Chicken & sweet potatoes with shooting stars
Twinkle twinkle
When I first started recipe-developing, I was paralyzed with fear that I wouldn’t know when a recipe was “done.” (Well, let’s be honest, I still get the feeling every single time I start working on a recipe.) It just seemed like such an arbitrary stopping point.
Recipes are finite, sealed up in steps, period—and cooking is anything but. You can always add, swap, flip it, and reverse it. Who am I to say when someone’s cooking is complete? (The answer is when you’re so hungry/over it that you don’t want to wait anymore.)
I started noticing that when I tasted some dishes, they would transcend the recipe’s individual elements to the point where I couldn’t necessarily pick each ingredient out. The food would fill my mouth with a tingly, indescribable feeling. Ti esrever dna ti pilf. Salivary glands were working, yes, but if you told me shooting stars were in my mouth, I’d believe you. This is probably called something scientifically, or maybe it’s just what cooking should be, but sometimes it’s nice to believe in magic.
When this happens, I have no choice but to be done with a recipe because I can’t isolate any element to tweak or fuss over. It’s thrilling and relieving, but describing that sensation in a headnote? It just works. It’s delicious….blah blah boring.
So I’ll get out of the way and say that this grilled chicken with sweet potatoes and avocado and soy sauce—I don’t even know what to call it—will make your mouth twinkle. Just will.
