Quick cheats when cooking

[Fabula]

Hi all
Anyone got any quick secrets when cooking? Things that are useful to know so that you can impress others?
I thought I should reveal a few of mine, while I can remember them. I am sure others have quick tips as well, so here are some of mine:


Smash. Very useful for thickening casseroles, soups etc. Just add a tablespoon or two near the end of cooking and you don't need to bother with cofnflour etc. Don't actually use to make mashed (or blobbed) potato.

Frozen peas. Cheap, tasty, don't need cooking, and add colour to anything. Add a handful to omlettes, soups, curries, casseroles or anything.

If you are making mayonnaise, and it all goes horribly wrong, it can be retrieved. Take a tablespoon of your separated mess, and add a tablespoon of hot water. Start again by whisking and slowly adding from your oily mess and it should all go fine now. Also, don't use olive oil to try to make an extra special mayonnaise as it will end up tasting rather powerful, instead of nice and light.

If cooking to impress, make sure you leave some nice looking remains of fresh veg in the kitchen (carrot tops look good, as does fresh corriander) , so it looks as if it has been very hard to prepare.

Creamed coconut adds sweetness to anything sweet or savoury, is cheap and lasts forever. Get some.

Invest in some half-decent extra-virgin olive oil and reuse it! It tastes much better than normal oil, is good for you, and works with anything. Get an old teapot (clean) and turn the lid upside down and drill a few holes in it. Then when you've used a pile of expensive oil to fry something tasty, strain the oil back into the teapot and the holes will take out any lumps left in the oil from your cooking. Reuse the oil later as much as you like, straight from the pot!

Don't buy kebabs for barbeques. Buy a shoulder of pork or similar, cut it up into chunks, and put on a nice marinade or coating of something nice. Put on sticks and cook. Cheaper than buying ready made stuff, and very quick and easy. Investigate the indian seasoning packs for nice quick flavours.


Any other cooking cheats?

[tiggerai]

Going on from Frozen peas...

Frozen Green beans - fantastic in green curries and stir frys.

My quick cheat is: Frozen peppers (i haven't found these in the freezer section)
I buy a load of peppers, chop them up and freeze them in a freezer bag. When you need some, bash them on the floor and instant peppers, chuck a handful in anything really!
( I keep an eye out for "Yellow Label Specials" - I've got some onions I'm going to do this with tomorrow)

Ready meals: If you live by yourself, cook for 4 and freeze the rest into meal size portions, result is good healthy meals for a fraction of the cost and mine defrost in about 4 mins in the microwave.
( I currently have Thai Green Curry, Chilli con carne, Lamb Casserole, beef stir fry and chicken fajitas ready for instant meals) all that needs doing is boiling rice or grabbing some tortillas out of the cupboard.

Creamed coconut - I use the dry stuff... just sprinkle into anything.

[planetgong]

Going on from Frozen peas...

Frozen Green beans - fantastic in green curries and stir frys.

My quick cheat is: Frozen peppers (i haven't found these in the freezer section)
I buy a load of peppers, chop them up and freeze them in a freezer bag. When you need some, bash them on the floor and instant peppers, chuck a handful in anything really!
( I keep an eye out for "Yellow Label Specials" - I've got some onions I'm going to do this with tomorrow)

Ready meals: If you live by yourself, cook for 4 and freeze the rest into meal size portions, result is good healthy meals for a fraction of the cost and mine defrost in about 4 mins in the microwave.
( I currently have Thai Green Curry, Chilli con carne, Lamb Casserole, beef stir fry and chicken fajitas ready for instant meals) all that needs doing is boiling rice or grabbing some tortillas out of the cupboard.

Creamed coconut - I use the dry stuff... just sprinkle into anything.

You can get frozen sliced peppers from Sainsburys.

[tiggerai]

You can get frozen sliced peppers from Sainsburys.

I don't shop at sainsburys.

[planetgong]

I don't shop at sainsburys.

lol. I have seen them in a couple of places. Dead handy to have in the freezer. I always have them with just a sliced chicken breast, sliced onion and some fajhita seasoning with a bit of rice. Quick and easy and tasty too!

[herulach]

Make your own guacamole (avacado + chilli + lemon juice + blender), and satay dipping sauce (1 tin coconut milk, small fried onion, about 3 tablespoons of unsweetened peanut butter, soy sauce, tabasco + chilli flakes)

Chinese marinades for barbecues/stirfry - Five spice paste, soy sauce, oil + brown sugar to taste

Yoghurt marinades for barbecue - yoghurt & mint for lamb, with premixed tikka paste for chicken

Any kind of cream sauces are nicer with cremè fraichè, and people think they're much more difficult than they are.

Homemade curry tastes much nicer after its been frozen (for a nice non specific lamb curry, brown lamb & onions, throw in a slow cooker with a tin or 2 of tomatoes, cook for about 6 hours, then skim the fat and freeze)

Chicken tastes really nice roasted stood end on with half a tin of bitter stuffed inside it

think that's about it, other than never measure anything, just do it to taste.

[g8ina]

Poach cod/haddock etc in milk - flavour the milk with onion and garlic and bring it to the boil, then just our the boiling milk over the fish and leave it for 8 minutes. This will *only just* cook the fish and will will be perfick.

Some don'ts to balance it up :-

Don't use olive oil for stir frying, it migrates to transfats - use groundnut oil.

Don't use the seeds in chillis unless you are a masochist !

Don't fry garlic till it goes brown, it leaves a bitter taste.

[Butcher]

I rather like my chillis with seeds.

[Lucio]

Personally my most useful cooking tip is invest in a good wok.

Once you have one you can cook a lot of meals simply working from the basis of meat + couple of types of vegetables + something to form the sauce

E.g.
Spagehtti Bolognase (Mince + onions & mushrooms + chopped tomoatoes + oregano & garlic)
Curry (meat + onions & peppers + chopped tomoatoes + curry powder)


Other than that, if you want to learn how to make something taste more like the prepared items you get in the supermarkets, simply check the ingredients list and see if there's anything non-chemical you're missing. For example, I found my fajitta's were a bit bland until I realised that the jars of sauces contained Onion Salt.

[kickstart 1]

When you have guests round for dinner ..make sure all the packets are buried at the bottom of the bin ! (sorry couldnt resist!)