Les copio otro articulo del The Times del día de ayer donde aparecen algunos de los grandes chefs ingleses dando consejos prácticos sobre problemas frecuentes en la cocina.
Q&A: cooking problems solved by our experts
Lumpy white sauce? Perfect pached eggs? Eleven common kitchen dilemmas tackled by Britain’s top chefs
The Times
2301/2010
Q Why do my chips never come out fluffy on the inside and crisp on the outside?

This may sound a bit technical, but all you really need to know is that when potatoes are harvested, those grown in the wetter part of the field contain more water. These spuds bruise more easily and don’t last as long, so they tend to be sold first. You need to wait a month or so from the time a crop hits the shops for the “drier” potatoes to come in. Charlotte and Belle de Fontenay varieties work well.
As for cooking fat, groundnut oil is probably the best because it is very pure and odour-free. Otherwise, rendered beef fat would be delicious, too.
Q How do you make the perfect vinaigrette? Mine’s always too gloopy.

Q When I roast chicken, I never get enough juice to make gravy. What can I add, without resorting to a stock cube?

Q How come my white sauce always turns out lumpy?

Q With fan ovens, are there some things that cook better without the fan on, and vice versa?

Q What’s the secret to poaching eggs? I was told to add vinegar to the water, but they tasted horrible.

John Torode
: That’s probably because you are using too much. A little white wine vinegar helps, but you need only a capful. Also remember not to salt the water. Salt is the poached egg’s enemy — it will make the white break up and it won’t set. One of the secrets of keeping the white together and getting a nice runny yolk is to use very fresh farm eggs. When an egg is just laid, its albumen (the white of the egg) is at its most solid and thick.The other trick is to use very cold eggs, which helps to keep the whites together when they hit the boiling water — and use the deepest pot you have. That way the eggs will sink slowly and by the time they float up again the whites will have set. Have the water rolling rather than bubbling.
If you are poaching more than two eggs at once you may need to tweak up the water temperature a little. I prefer to break the egg above the water rather than into a cup first. You need to do this as close to the water as possible, so that the egg slides in and forms a teardrop shape.
However, if you are poaching a few at a time, it is easier to crack all the eggs into individual cups or pots before starting and drop them in one after the other, but not on top of each other. A good tip is to treat the saucepan like a clock, so that the first egg goes in at 12 o’clock, the next at 3 o’clock, then at 6 o’clock and so on. Two minutes in the simmering water and you will have great, soft eggs.
Q How can I stop my pastry from shrinking and cracking when I make tarts and quiches?

Yotam Ottolenghi
: A few crucial points will help with this. The pastry mustn’t be dry, as this tends to create cracks, so if it feels dry add some more water. When you make the pastry, and again when you roll it, you are stretching the gluten in the flour, so you need to let it rest, relax and shrink back to size after each stage. That way it does most of its shrinking before it goes in the oven.Once you have made your pasty dough, put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, then, once you have rolled it out and lined your quiche or tart case, put it back in the fridge, again for at least 30 minutes. Also, when you are rolling your pastry, keep turning it through 90 degrees: roll a bit, turn, roll a bit, turn, etc. That way you stretch the pastry in every direction, and if it does shrink in the oven at least it will do it evenly. To be on the safe side though, when you line your tart case, let the pastry overhang the tin by quite a few centimetres and leave it like that until it is baked. When it comes out of the oven you can trim off the edges.
Q How do you get soft, loose curds of scrambled eggs? Mine always end up dry and rubbery.

Q Why do my meringues end up like bullets and not chewy in the middle?

Sally Clarke:
You are probably cooking them for too long. Simply whisk three egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until stiff, and gradually whisk in 190g sugar little by little until the meringue is thick and glossy. Finally, whisk in a dash of vanilla extract, 2tsp cornflour and 1tsp white wine vinegar. Shape on silicone wax paper, either individually or spread into a thick disc for a “pavlova”. The cooking is the next tricky part – preheat the oven to 140C/gas 1 and bake for 40 minutes, or until crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. They should hardly colour at all.Q When I fry onions and garlic at the beginning of making a casserole they sometimes have a bitter taste. Why is this?

