It’s easy when you know how. Many cooks don’t know the simple tricks that can take the hassle out of cooking ‒ and get better results.
Real Simple (www.realsimple.com) has compiled simplifying strategies, tips, and techniques to help. These are some of them.
Prevent potatoes from discolouring
Preparing potatoes in advance for gratins and mashes can be tricky. Once peeled and cut, spuds can turn an off-putting shade of grey.
The trick: To maintain their creamy colour, refrigerate potato pieces in a container of cold water. Fully submerged, they'll keep up to a day before cooking.
Grating semisoft cheese
Grating fresh mozzarella, fontina, Havarti, and other semisoft cheeses can be messy and cumbersome. Make the task simpler by trying this.
The trick: Before subjecting soft cheese to a box grater, freeze it until firm, about 30 minutes. Frozen cheese is easy to drag over the holes, resulting in long, elegant shreds.
Successfully skewered
Anyone who has tried to flip a skewer loaded with fish, meat, or vegetables knows how hard it is to prevent the individual pieces from spinning. Not any more.
The trick: Thread the pieces onto two parallel skewers, which makes turning them a cinch. Couldn't be simpler!
Aluminum-foil master class
During grilling season, foil is a cook’s secret weapon. Here are three ways to use this marvellous multi-tasker.
Make a packet for delicate foods. Prevent a whole fish or a fragile fillet from sticking to the grate by sealing it in a foil packet. (For flavour, add lemon and herbs.) Pierce the top of the packet several times before placing it on the grill. No flipping necessary.
Use as a makeshift grill brush. A clean grate prevents food from sticking. If you don’t have a wire brush on hand, crumple a sheet of foil into a ball, hold it with tongs and use it to scrape off any bits stuck to the grate. Do this while the grill is hot, before and after cooking.
Create a tent for resting meat. Keep a resting steak warm by covering it loosely with foil for 5 to 10 minutes. Resting lets meat continue to cook and then cool down, allowing fibres to plump with juices that would otherwise spill onto your cutting board.
Charcoal briquettes vs lump charcoal
In summer, we’re all looking to get that perfect sear from our charcoal grill and there are charcoal briquettes and lump charcoal aplenty. But what’s the difference?
Charcoal briquettes are the pillow-shaped nuggets you see at most braais. Made by combining coal dust with wood scraps and binders ‒ and then stamped into uniform pieces that burn consistently hot for about an hour ‒ briquettes are reliable and easy to use.
Lump charcoal is formed by burning trees, logs or chunks of wood to eliminate the water inside them. Since it’s made of pure wood, lump charcoal is the next best thing to an open campfire, lending a pure grilled flavour to food. The downside is that it burns unevenly ‒ hot at first and then cooler ‒ so it needs to be replenished every 30 minutes or so during cooking.
Perfect scrambled eggs
For soft, fluffy scrambled eggs every time, check out this easy step-by-step method and then get cracking.
Step 1. Whisk the eggs (2 per person) in a large bowl to break up the yolks.
Step 2. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a nonstick pan over medium-low heat. Add eggs and cook (don’t touch!) until just set around the edges, about 1 minute. Push the eggs toward the centre of the pan with a heat-safe rubber spatula and then tilt the pan so any uncooked egg flows back across the pan's bottom.
Step 3. Keep pushing the eggs across the pan until still slightly runny and then transfer them to a plate. (They continue to cook off the heat.) Season with salt and pepper.
After perfecting the basics, learn ways to upgrade your scrambled eggs game.
Knockout Noodles
Yes, you know to cook pasta in a big pot and to get the water to a rolling boil. But you may not know these three cooking tricks, which guarantee a better bowl of pasta every time.
Add a lot of salt to the water ‒ “a lot” means about 2 tablespoons. Fear not: 75% of it will wash away with the pasta water. What remains seasons the noodles, so even a simple spaghetti tossed with olive oil and Parmesan turns out full of flavour.
Stir to avoid sticking. Don’t add olive oil to the pot, because it makes the noodles too slick to absorb the sauce. To get the noodles swimming, grab a wooden spoon, give the pasta a good spin right after you add it to the pot, and then once again when the water comes back to a boil.
Reserve ½ cup of the cooking water. This starchy, seasoned liquid is great for loosening up cheesy, creamy, or tomato-based sauces.
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