The Art of Garnishing

Want to make this Thanksgiving dinner extra special?

Try adding a little extra fancy touch to your dishes this year.

They say, "Presentation is everything", and that's not far from the truth. It may not be everything (let's hope health value counts for more!), but it can certainly make the dish more appealing and eye-catching.

This begins a series of articles on "The Art of Garnishing" that I hope will help encourage you to experiment and add a few easy but impressive additions to your Thanksgiving meal this year - or any time!

Garnishing can range from really simple radish roses to elegant and complicated baskets and animal shapes. Some take minutes, some a couple of days to prepare. Some will last a few days, some only a few hours.

You can prepare fancy vegetables, fruits, potatoes, eggs, cheese, fish, chocolate, all kinds of desserts, etc., etc . The list and possibilities are nearly endless! And it is a lot of fun, too, to give your meals that extra special, loving touch.

So, after reviewing the possibilities, decide on the one(s) you think will work best for you in your particular circumstances.

There are several good books available to show you, step-by-step, how to do many different types of food garnishings, as well as videos for sale, but these tend to be more on the expensive side.

There are also free videos online that can show you "live" how to do them, so if this style of learning works for you, definitely check them out. I will be listing some of these resources through these articles.

First, you will need some tools. To begin simply, look for things you probably already have in your kitchen, such as cookie cutters, melon baller, vegetable peeler and, of course, a sharp knife.

You can do a lot with these simple and ordinary tools!

The next tool that I would recommend getting is a lemon zester. You can make fancy cucumber slices and carrot displays, and get really thin slices of lemon peel (organic, of course) with one of these.

If you're really eager to get going, click here for an excellent site to help get you started.

Til next time,

Phyllis Towse