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<\/a><\/p>\nThe most important lesson we can pass on to you is to taste food as you cook it, not just when it’s done.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You will gain important insight into what happens to ingredients as you cook them.\u00a0 TASTE EVERYTHING!<\/p>\n
Everything you do, every nuance, every decision you make in the kitchen affects flavour.\u00a0 Methods and techniques of coking are not arbitrary.\u00a0 They have evolved to create healthy, flavourful food.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When you cook look for the insight beyond the idea, and add flavour at every turn.<\/p>\n
Relax when you cook.\u00a0 Cooking is at its best when it happens at its own pace.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 YOU don’t have to rush to cook quickly.<\/p>\n
Most people season timidly.\u00a0 Be bold.\u00a0 Most seasoning mistakes\u00a0 are adding too little of a particular flavour instead of too much.<\/p>\n
Remember the two most important ingredients for season is salt and pepper!!\u00a0 They are your best friends in the kitchen. Use a pepper grinder to add the spicy heat, and often overlooked aromatic flavour of freshly ground pepper.\u00a0 We have three pepper grinds beside the stove, one for black pepper, one for white pepper, and a third for Chinese black pepper.<\/p>\n
Lightly season ingredients as they cook, then taste them when they’re done and season again before season.<\/p>\n
THE TRINITY\u00a0 OF SALTS<\/p>\n
TABLE SALT\u00a0\u00a0 is a fine, consistent grind, and usually contains anticaking additives to keep it free-flowing.\u00a0 Use it for baking because it mixes well.\u00a0\u00a0 Personally we NEVER use idonizd salt.\u00a0 It adds an unpleasant chemical\u00a0 after taste to most foods.\u00a0 For baking I use either kosher or sea salt.<\/p>\n
KOSHER SALT\u00a0\u00a0 is coarser than table salt and additive-free.\u00a0 This is why is I user Kosher Salt 99% of the time.\u00a0 It’s an everyday salt.\u00a0 It’s so versatile and finger-friendly.\u00a0 In our restaurant kitchens Kosher salt\u00a0was kept in shallow bowls; easier to use and control the amounts.\u00a0 Do the same at home.\u00a0 Kosher Salt has a less intensely salty taste.<\/p>\n
SEA SALT\u00a0\u00a0 is evaporated sea water.\u00a0 It can be fine or coarse and has a different flavour than the other salts because of its trace minerals.\u00a0\u00a0 Use\u00a0 it for seasoning AFTER your dish is cooked.<\/p>\n
CHEF’S TIPS; Most salts are interchangeale.\u00a0 There are many more crystals in a teaspoon of table salt than in a teaspoon of kosher salt.\u00a0 You’ll need to add a bit more kosher salt, sometimes as much as double.\u00a0 Recipes vary.\u00a0 Remember the cook’s mantra TASTE TASTE TASTE!<\/p>\n
When you taste a sauce and think, this needs something, the chances are it needs salt.\u00a0\u00a0 However, when salt isn’t necessarily the answer, here are some considerations and remedies.\u00a0 It is important to remember that a good sauce should have a balance of salt(from the meat itself or from added salt); sweet (usually from onions and carrots); acid or sour (from the wine) and bitter (often from browning the meat).<\/p>\n
Lacks salt\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Add salt<\/p>\n
Too much salt\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Add softened unsalted butter or creme fraiche<\/p>\n
Lacks depth of flavour\u00a0 Fish – add anchovy<\/p>\n
Meat –\u00a0 add glace\u00a0de viande (meat glaze)<\/p>\n
Vegetable – add soy sauce<\/p>\n
Lacks sweetness\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Add butter (never sugar)<\/p>\n
Too much acid\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Add reduced cream (cream boiled until it is reduced by half)<\/p>\n
Too Sweet\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Add lemon juice (never vinegar)<\/p>\n
Lacks bitterness\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some cooks add Angostura bitters or unsweetened cocoa (this of\u00a0 mole added to Mexican food)<\/p>\n
Too bitter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Add softened unsalted butter or reduced cream<\/p>\n
There is really nothing you can do when a sauce is extremely salty except to increase the proportions of everything else in the sauce or stew.\u00a0 That is why it is so important not to guess at how much salt is needed;\u00a0 rather add some and taste again, and then keep adding and tasting.\u00a0 If the sauce is really bitter, it probably means that it is burned.\u00a0 THERE IS NO CORRECTING THIS, EITHER; you just have to start over.<\/p>\n
The most important thing about making any sauce is to get some cooking juice of the dish into the sauce.\u00a0 A mint sauce for lamb will taste much better if it has the cooking liquid of some of the lamb juices in it.\u00a0\u00a0 A vinaigrette for mussels will taste better if it has the cooking liquid of some of the mussels in it.<\/p>\n