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<\/p>\nSeasoning and flavour are so often overlooked in recipes, but they are such a vital part of cooking – especially if you’re dealing with fussy eaters. But how are you meant to know if no one has shown you? There is nothing more frustrating than trying a recipe then it ending up tasting a bit flat, even thought you\u2019ve followed the instructions to the letter.<\/p>\n
One of the things I teach my students is that recipe writers have different taste buds and preferences to their readers. Many also assume a lot of knowledge of techniques or have a limited space for their words on a page, so they overlook the detail of how to actually make the food taste good. So you\u2019ll only make food taste amazing if you learn how to tailor it to suit what you like. It really is easy when you get into the habit of thinking about how you taste and what you can add to make your cooking taste amazing.<\/p>\n
Follow my 10 tips and you\u2019ll get the confidence and understanding of how to transform your food every time you cook.<\/p>\n
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Most people don\u2019t know what they\u2019re tasting for. So once they taste, if it feels a bit flat they add more salt. Sound familiar?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the science bit\u2026 If all the flavour sensing areas of your mouth are stimulated, your food will taste delicious and balanced. If one area isn\u2019t stimulated your food can taste overly sweet, salty, fatty or just bland.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019m going to ask you to get into the habit of always tasting your food before you serve it. Then of thinking through the flavours and adjusting them. Before long you\u2019ll do it without thinking.<\/p>\n
Think of a plain French fry. A bit dull right? Add salt and we\u2019re getting somewhere, add vinegar and it gets exciting. Dunk that seasoned fry in some ketchup and you\u2019ve checked off all the flavours that we can taste and you can\u2019t stop eating \u2013 You\u2019ve combined fat, salt, sour (from the vinegar,) sweet and umami (from the ketchup).<\/p>\n
It is all about balancing. Taste your cooking and tinker with the seasonings before you serve \u2013 a sprinkle of Parmesan adds a savouriness to a bowl of tomato pasta. Soy sauce adds savoury saltiness to noodles.<\/p>\n
Now salt. Try tasting tomatoes, potatoes or cucumber, with and without a pinch of sea salt and tell me what you think. Take it a step further, try a square of chocolate or a ball of chocolate ice cream with a sprinkle of sea salt flakes and see how much more balanced the flavour is. That\u2019s the reason we put salt in baking \u2013 to balance out the sugar. But I know salt is the thing that everyone gets nervous about so read\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0to put yourself at ease.<\/p>\n By acid I mean vinegar, lime or lemon juice or even a splash of wine. Freshness at the end of a dish lifts all the other flavours and dumbs down any fattiness or heaviness. Most of us are used to seeing a wedge of lemon next to fish, but I can\u2019t think of any food where a hit of acid brightness isn\u2019t transforming.<\/p>\n I find that acid is the thing that transforms vegetables from a battle ground to something people will gobble up. Try adding a splash of lemon juice to greens along with a little bit of butter and salt and you\u2019ll see how much more delicious it will be. A squeeze of lime on a curry or a taco or a squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar on a stew or piece of meat brightens everything up.<\/p>\n Next time you make spaghetti Bolognese, add a splash of red wine or red wine vinegar just before serving. Stir and taste the difference. See? Add lime juice to a chilli<\/a> or a curry. Add a squeeze of lemon to a mushroom risotto. Drizzle vinegar on top of roasted vegetables. You\u2019ll see that all my recipes<\/a> have a final hit of acid. Before long you\u2019ll be adding acid at the end of all your cooking and wondering why you never did it before.<\/p>\n The way you taste food isn\u2019t limited to the flavours you add. The texture of what you eat is equally important. Make sure that your meal contains a variety of textures – crunchy, crisp, soft, oozy. And force yourself to eat the various textures together by layering up your meal in a bowl rather than eating it separately.<\/p>\n Top meals with something crunchy \u2013 fragrant and crunchy dukkah<\/a>, croutons, toasted seeds or nuts, roasted and spiced chickpeas<\/a>.<\/p>\n Drizzle something creamy like yoghurt or houmus on top of things, or use oozy mashed potato, pureed cauliflower<\/a> or polenta<\/a> as a base for a meal.<\/p>\n Add some crisp raw vegetables to a meal. A crunchy homemade slaw<\/a> alongside chilli<\/a>. Or some pickled crunchy vegetables<\/a> or grated carrot on top of a houmus stuffed jacket potato.<\/p>\n Make your own dressings (my top 5 recipes are here).<\/a> Homemade dressings are fast to make, much lower in sugar, salt and weird additives and taste tons much better. Keep them in the fridge and start adding them as a finishing touch to soups, stews and vegetables as a brilliant way to quickly flavour balance.<\/p>\n Meat cooked in a pan that isn\u2019t hot enough, or is moved around too much will never get chance to brown. Be brave and remember heat + time = colour = flavour.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t feel that by continually stirring meat as it cooks you will stop it from sticking. Sticking isn\u2019t that bad \u2013 I\u2019d rather have meat that sticks a little but then goes golden brown than grey meat that doesn\u2019t stick. A drop of liquid at the end of cooking will pull up any bits that stick anyway. This applies to pieces of chicken for a curry, minced meat or bigger pieces of meat for a stew.<\/p>\n I have a special hands-off way of getting maximum colour and flavour into minced meat. Watch my Thai basil stir fry<\/a> video to see how.<\/p>\n As with flavour and texture. Mixing up temperatures makes your food taste interesting and delicious.<\/p>\n Drizzle yoghurt onto a curry as you serve it. Have cool salsa with a hot stew or with my one pan sausage and butternut squash bake<\/a>. Try my frozen berries with hot white chocolate sauce<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve cooked your meat, leave it to sit and rest for 10-20 minutes, loosely wrapped in foil. Bigger pieces need a longer resting time. This resting gives the fibers in the meat time to relax after the intense heat of the pan (when they contract and toughen up in response to the heat). Resting means the juices spread themselves evenly throughout the meat, so you are left with more tender, juicy meat when you come to eat it.<\/p>\n Most of us know to rest a whole turkey or chicken but all meat needs time to rest. This resting time is also a great time to have a quick tidy up so that the post-dinner clean up is less of a hassle.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re buying lemon or lime to add to a recipe, always add the zest. Even if the recipe doesn\u2019t tell you to. Adding the zest adds a ton of flavour but doesn\u2019t affect the texture of a dish in the way adding more juice would. And it is such a waste to throw away all that flavour!<\/p>\n When you\u2019re zesting just do a single swipe of the citrus skin on your zester before turning the fruit and moving to the next patch of skin. The white layer under the coloured zest gets very bitter so you don\u2019t want to add that. I am obsessed with my Microplane zester and take it on holiday with me such is my need for zest (you can buy one in my shop<\/a>)<\/p>\n I love to add homemade pesto<\/a> or my famous green sauce<\/a> at end of my cooking for a final hit of freshness. Both are delicious with roast chicken, wilted greens and mashed potato.<\/p>\n2. Acid \u2013 always finish with acid<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nTry it<\/h3>\n
3. Mix up your textures<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nTry it<\/h3>\n
4. Don\u2019t limit dressings to salads<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\n5. Be brave when you\u2019re browning<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\n6. Mix up your temperatures<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nTry it<\/h3>\n
7. Let your meat rest<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\n8. Use the zest as well as the juice<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\n9. Freshness from herbs<\/h3>\n
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