21,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011
The majority of people don’t know where to start when it comes to cooking a successful meal. Packed with easy-to-follow guidelines and recipes, this full-colour, hardback, spiral-bound edition of Cooking Basics For Dummies helps novice chefs navigate the kitchen and learn staple cooking techniques.
The lay-flat binding is the ideal format for the kitchen environment and the full-colour photos throughout show readers what they can expect to achieve from their efforts.
Cooking Basics For Dummies includes:
- Choosing the right tools and stocking your pantry
- The essential cooking techniques - boiling, poaching, steaming, sautéing, braising, stewing, roasting and grilling
- Expanding your repertoire with delicious recipes
- A glossary of over 100 common cooking terms
About the Authors
Bryan Millar is a former New York Times restaurant critic. Marie Ramer is a food writer.
Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 379
Ähnliche
Cooking Basics For Dummies®
Table of Contents
Cooking Basics For Dummies
by Bryan Miller and Marie Rama
Adapted by Alison Yates
Cooking Basics For Dummies®
Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, LtdThe AtriumSouthern GateChichesterWest SussexPO19 8SQEngland
E-mail (for orders and customer service enquires): [email protected]
Visit our Home Page on www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex, England
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, England, or emailed to [email protected], or faxed to (44) 1243 770620.
Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher, the author, AND ANYONE ELSE INVOLVED IN PREPARING THIS WORK make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Some of the exercises and dietary suggestions contained in this work may not be appropriate for all individuals, and readers should consult with a physician before commencing any exercise or dietary program.
For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the US at 800-762-2974, outside the US at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-119-99692-7
Printed and bound in China by SNP Leefung
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
About the Authors
Bryan Miller is a former restaurant critic and feature writer for the New York Times, who also wrote Desserts For Dummies (with Bill Yosses), published by Wiley. He also has written nine other books, including three cookbooks and four editions of the New York Times Guide to Restaurants. He is the recipient of the James Beard Who’s Who Food and Beverage Award, which recognises outstanding achievement in the field of food and wine.
Marie Rama is an independent food, beverage, and media consultant, who also wrote Grilling For Dummies (with John Mariani), published by Wiley. She has worked as a professional pastry chef and as a recipe developer for several food companies and associations, including the McIlhenny Company and the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association.
Publisher’s Acknowledgements
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development
Project Editor: Rachael Chilvers
Content Editor: Jo Theedom
Commissioning Editor: Nicole Hermitage
Proofreader: Kelly Cattermole
Technical Editor: Patty Santelli
Recipe Tester: Emily Nolan
Publisher: Jason Dunne
Executive Editor: Samantha Spickernell
Executive Project Editor: Daniel Mersey
Cover Photos: © Robert Morris/Getty Images
Photo Research: Jennifer Prytherch
Cartoons: Ed McLachlan
Composition Services
Project Coordinator: Lynsey Stanford
Layout and Graphics: Brent Savage, Christin Swinford
Indexer: Ty Koontz
Figure Credits:
Mashed potato, beef stew, rice pudding © Corbis
Risotto, wild rice, spinach, roast chicken, steak, béarnaise sauce, pesto, caramel sauce, hot fudge sauce, strawberry sauce, vanilla custard, whipped cream, egg mayonnaise, lemon meringue pie, scrambled eggs, carrot and dill soup, chicken noodle soup, tomato soup, vegetable beef soup, vinaigrette dressing, pasta with tomato sauce, vegetarian lasagna, macaroni cheese, mushroom risotto, chocolate mousse, chocolate pudding, lemon bars, lemon drizzle loaf, lemon sorbet, tiramisu © Photolibrary
Salmon with béarnaise sauce, tabbouleh, peppered steak, portobello mushrooms, roasted root vegetables, salsa, omelette © Getty
Chicken breasts, coq au vin, leg of lamb, quiche lorraine, French onion soup, penne, ratatouille, shepherd’s pie, apple-pear crumble, chocolate brownies, lime ice cream © Alamy
Seafood stew, beefburger, loin of pork, fillet of beef, tuna with nicoise dressing, mushroom-cheese frittata, French potato salad, paella, peach-blackberry cobbler © Jupiter
Introduction
Whether you fancy yourself a hotshot home cook or someone who wouldn’t know a whisk from a weasel, Cooking Basics For Dummies can help you. For the novice, our technique-oriented approach puts the tools in your hands and the knowledge in your head so that you can read a recipe and say to yourself, ‘Okay, I can do this’. Even more experienced cooks may want to hone their basic skills, and the recipes in this book offer plenty of food for thought.
Unlike most cookbooks, this one is more than a compilation of tasty recipes. We also focus on cooking techniques like grilling, steaming, stewing, and roasting. After you master these techniques, you’re no longer a slave to recipes. Once again, you can cook with imagination and creativity – and that’s the sign of a skilled cook.
The best part about discovering how to cook this way is that, while you’re practising your techniques, you have all kinds of delicious food to eat. Sure beats trumpet lessons.
Most of all, you actually have fun as you explore the endless pleasures of cooking. And that, after all, is what food is all about.
The food revolution that began in the latter years of the 20th century has made available to home cooks products that they had never dreamed of: truffles, flavoured vinegar, exotic seafood, goat’s cheese, and countless types of olive oil, to name just a few. At the same time, the technology of cooking equipment has narrowed the gap between home and professional kitchens.
Of course, new products and technology don’t make a good cook. The requirements of a refined cook haven’t changed since the 17th century: a sensitive palate, an understanding of cooking techniques and products, strong knife skills, and patience. These are skills we want to help you develop.
About This Book
We start at the very beginning: your kitchen and your equipment. What basic tools do you need? How do you use these things? We help you stock your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer with basic staples so you know what to have on hand. Then we move on to cooking techniques to get you up and running as soon as possible. Doing simple things well offers great personal satisfaction, as you will see.
Depending on your needs and cooking skills, you can start at the beginning of the book and work your way through, or go straight to the chapters that interest you most (the table of contents and index point you in the right direction).
Conventions Used in This Book
Here are some non-recipe conventions you should keep in mind to get the most out of this guidebook:
Italic is used for emphasis and to highlight new words or terms that are defined.
Boldfaced text is used to indicate the action part of numbered steps.
Monofont is used for web addresses.
Before charging ahead to make any of the recipes in this book, you should know a few things about the ingredients and instructions:
Milk is always whole. You can substitute with semi- or skimmed milk, but these products give soups and sauces a thinner, less creamy consistency.
Use unsalted butter so that you can control the amount of salt in a dish. We don’t recommend substituting margarine, which has just as many calories per tablespoon (100) as butter. Margarine’s flavour is inferior to butter as well.
Unless otherwise noted, all eggs are large.
All salt is common table salt, and pepper is freshly ground. We seldom specify measured amounts of salt and pepper because every cook has a different palate. Sample the recipe several times during preparation to taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste when we instruct you to do so.
Quantities are in metric with imperial measurements in brackets.
Oven temperatures are given in Centigrade. But just to cover all bases we also give you the temperature in Fahrenheit and provide the Gas Mark.
And keep the following general tips in mind:
Read through each recipe at least once to make sure that you have all the necessary ingredients and utensils, understand all the steps, and have enough preparation time. (We begin each recipe by listing the cooking utensils you need as well as the preparation and cooking times.)
Be sure to use the proper size pan when a measurement is given.
Preheat your oven at least 15 minutes before cooking begins. Place all food on the middle rack of the oven unless the recipe says otherwise.
Most of the recipes in this book serve four people. You can reduce by half or double many of them to satisfy two or eight people.
If you’re looking for vegetarian recipes, you can easily find them in the Recipes in This Chapter list, located at the beginning of every chapter. Vegetarian recipes are marked by the tomato bullet shown here, instead of the usual triangle.
Foolish Assumptions
We wrote this cookbook with some thoughts about you in mind. Here’s what we assume about you, our reader:
You love the idea of cooking. You’re a crackerjack at boiling water. But you just aren’t quite sure how to actually organise a meal, make lots of things at once, or combine foods or flavour meals in ways that make your family members sigh with satisfaction after they put down their forks.
You’ve cooked before. Sometimes it was pretty darn good. Sometimes you were glad you didn’t have company. Sometimes the fire brigade had to be called. But really, sometimes it was pretty blooming good! You’re pretty sure you have potential.
You sometimes daydream about going to cooking school or impressing people with the way you chop garlic with your very expensive chef’s knife. But you don’t yet own a very expensive chef’s knife.
You have basic kitchen equipment on hand, including pots and pans and measuring cups, but you aren’t sure whether you have all the right things you need for efficient cooking, and you probably don’t know what all those different pots and pans are called.
You love to eat at restaurants, and you often wonder if you could make that stuff at home.
You bought this cookbook for yourself so you can finally gain the skills you need to earn the title of Really Great Cook.
Somebody gave you this cookbook as a gift, and you assume that it was a hint somehow related to that interesting casserole-type thing you attempted last week.
Foolish of us, maybe, but we assume that you trusted us to do our very best when writing this cookbook so that every time you open it, you’ll enjoy reading it. Even more, we want you to enjoy the meals you make from our recipes. Our promise to you is that if you read this book and try the recipes here, you will indeed master some very important cooking skills, and you’ll have a great time doing it, too.
How This Book Is Organised
This book is organised around cooking techniques. Major sections are called parts. Within each part are chapters that address specific subjects. Following is a rundown of each part and what you can read about there.
Part I: Go On In – It’s Only the Kitchen
What is this strange room? It’s the most popular room in the house, where friends hang out as they help themselves to your food and drinks, where parties inevitably gravitate, and where couples have their best arguments. This part is designed to help you get over your fear of cooking. It touches on kitchen organisation, helping you to arrange your appliances, kitchen space, worktop, and cabinets for maximum efficiency. It also covers in detail necessary equipment like pots, pans, knives, and all kinds of gadgets. Plus, you find out which basic supplies you need to stock up on.
Part II: Know Your Techniques
Part II is where the fun begins. Each chapter includes recipes that illustrate an essential cooking technique: braising, sautéing, roasting, grilling, and more. From that starting point, we take you through a number of recipe variations that show you how to improvise with confidence and skill.
Part III: Expand Your Repertoire
Part III looks at pasta, eggs, and larger categories of dishes like soups, salads, desserts, and one-pot meals. Here, you can read about how to make the perfect omelette, how to mix a balanced vinaigrette, and how to use seasonal fruits to create delectable desserts. Also included are illustrations and charts – like the one identifying different types of pastas so that you know tagliatelle from linguine – and, of course, dozens of delicious recipes.
Part IV: The Part of Tens
Just when you thought that we’d covered everything, we give you more! These quick lists include herbs and spices that can add an extra something to your cooking.
We round out the book with a helpful appendix. Here, you can find the meaning of many common cooking terms.
Icons Used in This Book
Icons are those nifty little pictures in the margin of this book. They each grab your attention for a different reason, and we explain those reasons here.
We hope that you remember every valuable piece of information in this book, but if your brain can hold only so much, make sure that you hang on to the tidbits marked by this icon.
When there’s an easier way to do something, a step you can take to save money, or a shortcut to get you to the dinner table faster, we let you know by marking the tip with this icon.
The kitchen can be a dangerous place. This icon, like a flashing yellow light, steers you clear of potentially dangerous mishaps.
Where to Go from Here
You’ll notice how easy it is to jump from chapter to chapter in our book without feeling lost. That’s intentional, so you can start enjoying Cooking Basics For Dummies with any chapter you like. Even if you know your way around a kitchen pretty well, we recommend that you start by reading two key chapters – Chapter 2, just to be sure you really do have all the equipment to cook the recipes in this book, and Chapter 3, which talks about all the basic ingredients every well-stocked kitchen pantry, freezer, and refrigerator should contain.
