Meat Tips
Ham sauce
After frying ham and removing it to a platter; add 1 cup of hot water and 3 cubes (tablespoons/dessertspoons) of coffee to the pan drippings. Boil and stir, drizzle over ham.
Roasted leg of lamb
When next cooking a leg of lamb, stab holes into it and stuff them with pieces of garlic. The pieces dissolve during cooking and add flavor and tenderness to the meat. Sprinkling dried or fresh rosemary on top adds a nice flavor too.
Cooking older birds
If you have to cook a hen (i.e. older bird) which usually take much longer than the young chicken place a heavy metal knife and fork (MUST BE ALL METAL NO WOOD OR PLASTIC) inside the boiling water along with the bird and you will cut the cooking time by more than a half. This also works well with most hard to cook meats (turkey, pork) it even works with potatoes.
Grilled pork chops
If you want your pork chops to taste even better, sprinkle with soy sauce as you grill them on the cooker or barbeque.
"Smoke" Food at Home
Take the tea out of about 10 tea bags (or use loose tea) and mix together with 8 oz. of demerara sugar and 8 oz. of long grain rice.
Line a Wok with tinfoil, put the above mixture on top and cover with another piece of foil. Lay your trout, salmon, chicken breast or duck (whatever you are cooking) on top of the foil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover with lid. Leave to cook on a gradual heat for about 15/20 minutes. This will give the food a delicious "smoked" taste. Be warned, however, it does make a rather pungent smell in your kitchen.
Braising meat
When braising meat, cook it at a low temperature for a long time to keep the meat tender and have it retain all the juices.
Cooked meat salads
When preparing dishes like chicken or cooked meat salads, use chilled ingredients. In other words, make sure your cooked chicken has been cooked and chilled before it gets mixed with other salad ingredients.
Over salted curry??
If you happen to put excess salt in the curry, cut a raw potato into about 10 pieces and drop them into the curry & leave for 15 min. They will absorb the excess salt. Remove the pieces before serving.
Carpaccio
The raw beef dish known as “Carpaccio” was named after the Renaissance painter Vittore Carpaccio who was noted for his use of red in his paintings.
To make Carpaccio, the meat needs to be very fresh, tender and thinly sliced.
