Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Cooking tips |
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| Haniff |
| 08/14/01 at 10:28:42 |
| Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Cooking tips By Anis Siddiqi[/center] Do all your stirring with a wooden spoon. Metal chemically affects some foods. In pan frying and sautéing, always get your pan hot first, then add the butter or oil. Meat - even eggs - won't stick if you use this method. When dipping meat pieces into beaten egg and crumbs, use your left hand for applying the egg, your right for crumbs. This way you can avoid getting your fingers gluey. When unmolding hot foods, allow them to stand for five minutes before you turn them out on another dish. When greasing pans or molds, use butter for hot dishes and, oil for cold. Butter stiffens and sticks when chilled, defeating your purpose. Never pierce meat when browning, otherwise the juices will escape. Use tongs. And don't let the pieces touch each other as they cook or they'll stew instead of sauté. Brown red meat quickly, uncovered; brown poultry slowly, covered or uncovered. Never carve any sizable piece of meat or poultry right after it comes out of the oven. Give a roast at least 20 minutes and it will be much easier to slice. Blanching helps to keep firmness, texture, color and flavor in such vegetables as green beans, carrots, leaks and celery. After slicing, put the pieces in a pan and cover with cold water. Bring slowly to boil, drain, and then cook according to the recipe you're using. Test boiled potatoes for doneness with a cake tester or a skewer, never a fork. Many holes make them watery. Cut off both ends of cucumbers to avoid bitterness. To bring out their taste, slice them ahead of time, sprinkle with a little salt and refrigerate. To chop an onion efficiently, cut it in half and place flat surfaces on your cutting board; cut in thin slices across with chef's knife. Then turn slices around, holding them together, and chop into fine pieces. To avoid tears in the process, sprinkle fresh lemon juice on the flat surfaces after you've cut the onions in half. Never cut salad greens with a knife. This bruises them and makes them bitter. Tear them gently into bite-size pieces by hand. Secret of crisp salads: Dry greens thoroughly, piece by piece, till absolutely water-free. Wet salad greens won't get coated and shiny with dressing. Best way to toss them is with your own two hands. To beat cream so it stays whipped, do it with a wire whisk in a metal bowl (not aluminum) over another bowl containing ice. If you grate your own Parmesan cheese as needed from a chunk, you'll enjoy four times more flavor than from the pre-grated kind. When cooking with raw eggs, you'll get best results if the eggs have just come out of the refrigerator. They separate better and thicken mayonnaise or hollandaise sauce better and faster. Egg whites are well whipped if they adhere to the bowl when you turn it upside down. Hand-beat them in a metal bowl (not aluminum) with a wire whisk to get more air, thus more volume. This is especially important for soufflés, where the whites must hold up your creation. It'll also keep the whites from getting too dry from overheating. Poach eggs in water flavored with tarragon vinegar for a subtle, delicate taste. To keep dill, mint or tarragon fresh, wash and dry well, then strip sprigs from stalks and refrigerate in a screw top jar. Rub dry herbs between your fingers or rehydrate them with a little water to bring out their fragrance. To keep cheese such as Swiss, cheddar or hard Italian types, wrap in waxed paper, seal in a plastic container and freeze. [i]Arab News - 30 June 1995[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff (with 2 f's) |
| Re: Cooking tips |
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| Kathy |
| 08/15/01 at 10:33:20 |
| [quote]Do all your stirring with a wooden spoon[/quote] In the restaurant/ hotel industry it is a code vioation to use wooden utensils and cutting boards. It it is nearly impossible to stop the wood from absorbing and growing little critters- in micro size. |
| Re: Cooking tips |
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| jannah |
| 08/14/01 at 20:53:55 |
| I think you can throw them out every so often.. but I like wooden stuff better too... |
| Re: Cooking tips |
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| Ruqayyah |
| 08/18/01 at 22:07:53 |
| [slm] I learned a cooking tip about eggs today when i watched Martha Stewart. To know if an egg is fresh or not, put it in a bowl of water. If it sinks it's fresh, if it floats, it's no good! |
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