Richard Bertinet
: It sounds as though you have got your oil too hot before you put them in and you are over-browning them, instead of letting them cook gently so that their sweetness comes out. I suggest you put your oil, onions and garlic into a cold pan on the hob, then they will come up to temperature very slowly. Once they start to sizzle you can just keep them ticking over gently, stirring well, until they soften.Q How do you stop the fruit from sinking to the bottom of a fruit cake?

Mary Berry:
When fruit drops to the bottom it is because of one of three things: the mixture is too sloppy, the fruit is too wet or you have used the wrong fat. Usually you will have soaked your dried fruit in some sort of booze or juice, and you need to leave it until all the liquid has been taken up by the fruit. I leave mine for a couple of days, but if the fruit is old it can take longer. If you don’t have time to leave the fruit, drain off the liquid and pour it over the cake after it is baked. Whole glacé cherries are the most liable to sink, so halve or quarter them and wash and dry them before soaking.Q My godson is nearly 2 and still without a christening present from me. His wineloving parents are expexting the traditional godfather-godson present of vintage port, but is there a more imaginative alternative?

Jane MacQuitty
. There is. Buy your godson a 40 £ «share» in The Wine Society (01438741177), a non-profit making society founded in 1874, and have them lay down the first bottle in your godson{s cellar, a gorgeous and truly great vintage champagne, Bollinger´s ripe, beefy 2000 La Grande Année for £ 59. By the time your godson has come of age it will have evolved into a richer, nuttier, dreamy mouthful that illustrates the wonders of cellaring wine. A generous godfather could easily add an extra bottle or two to his godson´s cellar every year.Q Chardonnay send me to sleep, but sauvignon blanc is too grassy for my taste. What other perky white grape would you recommend?
A racy riesling, that´s what. Unfashinable and undervalued, riesling is a noble grape, arguably the finest white variety on the planet and much beloved by wine writers and merchants alike-but ignored by almost everyone else. Drinkers often dismiss riesling as cheap, sweat and nasty-liebfraumilch and laski rizling are to blame. It needn´t be so. If a low-alcohol, top- drawer, single-estate German riesling is a step too far, try one of the Aussies´finest offerings, a Clare Valley riesling such as the 2008 Knappstein Winery Riesling from the distinguished Watervale district, whose lively, tongue-tingling, floral lime zest and paraffin-spiked fruit is a treat.
Q We were given a fancy cut-glass decanter for Christmas but neither of us has a clue about decanting. Can you help us?
Decanting all white wines and the majority of red wines is a waste of time, though the latter will look beautiful in your glass gift. Air is the enemy of wine and decanting exposes it to air air unnecesarily, because the minute you pull the cork the deterioration and oxidation process starts. Venerable reds cad fade in seconds and even decade-old reds start to soften alarmingly swiftly, so decanter fans have to move fast and open these wines no more than half an hour before drinking. The only bottles that merit decanting are those grnad reds and vintage ports that throw a bitter, flaky sediment that muddies the taste. Dow´s blackberry and black pepper-spiced 1998 Quinta do Bomfim Vintage Port would be just for such a bottle.
FURTHER READING
Total Perfection by Heston Blumenthal (£14.99)
The Clatter of Forks and Spoons by Richard Corrigan (£25)
Angela Hartnett’s Cucina (£25)
Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape (£25)
Game: a Cookery Book by Tom Norrington-Davies (£25)
Jon Torode’s Chicken and Other Birds (£20)
Ottolenghi: The Cookbook by Yotan Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi (£25)
Leon: Ingredients and Recipes by Allegra McEvedy (£20)
Sally Clarke’s Book (£16.99)
Dough by Richard Bertinet (£15.99)
Mary Berry’s Baking Bible (£25)