Pat PilcherThe thing about digging deep into gadgetry is that it’s hungry work. PAT PILCHER loves food and offers his advice on how to make delicious tucker (almost) every single time.
It’s no secret that I love cooking almost as much as eating. The only trouble is that things can sometimes go wrong in the kitchen. Making mistakes is also my superpower. Here are some simple steps I follow when cooking that can help keep the fuck-up fairy away from your culinary concoctions.
RESEARCH: Before I cook anything new, I spend time researching. New dishes or cuisines I’m unfamiliar with mean reading up on a new cooking technique or new ingredients. Some ingredients can have quirks, and there are often small cooking hacks that can mean the difference between a dish being just okay or brilliant.
A great example of this is when making a curry. I find that cooking onions until they look much more cooked than usual makes a huge difference. A thoroughly cooked onion caramelises, sweetening up the curry. There are many other examples, and these can easily be found with the click of a search query.
As with anything internet-related, the quality of the information you’ll find varies hugely, so make sure any info you’re perusing is from a reputable source, and read any comments. My favourite source of good info usually comes from cookbooks. The recipes in most good cookbooks are typically tried, tested and proven to work. Using books from well-known cooks also helps a lot. Recipes from the likes of Jamie Oliver and Rick Stein are usually bomb-proof.
PLAN: Armed with information, I plan how to cook the dish. What ingredients will I need? What will I need to use to cook the dish? What needs to be pre-prepared/precooked? How long will it all take? What are the key steps involved? With a rough plan, I’m better placed to go for gold.
PREP: Preparing ahead of cooking makes a huge difference. This is known as “Mise en place” in culinary circles, which means “everything in its place”. It refers to organising ingredients and utensils before cooking. This means a) you’re not going to be caught short of needed ingredients halfway through cooking, and b) that you have a smooth and efficient workflow, so cooking is quicker (and the fuck-up fairy is hopefully kept at bay).
BE PRESENT: Of all these steps, this one is the biggie. When cooking, being present means you are there watching, smelling and tasting as you cook. The old saying may be that “a watched pot never boils”, but an unwatched pot will sure as hell burn, screwing up your meal. By being present, mistakes can be easily avoided.
Eyeballing the food as you cook can be the difference between it being over- or undercooked. Smelling as you cook can give a great indication of how flavours are developing. Tasting as you cook is vital, allowing you to judge how much or little to season the dish before inflicting it on anyone else.
LEARN FROM MISTAKES: As great as these tips sound, accept that occasionally food fuck-ups will happen. They might be embarrassing and incredibly annoying, but learning from them is a game-changer. If you’re prepared to find out why things went wrong and learn from your mistakes, you’ll reduce the chance of making the same mistake again later, and your food will be so much better for it.
Following these 5 steps should help you knock out killer food from your kitchen. Just remember that fresh is usually better than precooked/packaged/frozen. Use timers (I have Alexa in the kitchen for this very reason) and have a rough plan before cooking/serving the dish. Bon Appetit!
