culinary "art"

When I observe my culinary students in the Holyoke Community College food lab, the scene looks like something out of "Top Chef": the cooks scramble around the kitchen grabbing spices, chopping garlic and onion, taste testing, and altering flavors as they see fit. Although every student is assigned the same dish with the same main ingredients, each one also adds his or her personal flair with herbs, spices and seasonings. Each cook creates a unique masterpiece. The students' performance in food lab never ceases to impress me (and taste testing all the dishes is a bonus)!

It is sometimes difficult for us mere mortals who just want to get dinner on the table by 7pm to imagine cooking as an "art". We follow a recipe and just hope it turns out like the picture in the cookbook! However, every so often I come across a recipe that gives me guidelines to follow, but also allows me to express my creativity with different flavors and textures...kind of like the cooking version of "paint by numbers"! I love these recipes...preparing them makes me feel like a culinary artist.

I came across a great low fat granola recipe today that does just this: the recipe gives you the proportions and cooking instructions, and you get to pick the ingredients. Go put on your chef's hat and get creative in the kitchen!

Ingredients:
1. Pick a selection of flaked or rolled grains - oats, wheat and barley are all good.
2. Pick a selection of nuts and seeds: almonds, brazils, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame and anything else you like. Coconut is also good but is relatively high in saturated fats. Use you can usually find unsweetened flakes.
3. Pick the dried fruits you would like to use: raisins, sultanas and dates, apricots and dried apples are all good. Avoid things that have been sweetened with additional sugar if you want a reasonably healthy mix.

You also need honey and cooking oil.

Here are the proportions you need:
1 part oil, 2 parts honey, 3 - 4 parts seed and nuts, 4 parts grains, 3 - 4 parts dried fruit

Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Measure out the oil and honey into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the nuts and seeds. They should be well chopped so that no large chunks remain, especially if you are using brazils and pecans.
4. Add the grains and mix everything together very well.
5. Cook the mixture in a shallow open tray. You need to turn the mixture from time to time so that everything becomes evenly browned.
6. When everything is cooked (about twenty minutes to half an hour) remove the tray and finish by mixing in the chopped fruit.
7. Let cool and enjoy (or store in plastic bags or jars for later)!

Source: http://www.greenfootsteps.com/low-fat-granola-recipe.html