Kitchen Essential

The central counter is without doubt the recent biggest improvement in kitchen design that has come into its own! Its recent ancestors are those centrally placed ‘working’ tables found in most large kitchens in England from the eighteenth century until the 1930s. Their scrubbed sycamore surfaces coped well with all types of food preparation, and in the smaller farmhouse kitchens the tables were used to eat at as well. By the 1950s with the development of factory-made built-in units we were all put to work on laminated plastic surfaces facing walls, which was anti-social and in planning terms dispersive. By placing a piece of furniture in the middle of a room, activity is drawn towards the centre. Continue Reading »

Without doubt the farmhouse kitchen is the strongest and best loved image of a kitchen. A possible description goes like this: ‘with views of rolling countryside through latticed windows, one appreciates a large inglenook fireplace, a plethora of blackened oak beams, a large open- racked dresser stuffed with china and homely ephemera, a well-worn flagstone floor, a comfortable armchair or two, a generous-sized food cupboard, a scrub-topped refectory table, and fragrant smells issuing from an Aga which announce that something wonderful is about to be served.’ Continue Reading »

The English have a long tradition of follies. Perhaps our love of eccentricity is partly responsible. The Gothic style is at its heart. It has had as many revivals as centuries and many disguises too, secular and ecclesiastical. In the nineteenth century there was a strong connection between privacy and Gothic. The newly rich industrialists built themselves mansions or pseudo castles fortified in the Gothic style. The phrase the Englishman’s house is his castle suggests the strong sense of security derived from Gothic, since that is how castles are perceived in our imagination. Continue Reading »

Eating outside is one of the great pleasures of life. A simple lunch achieves cordon bleu status if served in the fresh air, and there is no more enjoyable way of passing a summer evening than a leisurely dinner outdoors.

Even in a small garden it is worth setting aside an area for a table and chairs. Ideally your spot should be sheltered from the wind; it should catch the winter sun, but offer shade in the hot months. No, you can’t change the course of the sun, but you can grow deciduous plants that let warm rays through in winter and cast dappled shadows in summer. Continue Reading »

TOPS

The requirements of a worktop are that it should be tough enough to cope with all sorts of attack, yet sufficiently good-looking to be a design element in the kitchen.

The worktop is probably the most hardworking part of the whole kitchen; over the years it has to stand up to all sorts of abuse from knives, hot saucepans, water, kitchen chemicals and certain foods.

Some materials wear better than others or are relatively easy to repair; think about these things when you’re deciding what to use for your worktop. You should also consider what maintenance will be required, and how often; whether splashback edges and corners can be well sealed; if you have a long worktop, how many joints there will be; and then, look at the relative prices of the different materials. These are the practical considerations — after that it’s a matter of making your decision purely on aesthetic grounds. Continue Reading »

Is it a space station, is it a laboratory — no, it’s a kitchen, an ultra-modern one. Here you’ll find the best of everything, the very latest technology. No room here for comfortable clutter — everything’s hidden from view, or displayed purely for its functional qualities. Small appliances sit in purpose- built cabinets, always close at hand — the message here is efficiency, speed and streamlining. Continue Reading »

With all of its pots, pans, bags of groceries and delicious comforting aromas, the kitchen is the heart of the home. But it does have a dual role to play: it has to be efficient yet comfortable and inviting.

Planning a kitchen may seem daunting at first, but most of the important decisions will be common-sense ones. Then you can spend time on the fun things like colour schemes and the overall ‘look’. Continue Reading »

If you take a look around your well-equipped kitchen at home, with its plumbed-in sink, its spacious oven, its four-ring hob, its refrigerator, dishwasher, electric food-mixer and so on, it is fairly clear that no portable camp kitchen is likely to match up to it for sheer convenience and labour-saving efficiency. It follows, therefore, that when you go camping you should not expect to cook and eat as elaborately as at home. Continue Reading »

There’s nothing better than getting home after a hard day’s work (or any day of work) and pouring yourself a drink.

If you’re going to stock a bar at home, or more realistically a kitchen cupboard, cover your bases by buying the six main types of spirits.

BRANDY

More brandy is consumed locally than any other spirits. Generally acceptable mixes are Coke, soda water, water or orange juice. Continue Reading »

Isn’t it interesting how the truly basic basics of cooking, like how to boil an egg that’s just right or cooking a perfect pot of rice, are ironically the last things we master? What we know (as with everything else), we’ve learnt the hard way. Allow us to make yours a smoother ride. If you start by getting the basics into the kitchen, mastering the cooking basics will just be so much easier.

Cooking (without waves)

If you know how to cook eggs, a pot of rice, pasta and veggies, you will survive. If you can do a decent braai, you may even thrive. So read on and see if you can master the basics. Continue Reading »

We are all faced with situations where we need to save face, join the party, be the party or simply leave the party. The trick is to know when to do what. Read the etiquette section for tips on when not to be late (ever, according to our publisher!) and more about formal table settings to know which fork to stick in what and not be completely flustered by the mere sight of it. The wine section will help you fake it with the best of them. Then we give you the cocktail recipes for fun, hangover cures for necessity and cigars for style. Continue Reading »

Eat your vegetables! This little sentence was drummed into all our heads when we least wanted to hear it. But as the universe is strange, when you move from your mother’s home you suddenly start eating vegetables by choice and you may even become a vegetarian! Most veggies are really easy to prepare, and depending on how you prepare them, they are healthy.

