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Tips & Tricks

Gordon

OK, so what tips do you have for the culinary mind?
I have a few but can only think of a couple right now.

• To check if your eggs are fine or rotten: Place them in a bowl of water ddeeper than the eggs. If your eggs sink - they are fine, if they float - they are rotten. (Akin to the witchtrials of yore...)

• Eggs again. Always check your eggs in the supermarket. I got a 6 pack of eggs one time that only had 5 in them. pesky kids.

• Put a few [rice] grains in your salt cellar to prevent moisture and clumpy salt. (or does everyone in the world know that)

OK, mine are pretty crappy really. You must have better!

[d'oh, thanks lawnkiller, didnt see that!]

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Mr Magnolia

Put some crisps (those crinkle cut ones are the best) into the container with your sambo. The crisps absorb the moisture and stop your sambo going soggy. Don't eat the crisps though, they turn fairly soggy.

Mr Magnolia

Thought I might add this for anyone who didn't know:

4 table spoons Mayo
2 table spoons Tomato Sauce
A good shake of pepper
Small splash of whiskey
Mix well

Go's with battered fish/scampi etc

Strokesfan

Yum simple chocolate sauce for ice cream
1 bar of plain/dark cooking chocolate
small - big knob of butter - depends how sinful you're feeling
carton of cream
melt choc, add butter, stir in cream
Pour hot over ice cream
Too much is a little sickly
It's good to be bad!!

Never ever touch your eyes after handling chilli's - I learned this the hard way...

Pinch of nutmeg in Mashed potatoes is heaven

DrP

THere seems to be a lot of egg related posts so though I would add one more. Saw a novel way of doing poached eggs on TV the other day. I can't say how well it works becuse I haven't tried it myself, I hate egg yolk (can just about tolerate it if it's cooked rock hard) so I only ever cook poached eggs if they are for someone else, which is practically never.

Take a piece of cling film, crack your egg onto this (probably best to do over a bowl or cup of something so the egg doesn't run everywhere) then gather up the clingfilm around the egg and twist the clingfilm to seal your parcel. Cook in the simmering water as for a normal poached egg.

Diogenes

DrP wrote:

THere seems to be a lot of egg related posts so though I would add one more. Saw a novel way of doing poached eggs on TV the other day. I can't say how well it works becuse I haven't tried it myself, I hate egg yolk (can just about tolerate it if it's cooked rock hard) so I only ever cook poached eggs if they are for someone else, which is practically never.

Take a piece of cling film, crack your egg onto this (probably best to do over a bowl or cup of something so the egg doesn't run everywhere) then gather up the clingfilm around the egg and twist the clingfilm to seal your parcel. Cook in the simmering water as for a normal poached egg.

Whoa I was like totally going to post this. Use a cup, coat the inside with olive oil (stops the cling film sticking to it) push the cling film inside the cup, crack the egg into a cup and then tie the cling film.

Drop the eggs into simmering water for a minute, then take off the heat and leave them in the water for ten minutes. Peel off clingfilm. Viola. Perfect poached eggs.

This method is excellent if you don't like vingeary poached eggs.

MoominPapa

Most important tip for chopping chili - wet hands and the chili before you start to chop then rinse hands after, then you can go wee wee and not have to worry about nasty chili oil getting on your ding dong and making it flare up like an abstract balloon sculpture

Shabadu

Sparks400 wrote:

Thought I might add this for anyone who didn't know:

4 table spoons Mayo
2 table spoons Tomato Sauce
A good shake of pepper
Small splash of whiskey
Mix well

Go's with battered fish/scampi etc

It's a little nicer with brandy instead of whiskey, and some cayenne & paprika, but whatever you've got to hand will do.

Also, I'm a little worried about all these chefs cooking boudins & eggs in clingfilm nowadays. Chemical paranoia!

westtip

Strokesfan wrote:

Yum simple chocolate sauce for ice cream

Never ever touch your eyes after handling chilli's - I learned this the hard way...

Never touch somethign else after handling chilli. Very painful.

beefa

For perfect rice;

Rince and drain the rice 8 times before cooking, this takes off alot of the starchyness and so the rice doesn't stick together.