If you’re in the process of buying a house, refurbishing a kitchen, or just dreaming about your perfect kitchen, check out Chapter 1. Wary about safety? Check out the end of Chapter 1. Or, maybe you just want to start cooking. In that case, check out any of the other chapters in this book. They are arranged around techniques, such as boiling or grilling or sautéing, with recipes to help you practise and are chock-full of delicious recipes with simple instructions.
We know you’ll enjoy cooking with us. Cooking doesn’t have to be complicated, as long as you know the basics. So come on in to the kitchen, grab a pot (we tell you which one), and get cooking. We’re getting hungry just thinking about it!
Part I
Go On In – It’s Only the Kitchen
In this part . . .
There’s no doubt about it, if you want to learn to cook, you have to go into the kitchen. But never fear! The kitchen may seem like it’s full of strange appliances, oddly shaped tools, and bottles and jars and packages of ingredients you know nothing about, but as a beginner cook, this is where the fun begins! We help you navigate, use, and even enjoy your kitchen with organisational strategies and supply lists.
Chapter 1
Cooking with Confidence
In This Chapter
Taking a good look at your kitchen
Familiarising yourself with some basic cooking techniques
Figuring out your menus
Making your kitchen safe and user-friendly
So you want to find out how to cook? Good for you! Cooking is fun, relaxing, exciting, and even therapeutic. It enables you to eat for less money than ordering take-aways or dining in a restaurant every night, and it allows you to know exactly what you’re eating and to make conscious, healthy food choices. Cooking lets you easily adapt your meals to suit your own nutritional and gastronomic preferences, whether you’re eating low-carb or vegetarian, or you’re determined to immerse yourself in classic French cuisine. Plus, cooking the food you eat puts you in closer touch to the process of nourishing your own body, and that can make you feel better about yourself, your health, your body, and your life. Yes, cooking can be that powerful!
In this chapter, we give you a broad overview of what you need to know to be an effective cook. We talk about how to set up your cooking space, introduce you to the major kitchen appliances, and give you a glimpse of some basic cooking techniques. Then we discuss menu planning and kitchen safety.
Warming Up to Your Kitchen
There it is: the kitchen. Maybe you don’t go in there very much, or maybe you like to hang around watching other people cook. Or maybe you cook dinner in there every night, but you don’t enjoy it very much. Never fear. Your kitchen can easily become a place you love to cook in and be in. It’s all a matter of organisation.
Setting up your cooking space
You don’t need a fabulous kitchen to prepare fabulous food. But a well-designed workplace sure makes cooking much easier and more pleasurable. Ideally, you should be able to move from your worktop space to the hob and the refrigerator in a smooth, unobstructed fashion. This working space actually has a name: the kitchen triangle (see Figure 1-1). If a table, plant, or small child is blocking the way, move it! Even if you can’t design your kitchen space, you can arrange what you need in a way that works for you. Here’s how to do that.
Figure 1-1:An efficient kitchen triangle.
Decluttering your worktop
The most important key for organising your worktop space is to keep it clear of most stuff. Unless you use an appliance at least several times a week – the kettle, toaster, and blender, for example – put it away. That’s precious work space you’re filling up with all that stuff! Also remember that a kitchen worktop is not a magazine rack, plant holder, wine rack, or phone book shelf, so try not to use it for these purposes if you actually want to cook!
In addition to keeping your worktop clutter free, take steps to care for them. Use chopping boards for cutting and trivets for hot pots and pans, and wipe up spills quickly to prevent stains.
Let there be lighting
Kitchens should be well lit – the cooking area and workspaces most of all. Nothing is worse than trying to check your food in a dimly lit area. Lights under the cookerhood can really help. You haven’t replaced that burned-out bulb in a year? Time to do it!
