   So, if you?ve used coconut milk in the dish, you could choose to garnish it with toasted coconut flakes or maybe the dish contains orange juice, then you have a choice of orange zest, slices and segments or even candied orange slices or candied peel.  

It?s commonly accepted that many foods, in particular meat, fish and poultry have certain other foods that are known to be suitable accompaniments and many of these make ideal garnishes.   Many of these pairings have developed over the years, and even centuries, so you can be sure that they are tried and tested partners.  Whilst some of the accompaniments are obvious such as pork and apple, others may be less well known, like lamb and lavender for instance.   

Sometimes you don?t need to add a garnish as such, as the individual components within the dish can themselves become the garnish - sauces, vegetables, salads and fruit can all become attractive garnishes.  

The three garnishing technique we are going to look at first are sprinkling or scattering, naturalistic garnishes and oriental garnishes: 

Sprinkling or Scattering

 

This technique is as simple as it sounds, one or multiple small garnishes are simply scattered over the food or plate.   The following list gives some examples of the many different types of food that you can use to scatter or sprinkle over a dish to enhance it:

Herbs
Nuts
Seeds
Capers
Olives
Salt Flakes
Cracked Peppercorns
Chopped or Sliced Vegetables
Pomegranate Seeds
Grated Chocolate
Coconut Flakes
Parmesan Shavings
Sprouted Seeds
Micro Greens

There are three different ways of using this technique and you can scatter the garnish: 

Over the food.
Over the plate and around the food.
Over both the food and the plate

If you look at the photo of the Moroccan Stuffed Aubergines you?ll see that the garnish is a combination of chopped parsley, pine nuts, pistachios and sultanas and these are simply scattered over the aubergines and also over the serving dish as well.   This transforms quite a dull coloured dish into something far more beautiful.   It is also garnished with sliced tomatoes, more about ?cooked on? garnishes at a later date, but even so it needed the extra garnish to really lift the appearance of the dish.

Naturalistic

 

Food in its natural state, such as a sprig of herbs, a bunch of cherry tomatoes on the vine or a wedge of lemon, makes a lovely garnish.   Herbs really come into their own here and sometimes it only takes a sprig to make all the difference.   Think about how a pork chop instantly looks more appetising garnished with a sprig of rosemary or fresh basil leaves on a pizza.   With herbs you also have the added bonus of wafts of their delicious aromas too.  

The courgette salad helps to brighten up the spicy lamb tacos but even so, some lime wedges and a sprig of mint add the final touches to the plate. 

Oriental Garnishes

 

 

Intricate fruit and vegetable garnishes are great features of Oriental food presentation and heavily influenced the formation of Nouvelle Cuisine.  However, they eventually became overused and out of favoured, nevertheless, they are perfect garnishes for the cuisines that they originated from, particularly Thai, Chinese and Japanese foods.  They are all renowned for creating painstakingly elaborate carved fruits and vegetables to garnish their foods and really turn garnishing into an art form.   Creating these sorts of garnishes requires time and patience!   The chilli flowers and spring onion tassels shown in the photo are fairly straightforward whilst the lime camellia requires a little more dexterity. 

Chilli Flowers

 

Select short to medium length chillies for this garnish.   Holding the stalk end, use a sharp pair of scissors to cut V shaped petals around the chillies.  Don?t cut right through the end of the chilli.   Place the chilli flowers in cold water and leave in the fridge until they open out.  You can create 'double flowers' by placing a smaller chilli flower in the throat of the larger one.

 

Spring Onion Tassels 

 

Trim the spring onions, removing part of the green tops.   Using a sharp knife or scissors cut thin strips lengthways, stopping when you reach the white part of the onion.   Place in cold water and leave in the fridge until the strips curl. 

Lime Camellias 

First break some cocktail sticks into smaller pieces.   Then, cut the lime in half lengthways and slice it thinly.  Using one of the smaller slices curl it around to form the centre of the camellia.   Then turn it upside down and start to wrap the lime slices around the centre, overlapping each one as you work around the flower.  Secure with cocktail sticks and turn over to reveal (hopefully!) the camellia.   Use two of the outside slices of lime to form leaves.

This Month's Recipes