Kitchen tips
We all have moments in cooking when your concentration goes for a moment and in a flash your dish is looking like it is ruined. Below are some common issues and some great ways to pull it back. Or not if that ingredient turns out to be cream. I had an epic fail whisking up cream last week, I just took my eye of the mixer and by the time I turned around my cream had started to turn into butter and buttermilk. Not good. At least that is what I thought at the time when I knew I would have to traipse to the shops for more cream. Rather than waste it however, I added sea salt, finished whisking, separated the two and stored it in the fridge. The next morning I used it on my toast and it was absolutely gorgeous.
As with most things, practice makes perfect and knowing some little tips and tricks may help you along the way. Most of the things below I have learnt through things going wrong and trying to find ways to pull my dish back.
Tips
Before your start
Always, always read your recipe before you even think of starting, you will know what to expect and should it need half an hour to marinate you won't be caught off guard. I know this and yet last week this is exactly where I found myself. Step no 1, marinate the chicken and yet here I was at 7pm without any marinating time whatsoever. I did eventually leave the JFC (Japanese fried chicken) for half an hour, it just meant eating later than anticipated.
Aside from reading your recipe, most books and magazine will tell you a few little tips at the start. On my recipe page I say things like I only buy mixed eggs (less waste for the farmer) and where a large egg is needed this will be specified, all milk full fat etc. It is worth finding this page as it could help your recipe work first time.
Meat
Never cook your meat straight from the fridge. It takes much longer to cook and you may find the outside is overcooked long before the inside is fully up to temperature. So take your meat out of the fridge long before you start. A steak for instance should be removed from the fridge at least an hour before.
Do rest your meat, the juices will stay in your meat rather than making a mess on your plate and the meat will be so much more tender. We have all seen cooking shows where they place the freshly cooked and cut meat on a bed of mash potato only to have blood leak into the pearly white mash. Let's be honest there really is nothing about that that would make you want to eat that mash. Even with a blue steak, properly resting your meat will prevent this.
With so much emphasis being put on meat needing to be medium rare these days, it is possible to undercook your meat. If you have undercooked it then if you can, pop it back into the oven for another 10 mins or so. If however time is short then the hob will always be the quickest way to cook some more.
If you have overcooked your meat you wont be able to serve the dish you envisioned but you can stop it going tough and dry. If you are cooking a piece of meat such as a steak or chop, make some stock and put say 200-300ml in your pan with a large knob of butter and baste for a few mins. If it is a larger piece of meat then add 500ml of stock to the pan. As I say, it will not hide the fact it is more cooked than you wanted but at least it won't be dry.
The way to mitigate undercooking or overcooking your meat is to purchase a meat thermometer - you can pick up a little one for as little as £5 and overcooked meat will be a thing of the past
Spices
If you have a recipe that calls for a tsp of whole spice but you only have ground then know that 1 tsp of whole spices will yield roughly ¾ tsp of ground. I have both for most things but despite the whole roasted spices tasting infinitely better, ground is so much quicker and 9 times out of 10 that is good enough - especially on a week day.
The Weather
Cooking in summer or winter will affect your dish. I know that sounds stupid but pans are cold in the winter and so getting whatever you are cooking up to temp will take longer than it does in the summer. Also on the discussion of the weather, flour absorbs differently in the different temperatures so just don't add too much liquid too quickly - especially if you are cooking pastry.
Pastry
Talking of pastry, resting does do wonders so after you make your pastry ensure you rest it for at least 15 mins before carrying on. When you line your tart case don't cut it or level it off when you line your tart case. Merely drape it over and resist the urge to cut. Put it into the fridge uncut and rest for 15 mins or so. This is because when pastry rests it naturally shrinks back and if you have cut a beautiful neat edge you will find it is now sitting below the top. When you take it out of the fridge cut it level with the top and then go around the top edge and with your fingers just gently push the pastry so it rests just above the edge. Why do we do this? Because the pastry will shrink a little when you cook it. If you are cooking something like a quiche so filling with custard you will want to fill high.
If you roll out pastry between sheets two of greaseproof paper then it won’t stick to your board and it is so much easier to pick up and move around. I have had many a time where despite my flour underneath the pastry has moved when rolling and the butter just sticks to your board making you want to scream.
