22 Useful Things I’ve Learned in the Kitchen
That changed the way I cook (and make me want to cook more)
I’ve been putting together a list of everything I’ve learned in the kitchen. Not strictly speaking everything I’ve learned ever; but a lot of what I’ve picked up over the years. Things that are useful to know, shortcuts that make me happy: those simple, little lessons that, broadly, make cooking an easier and more rewarding business. A list of the sort of stuff you only learn through trial and error, that doesn’t really have a proper home in a cookbook and that you can’t really call a recipe, but that nonetheless is still REALLY USEFUL to know; that you will use in everyday, real life cooking; and that will set you up for success when you do, in turn, refer to a recipe in a cookbook. So here it is: the list. In no particular order, here are the things I’ve learned that have changed the way I cook:
Frozen chopped onion! Ready-peeled and ready-chopped for you, then frozen in a bag: honestly, life changing. I’ve tried chopping my own onions and I’ve tried all the tricks to stop my eyes from stinging and watering when I do: running cold water over the onion before chopping, wearing sunglasses while chopping, putting the onion in the freezer for 20 minutes before chopping. You name it, I’ve tried it and none of it really worked. So, this whole pre-chopped thing really has been a game-changer for me, most especially since pretty much every recipe ever starts with chopping an onion. In sum: SO quick. SO easy. Once you know about it WHY would you ever do things any other way? Notable exceptions are recipes that call for red onion or thinly sliced onion, or onion that isn’t going to be cooked: that you still need to peel, slice and chop yourself. Sorry.
Never use two pots when one will do. This sort of goes without saying, and depending on what the recipe is and how you need to cook it, isn’t of course always strictly possible; but basically always use as few pots and pans as you can, and always think about the likely ratio of washing up when deciding whether something is worth cooking something or not (you’ll thank me later). With this in mind, scan all recipes for any many-pots-and-pans red flags before getting started; think about ways to use fewer dishes, as you go; and lastly, invest in nice pans that you’re happy to bring straight to the table and serve from directly (doing away with the compulsion to turn everything out onto, and then wash, another serving dish). I’m a big fan of Ruffoni copper pans for this (they’re certainly investment pieces, but also so beautiful and - in my experience at least - well worth it); I also love Falcon Enamel dishes which are versatile and look nice. ALSO, if you’re looking for inspiration as to what to cook: Diana Henry’s From The Oven To The Table is THE bible; and there are countless delectable minimal washing up recipes also in Anna Jones’ One Pot, Pan, Planet and in The Roasting Tin cookbook series by Rukmini Iyer. There are, of course, lots more one-pan cookbooks out there, but those are my favourites.
In that same vein, whisk your salad dressing in your salad bowl, then add your leaves and toss; rather than mixing the dressing in a separate dish and then pouring it over the salad. Saves on time and washing up.
Never put your tomatoes in the fridge. Ever. It saps away their flavour.
If you’re making chocolate-anything (cake, ice cream, mousse, sauce, etc.), add a generous pinch of salt flakes to it. The salt brings out the flavour of the chocolate, rounds off the sweetness and will do all-round wonders you never dreamed possible. I promise.
If you don’t have any Parmesan to hand, toast breadcrumbs in olive oil with a generous pinch of salt (and, if you like, a garlic clove) then crumble over your pasta in place of grated cheese. It’s delicious. And, incidentally, also vegan.
These bags of ready cooked grains are a lifesaver and are pretty much the most effortless, versatile and quickest way I know how of getting a good supper (or lunch) on the table. Toss with tinned tuna, boiled egg, black olives and baby spinach leaves (and a good douse of olive oil); or with feta cheese, baby tomatoes, black olives and chunks of cucumber and/or raw courgette; or with crumbled feta, coarsely chopped walnuts, pomegranate seeds, chopped fresh parsley and mint leaves; or with chunks of roasted butternut squash (or pumpkin), slivers of pickled red onion, chunks of cooked beetroot, and toasted hazelnuts; you get the general idea… Basically any combination of ingredients you like and/or have kicking around in the kitchen, but especially good with grilled/roasted vegetables (and/or raw veggies) + some kind of nuts (flaked almonds, toasted hazelnuts, crumbled walnuts, cooked chestnuts, pistachios, pine nuts, etc.) + some kind of cheese (feta, shavings of pecorino, goat’s cheese, Gorgonzola, etc.) + (if you like) some kind of tinned/cooked fish or cold meat (a great way of making use of leftover roast chicken, for example, or turkey). Stock up on sachets and never have to worry about what to cook/eat ever again (they last forever). BUT if you don’t have bags of the ready-cooked grains to hand, then you can follow the same bung-everything-together-in-a-salad principal with cous cous instead, which takes only moments to cook. More on that here.