Another option is to have special lighting for the cooking area, either inset into overhead cabinets or in the ceiling – alternatively, the least expensive solution is a wall-mounted supplementary light.
Staple city: Organising your cupboards
Unless you like to be different from the rest, the likelihood is you keep your basic cooking staples, as well as other dry goods, in your kitchen cupboards. Dry goods are foods that aren’t refrigerated or frozen, including staples like flour and sugar, and packaged foods like crackers, biscuits, pasta, and rice. If you’re lucky enough to have a pantry, keep it well organised so that you can see and easily reach the staples you use most, like flour, sugar, and oil. But even if you have only a cupboard or two, organisation is the key to efficiency. (For tips on what to keep in your pantry, turn to Chapter 3.)
A good storage system enables you to see exactly what you have, thus helping to inspire your culinary creativity and allowing you to grab what you need without knocking over vinegar bottles and stacks of spice jars. Store dried beans, pasta, different kinds of rice, flour, sugar, tea, and coffee in large glass or clear plastic jars with lids. This type of storage is practical and looks professional, too.
If you use something all the time, consider taking it out of the cupboard and storing it closer to your cooker, in ‘satellite’ storage like a cabinet or shelf. You might want to do this with your cooking oils, your spice rack, or your baking supplies such as bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, and vanilla essence.
Introducing major appliances: Friends, not foes
There they are, those formidable appliances that make your kitchen into a room custom-made for food preparation and storage. Your major appliances are capable of producing the most exquisite gourmet meals or the most horrible burned disasters; of yielding fresh, glistening produce or slimy bags of who knows what?
Major appliances are your allies in good cooking. Until you make friends with your hob, your oven, your refrigerator, and small appliances (which we discuss in Chapter 2), you’ll never really feel at home in the kitchen. Knowing each appliance’s relative strengths and weaknesses can help you make the most of what they can do for you.
Hob and oven
Your hob and oven are your best friends in the kitchen, and if you’re buying new ones, you have all kinds of new technology to choose from. Even if you won’t be going appliance shopping any time soon, knowing exactly what kind of hob and oven you have and how to use them may help your cooking efforts.
Gas
Most serious cooks prefer gas hobs. You can turn a gas flame up and down quickly, which is important in sautéing and sauce making. You can adjust the flame in tiny increments, more so than you can with an electric hob with numbers on the dials. New cooks may feel intimidated by gas because of the flames, and gas hobs can produce higher heat than electric hobs, so those used to cooking on electric hobs will need to adjust so that they don’t burn their food or destroy their pans. But with a little practice, you’ll get the hang of cooking with gas.
Electric heat
Electric cookers are clean, easy to use, and modern. The drawback to electric hobs is their slow response time. Reducing heat from high to low can take a minute; gas can do it in seconds. However, many professional chefs prefer electric ovens, especially for baking, because they’re very accurate and consistent. Today’s gas and electric ovens generally hold and maintain oven temperature within a variance of about 5 degrees.
Induction
Induction is a new form of kitchen heat. Some professional chefs are so impressed with it they predict it will replace all other systems in ten years. Whether that’s true or not, induction cooking is impressive to watch. Basically, it works on a magnetic transfer principle – heat passes via magnetic force from the hob to the pan. If you place a paper towel between the hob and pan, the towel doesn’t get hot. A 2-litre pan of water comes to the boil in about a minute. On the down-side, induction hobs work only with selected metal pans to which a magnet adheres such as stainless steel – copper and glassware don’t work. Induction cookers are also pretty expensive.
Convection ovens
Chefs have used convection (fan) ovens for years. If we were to recommend an addition to your kitchen, a convection oven might be the one. A small fan in the rear of the oven circulates air all around the food to cook it rapidly and evenly. Cooking times and temperature settings are reduced by about 25 per cent, so most manufacturers suggest that you reduce the cooking temperature given in the recipe by 25 degrees Celsius when baking. Some oven makes offer both regular and convection cooking at the flick of a switch. Do you need a convection oven? No. But if you bake often, you might learn to love one.