Steaming Vegetables

It is almost always better to steam your vegetables as it is the healthiest method for the tastiest vegetables (you taste the vegetable instead of what’s been added to it). Now if you own a microwave there should be no reason for you to ever steam, boil or cook vegetables on the stove. Most vegetables are quickly and easily cooked in the microwave. Consult your manual — it probably has a very useful table giving you preparation and timing details. Continue Reading »

A modern miracle, the microwave’s potential is hardly ever met in the mere mortal’s kitchen. It stands in the corner forlornly hoping its owners will use it for more than pizza leftover warm-ups. As we are also maniacal reheaters, we went in search of the holy grail — or in this case the Best Kept Microwave Secrets.

In many instances the general reluctance to make the most of your microwave oven may well stem from a secret fear that it will blow up and take you and your home along with it. So let’s start with some golden rules: Continue Reading »

A buffet meal is ideal for occasions where there is to be a large number of guests such as christenings, weddings and similar gatherings. It may also suit a smaller gathering such as an informal supper with friends after the theatre or an evening at home where a dinner around the table might be more formal than you want to make it.

When planning the table arrangements and flowers or other decorations, think carefully about a colour scheme or theme to suit the occasion. For example, if the meal you are planning is to celebrate a silver wedding, choose white flowers with silvery foliage, silver candles or white candles in silver candlesticks and trimmings of furled silver ribbons. Silver serving dishes and silver cutlery will help to set the scene and if you don’t have these yourself, you can hire, or possibly borrow them. If the occasion is a christening, you will probably choose pink or blue as the predominant colour, and flowers should be delicate and unfussy.

The next most important decision is where to place the table. Continue Reading »

The best method of caring for all cutlery, whatever it is made from, is to wash and dry immediately after use. In this way all food residues are removed before staining can occur. No cutlery is totally stain-resistant, so do not leave it unwashed, wet or `in soak’ overnight — even in a dish washer. First rinse under cold running water to remove any traces of salt; salt plus hot water can cause staining and pitting. Next wash in clean, warm, soapy water, rinse and dry thoroughly. Use soft dish pads or cloths and tea towels, and never add bleach to the water. Handle each piece separately; cutlery cluttered in a bowl may get scratched. When drying, knife blades (nowadays usually made from stainless steel) should not be wiped with an up-and-down movement, but in one direction only from neck to point until all the moisture is removed. This method is best for spoons and forks too. Continue Reading »

Strong and weak brines

My own preference is for a fairly strong brine (80 - 90%) in which the fish, fowl or flesh is left for a matter of hours rather than days, but there is an alternative method, involving the use of weaker brines, plus sugar and in some cases other ingredients. The material is left in these weaker brines often for a period of several days, and though it is not usual to brine fish in this manner, the method has a definite place in the curing of certain meats and fowl which, owing to their age or species, are likely to be very tough.

Salt has a hardening effect upon the muscular tissue of mammalian and avian flesh, but sugar tenderizes, so a tough bird such an aged goose, pheasant or turkey could benefit from treatment in sugar-added brine. Continue Reading »

As I have already mentioned, the addition of salt to the raw material is an essential part of the smoke curing process. The product is either completely covered in dry salt for a period, or soaked in brine of varying strengths according to what is being processed.

Dry salting is favoured by the commercial fish smoking concerns, particularly in the case of salmon, as the dry salt attracts moisture from the tissues of the fish, causing a weight loss of up to 9% during this part of the process. It follows, therefore, that the time the fish will need in the smoking kiln will be much reduced, as about half the weight loss required in the finished product will already have taken place. So the whole process can be speeded up, and of course in any commercial enterprise time means money. To home smokers, speeding the process is not important, as in any case they will be conducting the operation partly as a hobby. I have no hesitation, therefore, in recommending the use of brine as opposed to dry salt (but see ‘Dry Salting and other methods’). Continue Reading »

Fish

There is a completely erroneous belief in some quarters that stale fish can be used for smoking, as the smoking process will impart its own flavour to the fish and thus mask any defects in quality. Certainly it is just possible to ’save the life’ of stale fish approaching putrefaction, by smoking, so that it is just edible; but, at the best, only a very inferior product both in keeping quality and flavour can result.

Fish which is to be smoked must be completely fresh to obtain the best results, although this is a good point at which to dispel the belief that frozen goods are not suitable for smoking. This is completely untrue. All deep frozen fish, game, meat and poultry can be employed, and first-class results obtained. Continue Reading »

I have already remarked that, owing to modern refrigeration techniques, it is no longer necessary to smoke food as a means of preservation. Many smoked foods will keep at least 3 weeks under ordinary refrigeration, and most will retain their quality for some months when deep frozen, if protected adequately against ‘freezer burn’. Ordinary polythene wrapping offers no such protection but aluminium foil does and, oddly enough, so does brown paper. When food is wrapped in aluminium baking foil, the foil should be squeezed around the object so that it becomes moulded to fit the contours of the food which is to be frozen. Offering better protection still is a heavy duty opaque polythene wrapping which is used in conjunction with a vacuum packing technique in modern poultry producing establishments. The majority of such establishments will, at a small cost, vacuum pack smoked fowl, from quail to turkeys and various smoked meats, from the home smoker. Continue Reading »