Miguel Maestre and Poh Ling Yeow share their tips to become a better home cook
Two of Australia’s favourite foodies step in to share their handy and easy tips on how to take your cooking to the next level. Here are their 30 ways to transform bland into brilliant.
Lifestyle
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They’re pretty damning figures.
More than a third of Aussies feel guilty about not cooking enough healthy meals for their household’s weekly dinners, and 29 per cent feel ashamed about cooking the same meals for their family week after week.
Encouragingly, three in four Australians prepare five or more dinners weekly at home and almost nine out of 10 want to be more adventurous in the kitchen. And that’s where two of Australia’s favourite foodies, Miguel Maestre (The Living Room) and Poh Ling Yeow (Poh’s Kitchen) come in.
The two are taking part in the first live event food show dedicated to the home cook next month. For the Love of Cooking puts the focus on the domestic kitchen and making the home cook more confident, with culinary inspiration, classes and cool creations from leading local chefs along with Poh at the Melbourne event and Miguel in Sydney.
Poh says the biggest mistake home cooks make is being afraid to have a go and learning from mistakes. “I’d say most of my learning trajectory has been from doozies,” she says.
Miguel says the best thing to do in the kitchen is to keep it simple.
“One of the biggest mistakes I think home cooks make is that they try too hard. This can often be the result of using too many ingredients and flavour combinations all at once. By keeping dishes simple, you will find that you’ll still achieve fabulous results,” he says.
Here are their 30 ways to transform bland into brilliant and take your cooking to the next level.
1. The biggest difference between a professional and home cook is the use of seasoning — salty, sweet, fat and heat — Poh says. “At home everyone’s always trying to cut down on those but they all equal flavour and without them ingredients don’t get to reach their full potential.”
2. “Some of the easiest ways to transform bland to brilliant is temperature and seasoning,” Miguel agrees. “People often don’t realise that temperature brings out great flavours in food.
Adding a handful of salt to water when boiling your pasta has the ability to take your pasta dish to the next level.”
3. “For a crisp, vibrant salad, take the time to cut your ingredients uniformly and with a sharp knife. This helps avoid bruising and weeping, and then toss with dressing at the very last minute with your hands so you don’t bruise the vegetables,” Poh says.
4. When cooking pumpkin soup, roast the pumpkin as a whole to begin with, and then add water or coconut cream to the roasted veg in the pot. “Roasting brings out the natural sugar and flavours, and can ultimately take a soup to the next level,” Miguel says.
5. “Fresh herbs and acid in the form of lemon or vinegars can add vibrancy and refresh the palate. Chilli can immediately inject zing,” Poh says.
6. “I always recommend cutting the meat into cubes and coating in flour,” Miguel says of making a stew. “Doing this will give your meat a beautiful crust, and will give you a finished product that contains different levels of flavour. Adding flour will also assist to thicken the sauce.”
7. “Before roasting any type of meat, it’s important to have it at room temperature before putting it in the oven. By doing this, your meat will be a lot more tender and will cook through evenly,” Miguel says.
8. When making a stew, always start with a mirepoix, which is finely chopped carrot, celery, onion and sometimes garlic, Poh says, and a bouquet garni (a bundle of fresh herbs tied together) to add depth.
9. When it comes to salads, it’s all about dressing to impress. “Always dress a salad before it hits the plate, but make it the last thing you do before serving. Dressing a salad prematurely will cause the leaves to lose their freshness and crispness,” Miguel says.
10. The one thing Poh says will help a piece of roasted meat is to season, season and season some more. “Almost to the point of it seeming like it’s overdoing it, so it really penetrates the meat. Seasoning after roasting just never adds enough depth.”
11. No matter what culture, always aim for an al dente result when cooking noodles. “For rice noodles don’t boil but simply soak in cool water for 10-15 minutes before stir-frying to avoid a mushy mess,” Poh says.
12. The one thing that is essential to elevate home cooking is a great chef’s knife, Miguel says. “Blunt knives slow down your preparation time and make it harder than a nice sharp knife.”
13. “If you don’t have a good homemade stock, I find using milk and a bit of stock powder is better than a lot of packaged liquid stock,” Poh says. “I also find the milk adds just enough richness so I don’t have to add cream. This way you still achieve ‘creamy’ without it being too rich.”
14. Poh also uses butter to sweat a soup’s aromatic base of onion, garlic and celery in. “It just adds so much flavour.”
15. Best way to enhance any breakfast dish? “Chorizo of course,” Miguel says. “Adding chorizo gives a breakfast dish a beautiful balance of saltiness and fattiness. For vegetarian options, seasoning tomato with paprika will give you the same great flavour.”
16. For next-level barbecue, it’s all about making a rub for the meat, Miguel says. Try mixing salt, pepper, lemon zest, cumin seeds and paprika and rubbing it into steaks before cooking on the barbecue. “It helps the flavour enormously.”
17. “With butter cakes, swap out a small amount of butter then add a spoonful of sour cream to the mix and it will always come out beautifully moist,” Poh says.
18. “The most important thing when cooking noodles is to use a nice big wok and ensure it is really hot before you begin cooking,” Miguel says. He also suggests cutting all the vegetables in a uniform size, which helps ensure they cook consistently.
19. Caramelising ingredients — whether it be meat or mushrooms — properly is important, says Poh, as this adds complexity and fullness of flavour.
20. When making a soup, cut all the ingredients smaller to halve the amount of time it takes to cook through, Miguel says. “Lesser cooking time also means flavours can be preserved.”
21. For the ultimate fried rice, always use completely chilled rice. “This keeps the grains firm and nicely separated,” Poh says.
22. Add texture to cakes. “For example, adding walnuts to a banana cake is a simple way to not only elevate the flavour of your cake, but also add texture to it,” Miguel says.
23. Poh says three pieces of kitchen equipment will both elevate your cooking and make life easier — a microplane, which is used for zesting citrus or grating Parmesan and nutmeg, a good quality food processor to help with prep work, and a garlic crusher.
24. For the perfect roast pork, scoring the skin allows the air to penetrate the rind and helps to create great crackling. “Place in an extremely hot oven for the first 5-10 mins to sear the skin before turning it down to roast and ensure tender meat,” Miguel says.
25. According to Poh, almost every savoury breakfast dish is improved by adding a squeeze of lemon. “It enlivens the palate, always freshens a rich dish up and gets your digestion going.”
26. “When cooking paella, I believe you must have a really great sofrito, the mixture of tomato, garlic, chives, paprika, parsley and saffron,” Miguel says, who also recommends using Spanish rice. “Reduce the heat of the paella to a minimum in the final minutes of cooking to achieve the perfect socarrat, which is the beautiful crust on the bottom of the pan.”
27. “The key to a delicious warm pudding is making it extra saucy,” Miguel says. He likes to put frozen chocolate in the middle, “so when you cut it open the sauce is flowing”.
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28. “In the industrial kitchen we peel lots of garlic at once by shaking separated cloves between two large upturned bowls for about 10 seconds,” Poh says. “It causes a mighty racquet but it really works unless the garlic is young and the skins aren’t fully dried.”
29. Making custard in the microwave is another of Poh’s timesaving hacks. “It’s foolproof and you can walk away between the bursts.”
30. “Plan ahead and work out exactly what you’re going to cook that week,” Miguel recommends. “This means meals can be prepared quickly and efficiently. For example, when cooking a chicken to use within a soup, make enough so that you can use the remaining chicken in burritos or sandwiches the following day.”
For the Love of Cooking, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Nov 29-Dec 1 (held in conjunction with the Cake Bake & Sweets show).
For info and tickets: lovecookingshow.com.au