Microwave ovens
Microwave cooking is unlike any other kind of conventional cooking. You must follow a different set of cooking rules. Microwaves can’t pass through metal, so you can’t cook with traditional metal cookware. You can, however, use flameproof glass, some plastics, porcelain, and ceramic. Cookware placed in the microwave shouldn’t get hot. If it does, it’s probably not microwaveable.
A microwave isn’t a replacement for conventional cooking of grilled meats, breads, and cakes. Use your microwave for what it does best in combination with other appliances. For example, you can precook chicken breasts in minutes in the microwave and finish them under the grill. Following are some other microwave tips:
Recipes that require a lot of water, such as pasta, don’t work as well in a microwave and probably cook in less time on your hob.
Foods must be arranged properly to cook evenly. Face the thickest parts, like broccoli stalks, outward toward the oven walls. Arrange foods of the same size and shape, such as potatoes, in a circle or square with space between them and no item in the centre.
Covering dishes eliminates splattering, and it also cuts down on cooking time. Frequently stirring, turning, and rotating foods ensures an even distribution of heat.
As with conventional cooking, cutting foods into smaller pieces shortens cooking time.
Before cooking, pierce with a fork foods that have skins, like potatoes, hot dogs, and sausages. Doing so releases steam that can lead to sudden popping and splattering.
A number of variables, including the type of microwave, can affect a recipe’s cooking time, so check for doneness after the minimum cooking time. You can always cook food longer. Also, always observe the recipe’s ‘standing’ time, because microwaved food continues to cook after you remove it from the oven.
Be sure to use the defrost power setting (30 to 40 per cent of full power) when thawing food to ensure slow and even defrosting; otherwise, the outside of the food may start to cook before the inside is thoroughly thawed.
Read your microwave manual carefully before using it. Never run an empty microwave.
Refrigerator
Refrigerators are the black holes of the kitchen – objects drift in and are never seen again, at least until the next thorough cleaning. At that time, your leftovers may resemble compost. And what’s in this little ball of aluminium foil? Do not open!
Try not to pack the fridge too densely. This way, the cold air has sufficient space to circulate around and cool the food. Store foods in the same spot so that you don’t have to search for that little jar of mustard or jam every time you open the door. Clear shelves and bins make it even easier to see where everything is.
The bottom drawers are usually the coldest and should be used for storing meat, poultry, and fish. Fresh vegetables are usually stored in the crisper drawer at the bottom of the fridge. Salad leaves and leafy herbs can be washed, thoroughly dried, and wrapped in paper towels to extend their storage life. Other vegetables, like broccoli and cauliflower, should be washed just before serving. Excess water on any vegetable in storage can hasten its deterioration.
Liberate old food from the refrigerator every two weeks or so, and give the fridge a good soapy wash every few months.
An open box of bicarbonate of soda at the back of a shelf soaks up odours. Remember to replace the bicarbonate of soda every few months.
Freezer
Your freezer can be a great storage space for food you buy in bulk, like meat, frozen vegetables, and bread, as well as leftovers like soup, chilli, casseroles, and baked goods. To get the most use of the space, stack things neatly and use the drawers to keep things organised.
If you’re lucky enough to have a stand-alone freezer, all the better! You can take advantage of reductions on meat, frozen vegetables, and fruits, and can also cook in bulk, freezing leftover soups, stews, sauces, and desserts. You’ll always have food handy at the touch of the microwave’s defrost button. You can organise your stand-alone freezer more like your refrigerator, organising food in drawers and on separate shelves.
Getting Acquainted with Basic Cooking Techniques
Recipes are full of terminology and techniques that new cooks might not be familiar with. At the heart of most recipes are some basic techniques, which we expand upon throughout this book in various sections. As a warm-up, however, here are the basic cooking techniques and what they involve. Become familiar with these terms, practise the techniques, and you’ll realise that many recipes aren’t as complicated as you thought.