I’m also, incidentally, a big fan of ready-prepared butternut squash: the kind that comes already peeled and sliced for you and so all you need to do is actually cook it. In that same spirit, there’s a whole slew of ‘convenience vegetables’ that I love and that have changed the way I cook: frozen peas (which, unless you’re picking your own peas from your own garden and eating them pretty much that same day, generally taste better than fresh); frozen spinach (defrost and season with lots of butter and/or olive oil, or cook with a generous dollop of melty ricotta and a good grating of nutmeg, or cook into a frittata with heaps of cheese, inter alia wonderful things you can do with frozen spinach); cooked beetroot, the kind that comes vacuum packed and lasts forever and is generally useful to have in the fridge to make a beetroot salad (or toss in with a grain salad, as above), or add to a green salad, or bake in a beetroot and goats cheese or Gorgonzola (or both!) tart, and so on; frozen artichokes, which also come ready prepared and you can cook in a little olive oil, vegetable stock and white wine until tender, then fry with lots of parsely (delicious as is, either warm from the pan or at room temperature, or sliced and added to pretty much any kind of salad); bags of salad leaves: admittedly not quite as good as proper fresh salad from whole lettuces, but nonetheless still pretty good, especially given that you don’t have to wash and dry the lettuce, and you can add something crisp in there (a few chicory leaves or baby gem or some sliced fennel) which does wonders to perk it all up.
You can use vermouth in place of wine (ideally, dry vermouth for white wine, and sweet vermouth for red wine), so you never again need open (and waste) a bottle just for cooking. Though, of course, you may want an excuse to open a bottle - and in which case, please do ignore me.
You only need one recipe for making soup. And here it is: soften chopped onion in olive oil in a big saucepan (3-5 minutes); add coarsely chopped vegetables of your choosing (my favourites include carrot, squash, pumpkin, fennel, tomato, mixed green vegetables) cover generously with vegetable stock and let simmer away until the veggies are tender; then blitz with a stick blender until creamy. Lastly season as you like with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, creme fraiche, coconut milk, cream, olive oil, fresh herbs, salt, pepper, whatever you fancy. There are, of course, a thousand and one other variations of soup and other exciting things you can do and recipes you can-and-should follow (Ella Risbridger’s encyclopaedic substack is the most excellent starting point for all things soup) but this very simple, very basic recipe will give you a creamy (so surprisingly creamy, even without the addition of actual cream), nourishing and healthful vegetable soup that is - to my mind - everything soup ought to be and that, ultimately, you can’t really beat.
If you’re making meringue (or anything meringue-y) rub half a lemon over the inside of the mixing bowl and the whisk before adding your egg whites: this cuts through any grease and will 100% make sure the meringue froths up and stiffen as it should. It’s so very disappointing when the whites don’t froth as they should and makes you want to never even look at meringue, let alone bake it, ever again - so just to be on the safe side, I always do the lemon thing, even when the bowl looks spotlessly clean.
Don’t overcrowd your potatoes when you roast them, or they won’t crisp up nicely. Use lots of trays and space the potatoes out in each one over a single layer. If oven space is at a premium, roast your potatoes like this in advance, then combine them all into the one single tray to warm through before serving.
