If you love to cook, then your kitchen is most likely ‘your domain’ in your own home and the place where you are most creative. Cooking can be very much an art form and like any great artist, your tools are there to enhance your art and help you be more productive. Keeping your kitchen full of the right tools is one thing, but knowing how to use them is another and we hope to present some valuable kitchen tips here to help you with your art and create fabulous meals. Browse through the following kitchen tips and please drop us a line if you have a comment for more.

• An oldie, but a goodie – use cooking spray on plastic containers to prevent stains from tomato sauce, marinara, chili, or any sauce that might stain your tupperware.
• Measuring honey with a spoon is pretty easy but getting it off the spoon is another matter. Rub the spoon in margarine and the honey will come off.
• To keep milk past it’s expiration date add salt. A pinch of salt in a gallon will do it. The salt slows the rate of bacteria growth.
• Brown sugar will not harden if stored in the freezer.
• If you freeze wild rice it will last 3-4 months compared to a week in the refrigerator.
• Regarding tomato paste, it seems a whole can of tomato paste is many times too much for some recipes. Suggestion: take a piece of waxed paper, putting it on a cookie sheet and putting teaspoonfuls of the leftover paste on the paper – another sheet on top and freeze this. When frozen just peel them off and put them in a baggie and when you need a tsp. or tbs. of paste you have it without opening a whole can and there is no waste –OR– put small amounts in an ice tray and then just pop them out when you need them.
• Always use tongs to turn meat on the grill to avoid piercing the meat. This keeps most of the wonderful juices inside the meat.
• To easily remove burnt food off of a skillet, add a drop or two of dish soap and enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. Then set it on the stove and bring to a boil to remove the offending foods.
• Prevent heavy cleaning when using a BBQ grill, spray the grill with non-stick cooking spray before putting it over the hot coals and the food won’t stick nearly as much.

Here are some useful substitutions for common food ingredients in case you’re ever stuck in a jam (we’ve all been there before right?). Most of these are pretty standard and we’ll be adding more to the list as often as possible. As always, your thoughts are welcome!

Fed up with buying cheap frying pans where the non-stick comes off and you have to buy a new one every year? If this is you it’s worth giving a bit of thought to what you really need and investing in a small selection of frying pans that will last for years and make cooking a pleasure.

Firstly you probably want a general purpose pan with a high quality non-stick surface – they’re easy to clean and enable you to cut down on (or even eliminate) the fat. It may be worth having a couple of these – one for family cooking and the other for a solitary fry up or one person meals – trying to cook a small quantity of food in a large pan means the juices are spread too thinly and the food starts to dry up. Think also about the depth of the pan. If you go in for a lot of omelettes you’ll need shallow sides to enable the food to slide out easily. If you want a pan to start off a dish and then perhaps add a sauce, you’ll need higher sides, perhaps even a sauté pan. Whatever size or shape of pan you choose it should have a good heavy base. Non-stick pans come in a wide variety of materials, aluminium, stainless steel, titaniu, diamond reinforced or ceramic reinforced but remember with non-stick you really do get what you pay for.

Stainless steel frying pans score well on looks but will not conduct heat well unless they include a sandwich of aluminium or copper in the base. You will also need to pay attention whilst cooking otherwise things can tend to stick and burn. A small amount of this may not be a bad thing though if you like mixing those lovely browned pieces into a delicious sauce – just don’t overdo it!

A small cast iron frying pan can also be a very handy thing to have. It heats up slowly but holds its temperature once it has done so and conducts heat very evenly. If you like Eastern food and dry fry spices this could be the ideal pan. Be careful of buying a large cast iron pan though – they can be extremely heavy.

Finally, a very traditional alternative to non-stick would be untreated mild steel or ‘blue steel’ as it is sometimes known. These pans are inexpensive, give excellent results, really will last forever and can be used with metal utensils. The downside is that they do demand some care. You will need to season your pan carefully before you use it. To do this first wash the pan in soapy water, then dry it and heat it. Use a heatproof brush to coat it with groundnut oil or corn oil. Do not use sunflower oil or olive oil as they will make the frying pan sticky. Heat the pan until the oil is smoking then allow it to cool, wipe it clean and repeat the process at least three times. After the final heating, cool it, wipe it clean and it can then be stored until you are ready to use it. Never wash the pan – just wipe clean each time you use it, re-season occasionally and over time it will build up a wonderful non stick patina. If you don’t do this I’m afraid it will just go rusty!

Chocolate Fix

Note to self.

