Your best cooking tips

[Lebou]

I’ve just discovered that if you roast a chicken upside down you get loads more crispy skin than breast side up

Also for perfect fried eggs with fully cooked white but runny yolk, cook on a low heat with a lid on

What are yours?

Marry a man who wants to do the cooking!

For the best roast potatoes Par boil potatoes. Drain. Sprinkle over 2 tsp of semolina and shake vigorously until fully covered the potatoes and they look all fluffy. Then stick into pan in oven with hot oil. Perfect roasts every time..

@Enko what type of potatoes do you use?

@Enko it works with raw cous cous sprinkled on too

Batch cook. Even roast chicken!!

Peel celery with a potato peeler to get rid of the stringy bits.

Whisk a small blob of mayonnaise into homemade salad dressings to keep them emulsified.

Cook pre-soaked dried beans in a slow cooker and add the bean water to stock for soups etc.

@Lebou Maris Piper I find is best but I have also liked Desiree however frankly it works w most potatoes as long as you don't overcook.

If you don't want your onions to brown add a good pinch of salt: it makes the water come out of the onions and stops them catching.

If you do want your onions to be brown (for hot dogs , for example) then fry them in a little oil without salt and when a few edge ones have gone dark brown/ splash of water and stir through until the water evaporates: the dark colour is caramelized sugar which will dissolve into the water so you can make your onions look and taste browned without having to shrink them down too much.

To do batch cooking without the monotony, batch cook a generic 'base' that can be portioned and made into different meals. E.g. I will cook a load of mince with onion/carrot/celery at the weekend and freeze. in the week, I can defross a portion and add different things to turn it into spag bol, chilli, fried rice, cottage pie, soup etc etc
Other favourites are chicken thighs and pork shoulder which can be turned into loads of quick meals.

Also MN taught me about frozen onions. They are a game-changer. I haven't chopped an onion in ages!

Another option for potatoes is to sprinkle dry onion soup over the top of them after parboiling and putting in the oven in oil.

I put a bit of vinegar in my yorkshire batter which helps them rise. We have an issue with getting them to rise well here (not in UK) and I that seems to work, not sure why though.

Peel butternut with a potato peeler, make it a much easier job.

Some great tips here....

And on the other thread, whip your mashed potatoes with a wooden spoon at the end, they come out nice and creamy. Add in a tiny bit of baking powder as well to make it light.

You can caramelise onions in a slow cooker. Do a big batch overnight (the usual way, with a little bit of sugar and some butter) and then freeze portions.

Use your slow cooker properly , don't try to cook stuff in it in a few hours , stews , currys, speg bol, chilli etc need 10 hrs or longer.

Unless you really insist on neat bacon rashers buy packs of cooking bacon .
Depending on where you buy the bacon it cost about 60p £1 per kg.

Add a splash of balsamic vinegar to beef gravy for a lovely deep taste.

These are great, thanks!

Sounds weird but cinnamon in a bolognese sauce is lovely.

Peel ginger with spoon

Peel ginger with spoon

Yes! That was an absolute revelation.

When making a roux, always use warm milk not cold.

Put cheese in the freezer for 20/30 minutes before grating. It won’t go all soft and squishy on the grater and block the holes.

Add one or two squares of very dark chocolate to chilli just before serving ,

Freeze whole chillis and root ginger and just grate as needed.

Blitz onion, garlic, carrot, celery and freeze the mixture to use as a base for bolognese and other sauces.

Chops lemons and limes into wedges and freeze. Perfect in gin instead of ice cubes.

When wanting to add butter and then jam (or other topping to bread). Spread the butter then slide the knife into the side of the bread. this cleans the knife which you can then use in the jam without getting butter in the jam jar!

Pre-heat the oven
Room temp eggs
Warm milk to go into a white sauce (not straight out fridge)

Serve french beans with a good amount of salt, black pepper and parmesan cheese, they are lush, also works with runner beans.

Red lentils chucked it soup and cooked for at least 20 minutes doesn't change the taste but adds flavour.

If you buy those rotisserie chickens from M and S in the tray and roasting bag, remove the bag before cooking and do the roast potatoes in the tray, its amazing and the carcass/scraggy bits make a really tasty and quick stock.

A poached egg, slice of naice ham and a blob of hollandaise sauce on a toasted muffin is the breakfast of gods.

Sorry, red lentils dont change the flavour but thickens your soup.