A few things that will make you feel like a domestic goddess: keeping cookie dough in the freezer, ready to bake into cookies whenever the mood takes you; ready-rolled puff pastry, from which you can easily (and pretty effortlessly) make all manner of delectable creations; baking your own soda bread (no knead, no rise, so improbably easy to do), then eating it warm from the oven with lashing of salted butter (oh, the heaven of it!); keeping pancake batter in the fridge so you can, within minutes, whip up a pancake breakfast on demand; frozen croissants (these I buy and don’t make myself but every time I bake them straight from frozen, I somehow do trick myself into believing that I have in fact baked them myself - it’s most gratifying).
Some thing are worth that extra little bit of effort to make from scratch: home made mayonnaise, for example, tastes so very much better than anything you could ever buy in a jar. Same applies for salad dressing and brandy butter. You don’t have to make your own popcorn, but it is so very good when still warm from the pan and such an easy thing to do. For pretty much everything else, there are shortcuts.
You don’t need to store buttercream icing in the fridge: it will keep, covered and somewhere cool-ish, very happily and for days on end like that. I spent years trying to bring fridge-cold blocks of buttercream back to life and to a spreadable consistency, with blow-driers and other such gadgetry, before making this discovery. All part of the journey, I guess; but I can’t help but wish someone had told me sooner.
Pomegranate seeds scattered over pretty much anything = instant festive mood. And by a similar principal, toasted nuts and/or fresh herbs scattered over pretty much anything = instant zhuzh.
If you have an ice cream maker, combine one tin of coconut milk and one tin of condensed milk, then let the machine do its thing for the most ambrosial, coconut-y, lowest-effort-ever ice cream.
If you’re roasting one chicken, you might as well roast two: it’s very little extra effort to do, and you’ll have leftovers to enjoy for days to come. Roast chicken sandwiches (with aforementioned homemade mayonnaise), chicken salad, chicken soup, and so on and so forth. Also! If you stuff herbs under the skin of the breast and around the bird rather than inside the cavity (so you leave the cavity empty), you’ll still get a flavoursome roast chicken, but it will cook faster.
Don’t prick your sausages with a fork before roasting them: they come out tastier if you can keep the juices (and fat) in there. Just pop the sausages in a tray and cook, as is, in a hot oven (200-220˚C) for 20 minutes-ish, until cooked through and golden. You might also want to toss some chunks of apple (no need to peel), grapes or wedges of red onion in the tray to roast with the sausages, for extra, delectable zhuzh (also: there’s a lot of one-pan-minimum washing-up joy right here).
This is THE best trick for avoiding soggy bottoms in pies and tarts and any other sorts of baked goods that are so distressingly prone to soggy bottoms: heat a dark baking tray (or even better, a pizza stone) in the oven (just pop it in there when you turn the oven on to pre-heat) then set your pie to bake on top of the hot tray/stone. The extra hot surface will help crisp up the bottom, as the rest of your pie bakes.
Watch cream obsessively when you whip it; and don’t ever be tricked into thinking that you don’t need to do so: cream has a pernicious way of turning from liquid to quasi-curdled out of nowhere. And there are few things worse than over-whipped cream: you want it stiff, but still silky smooth.
A good dash of olive oil makes everything taste better. Salads, of course; bread, soup, pasta, and all those things you would think would be better with a nice splash of olive oil; but also, for example, good oil drizzled over slivers of thinly sliced cantaloupe melon or watermelon with a few torn fresh basil leaves and a sprinkling of salt is sublime. OR olive oil with pudding! Drizzle over vanilla pannacotta, vanilla ice cream or chocolate ice cream; over dark chocolate mousse, flourless chocolate cake, and my favourite, over chunks of coarsely chopped dark chocolate on hot toast. I promise you: it’s unbelievably, life-changing-ly good!
Fantastic tips. I have one roast potatoes tip to add to yours which is when you 'par-boil' I find that its really good to cook them to ALMOST COMPLETION ( not really par at all) and THEN roast them in a v hot oven ..somehow that makes them divinely crunchy on the outside while still soft under the crunch.
Have done the cream thing! But way back, someone must have told me, I discovered that if you gradually add some cold milk and gently whip, it restores the fluidity to the thickness you want! Saved me a few times