Winner!
Yeah, I don’t worry about the liquid temp either. Just add a dash, stir, add a dash, stir, add a dash, stir. Once you’ve got it loosened up good, you can just dump in the rest of the liquid, stir, and simmer until it’s the right thickness.
Learned this method by age 8; I’ve never made lumpy gravy in my life.
I’d add to this learning where the give is in the timings - what things can and can’t stand for a bit, and what can and can’t tolerate cooking for longer than the instructions say. You can probably get away with starting the salmon fillet after the rice is finished.
There is no standard cooking time for dry beans and pulses. Those instructions for how long to cook them have an implicit “at least” or “if you’re really lucky”.
You might as well buy the whole duck. Stock & rillettes from the carcass and confit from the wings/legs for barely more than the breasts. 10 servings for the price of 2 1/2.
Marinades are nigh-on the least effort and most effective way of improving meat. Putting it in the marinade before it goes in the freezer and it will marinate as it defrosts.
Ouch. Yeah, wild rice isn’t really rice, and it takes about 40 minutes. Good food combo, though.
I just burst out laughing…
In envisioned a bottle of vodka laying on its side with wings protruding and wheels underneath…the whole thing holding 90-million gallons of Stolichnaya and rolling across the tarmac at LAX.
Yeah! That’ll neutralize the burnt flavor of ANYTHING!
Hell, if I could get through that, you could set my breath on fire and I’d be too drunk to care!
[Okay, yeah, I know what you really meant.]
–G!
No, No, ossifer, I’m not as think as you drunk I am, really!
Wow. What a mix of experienced chef and college dorm cooking advice.
Salt: You HAVE to salt most dishes up to a certain point while cooking; trying to leave the salt out or undersalt it means no amount of table salting will bring up the flavor.
Prep First. Cook Second. This will save you from screwing up a dinner more times than you can imagine. It’s easy for one thing to overcook, go bad or have to be set off heat while you do something that ‘would only take a minute.’
The ‘browned bits’ are called *fond *by experienced chefs, and *fond *is the gold that holds ALL of the flavor for your dish. Learn to scrape it/wash it into the sauce or mix.
I prefer real vanilla, but it’s insanely expensive. Whoever said “artificial vanilla is crap” needs to do an actual taste test, or check with Cook’s, who has… and found no difference between real and artificial even in delicate recipes… and had tasters who preferred the synthetic. If you’re on a budget, save your money for ingredients that count.
Actually, the browned bits are called sucs. The fond is the sauce you make from this when you deglaze.
Only one thing I cook (NOT BAKE) gets salted prior to cooking…grits! No amount of salting afterwards takes the place of them cooking in slightly SALTED water.
I leave salt out of most of what I make.
Baking…yes, I do use salt them.
As to gas stove…I would LOVE to have a gas cooktop and an electric oven. But no gas on this street so my only option is completely electric.
I use recipes as guidelines…except when baking.
Liz
Cold liquid, right from the fridge in the case of white gravies. Usually room temperature or warm in the case of stock/broth gravies, but cold if the stock/broth was in the fridge.
[ol]
[li]Make the roux in the hot pan.[/li][li]Add a little liquid, which heats immediately on contact with hot roux & pan. Stir until thick.[/li][li]Add more liquid, which heats immediately on contact with hot roux & pan. Stir until thick. Repeat until just looser than desired for service.[/li][li]Season further if needed.[/li][li]Serve.[/li][/ol]
My gravies do not break, come out grainy, lumpy, or ugly in any way.
I think I may be one of the very few who intentionally cleans while cooking. I do it not just because it gives me less mess to deal with after the meal, but also because it forces me to slow down and let things cook without me fussing over them and introducing problems.
Hmmm…wouldn’t that be a repertoire? Attacking people with food is so high-school-ish.
Cooking and serving, on the other hand, is a performance art!
—G!
Cookin’ up that old time
long lost recipe
for me
. --Sammy Hagar (Van Halen)
. Poundcake
. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
Learn how to make decent jellied stock, then use it in* everything*. Sauces (Heston Blumenthal makes a wonderful stock-based cheese sauce that’s silkier and more flavourful than one that’s roux-based), ragus, soups, stews, beans… and I’ll happily have a cup of my chicken stock as a broth for lunch. Commercially available stock is vile, overpowers everything but the heartiest flavours, and stock’s so cheap and easy to make and store. I’ve got a pot bubbling away downstairs at the moment with the leftovers of this evening’s clementine roast chicken, the leftover veggies and a handful of bay leaves from the garden.
I don’t generally heat my liquid before adding to a roux because I don’t want to dirty another pan - I have a tiny kitchen with approx. 1 square metre of counter space, so keep things as simple as possible. I don’t add the cold liquid bit by bit, either. I have a mini wire whisk that laughs at lumps. Make the roux, brown it, glug a bunch of milk in straight from the fridge, getting whisking as it comes to a boil and, woohoo, creamy, lump-free bechamel! Dump some fresh ground white pepper and nutmeg in the pan and we’re alllll good.
Wait, you think commercial stock overpowers things? That stuff is watered-down and weak.
It tends to be salty, especially if it reduces. Maybe that’s what amijane means?
Yeah, that makes sense. I thought maybe she was talking about bullion cubes, or something.
In my experience gold just won’t thicken up no matter how long you simmer it for.
The rule I was taught about adding liquids to roux was: hot roux, cold liquid: cold roux, hot liquid. It has never failed for me, my sauces and gravies are lump-free.
If you finish off something in the oven in a skillet, for god’s sake leave several potholders on the handle after you remove it, while it rests. To remind yourself that 3rd degree burns that cover the palm of your hand really really hurt.
I blame my phone. It changed to that spelling, but I totally noticed it and thought “Yeah, all right.”