At the kitchen table...: Hints, Tips & Tricks

Hints, Tips & Tricks

Pastry:

The easiest way of rolling out shortcrust pastry is, probably, to roll it out between baking paper:

This is great because you avoid using flour. Any additional flour will make your pastry taste less buttery, and most importantly there's no need to clean up any floury mess afterwards. Also, if you happen to be making pastry on a hot day and it's becoming too soft to roll out, you can simply slide the pastry into the fridge for 10 minutes to rest instead of having to scrape the soft pastry off the work surface. The golden rule when making pastry is to handle it as little as possible, otherwise it goes rubbery and tough. Using the baking-paper tip will certainly help achieve the perfect pastry

Don't have baking paper? Cling film works equally well but sticks slightly more to the pastry
Another great thing about this is that it makes lining a baking tin so much easier:

Peel of the top layer of the baking paper and lift the pastry (with the remaining bottom piece of baking paper underneath) onto 1 hand
Flip the sheet over, on top of the prepared baking tin (so that the pastry is inside the tin)
Gently ease the pastry into all the nooks and crannies (with the paper still on top)
Gently peel of the remaining paper and bake or fill as normal

Tomato-based sauces and soups:

Using tinned tomatoes for a soup or sauce? Try adding a pinch of sugar to take away the acidic flavour. Use the sugar as a seasoning, so don't go overboard...

Cut a tomato in half
Grate the flesh through the large holes of a vegetable grater until you get to the skin (hold on to the skin to keep it intact before discarding it)

Seasoning:

The reason most restaurant food tastes better is the correct use of seasoning. Chefs use salt, pepper and spices throughout the cooking process and season at every stage.

To achieve this, add (especially) salt at the beginning of the cooking process and then at every next step (with the exception of stocks destined for reduction). Make sure to taste before you add salt and add only a pinch at a time, tasting as you go

If you happen to over-season, you can try to bulk the dish out by adding something (barley to a soup, for instance), or to balance the salt with acid (a squeeze of lemon or dash of vinegar), or to kill it with fat (fat mutes flavours – so add butter or oil).

Tenderise (tough) meat:

To tenderise meat you can bash away at it with a 'meat tenderiser' or cover the meat with a piece of cling film and bash it with a heavy-based pan (brilliant if you want to work out some frustration, but you need to be careful as you don't want to wind up with pulp).
There is another option. You can use acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar, or kachri powder to tenderise meat. However, you should use either option sparingly, as it can leave a slight tangy taste if used excessively.

Juicing fruit:

To get the most juice out of oranges, lemons and limes, try warming them up slightly:

Place the fruit in direct sunlight for half an hour or stick them in the microwave for 5 seconds on high

Stock:

Stocks are great to have on hand as they can be used as the base for soups, sauces and gravy. There is nothing wrong with using a stock cube but making your own needn't be difficult:

Take lots of kitchen vegetable trim (celery, fennel tops, onion, garlic, carrot peelings) and place in a pot with all your bones
Cover with water, then cling film and tin foil it
Cook overnight at 140°C in the oven or cook on top of the stove for at least 3 hours

By cooking it in the oven (as above) all the impurities, that you would usually remove through skimming, stick to the bottom and sides of the pot
If you have cooked the stock on top of the stove things become slightly more laborious but not more difficult:

When you put the pan on the heat, avoid boiling the liquid and do not stir (if you can). If you do have to stir, use a balloon whisk and try not to disturb the ingredients too much
During the cooking process, skim off the foam that forms on top (with a slotted spoon)
Leave the stock to cool completely: the top of the stock will look clear as all the heavier particles sink to the bottom of the pan (this will happen quicker if you haven't stirred)
Ladle the clear liquid gently into a jug or a clean saucepan without disturbing the sediment
Chill it until any fat has set into solid clumps
Remove as much fat as possible
Pour your stock into a large, shallow freezer safe container
Line a perforated tray, flat based colander, drum sieve, or other drainage utensil that has a flat base with cheesecloth or a clean fine-weave tea-towel or dishcloth (ideally, the container that you freeze the stock in should fit into the sieve or perforated tray lying flat)
Place this onto another catchment container underneath (the container underneath the sieve or tray should be wide and deep enough to gather the fluid without spillage)
Remove your stock ice block from its original container and place into the lined drainage tray or sieve
Cover with cling film and put aside, preferably in the fridge overnight if you have time
Allow the block to melt and the stock will filter out, leaving ice and the fine particles that would make it cloudy in the cloth

Freeze stock into an ice-cube tray. Whenever you need to add a bit more flavour to a soup, sauce or gravy, take out an ice-cube and add it to the pan. Let it dissolve, give it a quick stir and taste to make sure the seasoning is 'just perfect'

Ginger:

The easiest way to peel ginger is to use a teaspoon. This might sound silly but if you use the edge of the spoon (like with a knife) you can scrape the skin off the ginger very thinly without having to cut off all the knobbly bits (this saves you loads of time and ginger)

Spices:

If you, like me, use a lot of spices, it is cheaper to buy whole spices and grind them yourself as and when you need them. The flavour of the spice stays very vibrant for a longer time then with ground spices and you can crush just the amount that you need. The best way to grind them is the old-fashioned way; with pestle and mortar.
For the best flavour in your dish, add a ground spice at the end of cooking (to give it a little lift) or you can add them in whole at the beginning. Or toast ground spices in a dry frying pan until they become fragrant before you add the rest of your ingredients (make sure not to burn the spices as they will become very bitter)

At the kitchen table...