Kitchen Tips
This file has grown huge over the years, and metamorphosed. It contains quite a bit of duplication, and now has several sections with different - sometimes contradictory- "best methods" for certain tasks, like hardboiling eggs (I currently prefer steaming 'em myself: you don't have to wait for a potful of water to boil, and the shells usually come off easily). So use the method that speaks to you, or try another if the first doesn't work as well as you'd hoped.
General & Various-
Time Saving Tips- First thing when you get home, before you take off your coat or change clothes, put a pot of water on to boil. What's the water for? I don't know, but it's bound to be good for something…
Corollary: turn the oven on to begin preheating before putting away groceries or taking out all the ingredients.
I have mixed feelings on some of the other common suggestions. Mise en place is helpful for organization and necessary if you're cooking something that involves a lot of quick cooking in rapid succession like a stirfry. But it is often not the fastest way to cook. It is often faster to use the downtimes in between steps of cooking to prep ingredients that you'll need soon. Making a pomodoro sauce? Preheat pan, quickly cut onion while the pan preheats, mince garlic and get out other ingredients while onion softens, add garlic, add can of tomatoes, etc. The point is that its quicker to prep as you go in many situations. But that also requires you to have solid knife skills and to have the experience to know what you can get done in how much time and where you can squeeze it in.
Other things that will speed you up: learn to rely less upon recipes. Checking a recipe over and over again while you cook takes more time than you might think. And somewhat related - learn when you really have to measure and when eyeballing and tasting to adjust is just as good. Example - if you're very familiar with sesame oil, then there are very few situations where you have to measure it. Go by taste.
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One of the best, but most ignored cooking secrets, is that Great Food is prepared in Great Pots And Pans. The main key can be summed up in one word, "HEAVY!" Heavy cookware builds heat gradually and more evenly, preventing the scorching effect that you get in cheap, thin cookware. Also, a heavy, tight-sealing lid will hold in more of the steam, and therefore more of the flavor. In other words, the more aroma there is in the air, the less flavor is staying in the food.
Restaurant supply stores are a good place to find heavy commercial grade cookware at much lower prices than you'd pay for the high quality gourmetware.
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By all means own a copy of Joy Of Cooking and a few other good cookbooks.
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Keep your knives sharp and hone before each use. A $20 Wusthof sharpener was my most useful kitchen purchase of 2010.
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Good practice is to under-season food when cooking and adjust the seasoning at the end if necessary. It's very difficult to fix over-seasoned food at the end of cooking.
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"Cook by the seat of your pants, but bake by the book."
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Scott Conant: "The last thing you add will be the first thing you taste"
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Warm your plates, especially in the winter. Cold plates can ruin a nice hot meal .... and so many people don't think of this very important step. Most plates heat well in the microwave.
White plates are like a blank canvas; they can make any food look like a masterpiece.
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Have fun in the kitchen. Be fearless. Share your cooking with others. Try new dishes when you do. Most will compliment your cooking no matter how it turns out.
Sara Moulton: "Pretend that it's exactly what you meant to serve, and don't apologize."
Think about pretty colors, textures and presentation when you cook. Leave yourself some time to make your food look appealing. Consider plating meals in the kitchen instead of serving family style. Enjoy some drama in plating food and setting the table. I serve sauces, etc. in egg cups, votive holders and other devices to add some elevation to the plate. I bring leaves, branches, berries from outside to use as decorations. When you are in a restaurant, wedding, etc. notice what they do to make food look special.
How you describe a dish matters just as much as presentation. The same dish can register wildly different reactions when called by different names.
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I feel it helps to have music on while you cook- engages the senses
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Color and texture and temperature balance make a huge difference in a meal/menu.
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Mise en place, in order of use, can still be a big help for your more complex recipes, not so much for basic familiar ones... You can use a large bowl, with layers of paper towel or waxed paper between ingredients. Last ingredient to go in goes on the bottom, make your layers till you've got the first ingredient on top. Saves a lot of fridge space if you use a tall bowl for prepping in advance
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One practice I've adopted is that I have a space reserved for things I'm done with. That way only those things that still require my attention are in front of me and within my field of view. I find this goes a long way towards staying focused, not getting overwhelmed, and not overlooking anything.
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If you want people to wonder why your food always tastes a little better than theirs even though they use the same recipe...Substitute shallots for garlic, leeks for onion and fennel for celery. Subtle enough that no one can tell, it just tastes a little special.
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8 basic techniques to build flavor
1. Searing the Meat - When cooking meat, taking time to sear the outside will add a heavenly depth of flavor to your final dish.
2. Deglazing the Pan - That dark layer at the bottom of your pan might look like burned food, but it's actually caramelized bits from everything you've been cooking. Once they've been deglazed, these bits melt into the background and form a savory flavor base in your dish.
3. Caramelizing the Onions - Like searing and deglazing, caramelizing onions and other vegetables by cooking them slowly gives your dish depth and adds interesting smoky and nutty flavors to your dish.
4. Toasting the Spices - This brings out the natural oils in the spices and boosts their aroma in the final dish. It's most effective to toast whole spices and then grind them.
5. Reducing the Sauce - Reducing concentrates all the flavors in a sauce. High, middle, and low notes become heightened, which enhances the overall taste of the sauce.
6. Salting to Taste - Salt reduces our perception of bitterness in dishes. If you've already added all the salt called for in the recipe, try adding a half teaspoon of salt or more and then see if you notice a difference. (note: bitterness can also reduce the perception of salt- if you have a dish or item that's too salty and the raw potato trick doesn't work or is not applicable [eg: grilled meat, not enough time, etc.] you can try adding parsley to a sauce or a drizzle of lemon on meat. Alternatively, sometimes a little vinegar can work. Balsamic even has a touch of sweet, so that can help balance saltiness too)
7. Adding acidic and spicy ingredients - These also accentuate the high notes. If you've already added salt and you still think your dish needs "a little something," try adding a squeeze of lemon, a splash of vinegar, or a few shakes of Tabasco sauce.
8. Adding a splash of wine - Similar to adding an acidic ingredient, a splash of red or white wine can brighten the flavors in your dish.
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Most importantly - learn how to use garlic. Whole cloves for a sweet garlicky flavor. Diced up fine for moderate, finely minced for sweet & strong, or pressed through a garlic press for a strong and pungent flavor. Learning this helped me understand why sometimes my food seemed overwhelmingly garlicky and other times just had a hint of the flavor while using the same amount of garlic each time. I admit, I used to be lazy about mincing it and would just smash it up a bit and toss it in.
Another garlic trick I just picked up last week. Infuse the oil you're cooking your meal with with a few cloves of garlic. Smash them with your knife and drop into a cold pan with some olive oil and gently heat until the garlic starts to turn golden and translucent in the middle. Remove the garlic and heat up oil and cook dish as normal. The garlic flavor infuses into the oil but removing the garlic means it won't burn. Then you can smush the softened cloves and toss them back into the dish before serving. The layers of garlic flavor are amazing.
tips on peeling garlic
traditional: Place on cutting board & crush with flat of knife. Flesh comes out easily.
modern: Microwave for ten seconds, skin pops right off.
alternate: The "grip-it" thingies for opening jar lids also work well for peeling garlic
To peel a whole head of garlic quickly break it up and place in a bowl. Place another bowl on top. Hold the two bowls tightly and shake well for about 20 seconds.
The there's the stab n twist method that recently went viral:
