Food Garnishings - Tools and Tips

During one of the Blogging Marathon runs my post triggered a conversation about how to  decorate or garnish food. It is quite humorous to think that I planned an entire post dedicated to food garnishing for BM #21considering that I was seeking inputs back then.
Modesty aside, I do think there is some substance in my food garnishings although it is usually the time pressures that let me down during the presentations - especially on the blog.

Decco of a few things that I have tried.....successfully..

A bit on the tools....if you are very keen on learning garnishings then you must invest in some basic tools...and vice-versa if you buy tools...you may start doing some serious decorations to adorn your creations.

Tools 

- Scoop, zester, scraper, trimmer etc. This set of tool help in creating different shapes of vegetables, fruits and at times cakes and icecreams to create fancy items to top. 
- Cutters of different shapes are popularly used for baked goodies but you can also use them to create various shapes of fruits , veggies, rotis, rice moulds etc to serve. The ring mould is made famous on master chef to hold the shape of salads etc to ensure that they look neat on the serving dish
- Piping bags and various nozzles can be used ofcourse for the icing on cakes and other desserts but also to pipe out thicker sauces, potato mashes, in our context, purans or similar stuffings
- Knives. crinkle cutters come handy to do almost anything in absence of fancy tools. Different sizes helkp us make adjustments to the width and lengths
- Pallete knife and moulding tools are good for cake and other fondant based decorative items.
- Sieve is good to help you do deocration with dry powders or icing sugars
- V-Slicer in smaller size helps in creating decorations of veggies and fruits and also nuts

Basic Garnishings

Topping good items with chopped nuts, coriander, mint leaves, cream, or a contrasting colored food item can help in doing some basic garnishing.

 Stir Fried Vegetables  - Chopped Coriander, mint, Dried Fenugreek, Roasted Sesame Seeds
Curries and Dals - Cream, yogurt, coriander, chopped tomatoes and onions
Salads - Pomegranate, Chopped green leaves
Sweets and desserts - Chopped nuts or fresh fruits, cream, chocolate

Special Garnishings
When you are in mood to take some special efforts for garnishing you may try the below
- Create patterns using  sieve and structures like I used the fork.
- Create a salad and present it along with the dish
- Create a fruit fan 
- Decorate using silver or golden foil

  

Exotic Garnishings

When you are done with your cooking and have spare time or if cooking is not as important as presenting it  or when you are only presenting , you can opt for some real elaborate decorations.

- Create fancy garnishings using vegetables and fruits 
- Create ice sculptures

Watch out space for detailed garnishing lessons

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing