Good cooking starts with good basics recipes: stocks, sauces and other preparations that form the cornerstone of delicious dishes. Take the time to master these and your cooking will go from good to great.
Sambal Goreng (Fried Chilli Paste) https://youtu.be/IHdQF4za4nw I love having good condiments on hand to add flavour to quick and easy meals. In Southeast Asia that’s often a sambal, and sambal goreng is one of the easiest and tastiest. Sambal means ‘chilli’ and goreng means ‘fried’ and I use this fried chilli paste in mee goreng […]
Nyonya Curry Paste My Singaporean friend, Audra Morrice, taught me to make this classic Nyonya curry paste. She explained that it can be tricky making curry pastes in a smaller quantity than this, so it’s best to make the full amount then, if you don’t need it all, freeze half for a quick meal later. […]
How To Toast Shrimp Paste Fermented shrimp paste is used widely throughout Southeast Asia to add depth and savouriness to dishes. It’s called belacan in Malay, terasi in Indonesian, and gapi in Thai; there are minor variations between the different preparations so it’s best to use a shrimp paste native to the cuisine you’re cooking. […]
How to Make Tamarind Liquid Tamarind adds a deliciously tangy note to many Asian dishes. To make a thick sweet-sour tamarind liquid for use in any recipe, combine 1 part tamarind pulp with 1.6 parts warm water and set aside for 10 minutes or so then knead it to extract the pulp from the seeds. […]
How To Make Crepes Whether you’re wrapping them around a savoury filling or making a dessert like crêpes Suzette, the aim with crêpes is to get them as thin as possible. This comes with practice and a good pan. Start with a heavy based, low-sided frying pan reserved just for crêpes and pancakes. Clean it […]
How To Make Nuoc Mam Cham Fish sauce is the essential condiment in Vietnamese cooking, as salt and pepper are in the west. A bottle sits on the table at every meal and at its simplest it’s poured straight from that bottle. A little chopped chilli is typically served alongside and it’s often blended with […]
Laksa Paste Laksa paste is the soul of any laksa, get this right and everything else is just assembly. The turmeric, ginger and galangal provide much of the flavour, peel them gently with a small knife rather than a vegetable peeler so you don’t lose too much flesh. The belacan (Malaysian shrimp paste) is best […]
Mushroom Duxelles Duxelles is a classic French preparation of finely chopped mushroom and onion cooked down in butter with herbs (usually thyme or parsley), black pepper and salt, sometimes with a dash of cream, Sherry or Madeira. It’s used in a range of English recipes including stuffings, sauces and garnishes and, most notably, in beef […]
Potato Gnocchi I love potato gnocchi and when I asked restaurateur Lucio Galletto if they’re popular in Liguria he replied “On special occasions, we say: ‘Come home Mamma’s making gnocchi.’” Potato gnocchi are so versatile, they’re delicious dressed with just about any pasta sauce including pesto, easy gnocchi Sorrentina from the Amalfi coast, or the […]
Salade Verte – How To Dress A Green Salad A simple green salad (salade verte in French) is the ideal accompaniment to so many dishes, whether it’s made from just one type of leaf or a mixture of several. It may be simple, but it deserves the same respect as the rest of the meal […]
