Top tips for cooking

[warpig3]

What top tips can you impart to fellow Abers?

Here are a few of mine (apologies if these are obvious or you already use them but every little helps)

1. Need chopped tinned toms. Buy whole tinned tom (cheaper), pour out a little of the juice then cut the toms with a sharp knife in the tin, no mess no fuss.

2. Store chillies and ginger in the freezer, always handy. Remember to cut ginger into 1" lengths first, saves having to 'saw' through the whole root.

3. Icecube trays - not just for ice cubes. I freeze stock and wine in mine then when frozen transfer to a plastic bag, this is handy if you need a dash of wine for a recipe (also handy if the kids are doing your head in and its only 10.30 in the morning, lol). Note the wine doesnt freeze totally, but enough to transfer to poly bag (its a little slushy)

4. Minced beef somethimes is a little rubbery. Should not be so according to my italian friend. Once browned, the minced should be simmered in sauce or gravey for as long as possible up to 1and a half hours apparently.

So come on share your pearls of wisdom!

Thanks
warpig

[indianwells]

1. Never overmix meatballs, they become tough.

2. To use up leftover fresh herbs, chop finely, mix with a little water and freeze into ice cubes, then add at the end to soups and casseroles.

3. If you can't skim off all the fat floating on top of a simmered dish, throw in a couple of ice cubes, the fat will immediately stick to them and you can quickly take the cubes out along with the fat.

4. Always buy the best possible ingrediants you can afford and do very little to them. Good food speaks for itself, it doesn't need much help from you!

5. Taste constantly while cooking. I know people who never taste until it's served at the table. Amazing!

6. Never eat yellow snow......

[warpig3]

LOL indianwells - never eat yellow snow, brilliant.

It would appear that ice cubes and their trays are invaluable to the aspiring chef!

thank you
warpig

[warpig3]

Meant to add that I particulary like the ice cubes to remove fat, would never have crossed my mind.

[heathfield]

1. Add a spoonful of sugar to the water when boiling carrots to give them a more carroty flavour.

2. Add a tablespoon of brown sauce, (Heinz or Daddy's), when cooking a beef stew or bolognese. The vinegariness goes completely within a minute or two, and the remaining ingredients add a beautiful richness.

3. Adding a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda to the water when boiling greens retains the green colour and stops them going pale.

4. A teensy pinch of salt added to a cup of coffee removes some or all of any bitterness.

5 Warm plates by placing them on top of the saucepan when you're boiling something up.

6. Add one or two chopped skinned fresh tomatoes to a bolognese or chilli con carne and taste the difference.

7. If you're feeling adventurous, try placing a whole habanero pepper in a stew. Be very careful not to break it when you stir!! Remove the pepper (carefully!) before serving. The result is a beautiful and unique flavour, but, surprisingly, without any chilli pepper heat!!

Having tried chopping whole tinned tomatoes, I've concluded that already chopped tinned tomatoes taste better. I look for BOGOFF deals on Heinz and Napolina in Tesco's and buy a cupboardfull at a time. (Avoid Lidl's, they're awful).

[warpig3]

Interesting heathfield, I had never considered that there might be a taste difference between chopped and unchopped tinned toms, I would have assumed that any difference would be attributed to my 'cooking skills' and I use that term rather loosely! I shall have to conduct and experiment.

thank you muchly
warpig

[4GS]

Wear surgical gloves when cutting chiilies,
I cooked some in a meal for a g/f once without wearing them, then later as we were getting ready for some horizontal action, she complained that she was getting hot down 'there' then she lept out of bed with the speed of 1000 antelopes that are being chased by a pride of Lions, straight into the bathroom where she spent the rest of the evening running a sponge under cold water and placing it on her 'lady bits' to cool it down

[warpig3]

LOL 4GS, bet you thought you were on to a good thing when she said she was hot!!!!!! Still, could have been worse, could have been your man bits instead, ouch!

[4GS]

She was the same girl who made me think I was the worlds best lover,


then I found out she had asthma ;-((

[Bromsgrove]

A good way of storing ginger is to scrub the root,remove any blemishes,but do not peel. Chop in a food processor,use a little water if the mix becomes too stiff, and freeze in ice-cube trays. I usually fill some to the top, others half full and some just a quarter full, ready for different needs. The same method also works with garlic.

