Technical Cooking Guide

Dough

If you find when making any dough and you accidentally add too much water or liquid, sometimes it can work if you add a little flour at a time to bring it back together. However this mainly works for dough that need to be firm in texture, sometimes dough is meant to be sticky for that airy glutenous  texture for a soft and light centre.

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Also when making dough and you feel it is slightly too dry then add drops of warm water at a time until it comes together. 

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Oil, butter or any type of dairy required to make the dough is usually required to make the dough soft once cooked but kept firm on the outside. When handling sticky dough and good way to keep it all for sticking too much rub a little oil onto the palms. 

Sauces and Gravy

When making sauces or gravy and it needs to be thickened and done in a way is to bring the water or liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat and leave on a slower simmer with the lid open and it will evaporate the liquid and reduce down to thick consistency.

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Another way to thicken sauce if you still require it a little runny then a tomato base sauce and can thicken slightly with a little tomato puree. Also a magic substance to quickly thicken a sauce is a teaspoon of corn flour with a little water. This mixture works well in sauce like sweet and sour or sticky sauces like chilli sauces that coat the ingredients.

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When a sauces becomes too thick in a cooking process the most sauce will loosen with simple water. This is a simple way to make a sauce a little more runny without affected the flavour flour or texture. Be careful, gradually add in amounts of water otherwise it will go from one extreme to the next very quickly. Also taste the dish and the only flavour that may need to be adjusted depending on what kind of dish it is the salt. 

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Many basic sauces begin with what is called a 'rue', this is a combination of butter, oil or cooking fats that is mixed in with flour to get the right consistency of the sauce or gravy. The flour can also be added on top the ingredients that have been sauteed in the oil or butter. Once these to items have combined then the liquid that is required to make the sauce is added and whisked in whether that is water, stock, milk or any other liquid required. 

Tinned Ingredients

Whether you call it a tin or can or tin can, there are many advantages to having ingredients ready to use once you can crack it open! Besides the obvious of it being a short cut to cooking and time saver this little can has few other uses. Ever tried scraping the bottom of a tin to get the last bit of goodness or flavour, a dash of water and a little swish around and all the comes right away and there is no waste or loss of flavour. Most items need stock or a little water to cook and if need be keep the lid of the pot open and let the water evaporate. All this depends on the recipe and whether water is required or not but most of the time and little splash of water doesn't hurt.

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Depending on the recipe sometimes once a tin is opened and the content is been used the other ingredients if needed to be the same quantity than it can be measured out in the tin. If  recipe doesn't require the same measurement for other ingredients but again the stock or water can be filled to the top rather than just a swig so again not wasting the content and flavour but this time not adding another dish to the wash pile!

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Again as always depending on the dish if the tinned content is sweet and comes wit syrup then that also doesn’t need to be wasted. The syrup can be reduced down with or without the fruit to make a sticky sauce or fruits like the juice of pineapple ca be used in sweet dishes but also in savoury dishes like sweet and sour sauces and marinades. Sweet fruits can be cooked in their own juices or like a fruit crumble or just poached with a few spices and eaten warm with ice-cream. Many ideas and you will begin to find your own ways to use the contents of your tinned ingredients and reduce waste whilst cooking.