Tips and tricks from the cooking school

fish

purchase The most important thing when buying fish is freshness. They are recognizable by their fresh appearance: the scales are undamaged and shiny, the eyes are clear and the gills bright red. In addition, the meat feels firm and elastic and smells pleasant. Fresh fish does not smell like fish. Whole, gutted, fresh fish last longer than fillets. One expects 400 grams of whole fish or 150 grams of fish fillet per person for a main course.

storage Store fish cool, place at 0 ° to 1 ° C or wrapped on ice. Fresh fish processed quickly. Thaw frozen fish overnight in the fridge.

preparation Whole fish with scales, dehusk. Will he not be cooked, fillet and boned as a whole? Wash the fillets briefly under running water, dab them dry and cool until further use. Fish should only be cooked gently. He has a finer structure than meat. Down with the temperature and do not fry, steam or cook for too long. So the fish does not dry. When the fish is roasted, salt and pepper the fillets, do not acidify, fry in a pan over medium heat in a little oil - skin side down - crispy, toss, remove the pan from the heat and pass through until glassy. The fish skin tastes crisp best and protects at the same time the tender fish meat.

Boneless skin on both sides, the same length, gently fry in mild heat for up to five minutes. After cooking, sprinkle the fish with a little lemon juice and olive oil. For pickling, flavor-intensive, solid-meaty fish such as salmon are suitable. When marinating you can also use tender fish. Pickling and marinating are preservative methods, but the fish should be stored in the refrigerator.

squid: Calamari often become tough because many make the mistake of frying it for too long. If you overlook the optimal time (after about 1 minute with diced calamari), it will be tough and you would have to cook it for a very long time until it softens again. Whole calamari fritters are browned in oil on each side in a hot pan, then they are ready. Octopus, up to 1 kg in weight, is left to simmer for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours in salted water with onions, bay leaves and cloves just below the boiling point, then it is cooked.



vegetables

purchase Look for crisp and fresh leaves, bright colors and firm and juicy pulp. Buy vegetables according to the season, in small quantities and ripe. It tastes better.

storage Vegetables should be processed quickly. Otherwise, wrap loosely in foil or a damp kitchen towel and store in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator. Store fruits and vegetables separately. Some vegetables are sensitive to fruit and spoil or taste bitter.

processing Wash and peel the vegetables just before processing, whole and under running water. Do not put vegetables in water for too long, water-soluble vitamins are lost. However, vegetables that oxidize in the air can be kept in the water with a little lemon juice, but not longer than 2 hours.

For blanching, boil the vegetables in plenty of boiling salted water without a lid for several minutes. Quench the vegetables in very cold, if possible ice water, to finish the cooking process and preserve the color of the vegetables. Pour the vegetables on a sieve and pat dry with a kitchen towel or with leafy vegetables with your hands. After blanching, the vegetables can be stored in the fridge for one day.

Blanch different types of vegetables separately from each other, and switch to water for flavorful vegetables such as cabbage. Tip for a fine taste: caramelize. In a coated pan, icing sugar is heated and dissolved at medium temperature until golden yellow. Sweat the vegetables in a mild heat. Not too long, then it stays nice and healthy.

asparagus preparation Asparagus is suitable for searing, especially the green. Roast either whole or cut into slices and then heat with olive oil. Again and again, pour poultry or vegetable stock and let it reduce until it is ready. Finally, season with tarragon, salt and pepper.



Spices and herbs

Dried spices and herbs can melt for longer, so that they can develop their taste. Add fresh herbs like parsley, chives, basil just before serving. If they are mitgegart too long, they lose not only color and shape, but also their taste.

salt Season the sauces and soups shortly before the end. If a sauce is salted early and it reduces in the cooking process, it is usually salted. Salt and fish can be salted beforehand, but then immediately put into the heated pan, otherwise water will escape.

cayenne pepper Cayenne pepper has a straightforward sharpness, it has no special aroma, it is only spicy and ensures a good flavor. It stimulates the digestion up to tenfold and should therefore be used in a larger food sequence, to avoid a feeling of fullness.

Ginger: Ginger gives a spicy note and helps especially with the fat digestion. That's why ginger goes well with rich foods. Take ginger slices if you're making a roast pork. Remove slices before serving, the roast becomes more digestible.

Garlic: Garlic is almost always used in combination with ginger. These two spices go well together as ginger largely removes the negative properties of garlic. That one hardly smells of garlic afterwards.

Use of garlic: Depending on your taste and intensity you should use garlic in the following way: fry whole toe in the bowl, cook with it or melt with it: the dish gets a very elegant taste. Boil whole toe without shell or melt with it: the taste becomes more intense. The smaller the garlic is cut, the stronger and more idiosyncratic its taste.



noodles

purchase You can choose between durum wheat and egg noodles and Asian pasta, manufactured industrially or artisan. Pay attention to quality.