Rather than adding water to rice by cup measurements, cover the rice with water and place your hand in the water and flat ontop of the rice. The water should rise to your knuckles but not come up to your wrist.

Then boil the rice for a few mins, add lid turn off heat and leave for 30 mins, do not take off the lid unitl 30mins or it will ruin everthing:o

brown*eyed*girl

For those watching the calories & fat intake, an alternative to deep-frying popodums is to spray two popodoms with Fry Lite Oil Spray. One spray on each one will do & place on top of each other & put in the microwave for 1 min. These come out lovely and crispy and a lot less fattening than deep-frying. For anyone who's interested they are only 1pt for both when cooked like that & delicious dipped in the no point veg curry.

Blush_01

Nothing about pastry? Shocking!

Perfect pastry needs everything to be cold. Cold mixing bowl, cold fat, cold hands, cold utensils. I have very warm hands, so I never touch my pastry until it's completely combined. Cut the fat through the flour with a cold knife, have a few knives in the icebox and swap as the knife gets warm. Keep your water in the icebox too, or put icecubes in it and remove them before pouring into the mixing bowl. You shouldn't need much water anyway. Put the combined pastry in cling film, then tinfoil and chill until needed.

Makes the loveliest, silky pastry, perfect for savory and sweet dishes.

dmck

If you have to use a jar of sauce for Spaghetti Bolognese, give it a kick by adding a small tin of tomato puree and a tin of chopped tomatoes. Let it gently simmer for anything over an hour. This really makes a difference!

sweet-rasmus

to measure out perfect portions of pasta use a judge of 1 cup per person.

The Hill Billy

Microwave tips from the Good Housekeeping Institute:

Get more juice out of lemons and limes, by softening them on high for 15-20 seconds.

Dry herbs, on high for around 40 seconds. Wash them first and spread them on kitchen paper, with more kitchen paper on top.

Zap fresh breadcrumbs to make them dry enough to coat food for deep-fat frying.

Warm plates - though not if they've got metal edges or decoration. Sprinkle each one with water and pile them up. Heat on high for around 30 seconds.

Sterilise jars for jam-making. Put up to six in the oven with about an inch of water in each. Heat for 1½ to 2 minutes, until the water comes to the boil. With oven gloves, remove from microwave, tip out the water and they're ready.

Make jelly faster than normal, by putting jelly cubes in a bowl or mould with four tablespoons of water on high for 60 seconds. Stir, then add the rest of the water, cold.

Zap damp sponges and dishcloths for two minutes on full power to kill more than 99% of harmful bacteria.

BaZmO*

Diogenes wrote:

Whoa I was like totally going to post this. Use a cup, coat the inside with olive oil (stops the cling film sticking to it) push the cling film inside the cup, crack the egg into a cup and then tie the cling film.

Drop the eggs into simmering water for a minute, then take off the heat and leave them in the water for ten minutes. Peel off clingfilm. Viola. Perfect poached eggs.

This method is excellent if you don't like vingeary poached eggs.

Actually tried this the other day. It works a treat. Didn't need to put any oil in the cup though and I found that 1 minute in simmering water and then another 7 mins just sitting in the water off the heat done the eggs exactly how I like them.

Minder

Cous cous

To start, it is pronounced cus cus, and not coos coos.
Coos are how doves communicate.

Cous cous is a fine semolina grain that is a staple of the berber tribes of north africa. It is much abused by the tv chefery who drown it in boiled water.

Now there is nothing actually wrong with covering cous cous with boiled water - if you like the taste of boiled water.

But wouldn't it be much more exciting if it was made using the juices from a meat or fish sauce?

The berber use a lot of lamb in their cooking. The lamb is simmered in a spicy liquid until tender. The liquid is then used to make the cous cous. It is added gradually. As the cous cous absorbs the liquid, it is loosened with a fork. More liquid is added until the cous cous is light and fluffy. If it has a bite, it can be covered and nuked for a couple of minutes to steam it, or placed in a warm oven, again to steam.

Avoid using liquids that have been thickened - it makes it difficult for the cous cous to take up the liquid.

