When Ina Pinkney was developing

a recipe for gingerbread pancakes for her popular Chicago restaurant,

Ina's, she knew she wanted more than ginger to come across in the

flavor.

"People can be overwhelmed

she said.

So she added something unexpected

to the batter: dry mustard.

"You can't taste

it, but it adds a flavor profile that boosts the other ingredients,"

Pinkney said.

Professional cooks often have

tricks like these up their sleeves. Maybe it's adding coffee to barbecue

sauce, or vodka to a grapefruit ice cream. These additions aren't

just a matter of adding novelty, but are a way of tinkering with the overall

flavor to make an even more interesting dish. The unexpected ingredients

are worth experimenting with at home, too, to explore the many levels

of flavor a recipe can offer.

A traditional example would

be the chocolate that goes into a spicy Mexican mole, such as the red

mole that chef Kevin Kerales serves at Platiyo in Chicago.

But other chefs like to play

with ingredients to put a twist on the classics. Jay Lovell, chef of Lovells

of Lake Forest, Ill., was inspired while creating the menu for a wine

dinner. Starting with a duck breast, Lovell dusted the poultry with a

mixture of sugar and cocoa powder and seared it in a skillet, letting

the sugar caramelize on the crisp skin. For a sauce, the chef added to

a reduction of white wine and veal stock.

But the recipe wasn't

simply whimsical, he said. "For me, the cocoa and coffee bring up

a richer, darker flavor in the bird. It also matched the wine. You can

taste chocolate and coffee notes in some wines, and it was there in the

cabernet for this course."

Home cooks have their own tradition

of combining surprising ingredients, such as doctoring tomato sauces with

a pinch of sugar when the tomatoes aren't up to snuff, or giving

barbecue sauce and cake a little pizazz with cola. Campbell's tomato

soup spice cake, developed in 1949, is still one of the company's

most requested recipes, according to spokesman Lawrence Faulkner. The

cake has appeared in dozens of community cookbooks since its introduction.

Don't just leave it up

to the chefs to play with their food. Interested cooks can try their own

concoctions. Consider matching up flavors that had not seemed compatible

before - think of it as a blind date for your food - and see

what happens.

It could be good, it could

be bad, but it certainly won't be boring.

Gingerbread pancakes

1 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup potato starch

1/4 cup whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground mustard

1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

2 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons molasses

Sift together the flour, sugar,

potato starch, whole-wheat flour, baking soda, ginger, salt, cloves, mustard

and pumpkin pie spice in large mixing bowl; set aside. Combine buttermilk,

sour cream, eggs, oil and molasses in a large bowl; stir into flour mixture.

Heat an oiled griddle or skillet

over medium-high heat. Heat oven to 200 degrees. Pour 1/4 cup of the batter

onto griddle for each pancake. Cook until batter bubbles, about 3 minutes;

turn. Cook 1 minute. Place pancakes, uncovered, on oven-safe platter in

the oven until all pancakes are done. Makes 20, 3-inch pancakes.

Braised pork with cocoa

1 pork shoulder roast, about

4 1/2 pounds

4 teaspoons salt

Freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons peanut oil

6 cans (14-1/2 ounces each)

chicken broth

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 white onion, thinly sliced

3 green onions, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 whole star anise

2 dried hot chilies

1 piece (2 inches long) ginger

root, peeled, thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 teaspoons Dutch-process cocoa

powder

1/2 cup plum or rice wine

Season the pork with 2 teaspoons

of the salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Heat the oil over high

heat in a large Dutch oven; sear the meat on all sides until well-browned,

about 3 minutes per side. Add the broth, brown sugar, soy sauce, onions,

garlic, star anise, chilies, ginger, peppercorns and remaining 2 teaspoons

of the salt. Heat to boiling; reduce heat to simmer. Cover; cook until

fork tender, about 3 hours.

Remove meat from liquid; set

aside on a platter. Increase heat to high; boil liquid uncovered until

it reduces by one-fourth, about 20 minutes. Strain liquid; return liquid

to Dutch oven. Combine cornstarch, cocoa powder and plum wine in a small

bowl. Whisk into liquid. Heat to a boil; cook, stirring, until thick,

about 2 minutes. Shred meat with a fork or hands; return meat to sauce.

Cook until heated through, about 1 minute. Serves 8.

Mushroom syrup

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 pound white button mushrooms,

quartered

1/2 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground pepper

2 shallots, sliced

1 clove garlic, halved

2 tablespoons minced parsley

Heat butter over medium-high

heat in a pan large enough to hold mushrooms in a single layer. Add mushrooms,

salt and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring constantly, until mushrooms are

deep brown and have caramelized, 15-20 minutes.

Stir in shallots, garlic, parsley

and just enough water to cover mushrooms; scrape up any browned mushroom

bits clinging to pan. Boil mushrooms over medium-high heat 15 minutes.

Strain through a fine mesh strainer, pressing down on vegetables; discard

vegetables. Return broth to pan; cook over medium-high heat until reduced

to a syrup, about 10 minutes. You should end up with no more than 1/2

cup.

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