It is essential you use cold butter when making pastry - it really does make incorporating the flour and butter a much less messy affair. I have heard of people freezing their pastry to keep it ice cold but I honestly found little difference.
The fridge
Whilst it is fabulous and keeps everything from spoiling, For cooking, most things cook better when no really cold straight from the fridge. Meat as mentioned above and also egg whites. Egg whites whisk up so much better if they are room temperature and you will notice that the volume of egg will be so much more. Essential when making meringue.
For marinating in the fridge then a little tip is use a food bag rather than a dish or container. Marinating meat and vegetables is much easier using large food bags as it is easier to fit in a full fridge and also you can come along and just massage the meat a little from time to time to ensure everything is completely covered in the marinade. If your fridge is anything like ours this will also make life so much easier.
Cheap wine v expensive wine
A lot of books and recipes call for a expensive wine when cooking. I have read if you wouldn't drink it don't add it. In Kitchen Secrets by Raymond Blanc he said he does not agree with that and so I started to experiment and totally agree with him. Mostly wine is used in either a long cook and by the end of the long cooking time you would have no clue as to how expensive - or not - a wine is or a short cook on a high heat. I now have 'cooking wine' which sits by my stove and if we have wine leftover it gets put there and used as and when. Would I drink it? No, is the meal ruined by it? No. So save your scraps and reuse when needed.
Knives
Always ensure you cook with sharp knives. This is for 2 reasons, firstly it is much quicker and easier to cut your ingredients and makes light work of it. Secondly, with a blunt knife you will press harder and so have less control as you naturally push harder making the risk of cutting yourself badly. I try to sharpen my knife of choice on a steel before I cook and then monthly we sharpen them with a wet stone.
Seasoning
Season your food as you cook, don't just leave it to the end. I find that by seasoning as I go the flavour is more rounded and you don't just think there is a salty edge to it. I know some people are a little unsure on salt but the difference in dishes is huge. Salt brings out all of the flavours and really rounds out dishes.
Rescuing dishes
Split cheese sauce
If you have ever cooked a cheese sauce and had it split on you, the chances are you added your cheese to the béchamel base without taking it off of the heat. Whilst the sauce is still perfectly edible it will look unappealing and won't have a great mouth feel. I have fallen foul to this. Namely with macaroni cheese which I make a lot. I was really shocked the first time it happened and honestly thought I had lost all cooking ability.
Fear not if this happens, all is not lost. If it has only just started to split then immediately take it off of the heat, grab your whisk, add a tbsp of cold cream or milk and whisk. Whisk whisk whisk whisk whisk. Oh and did I mention you need to whisk. This should pull it back. If however your sauce is quite split and this does not work then boil your kettle and add 2 tbsps of boiling hot water and whisk hard. This has always sorted out even the worst sauces. You could skip straight to adding boiling water if you prefer.
Mayonnaise
Home made mayonnaise is really lovely and once you have made your own you won't ever want to go back to shop bought again.
The golden rule of making mayo is that all of your ingredients must be at room temperature, the lemon juice, the mustard and the egg. If any one of these are cold it will not emulsify properly.
A good way of making mayo is with a hand blender. You put everything in a jug or glass just a little bit bigger than your blender head (the jug it comes with is usually the perfect size), push the blender to the very bottom of the jug and make sure it sits firmly at the bottom then start to blend, pulling up very slowly as you go and going back down again. The way the blades move and pull the oil into the egg/mustard emulsifies it perfectly. This is by far the very easiest way I have found.
If however you don't have a hand blender and are using a processer or making the mayo by hand then just remember to add the oil really really slowly. You want a very slow small stream of oil to be drizzled in and every 5-10 seconds just stop pouring for a moment while you carry on whisking and then start pouring again. This ensures it is slow enough to hopefully not split. If you are making this by hand you will be wishing you had a machine by the end but it still works out really well.
The two pit falls I have found with home made mayo are that it is either runny and just will not emulsify or it splits.
Runny mayo I find happens either if your ingredients are cold or if you are using a food processor and don't have enough ingredients in to mix properly. If the ingredients are below either of the blades then this won't ever work, you do need enough for the blades to be able to emulsify. The solution to this is not try to cut down the recipe, make the amount specified and you won't have that issue.
