A Plateful - Issue #37

Happy Thursday!

Food presentation isn't just about what you cook; it's about how you present it on the plate. You don't have to be a trained chef to make your meals look amazing. It's all about taking what you have on hand and serving it in fun and different ways.

Our latest video has just been published and in it we share some great tips for how to plate a hearty breakfast with lots of different components so that it can look fantastic. And guess what? You can use these tricks with any everyday dishes! At Easy Peasy we'll show you how to give your regular meals a fresh twist that will surprise and impress your friends and family.

But that's not all! In this newsletter there's also a video throwback to three common myths about food presentation. If you've ever thought that making food look good was too complicated, we're here to debunk those misconceptions and show you how easy and enjoyable it can be.

Whether you're a kitchen pro or just love experimenting with food, join us in the fun and exciting world of food presentation. Let's turn every meal into a work of art, one plate at a time!

In this issue:

• Fresh off the press - How To Plate A Full Breakfast
• Inspiration from my kitchen - Everyday Food Plated With Appeal
• Video throwback - 3 Common Food Presentation Myths

Fresh off the Press...(+ Recipes)

Our latest video - How To Plate A Full Breakfast - has just been published.

In this video we solve the dilemma of how to plate a full breakfast beautifully. There are a few different plating problems to solve with a big breakfast - they contain so many components, we have even numbers of items, and we have lots of similar bland colours.

Is there a way we can present it nicely without just piling it all on the plate?

Of course there is, and in this video we'll talk about the things to think about so that you too can plate a beautiful big breakfast. If your big breakfast has lots of components you won't need to just pile them on the plate any more ;)

Have a look what we came up with here...

Big Breakfast

Ingredients: (1 portion)

• 2 slices of toast per plate (I used a tiger skin loaf)
• 2 eggs, to fry, poach, scramble or boil
• 2 or 3 slices of streaky bacon
• 1 tomato, halved
• 2 mushrooms
• 2 hash browns
• 2 breakfast sausages
• 1/4 cup baked beans
• Fresh thyme leaves
• Salt and pepper

 Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
• Lightly fry the tomato halves in a drizzle of oil. Put the cut side down first to give it a little colour. Then flip them over and season with salt and pepper and few fresh thyme leaves. Transfer to an oven safe tray.
• Add the mushrooms to the pan for a few minutes, flip and season with salt and pepper and a few thyme leaves. Add a splash of water and let them steam for a minute. Add to the tray with the tomatoes and put them into the oven.
• Put the hash browns onto an oven tray and bake until golden, flipping over half way through the cooking. (Alternatively, if you have a deep-fryer or toastie maker you can cook them in there).
• Put the streaky bacon strips onto an oven tray lined with tin foil. Put it into the oven.
• Fry the sausages until browned. Put them into the oven on the same tray as the bacon to finish cooking through.
• Fry the eggs in a little butter and oil. You can use egg rings if you want perfect circles. Don't forget to grease the rings so the egg doesn't stick. (Add a lid to the pan for a few minutes to cook the egg whites a little faster).
• Toast the bread and spread with butter as soon as it pops.
• Plate up, thinking about visual appeal... and don't forget to garnish!

Inspiration From My Kitchen - Everyday Food Plated With Appeal

My daughter had a friend over in the school holidays and she asked if they could please have a 'platter tea' together. I guess, what she was really asking was if they could have something finger foody on a plate for just the 2 of them.

So I did a quick scan of my fridge and freezer looking at what I had on hand that would be suitable for a platter. I didn't want to go out to the shop and buy anything specific.

This is how it turned out!

Afterwards, I was thinking just how simple this really was.

• I crumbed and fried strips of chicken breast.
• I had some crumbed risotto balls in the freezer, so I popped them into the oven.
• I also put a frozen garlic bread into the oven since it was already on.
• I chopped up some potatoes and lightly spiced them with paprika, garlic and salt and roasted them.
• I made a little mayonnaise, lime and sour cream dipping sauce.
• I took what I had and started arranging it on a bigger platter. I put a few ramekins on, which gave me a staring point and then filled in the gaps with the different components I had rustled together.
• I also wanted to make sure they had some vegetables!, so I put some blanched broccoli florets, fresh pineapple pieces, sliced apple and carrot and celery sticks on the platter too.
• Of course I added a fresh herb garnish to finish it all off.

There was nothing tricky or fancy about this meal, but the way it was plated appealed to my daughter and her friend. Isn't this so often the case - food presentation can make such a difference! If I had just put all these things onto a dinner plate each, I'm sure it wouldn't have been near as exciting.

Why don't you try to turn an everyday meal into a platter this weekend and see what fun it is?

Video Throwback - 3 Common Food Presentation Myths

I wonder if you have ever heard any of these common food presentation myths?

• You need to be professionally trained
• It's hard to present food nicely
• You need expensive ingredients to make your food look good.

If you've been thinking about taking your food plating and presentation up a notch and have had these thoughts, I hope this video throwback gives you the confidence to give it a go. Anyone can plate and present food nicely. It's not hard. And it doesn't need to be expensive.

Food presentation is an art. You learn by practising. Why not try adding a sauce to your plate? Add a garnish. Think about the colours on the plate. Is the main component positioned to stand out? Can you add any texture?

Food presentation is only hard if you make it hard. Do the things that you can do! Add fresh herbs to your food. Think about the way you cut something. Will the colour of plate make all the difference? These simple ideas are definitely not hard to achieve.

Look at the dinner platter in the previous section. It doesn't contain any fancy ingredients, only what we were going to have for dinner anyway - but plated in a fun way. Sometimes it might be a little more time consuming to make something look great, but it doesn't mean it's more expensive.

Have a look at the video below and see some ideas for how you can overcome these common food presentation myths.

Is there anything that puts you off plating food nicely? Reply to this email and I'll try to help you over the hurdle. Food presentation is the fun part of cooking!

Happy cooking,
Taryn