Not every kind of pasta goes well with every sauce. Guidance: Each region in Italy has its own pasta and sauce-noodle combinations. Grooved, tubular noodles to savory, richer sauces and narrow, longer noodles to lighter, thinner

Sauces. Dried noodles are 60 grams per person for an appetizer and 100-120 grams per person for a main course. With fresh pasta you take 300 grams of flour for four people.

storage Industrially dried noodles are indefinitely stable in a dry place. Consume fresh homemade pasta on the same day. Stuffed raw noodles such as ravioli and boiled, chilled noodles are ideal for freezing.

processing Cook fresh pasta in boiling water and serve immediately in the sauce. Dried noodles can be cooked very well in advance and heated just before serving.

Cooking pasta Cook the desired amount of pasta in plenty of salted water, without oil, until firm, stirring occasionally, so that the pasta does not stick together. Drain through a sieve, do not rinse with water, otherwise the starch shell will be removed from the noodles. Spread the noodles on a clean worktop or baking sheet. Immediately mix with a little oil and allow to cool. Covered in a refrigerator, they last for several days.

To heat, do not dip the noodles in hot water, but in a pan or a flat pot at medium temperature with a little vegetable broth. Arrange the broth with a slice of garlic and chili. Season with salt and pepper and add either a small piece of butter or a few drops of olive oil and serve. Cheese, such as freshly grated Parmesan, and chopped herbs to finish with the pasta.

Or heat the pasta in a sauce. If the sauce is thicker, dilute it with some vegetable stock, the noodles absorb a lot of liquid.

beef

purchase Pay attention to a clear red color and fine white grease veins, marbling. The quality of beef depends on the age, breed and feeding of the animal.

Many countries breed special breeds for tasty meat. Beef should ripen for two to three weeks. The filet protected by the ribs is particularly tender, the loin and the hip. Pieces of meat from body parts that are moved a lot, such as leg, shoulder and leg, for stewing and cooking.

Veal should be lighter in color than beef and fine in texture, but also slightly marbled. Veal is hung shorter than beef, about two weeks. Milk calf is a three to six-month-old calf, raised only with milk, preferably whole milk. This meat tastes very fine.

storage Pre-cooked meat becomes especially tender when cooked. Veal two weeks, beef, lamb and game up to three weeks, pork about a week, poultry can already be used in the first few days. It matures best in vacuum packed. Vacuum in the desired size from the butcher or vacuum at home. Packed in the coldest zone of the refrigerator at four degrees, it is then stored for a long time and then cooked or frozen for storage. When frozen, meat does not ripen and the ripening process is interrupted. To thaw in the refrigerator.

Cook the meat gently over medium heat, so that it relaxes during cooking and does not become tense. This makes it tender and juicy on the inside and nicely crunchy on the outside. And you can better monitor the cooking process at a lower temperature, the meat cooks more evenly. For a tender searing, the pan is heated at medium temperature, then added the oil into it and the fried food inserted. It is fried and turned only when it has the desired color.

The pan can regenerate again, which has been deprived of heat by the cold meat insert.If the meat is turned too fast, the pan cools down and the frying process goes into a cooking process, from the meat comes out water. Pan-fried, such as fillet steak can be fried up to two inches thick in the pan. Larger pieces of meat are sautéed and placed at 100 degrees in the preheated oven, on the middle rail on a grid. They are flooded with heat and cook evenly from outside to inside.

With this cooking method, the meat does not have to rest after cooking, it is already relaxed. When carving no meat juice comes out.

Also Tafelspitz you can fry before cooking. Three advantages: There are hardly any turbid substances in the broth, the broth is better characterized by the roasting substances and it still gets a nice dark color due to the fried edge.

processing

Which beef pieces do you take to which dish?

For roast: filet (especially tender), rib with or without bone, hip, loin To braise: meat pieces from the leg or shoulder, cross rib For cooking: mace, Hesse, beef breast, boiled beef, flat shoulder, neck For goulash: calf, round or thick shoulder For minced meat: shoulder, neck For roulades: lower and upper shell

Since veal is leaner than beef, it has to be gently roasted over mild heat. It is very suitable for stewing at low temperatures or processed as a ragout. For a schnitzel you use the calf nut or topping. The meat has to be cut and tapped thin and across the grain, which makes it mellow.

sauces

Do not bind sauces with flour. Flour is heavy and does not lose its own taste in the cooking process, it cooks very long until the taste is cooked to some extent. Better is cornstarch, it achieves the same effect, but does not distort the ingredients. Stir cornstarch with a little cold water and add to the boiling sauce. Simmer for a minute or two, it loses its floury character and the dish tastes better.

You can easily flavor sauces: with the skins of untreated oranges and lemons, a slice of garlic, ginger and fresh herbs, such as rosemary, thyme. Finally, pour the spices into the sauce, let it soak for a few minutes, and then release its fresh aroma. A small piece of cold butter melted into the sauce shortly before serving, which enhances the fine taste.

vinaigrette One part vinegar and two to three parts oil. To make the salad sauce even spicier, there is a simple trick: replace a part of oil with vegetable stock. Try it, it tastes wonderful.

Schuhbeck's cooking school

Would like more? You can also get the tips and tricks from the master chef in person - in Schuhbeck's cooking school in Munich. Information at www.schuhbeck.de

How To Master 5 Basic Cooking Skills - Gordon Ramsay (March 2024).



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