Cooking tips - share yours!

[BlackAffronted]

I thought it might be useful to have a thread where you can share your best tips for great cooking.

I'll start with a tip for making great tasting soup - ALWAYS sweat your aromatic veg (carrots, onion, leek, celery). This will break down the cellulose in veg, and bring out their flavours. I sweat mine for about 10 minutes on a low heat in some butter, with a bay leaf chucked in. It really will make a difference to your soup!

If you skin a chicken before roasting, you take out 30 per cent of the fat.

Mine's to do with preparation. If you get all the ingredients together before you start cooking and prepare anything that needs chopping etc. then you can put your dish together really quickly and not have to break off half way through as you hunt about for the next ingredient or (worse) find you haven't got it at all.

I like your thread idea.

(How do people make soup without sweating the veg first?)

When boiling a pan place a wooden spoon across the top and it won't ever boil over. This really works and never eases to
amaze me.

somme, I know a lot of people who just bung veg into stock & think it will make a tasty soup!

Cog, to go with your tip, also READ the recipe all the way through before starting!

anon, does that not dry out the chicken though? Or is there something you can do to keep the chicken moist?

I bet that's quite bland.

Worm, I will definitely be trying your tip!

Yep, the wooden spoon definitely works!

Dont pepper your steak before you fry it, the pepper may burn. Only use salt, then pepper it after cooking.

Tuck kitchen roll slightly under the chopping board at the side of it and smooth out flat.
Peel all your veg onto this, then place the peeled veg onto the chopping board.
Wrap all the peelings in kitchen roll and bin/compost, really quick and clean.

Use your slow cooker if you have one, love my slow cooker.

When frying onions, add a little pinch of salt to the pan - stops them from burning as they release some of their water. (Particularly good if you're trying to keep the fat/oil content down...)

Great idea for a thread.

My tip is when beating eggs...for scrambling, coating gougons, etc always put a splash of cold water in. This will make for a smoother result as the water helps the egg to break down.

Taken me ages to think of a good tip, but I did roast potatoes yesterday and it came to me start roasting your potatoes cut side up and they won't stick to the tray! Even when you then turn them later on - awesome

Some great tips here, thanks!

Here is another, when crushing garlic, no need to peel first. Just bug it in the garlic press. Makes the press easier to clean too!

We seem to have alot of food where the recipe starts with warm up oil > fry chopped onions > add ginger and garlic > add tomatoes and cook. So I cook up a big batch, add some salt and store in an airtight container in the fridge. Makes cooking so much simpler during the week!
An even lazier option is to grind up onions, ginger, garlic, tomatoes all together in the food processor, cook down the whole lot in one go and then store.

Oh yes, I do that with the garlic too, or chuck it in the mini chopper with onions if I'm using them.

I can't think of a single tip, I cook so much yet my mind has gone blank

If you add water after your garlic is just cooked in oil/butter it will stop it cooking and therefore burning and tasting bitter. Also you can grate it.

Cut up potatoes really small if doing mash as they will cook much more quickly.

Keep a bag in the freezer for odds and ends of veg, cooked and raw and also any roast chicken bones which you can add to until you have enough stuff or time to tackle soup/stock.

Also blitz any odds and ends of bread crusts etc for breadcrumbs and keep in a bag in the freezer which you can add to. You can do this with slightly past it pitta breads, wraps, french bread etc.

I buy a big bag of courgettes and slice them - I use a lot in cooking - and then freeze them pre sliced. Keeps them ready to use and not festering in the salad drawer.

Will think of more I am sure!

For potato wedges, adding a herb such as rosemary or spice such as paprika stops them from sticking when in the roasting tin.

Roll jacket spuds in a little oil and sprinkle with lots of salt, and bung in the oven, you will have the crispiest, tastiest spud ever.

Use vermouth instead of white wine in cooking, that way you need not open a bottle when a recipe calls for just a glug. Same for red wine-use port instead.

Cous cous is a 1 to 1 ratio of rain to water. The BEST and only way to cook it is to get a large roasting pan, pour over your uncooked cous cous so you have a thin even layer. Pour over the same amount of boiling water. Cover with cling film and leave for 5 mins. Then uncover and fluff with a fork. This has never let me down.