7 tips from professional chefs: these mistakes are best avoided
They have already cooked thousands of steaks, roasted dozens of crates of vegetables, whisked litres of sauce and cut or burned themselves a billion times over. That’s why you’d do well to take this practical advice from professional chefs to heart: never do this again!
Working into the middle of the night, dealing with guests’ craziest requests, creating culinary works of art under intense pressure: working as a chef is no walk in the park. So let’s at least listen to what these tough cookies have to say about cooking, because honestly, if anyone knows, it’s them.
Friends, but not together
Onion and garlic are the best of friends in most dishes. But beware: don’t put them in the pan at the same time. Diced onion needs about eight minutes to become translucent, while garlic from a garlic press needs about thirty seconds before it burns and turns bitter. So they can’t be cooked at the same time.
Brilliant potatoes
Do you want really delicious roasted potatoes? Boil them first for about five to ten minutes, drain them and let them steam-dry for a while. Then put them in the oven. The result: deliciously tender and soft on the inside, crisp and crunchy on the outside: perfection!
Take it easy
A very simple trick for cooking a good steak: leave it alone. Don’t keep poking it, turning it over or sliding it around the pan. Just leave it in the pan until your steak is done, turn it over, cook the other side too and you’re finished. Don’t fuss with it too much.
Highest setting?
Many people turn the gas or oven up to the highest setting when they want something to cook or be ready faster. Nonsense. If something needs an hour in the oven at 160 degrees, you can’t do half an hour at 200 degrees, for example. Give everything time and don’t always turn up the flames.
Making sauce
Have you fried meat in your kitchen pan? Then make a sauce in that same pan by pouring a little wine or stock into the hot cooking fat and letting it reduce. All those bits and the fat that you would normally let disappear down the drain are actually essential for a delicious gravy or sauce.
Fatty meat is delicious
Many people are afraid of a strip of fat on their meat, but fat is flavour. So they often choose chicken breast without a trace of fat, but it tastes like absolutely nothing. If you want to eat less fat, it’s better to eat a little less than to choose that lean, tasteless stuff. If you have a choice: always choose chicken thighs instead of chicken breast.
Keep trying
Always keep trying new recipes, tasting new ingredients and reading new cookbooks, because you learn something every time. And if you don’t like something but haven’t eaten it for ten years, try it again: your tastes may have changed. Many people have been eating the same things for years; they don’t know what they’re missing.
Read also:
- 15 top tips from top chefs to help you shine in the kitchen
- 9 hangover tips from restaurant chefs
- Oops! These foods were invented by accident
Source: Bored Panda
