first up cooking pasta
a great budget basic to keep in the
cupboard it can be easily undercooked or
overcooked
here's how to do it properly first water
in
nice large pan to make sure the pasta's
got sufficient room to cook evenly
nicely seasoned absolutely crucial olive
oil in
that stops the pasta from sticking
together bring it up to the ball
that's the rolling boil the secret there
it stops the pasta from sticking
together and it gently rolls it around
now this is angel pasta nice thin
pasta takes three and a half to four
minutes so into the pan
as it hits the water it melts and then
you turn it round
tongs as that starts to melt gently
twist that into the pan bring it back up
to the boil
if you're bad at timing then set a timer
beautiful to test it lift a little
strand
and you can actually feel it with your
fingers still nice and firm
al dente not a bite not a strong bite
but just really nice and firm inside
definitely not crunchy and then into a
colander
drain the pasta in
a light seasoning salt and pepper
a tablespoon of olive oil
mix that through that stops it from
sticking together
and look there you go beautiful pasta al
dente
and cooked perfectly
a tip for making the most of spare bread
blitz leftovers into breadcrumbs
great for stuffing or crab cakes or cut
into chunks and freeze for perfect
croutons on demand
or simply tear and use in a delicious
rustic salad
dried pulses like chickpeas or lentils
are great for soups and stews
and cost pennies but don't season them
until the end of the cooking or the salt
makes them go tough
for perfect boiled potatoes always start
them off in cold water
and never boiling water this way by the
time the centers of the potatoes are
cooked
the outside won't be falling apart and
when you're cooking potatoes
always cook extra so there's leftovers
they're fantastic to have on hand
for making my delicious gnocchi and
potato rusties for a classic bubbling
squeak
basmati rice the king of all rice is
light fluffy delicious
and i'm going to show you how to cook it
perfectly
now start off with
400 grams of rice rice in
spot on so what i'm going to do now is
just rinse off
the dust and the starch cold water
always and just rinse
the rice that stops the rice from
becoming clumpy in the pan
and allows it to become really nice
light and fluffy once it's cooked
rice into the pan now to make a plain
fluffy rice exciting we're going to
infuse it
three cardamom pods and just get the
pots
and just pierce them so it allows all
that flavour
to come out cardamom pods
and then star anise now these are
beautiful
whole star anise it makes it really nice
and fragrant
salt and pepper a lot easier to season
the rice now
than it is once it's cooked you start to
break it up when you season once it's
cooked now it's basically
one part rice to one and a half part
water 600 mils
always start off in cold water cold
water in
onto the gas lid on
bring it up to the ball as quick as
possible and turn it down and let it
simmer for eight to ten minutes and
that's the secret behind cooking great
rice
allow it to steam as it's cooking
do not lift that lid up
lid off
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it smells aromatic basically all the
water's absorbed
the rice has doubled in size and is nice
and light and fluffy
take the staranise out the cardamom pods
they all should have risen to the top
pods out
take your fork fluff it through
basically it just sort of starts to open
everything back up
once you've fought it through it becomes
really nice and light and fluffy
and that is perfectly cooked rice
always make the most of your leftovers
use last night's rice in stir fries
scrambled up with eggs or it's simple to
make a delicious fresh salad
remember a good cook wastes nothing
a great tip for stopping potatoes apples
and avocados from going brown wing cut
simply cover with water and add a
squeeze of lemon the acidity stops the
flesh from oxidizing which is what
causes the colour to change
herbs are great for adding flavor
without spending a fortune
to keep them at their best simply place
them in a glass of water
and they'll stay fresh for up to a week
and if you've got extra herbs left over
save and waste by making an amazing
flavored oil
place wash and dried stems in a bottle
cover with warmed olive oil
then seal and leave to infuse great for
salads
pastas and drizzling on veg with how to
skin and debone a fish
the hassle-free way this is basically a
filleted side of salmon it's been taken
off the bone
and now skin off pick up your knife a
really nice broad
flexible filleting knife
a little sharpen lift up the base of the
towel
and then just nick a little bit at the
end there
twist the knife almost as if it's
horizontally underneath the salmon pull
the skin and you slice
the salmon underneath and let the knife
do the work now
get your skin flip it back over
and check you're not leaving too much
salmon on top of the skin
pull it back nice and slowly get the
skin wrap it around your fingers pull
the salmon
towards you and then just all the way
through
lay that down
one nicely skinned salmon just like a
perfect snakeskin
get your knife and just run the knife
down
and then with a pair of tweezers these
are fish tweezers but you can use normal
tweezers
look for the head up
and pull and with the skin being removed
from underneath the salmon
the pin bones come out a lot easier the
pimples only go
to just basically halfway along the
fillet
one nice fillet of salmon
beautiful
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there's still plenty of flavor in the
trimmings from affiliated fish
my tip is don't waste those fish bones
add to water
wine a bay leaf and some chopped veg to
make a simple but versatile fish talk at
home
the perfect base for a delicious fish
soup
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a great tip for intensely flavored
stress-free veg is to steam them in
their own juices
simply add to a pan with a knob of
butter and seasoning then cook on a low
heat
with a lid on to lock in the moisture
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for crispy roast potatoes you can depend
on my tip is to parboil them
leave them to steam dry then sprinkle
them with semolina or flour
and give them a good roughing up this
ensures they go really crispy in the
oven
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a great tip for browning meat or fish is
to dry with kitchen roll
before you cook it then you'll get a
much better color
too much moisture makes the meat steam
instead of sear
and you'll lose that rich brown crust
like the one i got on those sticky pork
ribs
you