The secrets of the 'top chefs' that will forever change your way of cooking
Although many of the techniques used by professional chefs can not be applied at home, some of their tricks can improve, and much, our expertise among cookers
To be a good home cook it is not necessary to know all the techniques with which the participants of the television competitions dazzle us. The important thing is to know a handful of basic methods and recipes and, from there, get carried away.
Now, the great chefs use tricks that can help us in our day to day in the kitchen and that it will not cost us to integrate into our routines. The Daily Mail has interviewed some of the best-known British chefs who share their favorite culinary tricks. These are some of the most useful:
1. Cooking the vegetables with baking
The head chef of the Portmeirion Hotel, Mark Threadgill, recommends adding a pinch of sodium bicarbonate to the water that we will use to cook green vegetables. This will help the vegetables are softer, but without losing their color, which makes them look much better.
2. Marinate the meat for two days
Some meats such as lamb or game are too strong for many people, but after a good marinade they are irresistible to anyone. The head chef of the Zaika restaurant, Shoeb Haider, prepares the lamb chops by marinating them for 48 hours in a mixture of raw papaya paste, ginger, chili powder, curry gram masala, cilantro, salt and yogurt.
Like any other marinade, it should be prepared in a dish in which the meat is submerged, and it should be kept in the refrigerator covered with film. Marinar is a technique widely used by professional chefs, although not so much by home chefs, despite the ease involved. It is enough to prepare a marinade of olive oil, garlic and parsley so that the chicken breasts or the pork chops change from being a battle dish to being a delight. And it's also great for the fish.
Marinar also has a very interesting effect on meat: it softens it, making it ideal for harder meats, which are difficult to cook well without being too dry.
3. Pour salt on the onion when cooking it
As Vivek Singh, chef at the Cinnamon Club of Soho, explains, we should not forget to salt the onion just when we are going to cook it. This causes the moisture to be removed faster, which speeds up cooking and allows it to brown faster. Salaries are essential to make them really tasty and it is best to always do it when cooking, never after, because hot food absorbs salt better.
4. Cooking meat at room temperature
This is something that every self-respecting chef knows, but in spite of this, in most homes the meat is cooked as it comes out of the fridge, a very bad habit. If we cook a cold steak, it will be impossible for us to remain juicy, as explained by Jarad McCarroll, head chef of the M Restaurant, if the meat is not at room temperature, it will not cook evenly. Another basic rule to make good steaks is to have the griddle or pan where we are going to make the meat as hot as possible, adding only the essential oil so that it does not stick.
5. Peel garlic faster
Although you do not have to study a graduate degree to peel a garlic, sometimes it becomes a rather cumbersome activity. To do it much faster, explains Hayden Groves, BaxterStorey's cook, just grab a pan and beat the cloves of garlic with the base. The skin will separate from the flesh and you can remove it without effort with your hand. If you have to peel many garlics you can also use the technique explained in this video.
6. Use aromatic herbs
As McCarroll explains, herbs like cilantro, parsley or basil can completely change the flavor of a dish and make the difference between the mediocre and the excellent. The important thing is to add the herbs at the end of the cooking process, so that the dish takes its aroma, but does not know only these.
7. Cover the countertop with film paper
The film paper not only serves to better preserve the food in the fridge. As Groves explains, it is ideal to cover the countertop in which we are going to work (especially if we are going to make masses) because, after manipulating everything, it is enough to roll up the plastic and throw everything away. It is not the most ecological method in the world, but if you are going to mess a lot you can save yourself a great job.
8. Thicken a sauce
As explained by the chef Graham Campbell, who has a Michelin star, the best way to thicken a sauce that has been too liquid is to make what is known as beurre manié, a paste formed in equal parts by butter and flour. When it melts it releases the flour particles without creating lumps. It is enough to add it little by little to our sauce to obtain the desired consistency without bothering its flavor, but always when it is cooking, never before serving. Now, we have to be careful not to overdo it, because if we take too much the plate will be very heavy.
9. Do not cook without having everything prepared
Every good cook knows that before starting to cook you have to have all the ingredients and utensils that are going to be used by hand, which is known in the world of hospitality as mise en place, literally, "put in place". Ideally, explains the head chef of the Hotel Chantelle in London, Seth Levine, is to chop and measure all the ingredients that are going to be used on a plate before getting down to work, because there is nothing worse than having to stop because You have forgotten something, an oversight that can alter cooking times and ruin the dish.
