Читать книгу Home Chef - Neven Maguire - Страница 54

Like anything else, cooking takes patience and practice. Even though I’ve been cooking for years, I’m always discovering new ways to make my job that little bit easier, or working out how to fix things when they go wrong. Here are ten of my most useful tips and secrets.

If you taste a casserole, soup or sauce and it is too salty, try adding a handful of raw potato cubes, and allow them to cook over a gentle heat. They will soak up the excess salt and can then be removed with a slotted spoon before serving.

To get the fat to separate instantly from delicious roasting juices, add a handful of ice cubes, then quickly skim off the fat that rises to the top. This method works best if you pour the juices into a heatproof jug first.

Cover large joints of meat with foil, shiny side inwards, before cooking to prevent them from over-browning while in the oven.

I normally fry meat and fish in a mixture of oil and butter as the butter gives flavour and the oil stops the butter from burning.

If your homemade mayonnaise begins to split or curdle, try adding a tablespoon of warm water and give it a good whisk.

If a béchamel sauce becomes lumpy, simply blitz with a hand-held blender until smooth.

Once cooked, quickly refresh pasta under cold running water to prevent further cooking. This is particularly important when making a pasta salad or gratin.

To prevent a pastry case from shrinking away from the sides of the tin while cooking, try to leave the pastry-lined tin in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before putting in the oven. It is also worth being gentle when rolling out, and don’t overstretch the pastry when lining the tin.

When blind baking pastry, I prefer to use foil to line the case rather than baking paper, because you end up with a more even light golden finish. Lightly oil the shiny side of the foil, place it oiled side down on to the pastry and fill with baking beans. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

To make your own vanilla sugar, rinse any used vanilla pods and stick into a jar of caster sugar, then set aside for a couple of weeks before using. (I always buy my vanilla from a website called www.vanillabazaar.com.)