To ask for your cooking tips and tricks

[Whatisthis543]

Trying to get better at home cooking!

My tip from my DPs Italian parents is ‘if it’s slow cooked and has tomatoes then add a Parmesan rind’ I’ve started adding it to chillies, tomato sauces etc and it makes things sooo delicious.

What are your tips and tricks?

Use high quality basics e.g. oils, salt and pepper.

Find ways to save time both in prep and cooking. A friend once expressed surprise that I boiled a kettle rather than heating water in a pan when I cooked potatoes, carrots etc. She was also surprised that I would cook carrots and something green, cabbage, brocolli etc. together, the root stuff in the pan, the leafy green steam in a collander above, result much less washing up! She apparently used a different pan for each vegetable.

Frozen onions

Butter tastes bloody awesome, and it makes most things taste 10 times better.

Season from the start, don’t just dump salt in at the end

Use at least 3x as much garlic as the recipe calls for

Buccatini is better than spaghetti

You can make a basic sauce/gravy for most things using stock, flour, and flavouring (can be one thing or more) e.g. sauce for chicken can be chicken stock, flour and lemon juice. Or sauce for beef can be beef stock, flour and red wine. Start simple then add things gradually.

If something's missing from your dish it's usually acid (vinegar, lemon juice etc) or salt.

Always chuck a bit of pasta water in your sauce and let the pasta cook in the sauce for the last minute after you’ve drained it, makes it much tastier than just dumping sauce on top of pasta and giving it a quick stir.

Whizz up any odds and ends of stale bread and have a box in the freezer which you put them in. So many recipes can be improved with breadcrumbs, no need to defrost just wang them in a pan with some oil, garlic and herbs and sprinkle over your dinner

Take time softening onions, as the flavour and texture is so much better.

Absorption method is the best way of cooking rice. 1 part rice to 2 parts water, lid on, bring to boil then simmer low for 10m keeping lid on, then take lid off and allow any remaining steam to escape.

Lemon rind and/or chilli flakes are great for livening up veg like courgettes.

Slow or pressure cooking is fab for cheaper cuts of meat.

Remember to take good aim when your DH turns up 3 hours late with no good excuse and you've spent all day cooking!

Freeze whole chillis and root ginger and just grate in what you need.

Fry onions on a very low heat with a sprinkling of salt for much longer than you think. Really improves the flavour of dishes.

demented do you peel the ginger before freezing it?

Great tips here. I don't have many tips only time savers. I tend to cook in bulk - cook two roast chickens at a time. Plenty of meat for dinner and the next day and with the second chicken I bulk it with veg and make curries for mid week freezer meals. Huge time saver and lovely curry.

Coarse semolina and/or rice flour on roast potatoes after the par boil stage before going into very hot fat

@ForTheLoveOfCatFood

Frozen onions

This!! And frozen peppers, and tinned sliced mushrooms (Aldi or Lidl), lazy garlic, ginger and chilli

More butter than you think, more salt than you think!

And that simple things can be gorgeous - find a really good tomato sauce and you'll always have an easy cupboard failsafe for tea.

Have a good stock cupboard and I always have these in - marmite, anchovies, Worcester sauce, soy, olive tapenade, fresh spices and herbs, lemon and lime juice, tomato paste, garlic, ginger, chilli sauce, tahini, coffee, vanilla, good chocolate, several spice mixes, pomegranate molasses, coconut cream, pickles and chutneys and sauces like hoisin, fish and plum.
It means that you can always make something really tasty even with basic ingredients.

Yes I agree, frozen onions, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, stir fry, mushrooms but not morrisons frozen parsnips.
Garlic jam and Worcestershire sauce in gravy
Butter and black pepper added to any baked beans
Stale bread fried with garlic, salt and pepper for croutons
Tinned pears and raspberries make a great crumble.

Crushed garlic/ginger and spices from the ethnic aisle (can’t believe it’s called that)

Frozen basil

Buy a thermamix

Yes to more butter and more salt!!

Fresh herbs instead of dried when herbs are called for. Brings dishes alive.

Cook curries, stews, ragu the day before, the flavour is much better. Soften onions for 5 mins or so before adding garlic. Use wine and butter liberally. Season and taste as you go. Fry off dried spices with onion, garlic and oil before adding meat/veggies. Keep the scrapings from browning meat and use for the gravy.

San marzano tomatoes , maldon salt , bags of ready chopped frozen carrot , celery and onion are a great starting point for so many dishes

Only use frozen onions for soups.

When using onions in dishes you need to very, very finely chop them. Big chunks of onion is not nice. They should melt in with the rest of the ingredients. Never burn garlic.

When adding herbs don't be mean - particularly with oregano and basil. You can never have too much. You need a lighter hand with rosemary and thyme.

Salt + pepper with a heavy hand.

Everything tastes better with butter. But think about when you add it. A wee knob of butter about halfway through sweating off some onions will add more flavour than twice as much butter at the end of cooking the dish, for example.

Expensive chopped tomatoes are worth it. The first lockdown proved this to me, I would love it if I was wrong. But I'm not.

Time is gold. Whether you're sweating onions, blending soup, simmering a sauce - your recipe is a guide. The longer you can give it the better it will taste.