Readers Cooking Tips
Sorry, got a bit sidetracked with school holiday busy-ness for a bit there. Have a pile of posts I want to share with you. Just need to actually WRITE them.
In the meantime, thanks for your great cooking tips. Here they are for those who haven’t seen them yet:
Double check the ingredients BEFORE putting them in.
Thus avoiding mistakes like confusing baking soda and castor sugar.
Also - always break eggs into a separate container such as a cup before adding them to other ingredients, thus if you get a bad egg you don’t contaminate all the other ingredients. This was very aptly demostrated by our home economics teacher who broke a bad egg during one of our lessons - a class that is still vivid in my memories!
Yes, baking soda instead of castor sugar could be a rather BIG disaster!!!! LOL. Good point re the eggs. We have our own chooks so I always check my eggs. That and because I STILL sometimes get shell in with the egg! *sigh* 
Get an old version of the womens weekly original cook book - it has instructions for how to cook even basic veggies and how long to roast different cuts of meat for as well as lots of simple, but good recipes that even I don’t muck up!
I got given some great cookbooks for our engagement. Some are a bit fancy for me but some are great and really basic. Have an awesome one from Tasmania my MIL bought me. And I LOVE my Green and Gold cookbook too. Should dig that out now that I think of it. Thanks for the prompt.
I second Marita’s tip about eggs - it’s better to toss away one bad egg than to toss away everything else in the bowl as well.
If you put too much salt into a dish, you can add some chopped up potato to absorb some of the salt. Remember to fish out the potato before serving.
If you suddenly realise you need coconut milk (or cream) in a dish & don’t have any, you can make your own using dessicated coconut, water & a blender. Put 2 cups dessicated coconut & 2.5 cups hot water in the blender, blend for about 30 secs, then strain through muslin. After you’ve extracted all the liquid, put the coconut back in the blender with more hot water & repeat. If you want coconut cream, just use the first press & not the second press.
I find the worst part is coordinating it all so that everything is ready at the same time, so I’ll be interested to see if anyone has any tips for that.
Great tip re the potato. I rarely remember to add salt anyway (which is probably a good thing given Farmboy often adds salt without even tasting a dish *sigh* and the kids have tomato sauce on EVERYTHING!).
Co-ordinating is a tough one, I agree. When my brain shut down, it was one of the last things to come back (not sure it’s even back yet). Our school home ec teacher taught us how to do “orders of work” where you work backwards from serving time. Great for a dinner party but I can’t be bothered on a daily basis!
I’m having trouble cutting down recipes to suit one person rather than 4-6-10 people. Hmpf!
A tip? When roasting meat test for doneness, before the recommended time, with a thin skewer. If the juices run red it’s still raw in the middle. Pink juices=medium; Clear juices=done. No juices at all means your roast is overcooked and dry. I usually take mine out of the oven at the pink juice stage because the heat of the meat will often continue the cooking to the done stage while I’m making the gravy.
P.S. If you take meat out at the clear juice stage the heat of the joint may still take it to dryish while you are doing gravy etc. If you prefer your meat dry, that’s okay………
@ Victoria; co-ordinating finish times is more often a matter of practise, but here’s a hint or two for roasts. Chicken cooks faster than beef or lamb, so roasting veg can be put in the pan at the same time as the chicken. Pumpkin cooks faster than potatoes and carrots, so put that in after the potatoes etc are turned over, when turning roasting veg, this is the time to start cooking your stove top veg, (greens), make the gravy while the meat is resting and the stove top veg are cooking. If a dessert needs heating (pre-cooked apple pie), put this in the oven on a very low heat while eating the main course.
Great hints as always River. :-) I remember my grandmother and MIL struggling with the same problem of cooking too much once kids left home etc.
As for roasts, I’ve given up on cooking them in the oven. My oven SUCKS!!! Now I just do it in the slow cooker. The meat is tender and cooked but you don’t get that lovely caramelisation you usually get with roasts. Our latest efforts were in a camp oven on hot coals - YUM!!!!
Always have a clean and dry bowl and beaters when preparing to beat eggwhites.. NEVER use a freshly washed bowl or beaters as they will still be damp and the jolly whites will not beat!!!
When first hosting new friends or relatives, use tried and true recipes so you are not stressed! My favs are zucchini quiche, bbq, tacos, usually simple foods so i dont get in a flap and lose the plot.. and desserts are usually preprepared eg. tarts, fruit salad, pavs, fruit platters or make your own icecream cones.. the KISS method works best for me.. even if its not lavish… and it also keeps the $ price down and wastage..
Organise your pantry contents into see through containers so you can see that you have enough ingredients before you start cooking! I have been caught many a time when I thought i had enough cocoa, icing sugar and even marg!
Simple works for ME!!! :-) I have gotten caught out with running out of ingredients before. And I’m bad in that I just start cooking/baking. I don’t get all the ingredients out first to make sure they’re there. Can make life interesting at times. Fortunately, *most* of the time I have a well stocked cupboard so it only happens occasionally.
Use baking paper …it solves and saves all the baking ’sticking’ kitchen disasters !
I have these awesome bakeliners that have made baking SO much easier. Same purpose as baking paper only thicker and reusable. I do still use baking paper for cakes etc where I need to cut it to fit. Totally agree with you. When I forget, things can often turn to disasters!!!
Thanks everyone for some great tips. Hopefully I’ll do another post with a few of my own soon. Will add it to the “list”. :o)
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You can never get enough cooking tips. I won the Masterchef DVD’s and I am loving their cooking tips but not the vast amount of butter they insist on using.