Oops Moments in the Kitchen!

How to Salvage Cooking Disasters and Other Tips

As you know I am dead keen on everyone in the Whole Wide World learning to cook (or at least those who have access to food, I’m afraid that many people have much bigger problems to cope with) and to that end I have written a book of over 500 handy tips containing all the useful information I could think of to help with every aspect of cooking.

Whilst obviously I am not going to reproduce the entire book here I thought it would be useful, as a taster so to speak, to post some ways to salvage a tricky situation in the cooking department.

So – taken directly from ...

Read more about my cooking tips book here ...

... and in no particular order:

Cheese Problems

Too Salty?

Lumpy Mash?

Dish too Spicy?

Meat Overcooked?

Overdone Rice?

Cooked the Veggies Too Long?

Sauce Broken?

Instead of being smooth and creamy it is watery with bits of fat floating in it.

No Self Raising Flour?

Melted Chocolate has gone all strange and lumpy aka has seized?

Sadly Sunken Cake?

To read the other 490 or so tips buy the book, it’s only £2.82 for digital and bit more in paperback. The eBook has colour pics but the paperback has nicer fonts – tricky choice, I know!

500+ Truly Useful Cooking Tips & Techniques also contains absolutely essential information, good ideas you should do, things you MUST NOT DO, storage tips, kitchen equipment info, conversion charts and miscellaneous stuff such as how to separate eggs without resorting to the popular plastic bottle “hack”.

I even enclose one or two helpful suggestions from other people in the know, eg. ...

In Other News ...

Nothing I can think of.  I’ve just voted in the referendum, I wonder what will happen next! 

Potato Salad ~ Make it Your Own!

I think we are at about the middle of the New Potato season and, of course, salad season in the UK so I thought I’d give some ideas for enjoying potato salads.

New potatoes are ideal candidates for salad as they have a waxy texture (and therefore don’t fall apart) and their skin is tender so there is no need to peel them, indeed doing so would detract from the dish.

Some suggestions ...

~   Add some flavouring when cooking the potatoes – mint leaves, whole cloves of garlic (which can then be mashed into the dressing) or whole spices for instance.

~   It is a good idea to add some of the dressing to the warm potatoes or at least sprinkle with a tablespoon or two of cider or white vinegar and then finish dressing shortly before serving. This will be absorbed and make the salad even deliciouser that if dressed cold.

~   For more of a main course salad add cooked chicken or chorizo or bacon bits or perhaps some smoked fish.  In the latter case the addition of whole grain mustard to the dressing would be beneficial.

Mayonnaise Ideas ...

~   Mayonnaise can be lightened with a little yogurt, crème fraiche or sour cream and flavoured with garlic, herbs, spices etc. according to your fancy and the other dishes in the meal. 

38 Delicious Flavoured Mayonnaise Ideas here.

 ~   Include something crunchy – thin slices of celery, red onion or radish for instance.

~   A very simple but impressive dressing is made by puréeing a bunch of spring onions OR watercress with the mayonnaise.  

~   Classic American potato salad is drizzled with vinegar and contains celery, red onion, pickle (NB. in America “pickle” refers only to a cucumber that's been pickled as in dill pickle or sweet pickle and has nothing to do with Piccalilli or Branston etc.) and, crucially, boiled eggs. In fact, once or twice when feeding Americans, I have been excoriated for not included boiled egg in potato salad as if such a thing is unthinkable which, of course, it is not!

 Vinaigrettes ...

Potato salads dressed with vinaigrette are equally as good as mayonnaise based salads and are lovely served warm.  For instance ...

Warm Potato Salad with Fresh Herb Vinaigrette

 serves 4

In two stages as the ingredients are somewhat repeated!

700g new potatoes - washed but not peeled
120ml good olive oil
2 tablespoons cider or white wine vinegar
½ teaspoon salt

~   If the potatoes are large cut them into attractive bit sized pieces.
~   Cook the potatoes in gently boiling water for about 15 minutes till tender.
~   Meanwhile whisk together the rest of the above ingredients
~   Drain the potatoes, cool for a few minutes and then toss gently with the dressing and set aside for about half an hour.

2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 finely chopped shallot
a small handful of chopped parsley
a small bunch of chives.

~   When the half hour is up gently stir this through the potatoes and serve.

If making ahead just re-warm the salad slightly when serving.

Kartoffelsalat - German Potato Salad

700g new potatoes – washed but not peeled
4 rashers smoked bacon
1 small red onion, diced
60ml cider or white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons sugar
 salt and pepper to taste
small bunch fresh parsley – chopped

~   Prepare and cook the potatoes as above.
~   Dice the bacon and fry till browned and crisp (you may need to add a drizzle of oil to the pan depending on what cut of bacon you are using).
~   Remove and set aside the bacon and add the onions to the residual fat in the pan.
~   Cook the onions till softening and starting to brown.
~   Add the remaining ingredients to the pan, bring to a boil.
~   Add the cooked potatoes to the pan together with half the bacon and half the parsley and when all heated through turn off the heat.
~   Serve warm garnished with the other half of the bacon and the parsley.

