Secrets and Shortcuts: flavour friendships in braises

I just picked up another tip on braising from Michael Smith's Chef at Home show.

The secret to a great braise is to first brown your meat, then add a trio of chopped onion, celery and carrot to build a neutral flavour base. You can further personalize with another threesome of your favourite flavours that go together well.

Michael, for example, braised his lamb shanks with chopped apples, cinnamon sticks and brown sugar, three flavours that go together naturally, as he puts it :)

At the end of the braising period, add those same ingredients again in fresh form. But this time, instead of using a large dice, chop them finely. You just want them to heat through, but still be crisp enough to lend texture and taste fresh.

Michael also suggested some other flavour combinations that go well together in braises:
* orange juice and rosemary
* pineapple, rum and brown sugar

The celebrity chefs are always dropping hints about which ingredients are best friends. I'll blog about more flavour friendships soon so that we can all know which combinations make for happy tastebuds :)

Secrets and Shortcuts: Salads 3.0

Iceberg lettuce? Romaine? Dullsville. Bags of designer lettuce? Expensive. Short-lived. I was watching Jamie at Home today, and he inspired me with some sage advice about salads.

Basically, save all those boring varieties for the rabbits, or skeet-shooting if you are Jamie Oliver, and get yourself five or six interesting salad greens, such as:

• endive
• arugula (rocket)
• watercress
• red-leaf lettuce
• green-leaf lettuce
• baby spinach
• radicchio (Italian chicory)

You can also use fresh herbs as salad leaves if you keep the leaves whole instead of chopping them. Some herbs that work well this way are:

• mint
• tarragon (goes well with arugula)
  
• basil
• parsley

When you get them home, wash them in the sink in cold water, and then spin dry in a salad spinner filled halfway each time. Tuck the leaves gently in a giant, tea-towel-lined tupperware container, and store them in the fridge where they'll last for about four days.

Stay tuned for some nice salad and dressing ideas using these ingredients, coming soon!

Secrets and Shortcuts: Braising

I am a great collector of helpful tips and sage advice when it comes to cooking and food preparation. My friends, family and favourite Food Channel chefs often share such valuable tidbits.

So, to document all of this great cooking lore, I've just created another new occasional feature on beFOODled, called Secrets and Shortcuts. Stay tuned for many more coming soon :)

Secrets and Shortcuts: Braising
Braising means to cook slowly in a small amount of liquid, so if you are cooking vegetables in a braised dish, be sure to cut up them up into biggish chunks, like quarters or a large dice, so that they don't lose all of their nutrients and flavours throughout the long cooking time.