cooking 'tips' you learned and want to pass on

zaxdog

I learned early never to take cooking tips from my ex MIL who added sugar to fresh peas :eek: and made such stodgy horrors as dumplings and suet pudding *boak*

My tips are;

Never bothering to peel tatties before you boil them

Always use a spurtle when you make porridge, works much better than a wooden spoon

If you are heating oil for chips drop a cube of bread in to test the heat

hilstep2000

Make sure that the fat is really hot before you roast potatoes or make Yorkshire Puds
I make gravy with the veg water and flour, adding a bit of Gravy Browning for colour.
My Cousin who is 40 came round the other day to see I had made Bread & Butter Pud, and she didn't know how to make it!

Raksha

When making dumplings, use the minimum of water and just mix with a knife until it comes together.

nibs

Great thread meritaten, thanks.

Add a pinch of sugar to passata when making pasta sauce.
Also, add a ladle of the pasta water to the sauce as it helps the sauce 'stick' to the pasta.

carlamarie_2

A wooden spoon lain across the top of a pan stops it bubbling over, it Won't effect the taste of your cooking, but will save on rubbing water marks off your cooker.

ostrichnomore_2

You don't need to peel mushrooms - just brush any obvious bits of peat off.

You don't need to peel garlic - chuck it all in and the papery bits of skin will just cook down and disappear

It's easy to make white sauce in a microwave - guaranteed no lumps and no continuous stirring. It's the only thing I actually 'cook' in mine. Use a pyrex type jug (see through). Put butter in and nuke for around 10 seconds till it's melted/almost melted. Stir in flour and nuke again for 30 seconds.. Add all the milk, stirring the butter/flour sludge through it well but don't worry too much. Nuke for one minute. Stir again scraping up any butter/flour sludge that's sunk to bottom and at this stage I whisk briefly by putting balloon whisk in jug and twirling between hands (seen people making fire with sticks? Like that) Just for 10 seconds or so. Back in microwave and nuke until you see the sauce start to rise up the sides of the jug. Done. Perfect every time.

Steve059

Tips for pasta ...

If you use enough water, add the pasta when the water is boiling, stir the pasta frequently and don’t overcook it, adding olive oil to the water to stop it sticking is unnecessary.

"Pasta gli amano la compagnia” (“Pasta loves company”). Don't wander off.

Always take the pasta to the sauce.

Fen1

Usually when frying you add ingredients to hot oil. Do the opposite with garlic. Put the sliced/crushed garlic into COLD oil, then raise the temp. Stops the garlic burning.

Use quality sea salt not table salt for raw dishes. There is a world of difference in flavour. Also, use sea salt when gargling to soothe sore gums. The cheap table stuff makes me gag!

Freeze bunches of parsley, the stalks tied together with a band. No need to chop before freezing. Just chop as much as you need from the top of the bunch, straight out of the freezer.

jackieblack

Add a spoonful of boiling water to sponge cake mixture before pouring into cake tins, helps them rise and gives a lighter sponge

Steve059

HOW TO CHOP AN ONION QUICKLY, SAFELY AND SO IT DOESN’T MAKE YOU CRY

See http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/videos/1059/chopping-an-onion

Chop the top off the onion. Cut it in half. Peel off the hard brown skin. Place one half of the onion on the chopping board, with the cut face down. Hold the root. Make three or four horizontal cuts across the onion, stopping before you get to the root. Make lots of closely spaced vertical cuts down the onion, stopping before you get to the root. Turn the onion so that the flat end is facing the knife. Make lots of closely spaced vertical cuts across the onion, stopping before you get to the root. Discard the root. Repeat the process on the second half, if required.

However, a friend, who works in a kitchen and has chopped more than a few onions, advised me that, because an onion is in layers, the horizontal cuts are unnecessary.



HOW TO CUT A ROUND SWEET PEPPER INTO STRAIGHT SLICES

Cut the top and bottom off. Cut out the middle bit with the seeds. Make a cut down the side. Open it out. The round pepper is now a flat rectangular pepper. Cut into slices.

Cut the stalk out of the top end, then chop it and the bottom end into tiny pieces. Add the chopped pepper to the dish.



HOW TO CUT A TOMATO INTO TWO HALVES WITH FANCY POINTED EDGES

Hold the tomato on its side. Make a series of continuous “sawtooth” cuts around the middle by holding the knife vertically and at a 45° angle and stabbing it right down through the tomato until the tip hits the chopping board underneath. Adjust the last few cuts to meet the start of your first cut. The two halves of the tomato should pull apart.