Why You Should Prepare Your Side Dishes Before You Start Cooking
Let me paint a picture for you: you are preparing breakfast. Today you decided to cook soft brown butter scrambled eggs. You plan to end this bout with a healthy handful of finely chopped green onions, or maybe green onions if you run out of green onions. You will eat eggs on toast.
The eggs are beaten until fluffy , and the oil in the pan is just starting to foam. Toast in a toaster. Garlic is still in the fridge. You grab them in a second. (This is the last step, after all.) Oh, the oil is getting dark. Time to add eggs. The eggs are ready. The toast is ready. Garlic is still in the fridge.
Now it’s time to make a decision. Do you have a moment to wash and chop the green onions, or do you sit down to eat your hot eggs and toast? I usually choose the latter because by this point I’m hungry and I don’t like room temperature scrambled eggs. (I’m even more likely to go down the no side dish route if I’ve been cooking for hours. By then, I’m ready to get out of the kitchen and eat the damn thing.)
This is very bad, because cooking is an important last step. Side dishes are needed not only for beauty; they add extra flavor, freshness, or texture that complements and enhances your already delicious work. A dish without a side dish is like a sentence without a dot – technically everything you need is there, but it’s not finished .
Your garnish should not be secondary, that’s what I want to say. This is an important part of the recipe and should be treated accordingly. Set yourself up for success by rinsing, slicing, whipping, or adding zest to herbs, citrus fruits, and more before you even start cooking. Make it part of your mise-en-scène and put those finishing touches on while you’re upbeat, fresh and passionate about cooking. You’re more likely to cook your side dish with care, and your leaves, zest, and whatever else is more likely to end up on your plate.