Boiling, poaching, and steaming: These terms involve cooking with water. Boiling is heating water so that it bubbles vigorously. Poaching is cooking fish, eggs, or vegetables in gently simmering water – water that’s just beginning to bubble but not yet boil. Steaming is cooking food over, but not in, boiling or simmering water. We describe these techniques and more water-based cooking methods in detail in Chapter 4.
Sautéing: This term refers tocooking food in a frying pan or sauté pan quickly over high or medium-high heat, usually in heated oil or butter. Chapter 5 tells you all about sautéing.
Braising and stewing: To braise means to cook food in a small amount of liquid, such as water or stock, for a long period of time. This technique results in particularly succulent meat. Stewing is cooking food (usually meat and veggies) in liquid flavoured with herbs, stock, and sometimes wine until it is absorbed, to create a delectable too-thick-to-be-soup concoction. For more on braising and stewing, check out Chapter 6.
Roasting and grilling: Roasting involves cooking food, uncovered, in the oven for a long period of time. This technique is usually used to cook large pieces of meat such as a leg of lamb or a turkey, or vegetables. Grilling means cooking food under a heat source – either electric coils or gas flame. Chapter 7 has lots more details about roasting and grilling.
Planning Your Menu
It’s one thing to cook a recipe. It’s another thing to plan a meal or a whole week’s worth of meals! Menu planning, however, can be a lot of fun and is a great way to experiment with new recipes and techniques. Planning your menu and writing out a shopping list ensures that you have everything you need for your meals before you start cooking. Some cooks like to write down all the elements of each meal for an entire week at a time and then study recipes and make out a shopping list. To some people, this approach may sound tedious. To others, the chance to read all those recipes sounds like fun! But you don’t have to be quite so formal, as long as you make sure you have all the necessary ingredients and equipment to cook all the elements of a meal before you begin.
But how do you know what to make? For most people a simple meal with a main course (a meat or vegetarian dish, featuring ingredients separately or in a casserole form), accompanied by soup or a salad and bread, rice, pasta, or some other grain, make a filling and complete meal – with or without dessert. Healthy choices include lean meats and low-fat dairy dishes based on whole grains and legumes (such as lentils and white or black beans), lots of fresh vegetables, and sweetness from fresh fruit. Lunch can be even simpler: a hearty salad (see Chapter 11) or a big bowl of soup (see Chapter 10). And what about breakfast? See Chapter 9 for some delicious dishes based on eggs.
Kitchen Safety Essentials
Cooking is fun, but it also requires certain precautions.
Always pay attention to what you’re doing when using knives because one slip can cause great pain. (Keep in mind that dull knives can be dangerous, too, because they force you to apply more pressure, and your hand may slip while doing this.) Some basic rules of safety include the following:
Store knives in a wooden block or on a magnetic bar mounted out of reach of children, not in a kitchen drawer. For more information about knives and knife safety, see Chapter 2.
Never cook in loose-hanging clothes that may catch fire, and keep long hair tied back for the same reason – not to mention keeping hair out of the food!
Never cook while wearing dangling jewellery that can get tangled around pot handles.
Professional chefs have hands of asbestos from years of grabbing hot pots and pans. You do not. Keep oven gloves nearby and use them.
Turn pot handles away from the front of the hob, where children may grab them and adults can bump into them.
Don’t let temperature-sensitive foods sit out in your kitchen, especially in warm weather. Raw meat, fish, and certain dairy products can spoil quickly, so refrigerate or freeze them right away.
Wipe up spills immediately so that no one slips and falls.
Separate raw meat, especially poultry, from produce and other items in your refrigerator to avoid cross-contamination of harmful bacteria from one food to another. Never put cooked food or produce on a chopping board where you were just cutting raw meat.
Wash your hands before handling food. Hands can be a virtual freight train of bacteria, depending, of course, on what you do during the day. Also wash thoroughly after handling meat or poultry.
