Cool tips from a chef

***magosienne*** · 03-02-2009, 01:50 PM

My mom got treated with a lesson with a chef (cooking lessons are a big hit in France), and she brought back home delicious stuff (sorry, already eaten) as well as some tips. So i thought i'd share them

-Need to cut onions or shallot but don't want to shed tears ? Place them 10 minutes in the freezer

-Use plastic cutting boards, not wooden ones. Better for hygiene.

-When cutting veggies, hold them firmly in your hands and follow your fingers as a guideline.

-want caramel ? With your electric stove, the heat starts in the middle of your frying pan. Do not place any sugar in there, leave a hole in the middle. Stir frequently and let your sugar melt. Then take it off the fire, add the cream and butter, and heat one more minute to combine. You can also use this method for your homemade candy

-Wonder why light cream is more expensive ? It's just regular cream cut with water, that's right you pay for water. So stop buying light cream and make your own.

-wonder why you can store in your fridge ham for 5 days when the fresh one you bought from the butcher is only good for 2 days ? That's because to preserve food, salt is added, in everything. When people tell you you eat too much salt, that's where the excess comes from. So buy as fresh as you can.

-Don't use a fork to turn your meat in the pan, it will only release blood and water. Use spatulas or tongs.

-When your meat adheres to your pan, it means it's not cooked, so wait until it doesn't stick anymore to turn it.

-When cooking mushrooms, it's better to combine different sorts, but no matter what, always cut the feet. Do not cook the mushrooms for more than a few minutes, or they will loose taste and get sticky.

-Try cutting small bits, it always cooks faster.

-When doing apple crumble, the chef prefers to separately cook the apples and the crumble, but of course you can cook everything together if you're short on space or time.

-Do not buy cooking books from chefs, that's unuseful. The tips are never in there. Try blogs instead.

-Do not try to make your experiment look like the pic from the cookbook, Photoshop does miracles in the kitchen too.

***katana*** · 03-02-2009, 02:27 PM

Very neat tips! Thanks for the informataive post!

Sounds like your mom had fun!

***Karren*** · 03-03-2009, 11:02 AM

Those are great tips!! I'm such a poor cook I really need to learn how to photoshop!! Lol

***magosienne*** · 03-03-2009, 02:15 PM

Lol !!

My mom had lots of fun, in fact she's planning a mom/daughter outing, she's fallen for the macaroon lessons, and she'd like to drag in my sister in law as well, lol.