Reasons to eat chocolate:

Chocolate…
is one of the most delicious things ever invented.
is good for my heart.
has antioxidants to help keep me looking spry and youthful.
has been used since Aztec times as an (ahem) aphrodisiac.
can help combat high blood pressure and diabetes.
is the subject of a prodigious amount of literature.
can be used in both sweet and savory dishes.
causes production of serotonin and dopamine in the brain, which are nature’s antidepressants.
is grown in sunny tropical places, which is where I’d be right now if I had my choice.
is nature’s way of making up for all the bad things we have to endure in life.
is one of the four basic food groups. (yes, that’s right, we’re talking about my world here…)

Reasons to not eat chocolate:

Chocolate…
is addictive. Hey, I can quit whenever I want!

Who am I kidding? I’d eat the stuff even if it caused me to grow foot-long pustules from my neck.

(Almost) Instant-’fix’ Chocolate Heroin Cake

This is a slightly tarted-up version of your basic flourless chocolate gâteau, and can be ready within an hour if you have all the ingredients on hand (note to self: always have ingredients on hand). To fully appreciate this cake, underbake it just a little, so that the center is still slightly gooey. This cake has an interesting characteristic: if you leave it at room temperature, it will be soft and tender with a moist ‘crumb’, however once you chill it, it gains a completely different texture, kind of like a firm ganache truffle-center. Either way, it’s sinfully good.

300g (10 oz) bittersweet chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
200g (1 cup) sugar
6 large eggs, at room temperature, separated
125g (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder, or high quality instant coffee
1/4 teaspoon salt
100g (3.5 oz) nuts (such as walnuts, hazelnuts, or almonds), lightly toasted & finely ground (optional – don’t let a lack of nuts hold you back…)
a couple glugs of your favorite booze (such as whiskey, brandy, rum or liqueur – also optional)

for topping:
1 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla OR
2-3 tablespoons liqueur (the same as you used in the cake or Marsala, Cointreau, Kahlua…)
sugar to sweeten

Butter and flour a 9-inch (23cm) springform pan. Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Melt chocolate, instant coffee and butter together in microwave. Stir in the vanilla. Beat half the sugar and the egg yolks together until pale and thick. Beat in warm chocolate mixture, ground toasted nuts and booze, if using. (This mixture often separates on me, but all will be well again once you start folding in the egg whites.) Beat egg whites and salt and the remaining sugar with clean beaters until stiff but not dry (soft peak stage). Stir one-quarter into the chocolate to lighten it, then gently fold in the remainder just until no white streaks remain. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until slightly puffed in the center and no longer jiggly. I start checking after 25 minutes, and take it out when there is just a bit of batter clinging to the toothpick in the center. Remove from oven, cool completely in the pan, and serve chilled or at room temperature with the cream, which you should softly whip with the sugar and your choice of flavors.

Another thing I love to serve with this cake (which I like even better than whipped cream), is slightly sweetened Greek yogurt. The slight tartness and freshness of the yogurt is a perfect complement to the dark, intense chocolate.

Keep in mind that chocolate, unlike people, improves as it ages, so let this cake sit for several hours or even a full day before you dig in (if you can!).

I have often read with great interest the story about how other people developed a passion for food. Many say they were influenced by their parents or grandparents at an early age, whether through spending time at their side in the kitchen or by simply inheriting their enthusiasm for fresh, wholesome and exciting food. Others had a food epiphany at some point in their lives, maybe while travelling or when cooking for themselves for the first time. I can’t seem to fit myself into any of those categories. When people ask me where my interest in food comes from I don’t have an answer to give them. I simply can’t link it to any particular person or event, or even time in my life – I just know it’s been there for as long as I’ve been making memories. In fact, many of my very first memories concern food, and my family often teases me because my memory for food seems so much sharper than my memory for anything else.

I helped out in the kitchen from time to time, but it was more a chore for me than a privilege – cooking was just the hurdle to cross on the way to eating. Then something happened when I was about eleven years old. I can’t remember the exact moment, but one day I must have been fiddling around in the kitchen, probably having been told to make my own lunch, when it dawned on me that if I was making the food, I could make it as tasty as I wanted! That must have been *the* moment (though I honestly can’t remember it) when my life was irrevocably altered. The only problem was that I didn’t yet know how to make food tasty. I do remember taking over occasional dinner duty and experimenting with our usual meals, but adding little things to improve their taste. I started with the basics, like herbs and spices. I made all the usual things, but for a month I added handfuls of thyme to everything. Then I moved on to dill, and after that oregano. When I had emptied our dusty spice cupboard, I experimented with adjusting salt and sugar levels. I added so much sugar to one particular can of chili that no one could eat it (but I wisely kept my mouth shut as everyone sat around shaking their heads and scrutinizing the label). Thinking back, I’m amazed my family didn’t rebel, but having someone else do the cooking must have been worth eating those dubious results.

I found new interests and hobbies, I moved away from home and traveled and learned new skills – but cooking has never relinquished its place at the top, and if anything, has continued to intensify its hold over me since those early days. I can’t get through a day without reading about food, digging up new recipes or daydreaming about tastes I’ll create. It’s like breathing or sleeping or talking for me. I can’t live without it.