Cooking Mistakes: Undoing Common Cooking Mistakes
January 27th, 2008
If there was one thing that a kitchen could easily be likened to, it would be a chemistry lab. We keep mixing different ingredients and generally end up creating dishes that are as perfect as they were in the cookbook. Other times however, things can prove to be a total disaster, just like an experiment gone wrong in a school chemistry lab. However, unlike chemistry lab disasters, most cooking mistakes can be tweaked and altered and edible food salvaged from the destruction. Even the best of cooks at times end up adding more salt or spices and overcooking and undercooking food. Given below are easy methods of undoing the most common cooking mistakes that should help you become a better person in the kitchen.
Too much salt in food: Putting in more than the required amount of salt in food is an extremely common mistake. At the same time, it is so noticeable that it can easily render your dish inedible. If you have added too much salt to a soup or gravy, then the best idea here is to add a little more water to balance the salt. However, if your gravy is already too watery, then you can peel and cut a raw potato into slices and drop these slices into your gravy. Once the potato slices become translucent, take them out and check the salt in your dish again. In most cases, this trick should be able to get your salt level to edible. You can also add a tomato or two if your recipe can take it, since unlike potato slices; these cannot to be taken out and thrown.
Gravy or soup is very thin: The easiest method of thickening a watery soup or gravy is to add corn flour or corn starch to it. Mix a little corn starch into water first and then add it to your hot gravy or soup, bring to a boil and you will find that your soup has turned miraculously thick. Use corn starch in very small portions, since this is quite a potent thickener. If you do not have corn starch, then use a couple or two tablespoons of all purpose flour. Dried potato flakes can also accomplish the same job.
Burnt vegetables and meat: There are various ways of tackling burnt food. If we are talking about solid veggies, stir fries or meat pieces here, then the first thing you should do when you notice that your food is burnt is to stop stirring, since this will mix the burnt food pieces everywhere. Take out the food that is not burnt from the top of the pan and in most cases you will find that this is still edible. If you’ve got food sticking to the bottom of the pan, then soak your pan in hot water with some dishwashing detergent overnight. You will be able to clean out your vessel easily the next day.
Burnt soups and custards: Custards and cream soups have an amazing tendency to catch the pan when you are not looking. If you find your custard sticking to the bottom of the pan, then stop stirring and pour out the good portion into another vessel. If this portion does not smell burnt, then you can easily cook it till it is done and serve.