Inspired by writing this post have just had a lovely lunch of smoked salmon with new potatoes in a lemon and chive dressing with just a touch of Thai chilli sweet sauce.

See here for lots more inspiring vinaigrette ideas.

Honey Mustard Dressing

This final recipe combines mayonnaise and vinaigrette to make a perfect dressing for potato salad to serve with ham.

60ml olive oil
60ml cider vinegar
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons of whole grain mustard
2 tablespoons of honey

~   Whisk all the ingredients together, taste and season and use to dress warm new potatoes.

Now it's your turn – make the potato salad of your dreams!

When life gives you Aubergines ...

Turns out there is such a thing as a free aubergine!

My real man works for Tesco and every month, to show their appreciation, workers are given a voucher for a freebie. Recently we received an aubergine! Now he doesn’t like aubergine (so far as he knows, I don’t think he’s tried it!) but I do.

If you work for Tesco and are the happy recipient of an aubergine or even if you have to purchase one here are half a dozen good ideas for enjoying it.

Before we start, many years ago it was considered a good idea to disgorge aubergine ie. salting to removed excess bitterness but this is really not necessary these days. I haven’t bothered for years to no detriment, perhaps “they” have bred the bitterness out.

Crisp Aubergine Croutons with Feta Salad

Thanks to my friend Lynne (or Mrs. Gweenie as I call her) in Tortola for this.

Cut the aubi into crouton sized pieces.  Toss in a little seasoned flour to coat, then into beaten egg and finally coat with breadcrumbs and shallow fry in hot oil till crisp.  Serve with a salad containing crumbled feta cheese, fresh tomatoes, red onion and salad leaves in tossed in balsamic vinaigrette. 

Aubergine Pizza

Here’s a lovely easy pizza dough recipe and the beauty of making your own is that you can have a thin and crispy or a thick crust or whatever you fancy.

The trick to making a good aubergine pizza is cooking the aubi a bit first. Cut the aubergine into 5mm or so slices, brush both sides with a little olive oil and season with salt plus anything else you fancy.  Spread in one layer on a baking tray and grill 3-5 minutes per side till tender and golden. Then continue with your pizza.  Good additions would be tomatoes and/or a rich tomato sauce, olives, feta cheese, basil and even, maybe, minced cooked lamb.

Another way to use these tender cooked slices is …

Sandwich cooked slices of aubergine ...

... with cheese (feta or goat cheese are good) and something else delicious such a spicy tomato sauce, coat in breadcrumbs as with the aubergine croutons above and shallow fry on both sides till crisp out the outside and meltingly delicious in the middle.

Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables

You need a mixture of aubergine and other aubi friendly vegetables such peppers (red or yellow taste best), red onion, courgettes and garlic. Cut the veggies (except the garlic!) into similar sized pieces so that they cook at the same rate.  Toss with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper and maybe a little chilli and also the garlic. Roast in a medium hot oven, stirring occasionally, till all is tender and the onions and aubergines are beginning to char; they are delicious like that! Use as a side dish, a sandwich filling, with pasta or on pizza.

Charred Aubergine Slices

Speaking of charring thinly sliced aubi is delicious if you brush lightly with oil, season to taste and grill or fry till soft and starting to blacken in places!  Serve with plain yogurt, garlicky yogurt or Tzatziki. OR as I have done here with yogurt and wild garlic oil (wild garlic leaves puréed with a little olive oil).

Baigan Akari (aubergine in the “pickling style”) – for 6

This was a real winner on our menu at The House on the Strand, a restaurant my sister and I owned in Cornwall throughout the 1980s. We got the recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking and after cooking it for years it may not be exactly as the original but it works really well.

2.5cm/1” fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
6 peeled garlic cloves
60ml water
500g aubergine in 1 cm - ish slices
3 tablespoons olive oil
350g aubergine
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
340g chopped tomatoes – from a tin or carton
2 teaspoons ground coriander
 ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
cayenne and salt to taste

~   Purée together the ginger and garlic in the water.
~   Heat the olive oil and brown the aubergine slices in a single layer cooking both sides, to a lovely reddish brown. If necessary, cook in two batches.  Lift the slices out of the oil and set aside in a sieve to drain off excess. 
~   Add the fennel and cumin seeds to the oil and when they darken slightly and smell fragrant add the chopped tomatoes, the garlic and ginger purée and the coriander and turmeric.
~   Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally till you have a very thick paste-like sauce.
~   Taste and season as you wish with salt and cayenne.
~   Add the aubergine slices and cook covered for about 10 minutes till utterly tender.

This is delicious served hot or cold.

Our free aubergine, it must be said, was very helpful as, I presume, is the one in the picture below.  I have no idea how I’d have coped with an uncooperative aubergine.