Claire
Master Chef
This subject comes up periodically, and I'm bringing it up again because it happened this afternoon. What do you do to solve a problem that comes up and you have guests waiting for dinner? In this case, I was the guest, and a Pakistani friend was making us lunch. Actually he'd made the food the night before, and was re-heating it. His potato/cauliflower/pea dish was quite thick and was burning. He rather panicked. Hubby told me to go help (I was staying out of the way, I made the salads). I grabbed the pot, found the nearest available bowl, and tossed the food into the bowl. Immediately filled the pot with water.
The hint is this: when re-heating a thick dish, the microwave is king. If you have to reheat it on the stove, low and slow. BUT if it burns (and this means virtually anything), you immediately toss it into a different bowl or pot, and immediately fill the offending pot with water. DO NOT scrape the bottom of the pot. You want to have the smell go away (hence filling the burnt pot with water), and you don't want the food that is still good to have that burnt flavor (hence tossing it into a separate pot or bowl immediately). I rescued the dish, and it was delicious. The man could cook wonderfully, but wasn't up to cooking in a strange kitchen, and didn't know how to rescue a failure-in-the-making. At risk of sounding sexist, in my life (note that disclaimer), men tend to assume success (in all their endeavors) and sometimes simply cannot deal with failure.
What is your best way to snatch victory when your food is going south?
The hint is this: when re-heating a thick dish, the microwave is king. If you have to reheat it on the stove, low and slow. BUT if it burns (and this means virtually anything), you immediately toss it into a different bowl or pot, and immediately fill the offending pot with water. DO NOT scrape the bottom of the pot. You want to have the smell go away (hence filling the burnt pot with water), and you don't want the food that is still good to have that burnt flavor (hence tossing it into a separate pot or bowl immediately). I rescued the dish, and it was delicious. The man could cook wonderfully, but wasn't up to cooking in a strange kitchen, and didn't know how to rescue a failure-in-the-making. At risk of sounding sexist, in my life (note that disclaimer), men tend to assume success (in all their endeavors) and sometimes simply cannot deal with failure.
What is your best way to snatch victory when your food is going south?