Use a meat thermometer and a lower temperature. The hotter the temp, the quicker fish will go from underdone to overdone. By lowering the temp, it will stay in the perfectly done zone longer to give you more time to get it off the heat. As you get more adept at cooking fish, you can up the temp since you’ll have the experience to know when it’s done. Also keep in mind that fish will continue to cook after you take it off the heat. The higher the heat, the more it will continue to cook afterwards. If it’s on a searing hot grill, take it off at 125 and it will get to 130 on its own while it’s resting.
As for me, the technique I always struggle with is poaching eggs. They come out looking terrible and never cooked correctly. I don’t cook them often, which likely contributes to the issue. It seems like something which you’d get adept at over time by doing it a lot.
Mayo is an emulsion, so I don’t think whipping air into it has much to do with it like it would in beating egg whites or whipped cream. You might get some air into it, but it’s not essential to the process. What you’re trying to do is make sure the yolk has well absorbed the oil by the time you whisk in the next bit of oil, more or less. That’s the lecethin in the yolk doing its work. Do it too quickly and the yolk doesn’t absorb all the oil and your emulsion breaks. Once you have a stable base and your emulsion is established, you can add the oil more quickly. At least that is how I visualize it.
As you point out, practice makes perfect. But here are some tips, assuming you use the old school method of poaching in simmering water:
Give the bottom and sides of your saucepan a quick spray of cooking oil to keep the eggs from sticking.
Don’t plop your eggs directly into the barely simmering water from the shell. Break them one at a time into a measuring cup, then slip the egg gently into the water. Don’t be surprised when a bunch of the egg white breaks into little bits of yuck. That’s part of a successful poached egg. Make sure the water never gets above a bare simmer.
Poach to desired doneness. I prefer barely viscous yolks, so about 6 minutes for mine. You may want them more or less runny, so you’ll have to play with the timing. Size of yolk also affects how long this takes.
Lift the eggs out of the water with a straining spoon, rest them on a paper towel still in the straining spoon and give them a quick blot to remove excess water. You should have a nice poached egg with no remnants of the excess white.
I use a small dish to gently slip the egg into the water, but a measuring cup works well, too. Or I’ve even used a ladle. One tip that I don’t always use but does seem to help is adding a good glug of vinegar into the solution, especially if using older eggs. (Fresh eggs are best for poaching). It’s not necessary, but it does seem to tighten up the poach.
Oh, and the biggest one for me, cracking an egg into a wire mesh strainer and straining out the thin bits of egg whites before sending them into the pot. That helps a lot for me to get clean, poached eggs.
I mean, I can do it ok(ish) but I have never mastered getting them to that really deep golden-brown caramelization that I want. They usually end up a light blond or a dried out mess.
I notice most restaurants don’t do it well either. Burger with caramelized onions? 98% of the time they are the blond ones and not really taken far enough.
I have been meaning to spend an afternoon sorting it out but I haven’t.
Dont listen to others that say “add sugar” or “add water”… it just takes time and low/med-low heat. I mean, you can try to add those things, but I don’t. Add a little salt, have enough oil. It also takes more onion than you think.
I also cook them very dark when making pot roast, adds lots of flavor.
I do them the opposite way. Highest heat, constant vigilance. Adding little bits of water when it looks like they’re gonna burn. Takes 20-30 minutes for a medium batch. For a single onion, you can do it in under fifteen. Not as hands off as other approaches, but it does the job more quickly.
Thats how I cook a gumbo roux, haha. Faster over higher heat, and I like it on the darker side. Though I have scorched it while messing around. You def. need to stir & pay attention.
On gumbo, I use a box of “paella” stock instead of water or homemade stock. It’s imported and I cant recall the name/brand but it works and tastes really good & good seafood flavor (if you make that kind of gumbo).
With gumbo roux I only have enough nerve to get it up to the peanut butter stage before I start getting scared I’ll burn it. I don’t have the failsafe of just dumping some water in it unless I want to peel off my face with the steam.
ETA: I originally learned the technique from some French chef at a hotel kitchen I used to be a kitchen porter at. He would make his French onion soups on a base of only water – no meat broth of any kind. He said it was more true to its origins, but I never researched it enough to find out whether it was true or not. At any rate, he’d just build up a darker and darker fond using onions and water for about 30-40 some minutes until the soup was dark enough for his liking, and just season it with salt, pepper, and thyme, IIRC. Oh, wait, there was some wine and/or sherry in it as well. Delicious stuff, and really lets the onions shine through so it’s a true onion soup, not an oniony beef soup. Personally, I split the difference by using a light chicken stock, so the onions can be more forward without being overtaken by the broth the soup is based on.
There’s also the “baked” roux— bake the flour until toasted to preferred darkness, stirring from time to time. I havent tried it.