Give it a try, it is a useful alternative to rice or spuds.

loismustdie

this might not b a great tip but one i live by, don't add salt while cooking, wait to taste it, chances are you don't need the salt at all

Schlemm

loismustdie wrote:

this might not b a great tip but one i live by, don't add salt while cooking, wait to taste it, chances are you don't need the salt at all

True, I often find that I get by ok without adding it to lots of dishes...they usually taste the same without!

One tip I'd like to add is that I use dessert apples in an apple crumble rather than cooking apples. They're a lot sweeter too! Pink Lady or Red Delicious are nice. Sprinkling a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg and adding a cinnamon stick with the apples before the crumble goes on is also nice. Throw in a few berries too, whatever's in season. Blueberries and blackberries work well.

Schlemm

Forgot to mention...invest in a Paella Pan!

One of the best culinary inventions ever! Although we've never made paella in ours, it's great for making bolognese sauce, soup, poaching eggs, etc. And you can do many dishes from start to finish in it.

It is like a saucepan shaped like a frying pan, but it's wider and deeper.

Great for getting good heat distribution especially if you have a big gas ring to put it on.

tw0nk

Ok this might sound strange but before putting in oven place a layer of cheese & onion tayto on top of lasagne and sprinkling some grated cheese on it is absolutely gorgeous.

The Hill Billy

tw0nk - Just to be clear - do you mean crumbled up crisps (which is very nice indeed) or do you leave yours whole?

tw0nk

I actually leave mine whole, never tried them crumbled up but now that you have mentioned it, I think Il give it a try! cheers.

Splinty

Instead of trying to put garlic in the topping or on the bread slices before you toast them... try this:

Slice the bread on diagonal and brush with olive oil on both sides.

Stick it on a pan under the broiler until toasty... take the pan out and flip them over, toast the other side...

once they are done, cut a clove of garlic (with the skin on to protect your hands) and rub the cut part on the toast.

This smells wonderful and gets rid of the risk of burning the garlic.

BaZmO*

Splinty wrote:

Instead of trying to put garlic in the topping or on the bread slices before you toast them... try this:

Slice the bread on diagonal and brush with olive oil on both sides.

Stick it on a pan under the broiler until toasty... take the pan out and flip them over, toast the other side...

once they are done, cut a clove of garlic (with the skin on to protect your hands) and rub the cut part on the toast.

This smells wonderful and gets rid of the risk of burning the garlic.

That is actually how you make garlic bread / bruschetta.

Splinty

BaZmO* wrote:

That is actually how you make garlic bread / bruschetta.

hm. well.. there a lot of people that I know that use garlic powder or garlic salt before toasting. Crazy i know.

BaZmO*

Splinty wrote:

hm. well.. there a lot of people that I know that use garlic powder or garlic salt before toasting. Crazy i know.

GET BACK SATAN!!! BACK I TELL THEE!!!!

CuriousHmmm

When buying prepacked chicken fillets. take a little time to compare the weight of the fillets, either by hand or by using the scales in the vegetable section. The weight can vary quite considerably, especially with those 3 fillets for E4.99 packs that they have in Tesco and Dunnes. Sometimes just by looking you can see that there's more chicken in one pack than another, and I've found there can be variation between packs of as much as nearly a pound.

Overheal

Everything stays fresher in freezer bags.

Keep some high quality freezer bags with the ziplock around for your things, like vegetables, and just keep recyling the bag - give it a good wash and dry. Never mess with cling film again and your food stays fresher. Works on just about everything.

Mellor

Overheal wrote: »

Everything stays fresher in freezer bags.

Keep some high quality freezer bags with the ziplock around for your things, like vegetables, and just keep recyling the bag - give it a good wash and dry. Never mess with cling film again and your food stays fresher. Works on just about everything.

Or use fresh ingredients

internelligent

I tried stirring the water before putting the egg in so it stays together but it didn't work at all. It sounds like a great idea but maybe I'm doing it wrong. I think I'll try the heating the egg in the cup first.
Tip:
If making tea and toast but you've rock hard butter. Use the knife instead of a spoon to stir the tea first so the butter's alot easier to spread with the hot knife. Nothing special but it's all I have...

Great thread by the way!