Every kitchen needs a fire extinguisher and/or fire blanket. They’re inexpensive and easy to use.
The old wives’ tale ‘Oil and water don’t mix’ happens to be true. Throwing water on a grease fire makes it worse by spreading it around. If the fire is contained in a pot or pan, cover it with a lid. For a fire in your oven or one that has spread to the floor, a few handfuls of bicarbonate of soda or salt should cut off its oxygen supply while you grab the fire extinguisher or call the fire brigade.
Chapter 2
Gathering the Tools You Need
In This Chapter
Hot, hot, hot: The cookware you really need
Stocking up on essential pots and pans
Choosing knives and using them properly
Getting the right baking equipment
Considering the benefits of small appliances
Adding gadgets that make cooking easier
When you enter the wonderful world of cooking, you really can do fine with just a few basic tools – this chapter is all about understanding and using kitchen equipment. Finding out how to use kitchen equipment properly – say, a general kitchen knife – is time well spent.
If you are just getting started or are on a tight budget, we suggest some essential tools. In fact, we won’t waste another moment, because we know how eager you are to hear what you absolutely must have in your kitchen.
Collecting Your Cookware Basics
Here is our short list of bare-bones-all-I-can-spend-now kitchen equipment (you can find more detailed descriptions of some of these items later in this chapter). See Chapter 1 for information on major appliances. This is our list of pots, pans, and other tools no home cook should be without:
General kitchen knife (or chef’s knife): You can perform more than 80 per cent of all cutting and slicing chores with this knife.
Serrated bread knife: Invaluable for cutting slices of fresh bread without squishing the loaf and also for slicing other delicate foods like fresh tomatoes.
Paring knife: For peeling, coring, and carving garnishes from vegetables and fruits.
Large non-stick frying pan: The all-round pan for sautéing, making egg dishes, braising small quantities of food, and more.
Saucepans (a range of sizes): For cooking vegetables, rice, soups, sauces, and pasta.
Stockpot with lid: For making stocks or large quantities of soup, pasta, and vegetables. You’ll be surprised by how often you use this pot.
Heavy-duty roasting tin: For cooking everything from roast beef to your Christmas turkey, roasting pans have high sides to keep in all those juices you can use to make gravy.
Liquid and dry measuring cups and measuring spoons: So you don’t botch up recipes by using too much or too little of something.
Sieve: Essential for certain sauces, pastas, salads, and soups.
Kitchen scales: Why guess?
Vegetable peeler, heatproof rubber spatula, and a few wooden spoons: Don’t go off the deep end buying little kitchen gizmos; these tools are all you need to get started.
Going Potty for Pots and Pans
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a pot and a pan? If it has two opposite-set handles and a lid, it’s classified as a pot. Pans have one long handle and come with or without lids. This section gives a rundown of important pots and pans and how to evaluate them, including lots of fancy pots and pans you don’t need but may decide to acquire anyway.
The following list of different kinds of pots and pans is not exhaustive, but it will get you started. We include the pots and pans we think you’ll use the most – the essentials most home cooks will use again and again.
Heavy-gauge cast-iron frying pan
The cast-iron frying pan, shown in Figure 2-1, has been a standard in kitchens for hundreds of years and still outperforms contemporary cookware in some respects (for example, browning, blackening, and searing). Better yet, a cast-iron frying pan is one of the most inexpensive pans you can find, and it will outlast most other frying pans as well.
Figure 2-1: You use a cast-iron frying pan for browning, searing, and more.
Sauté pan
The sauté pan is one of the most basic pans. You’ll probably use it all the time, so get a good heavy-duty one. We recommend a heavy aluminium non-stick sauté pan or, if you prefer the kind of pans chefs tend to like, a heavy-duty stainless steel pan, which requires the use of more oil and butter to keep food from sticking but also collects more bits of food for making delicious sauces. The choice is yours, but non-stick is also easier to clean (although not usually made for the dishwasher), if that is a consideration for you.