If you find that your mayo is too thin then you need a clean bowl, put in another egg yolk and very slowly add your thin mayo bit by bit making sure you fully whisk between each addition. This should rescue your mayo.
If despite your best efforts your mayo does split this is just because the oil has not had chance to emulsify fully as you were going, usually because the oil was added too fast. There are a few ways to rectify this.
The first way is to boil your kettle and put a couple of tbsps into a cup. Add the water to your split mixture 1 tsp at a time whisking whisking whisking. This should bring your mayo back.
Or, get a clean bowl, put a squeeze of lemon juice in and then slowly add a little of your split mayo, whisking, add the split mayo a little at a time with some of the remaining lemon juice until it has come back to life. You can then carry on.
The last way is to do the egg yolk trick mentioned above. Put an egg yolk into a clean bowl and slowly add your split mayo before continuing.
Hollandaise
There is no denying that homemade hollandaise is divine and it is a pleasure you just cannot get from shop bought hollandaise. (In fact if you look at the ingredients you will often see they have added cream - so clearly not real hollandaise.) Home made is a bit of a labour of love and this can also split so again the fat - this time butter - must be poured in and mixed extremely slowly.
Before I start with making hollandaise I fill my kettle and boil it. I take a thermos flask and fill it with boiling water and put on the lid. My water is then there so that should it split I can add a tsp of boiling water at a time, fully mixing and adding until it comes back together, this usually fixes it.
Why do I fill my thermos? Well, you need to concentrate on your hollandaise but you do not want to eat it cold. When you finish cooking take your thermos and throw away the water, dry out the thermos and then add your hollandaise, lid on and you can then concentrate on the rest of your dish safely in the knowledge your hollandaise will be fine in your thermos for at least 15 mins.
Curdled cream
My top tip with whipping cream with an electric whisk is that as soon as you think your cream is done, stop. If you do over whipped and curdling stop whipping. If you have more cream then add a tbsp of cream into your over whipped mixture and using a large metal spoon, very carefully fold it through. You might need to add a few more tbsps and keep gently folding through until it comes back together smoothly.
You could always keep whipping and make butter. Home made butter is really special and it is easy to add your own flavourings.
Your dish is too salty
This happens to even the best of cooks, I remember trying to add a shake of salt and the lid came off. Unlike a split sauce, a dish that is too salty just won't be edible. If you have an accident and like I did then don't panic and definitely don't stir the salt in, just get a spoon and a bowl and try to scoop out as much of the salt as you can.
If you just added a touch too much salt and have stirred then the way to try to bring this back will depend entirely on what the dish you have made is. A great way of counteracting salt is by adding some acid, either in the form of a squeeze of lemon juice or a touch of vinegar - ideally balsamic, white or red wine vinegar. Start with a small amount, stir through and taste. It may be that you need to add more but add slowly and taste after every addition. You might also need to add a touch of sugar to counteract some of the acid but test
You can also dilute the saltiness either by doubling up the ingredients (for instance if it is a sauce or dressing) or you could add more non-salty liquid if it is perhaps a stew or stock based sauce, although remember you will then need to reduce the sauce a bit more.
Dairy is another great product to add to reduce saltiness in dishes, this can be by using milk, cream, cheese, sour cream or yoghurt, (the latter two are particularly good as they are also acidic).
Your dish is too sweet
The remedy for sugar is funnily enough the same as salt, double up all but the sugar, add acid - either lemon or lime, dilute or add dairy.
Your dish is too spicy
Having a spicy dish is less easy to fix than salt although you can mitigate the heat somewhat. A splash of acid and touch of sugar may help.
You can try to dilute with extra liquid and ingredients leaving out the spice although that might not be practical. If it something like a curry or a chilli you could add extra sauce ingredients but not extra meat and veg or simply with some coconut milk or cream. You can then strain off some of the sauce and freeze for another day so that the next time you want that dish you only need to add the meat and veg.
Another way to mitigate spice is with dairy, it should somewhat help to reduce some of the spice and also has a bit of a cooling affect. You could also make a side dish of mint riata, sour cream, guacamole (without any spice), a salsa again without any spice or a little salad.
and if all else fails
Fake it. Take a look at my strawberry and passion fruit pavlova. It cracked in a way a perfect Pav would not have. It did however look beautiful and delicious and everybody that ate it raved about it. I noticed the cracks, nobody else cared at all.