Although many of the techniques used by professional chefs can not be applied at home, some of their tricks can improve, and much, our expertise among cookers
MIGUEL AYUSO
To be a good home cook it is not necessary to know all the techniques with which the participants of the television competitions dazzle us. The important thing is to know a handful of basic methods and recipes and, from there, get carried away.
Now, the great chefs use tricks that can help us in our day to day in the kitchen and that it will not cost us to integrate into our routines. The Daily Mail has interviewed some of the best-known British chefs who share their favorite culinary tricks. These are some of the most useful:
1. Cooking the vegetables with baking
The head chef of the Portmeirion Hotel, Mark Threadgill, recommends adding a pinch of sodium bicarbonate to the water that we will use to cook green vegetables. This will help the vegetables are softer, but without losing their color, which makes them look much better.
2. Marinate the meat for two days
Some meats such as lamb or game are too strong for many people, but after a good marinade they are irresistible to anyone. The head chef of the Zaika restaurant, Shoeb Haider, prepares the lamb chops by marinating them for 48 hours in a mixture of raw papaya paste, ginger, chili powder, curry gram masala, cilantro, salt and yogurt.
Like any other marinade, it should be prepared in a dish in which the meat is submerged, and it should be kept in the refrigerator covered with film. Marinar is a technique widely used by professional chefs, although not so much by home chefs, despite the ease involved. It is enough to prepare a marinade of olive oil, garlic and parsley so that the chicken breasts or the pork chops change from being a battle dish to being a delight. And it's also great for the fish.
Marinar also has a very interesting effect on meat: it softens it, making it ideal for harder meats, which are difficult to cook well without being too dry.
3. Pour salt on the onion when cooking it
As Vivek Singh, chef at the Cinnamon Club of Soho, explains, we should not forget to salt the onion just when we are going to cook it. This causes the moisture to be removed faster, which speeds up cooking and allows it to brown faster. Salaries are essential to make them really tasty and it is best to always do it when cooking, never after, because hot food absorbs salt better.
4. Cooking meat at room temperature
This is something that every self-respecting chef knows, but in spite of this, in most homes the meat is cooked as it comes out of the fridge, a very bad habit. If we cook a cold steak, it will be impossible for us to remain juicy, as explained by Jarad McCarroll, head chef of the M Restaurant, if the meat is not at room temperature, it will not cook evenly. Another basic rule to make good steaks is to have the griddle or pan where we are going to make the meat as hot as possible, adding only the essential oil so that it does not stick.
5. Peel garlic faster
Although you do not have to study a graduate degree to peel a garlic, sometimes it becomes a rather cumbersome activity. To do it much faster, explains Hayden Groves, BaxterStorey's cook, just grab a pan and beat the cloves of garlic with the base. The skin will separate from the flesh and you can remove it without effort with your hand. If you have to peel many garlics you can also use the technique explained in this video.
6. Use aromatic herbs
As McCarroll explains, herbs like cilantro, parsley or basil can completely change the flavor of a dish and make the difference between the mediocre and the excellent. The important thing is to add the herbs at the end of the cooking process, so that the dish takes its aroma, but does not know only these.
7. Cover the countertop with film paper
The film paper not only serves to better preserve the food in the fridge. As Groves explains, it is ideal to cover the countertop in which we are going to work (especially if we are going to make masses) because, after manipulating everything, it is enough to roll up the plastic and throw everything away. It is not the most ecological method in the world, but if you are going to mess a lot you can save yourself a great job.
8. Thicken a sauce
As explained by the chef Graham Campbell, who has a Michelin star, the best way to thicken a sauce that has been too liquid is to make what is known as beurre manié, a paste formed in equal parts by butter and flour. When it melts it releases the flour particles without creating lumps. It is enough to add it little by little to our sauce to obtain the desired consistency without bothering its flavor, but always when it is cooking, never before serving. Now, we have to be careful not to overdo it, because if we take too much the plate will be very heavy.
9. Do not cook without having everything prepared
Every good cook knows that before starting to cook you have to have all the ingredients and utensils that are going to be used by hand, which is known in the world of hospitality as mise en place, literally, "put in place". Ideally, explains the head chef of the Hotel Chantelle in London, Seth Levine, is to chop and measure all the ingredients that are going to be used on a plate before getting down to work, because there is nothing worse than having to stop because You have forgotten something, an oversight that can alter cooking times and ruin the dish.