[warpig3]

Broomsgrove, in an indian recipe I was making recently it said something about 'taking out minced garlic and ginger from the freezer as detailed in a previouse recipe', unfortunately I didn't know what the previous recipe was so hadn't a clue what they were talking about, now I know.

thank you
warpig

[Jugglering]

Need to peel tomatoes ? Score a cross through the top (where the stalk had been), pour some boiling water over them, leave to soak for a few minutes then peel off the skin...

Freeze an onion for half an hour before peeling and chopping to avoid *onion eyes* ..

Sieve beaten eggs before making into an omelette to remove bits of shell (nothing worse than crunchy omelettes....)

Add half a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of sugar to a casserole dish containing a can of tomatoes to remove the bitter metallic taste.

When making a curry, cook the onions on a low heat for as long as you possibly can, this far improves the flavour (I try for 20 minutes without browning!).

A can of chick pea dahl will give you a really good base for a stew - plus add a whole raft of (cheap) protein. Adding cans of cooked, rinsed & drained pulses are good ways of stretching a meal out.

If you need to melt chocolate, always try to use a bain marie (a dry bowl in a pan of hot water) or the chocolate will separate out into its constitutent parts... most unpleasant ! Failing that, microwave for just a few seconds and allow the heat of the melted chocolate block to melt its surrounding neighbour...

[warpig3]

These are brilliant, I am gonna print these off and stick them in my cookbook. I am slowly gathering together recipies and my variations of them (only the successful ones), tips and ideas, perhaps one day when I am the new Delia you will buy my book and say 'hey, she nicked that from me!' Seriously though, these are all brilliant and I for one really apppreciate them.

Jugglering - oh the humble chick pea, one of my favourites, although I am more likely to make a chick pea curry and stretch it out with more chick peas!

Thank you all.

[Oneeyedvic]

two ingredients that are really underutilised:

1) Cous Cous

2) Pasata (I use a lot instead of chopped tomatoes)

Best tip though is to overcook some food and keep in the freezer - then you won't be afraid to try a new recipe out as if it doesn't work you have a back up of frozen left overs

[heathfield]

To expand on Sodemall's generalisation - specifically, bicarbonate of soda can destroy the vitamin C in green vegetables, yes, but only if too much is added to the water.

[heathfield]

Oh! I nearly forgot another tip.
Always add some salt to the water when boiling vegetables! There's a very good reason for this...
The hot water softens the walls of the cells in the vegetables. This allows the natural minerals in the vegetables to migrate through the walls of the cells into the water, and you lose them. By adding some salt to the water, a mineral balance is obtained between the inside and the outside of the cells, and this migration will not take place. You keep the benefits of the vegetable minerals.

When too much salt is added, the salt will migrate into the cells instead, and is the reason the food will taste salty.

Those who boil vegetables without salt, on the grounds that doing so is better for you, are losing out on those beneficial vegetable minerals.

[hogmother]

Most fresh herbs can be stored in a freezer as well.Iif you find a cheese you like on offer did you know you could freeze that as well. I buy tinned vegtables in places like netto which are about 17p for sweetcorn and chopped toms, failing that I get the value ranges from the supermarket., when you are using these things in recipes I find they are fine.
Other tips try putting vinegar or black pepper on strawberries.
When using toms use a pinch of sugar to bring out the flavour, or use tom ketchup instead of tomatoe puree.
I love the flavour of nutmeg and use it freshly grated on everything from milk dishes to meats.
I keep my sugar in an airtight jar with a vanilla pod broken in half so the sugar absorbs the vanilla oil and I never have to use artifical vanilla flavour which I hate.
If cooking a rice pudding and you add some saffron strands not only do you get a glorious colour but flavour as well.
Experiment with different flavours and seasoning it is fun and the results might surprise you.

[hogmother]

Sorry I forgot this one similar to a reply posted earlier to peel tomatoes cut the cross on the top plunge into boiling water and then into ice cold water it makes it very easy.
When chopping onions leave the root end attatched and it helps stop onion eyes

[warpig3]

I like the vanilla pod in the sugar, nice idea hogmother. Also on the subject of chopping onions (and this is just the method I use) - I cut the top of the onion then peel leaving the root intact. When chopping I only breath through my mouth not my nose thus the nasty stingy whatever does not get to my sinuses as much seems to work, give it a try.
I have never frozen cheese but my sister does, she grates hers first as she says to freeze it whole makes it go crumbly, not sure what difference that would make to me as I could eat it by the block anyway, crumbly or not!

Great name by the way hogmother, does that make you my mum?