Tips

Tips to Help You Handle “Kitchen Mishaps” (Part 1)

Dealing with salty, soggy, lumpy, or tough food is a common struggle for home cooks. However, there are some secrets that can help you overcome these mishaps in your cooking process.

Administrator

17 October, 2023

244

1. The dish is too salty

Cause: You used too much salt and didn’t taste the food while cooking.

Solution: If your soup or stew is too salty, you can add more water to the dish. Foods containing acids like lemon, vinegar… will also help reduce the salty taste. To avoid this situation, taste the food before adding salt, especially when using ingredients that contain a lot of salt like canned soup, canned tomatoes, olive oil, smoked ham…

2. The meat is overcooked and tough

Cause: You cooked the meat for too long or used too high cooking temperature.

Solution: The best way to “fix” overcooked meat is to shred it and mix it evenly with the dish or use this shredded meat to cook a soup in the ragu style.

To prevent the meat from being overcooked, you need to pay attention to cutting the meat to fit the dish and cooking method. For example, ribs should be grilled with high heat until they are medium cooked, then cut into slices. If the braised meat is tough, you need to simmer it longer with low heat for several hours, until the meat is tender.

3. Sticky rice

Cause: You added too much water.

Solution: Set aside this sticky rice for other dishes. Ideally, spread the rice evenly on a flat surface like a silver sheet, then put the rice in the refrigerator. The grains of rice will become firm and stick together. The next day, you can use this rice to cook porridge for breakfast or make fried rice.

There is a simple trick to help you fix this situation, that is the “finger burning principle”: the amount of water on the surface of the rice should not exceed one finger burning point”, which is about 2cm.

4. Stir-fried or deep-fried dishes with too much oil or not crispy

Cause: The oil is not hot enough or you used a small pan.

Solution: Except for the case of liking soft or oily dishes, you have no choice but to “give up” the food. However, for stir-fried vegetables, you can toss them again after the oil is hot. If the oil is too cool, the food will absorb a lot of oil. Therefore, before adding the ingredients to the pan, you need to check the temperature of the oil.

5. Burnt food

Cause: The temperature is too high or you cooked the food for too long.

Solution: You can cover the pot or pan containing the burnt food with a wet towel until the towel completely cools. This is the secret to remove the smell of smoke and burnt from the food.

To avoid burnt food, you should follow these 3 principles after cooking:

1. Check the temperature and cooking time carefully.

2. Always keep an eye on the cooking food.

3. Choose pots or pans with good quality and heat resistance.