Cooking secrets you'd like revealed

[DarylDixonsHair]

How to make crispy vegetable fritters that you can grab one corner and pick up and eat. Mine are always a soggy, floppy mess that need to be eaten with a spoon.

Thai curry - good quality paste if don't want to make you're own, mae ploy as recommended by pp.
Also season with splash of fish sauce, teaspoon of tamarind paste, pinch dark brown sugar and fresh lime to get the depth of flavour. Tweak each a tiny bit at a time to balance 😋

skeemee

yes but it is a cheat: boil & drain macaroni.
Heat up gently a jar of Dolmio white lasagne sauce and stir in as much grated cheese mix (half & half cheddar and gouda type) as suits you, till blended. Pour into pasta pan then tip the mix into an oven dish, sprinkle some of the cheese on top then pop under grill or into oven till melted. Enjoy

realfood.tesco.com/recipes/stus-never-fails-mac-n-cheese.html

This is a really easy mac and cheese recipe, although I use parmesan to give it a more cheesy flavour.

In response to posters asking about dry and tough roasts - buy a digital meat thermometer and know your cuts. Slow roast or pot roast tough cuts (eg topside, silverside, brisket), hot and fast for more tender cuts. But always just cook to your desired doneness using the thermometer. Overcook and you get a dry tough roast.

I can also give some insight into Indian restaurant cooking - my son has worked in the kitchen of one for 2 years. Anything I don't already know and I'll get him to ask at work tomorrow.

@WingBingo what do you actually do with the MSG? I make chicken fried rice (my go to at the Chinese) in the house and it’s good, really good but is just missing that little something!

#1
I make the crumble topping and lightly bake spread out on a baking tray FIRST. After making the fruit part, both are assembled and popped into the oven to finish off. Never looked back. The crumble topping is never ever stodgy underneath or tastes undercooked. Extra points if walnuts or pecans are chopped up and added to the crumble mix. Yum yum yum.

#2
Sticky rice. I love my instant pot for two things. I can make sticky rice that is soft, fragrant, fluffy (relatively speaking) and perfectly textured within 30 mins of turning the IP on. High pressure cook for 12 minutes and natural release for 7. It never, ever fails me. I failed miserably with bamboo steamers, 'easy' YouTube tutorials, internet 'hacks' for perfect SR - nothing worked so well and the clean up afterwards made me rage.

#3
Pearl barley in a stew to thicken the broth. I always try to use meat and their bones to give the stew beautiful flavour, and still use a jelly stock to reinforce the overall taste. Fresh herbs at the end and generous turns of the pepper mill.

Slow cooking stew secret is really low temp. I cook stews in an oven at about 90C overnight. Heat up to eat. Tastes are far more developed. Secret ingredient is chutney.

Kfc secret spices!

My version of sticky rice- i always use jasmine rice.

1 cup of rice to 2 cups (and an extra splash) of water.

Wash the rice, then add your water to the pan. When it’s boiling away put the lid on and turn the heat right down and leave for 10 minutes- by this point there shouldn’t be any water left in the pan. Don’t open the lid!
Leave for 10 minutes with the lid on.

Then fluff up with a fork and enjoy! It works every time!

@thequeenbeyondthewall forgot to tag you in my post above

Great thread! Mine is how to make southern fried chicken. I can never get the skin crispy enough!

I’d love to make an amazing stew. No matter what I put in I feel like it just tastes so watery and flavourless. I remember my nans stew tasting incredible and thick.

Do you coat the meat with flour? That's what thickens the 'gravy'.

AngelGrinder

Have you tried it in a slow cooker? Just on its own, notheing added.

Kidney in beef stew gives it a much richer flavour.

Brown the onions for anything savoury, curries, stews, bolognese. You are often told to fry the onions first but if they are only pale and limp they won't have much impact. They need to be cooked longer until they are browned but not burned. This probably takes 10 mins or so. This gives a savoury flavour.

Roast beef from the supermarket sometimes has almost no fat on it. You need fat to help flavour and reduce dryness.

Stew, as passed down to me by my mum. Never, ever fails.

Stewing steak.
1 onion.
2 carrots.
1 parsnip.
Half a swede.
2 or 3 spuds, depending on size.
Worcestershire sauce.
Beef stock cube.
Gravy granules.

Just cover the chopped onion and steak with water and set on to a low simmer for at least an hour, possibly longer. Check meat for tenderness. I don’t brown it - it always leads to toughness, ime.

When the onions are soft and the meat cooked through and tenderised, add all other ingredients except potatoes, and top up with water, again until just covered. Add a beef stock cube, a good dash of Lea and Perrins and salt and pepper to taste.

Set on to simmer for again, at least an hour. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t dry out. After an hour, check vegetables for tenderness and give them longer if necessary.

Once you’re happy with the tenderness of the veg, stir in a good dessert spoon of Bisto gravy granules, perhaps another dash of Lea and Perrins, and the spuds. (Put your dumplings on the top at this point if you’re making them).

Give the stew another 20 mins, or until the potatoes are soft.

If your gravy isn’t as thick as you like it, mix a little cornflour with water and add, giving it at least 5 minutes to cook out.

Proper Mum Stew - Food of the Gods, keeping my family running since 1958!

(Even better next day, but it never lasts that long).

@lovinglavidaloca use it as a seasoning like salt. So a teaspoon in fried rice.

Chinese supermarkets sell it, about £1 per bag. Amazon sell it but it is about £4.

Banana fritters need to be deep fried. Dusting the chopped banana chunks in icing sugar not flour to get the batter to stick = sticky sweet inner layer.

Any kind of vegetable/potato fritter you need to squeeze all the water out of the veg before mixing with the rest of the ingredients (a teatowel is good for this)

Stew - brown your meat and veg well first before adding any liquid. When your meat and veg are nice and brown add a couple of tablespoons of seasoned flour and cook off. THEN add your liquid. The cut of meat is also important. I don't use anything other than ox cheek. Cook on low in the oven for two hours. Always add Worcester sauce and a tablespoon of tomato puree for depth.

@SagaBauer what cut?

Crumble-use brown sugar mix some porridge oats in With your flour and butter and top with brown sugar before baking. Crumble is one of those things where butter really is better than Marge.

@AngelGrinder

Rib of beef every time.

I will buy mine and leave it for a week in the fridge.
The colder the meat the better...that means the longer in a cold space the more tender it becomes.
Same with steaks.

Room temperature before roasting, into a super hot over for 25 minutes, then right down.
Medium - rare here. Divine.

Mines a basic one....how to cook rice! I can cook most things but not rice! I've tried so many methods but always ends up sticky or undercooked...

How to mix noodles into stir fry so everything is equally distributed??

@smithtylater I use one of these

One cup of rice, 2 cups boiling water, 10 mins in microwave.

Or one cup rice, two cups boiling water on hob with lid on. Gently simmer 10 mins. Do not stir, do not remove lid until cooked, then fluff up with a fork.

@Blueugg Tongs

@Enko - you can replace the oven at your expense?

@Blueuggboots