I thought original non-gratinee onion soup did use beef stock, but I have heard people like Jacques Pepin say he prefers with chicken or even water because beef can be too strong. The last time I made it I used Campbells beef consomme! It was fine, (passable) I did add a little sherry (as you mention) and gratinee in the oven.
One of these days I’ll make real consomme with the “raft” clarifier and real homemade stock. I love consomme, but not aspic….
Actually…a homemade stock is also on my list of “struggled with.” Which is to say I have never tried it. I have asked here but I am still really shy about it.
One chicken? How big? Cooked or uncooked? How much water? Herbs and veg or not? If I go to the effort how long can I keep it?
On it goes. It mystifies me so I have never tried.
Personally, I won’t waste a perfectly good whole chicken just to make stock. The bones have the flavor. Just use the bits you won’t get much use out of otherwise: Neck, back, wings and whatever bones are left over after you debone your lovely chicken dinner. Cooked or uncooked bits, it doesn’t matter.
If you really want to extract the flavor, roast the bones and raw parts with some vegetables (onion, carrot, celery) for awhile. If you have an ovenproof pot, you can do it all in one cooking vessel. I’d roast everything for a couple of hours at around 300F.
Take your roasted concoction out of the oven, add water to cover everything. Better to use too much water than too little. You can always boil off the excess. If you have some nice schmutz in the bottom of your cooked chicken storage container, rinse it into the pot, too. All this adds flavor!
Add a few sprigs of parsley, some sage, rosemary (not too much!) and thyme. Fresh is nice, but dried is also fine. Bay leaves if you like, though I don’t use them myself. My secret is some dill weed, maybe a quarter teaspoon. I also add about 10 whole peppercorns. Start off light with the herbs. You can always add more. Hold off on the salt for now.
Simmer the whole lovely mess for a few hours. Strain. If you want to de-fat, refrigerate overnight and remove the fat in the morning.
You can refrigerate the finished stock for a couple of days and use it or freeze and use (ideally) within 3 months. Salt to taste when you use it in a recipe, not before.
I haven’t made mayo in ages but don’t recall having much trouble with it, other than not getting it as thick or white as bought product. Always used egg yolks, oil and lemon juice. More oil seems to thicken it up but also will eventually break it.
Always clarified the butter first for Hollandaise, to get rid of the salt. Clarified butter, egg yolk and lemon juice, nothing we else. Go gentle with the lemon, it can curdle the egg and break the sauce.
Ive been enjoying fried Haddock a lot. Glass lid and steamed in its own juice. Mostly judge doneness by shrinkage, if it looks juicy it still is. Does go from under cooked to over cooked very quickly.
Always found poaching works well for fish and seems more forgiving. Baked in parchment works well too.
Not me but my mother. One of the things that she liked to serve at family holiday dinners was creamed peas. The only problem was that she could not get the hang of making cream sauce; something about being able to get the flour and milk to blend smoothly without lumps. Fortunately, even though I was only in my late teens I seemed to have the knack for properly stirring them. It got to be a family joke.
Easiest thing in the world. Use the left over carcass from a whole roasted chicken. Nigella taught me to freeze the carcass and wait until I have another one, so you put two into a large pot. Add roughly sliced onion, carrot, garlic, celery, bay leaf, parsley and seasoning, and fill the pot to the top with water. Simmer on low for two hours, occasionally skimming the crud off the top and adding more water so the pot is always full. Strain and freeze in single portion batches - I typically get about 6-8 portions (300ml) of stock out of this.
This is my recipe. I roast chicken somewhat often. The first time, the carcass goes on the freezer in a ziplock bag with as much air squished out as possible. I try to scrape up the drippings from the roasting pan and put them inside the carcass. The second time, both carcasses go into the instant pot, along with any bits and scraps we won’t eat. I add the carrot peelings and celery ends and onion peels and ends that have been stored in another plastic bag in the freezer. A whole fresh onion, cut in half. A carrot, and maybe a stalk of celery if there weren’t enough frozen scraps. Some fresh parsley from the garden.
Cover with water to the “don’t fill above this line” mark on the instant pot, and sprinkle a little kosher salt on top for good luck. Maybe throw in 5 peppercorns if i remember. Cook on “high pressure" for 90 minutes. Strain, remove the fat, and put into the containers takeout soup comes in, and freeze. One recipe makes about 3 quarts (liters) or a bit more. Keeps for a couple years in the freezer. Although it’s probably best in the first 9 months.
I’ve made slightly better chicken stock using one chicken carcass and some raw backs and feet. But this is really good, and doesn’t involve buying anything.
Before i had the instant pot i simmered for a few hours in a large pot. The big advantage of the instant pot is that i set it to " keep warm” and i can safely start the soup in the evening, and then go to bed and deal with the staining and such the next day. The soup quality is similar either way.
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