Margaret Fulton - Cooking For Dummies

Part I

Food, Glorious Food

In this part...

Before you start to cook have a good look around your kitchen to see how practical your set up is for cooking, preparation and storage. In Chapter 1, we show you the basic cooking tools and practical equipment you need for efficient food preparation.

The next step is to go shopping good shopping is a key element to making good food. We include tips for savvy shopping and storage and encourage you to stock up your store cupboard, refrigerator and freezer.

In Chapter 3, we show you how to read a recipe and discuss details on timing, temperatures and preparation. We explain away cooking jargon and describe the most commonly heard cooking terms and techniques such as roasting, grilling and frying.

Chapter 1

Finding Your Way around the Kitchen

In This Chapter

Making your kitchen more practical

Putting hygiene and safety first

Checking out the most useful kitchen tools

Investing in pots, pans and food processors

Every house contains a dream. Japanese proverb

From time to time, theres a report in the media that gravely informs us of yet another extensively researched study that concludes that family meals are a thing of the past. We dont know who the researchers spoke to certainly not to the people who enjoy preparing their own home-cooked meals in the evening. The fact is, the majority of us never abandoned our kitchens in favour of going out to restaurants or getting in takeaway.

There are as many reasons as there are cooks to explain why we like to prepare our own meals at home having to live on a budget is only one of them. People are getting more and are more interested in their homes, their kitchens and their gardens, encouraged by a plethora of glossy magazines and lifestyle programs on television. Family members are drawn to where the action is in the evening first, the kitchen and then around the dining table. Food brings people together, offering an opportunity to relax and socialise.

In this chapter, we discuss how to get the best out of your kitchen and ways you can improve it without major renovations. Tips on storage and safe handling of food follow. The rest of this chapter is then devoted to the real nitty-gritty: kitchen utensils, all types of cookware like pots, pans and baking trays, and lots of other really useful stuff.

Making Your Kitchen Work for You

While kitchen design has responded to demands for a more casual and relaxed lifestyle, there are a few basic things that you should bear in mind if youre doing any kitchen renovations:

Maintenance-free floors: Given all the things that drop on the kitchen floor, go with flooring thats as maintenance-free and easy to clean as possible. Tiles, wooden floor boards and good old lineoleum are some examples.

Easy-to-clean walls: When you really get into the swing of things stirring furiously soups, stews and sauces have a habit of getting everywhere, including on you. For your walls and splashbacks (and ceiling, too, if you plan on making pancakes), choose a material or finish thats durable and easy to wipe. Keep in mind that white and black show up every splash.

Functional lighting: In addition to a light in the ceiling, its a good idea to have tube lights as your working lights placed under eye-level cupboards over your workbenches.

The two things that always seem to be in short supply in the kitchen are space and time. Here are some tips on what you can do to improve both.

Space: Think about all the things you are likely to do in the kitchen you bring food into it, unwrap it and then store it away. When you are preparing to cook, things need to be washed, chopped and sliced. Then theres the actual cooking and serving, and finally, the clearing up, washing up and putting away. Make sure you have enough space for all this. Remember to allow for both a preparation area and storage space; building a huge pantry isnt very useful if it means you have no space left over in which to chop vegies.

If your kitchen is very small, keep a bench or a table nearby to create extra preparation space.

Time: If your budget stretches to it, obtain the most functional labour-saving devices you can, but not if it means losing valuable preparation space. To avoid a cluttered workbench, be sure to assemble only those gadgets you cant do without.

Storing your supplies

Whether you have open shelves or cupboards, store the items you use most often where you can reach them easily, generally on the first shelf above or below the workbench. Use your other shelves to store items you dont use as often. Store heavy pots and pans fairly low down if you put them on the top shelf, you probably wont see them again until youre moving house.

Small, but effective

Good food can be produced in any old space its the skill and enthusiasm of the cook that matters. Many of us have cooked in the most unlikely places. Years ago, in a tiny bed-sit in London, Barbara had a kitchen that doubled as a bathroom. The bath was under the kitchen bench. It was possible to boil the kettle on the two-ring gas stove and make toast while sitting in the bath. The washing-up, though, was done in the hand basin, as is right and proper. Great dinners and party fare emanated from this kitchen, and a serious cooking career followed. In professional kitchens, chefs usually work in tiny spaces and, at the same time, have to cope with all the drama of a busy restaurant. Perhaps your present kitchen isnt so bad, after all.

Cupboards and drawers: A bench-height cupboard for appliances is a good idea if you have the cupboard fitted with power points and an inside light. Large pantry cupboards are brilliant for storage, especially if they have deep shelves. Under the work bench, the top drawers are usually the handiest place for cutlery and small kitchen utensils, and the deep bottom drawers are very practical for storing large items.

Wire baskets: These can provide really useful extra storage space. Wire baskets come in several different sizes and shapes and you can see whats inside them at a glance. Larger baskets are handy for storing vegetables, and smaller ones can fit on the insides of cupboard doors to store small, light items such as spice jars.

Practising good hygiene

Food contamination problems like salmonella and listeriosis can occur when poor hygiene is practised in the kitchen. Although there has been a rise in the number of food poisoning cases reported, most occur in large food-processing plants. However, its wise to be on the safe side, so here are a few tips on kitchen hygiene: