Today it’s a fun one. We’re going to talk about what we can learn from Masterchef. I’m sure you all know the show Masterchef. There’s Masterchef USA, there’s Masterchef Australia, and others. We mainly watch Masterchef USA and Masterchef Junior. It’s always so inspiring to me even what the young kids can cook, and how elegantly they do it and how much variety there is. They seem to know how to cook all these obscure ingredients that I have never tried to eat before, let alone cook. But it’s very exciting and inspiring. So, I thought I would mention, just for fun, 10 things that I’ve learnt from watching Masterchef.
So, the first one is something that I had never thought of before, but can kijund of be intuitive, or you can completely forget about it, as they often do on Masterchef. And that is to always taste your food. Taste as you go, season it, taste it at the end. Taste all the elements individually, like if you’re making a lasagna then taste the bolognese, taste the cheese sauce or the white sauce or the ricotta. You can’t exactly taste the pasta, but just taste as many elements of a dish as you can before you put it together, and definitely taste at the end of cooking each thing.
I often find with something like bolognese that it’s really good to taste and adjust because there’s such a variety of flavor that it can have. Cooking it longer gives it a deeper flavor. Adding various little bits of seasoning helps, adding garlic at the end helps, and adding herbs like basil really ups the flavor.
Adding something like lemon zest to a dish is amazing, like to a soup or a chowder, adding grated lemon zest makes it delicious. You can really taste the difference.
Sometimes you can also start to realize what a dish is missing. Like maybe your child is cooking, and they’re missing some sour cream, and then when you add that it gives the fullness of flavor that you’re looking for. So, always taste as you go, and then adjust the dish by adding various things: herbs, spices, salt, pepper, creams or sour creams – anything helps. There’s also certain things that you would add while you’re cooking, because they still need to be cooked through, and then some you can add at the end. So, usually herbs you can add at the end, and things like sour cream and milk you can add at the end, but it’s better to cook in things like spices and garlic, to add those a bit earlier so they can still cook for longer. Otherwise, they can be a bit strong and overwhelming.
Along the same lines is to make sure that your food is seasoned well. One of the things that always seems to trip people up on Masterchef is not seasoning their food properly, whether it’s the fish, the potato, the side dish, or the main dish. If they haven’t seasoned it well, the judges always mention that. So, make sure it’s not too bland, make sure that there’s good flavor. You have to be discerning to know what kind of flavor. Like I was saying before, adding salt is sometimes good but not always necessary. Adding pepper is great, sometimes you need garlic, sometimes you need herbs. Something that really helps is lemon or citrus. Like I mentioned, the zest of the lemon is great to enhance your chowder, but squeezing lemon over fish or over chicken also adds a lot of flavor. So, once you’ve tasted your food, you need to decide what you’re going to do to make sure that the flavor is there. I really would say that’s one of the most important things when making food.
The kind of seasonings you could have on hand, the ones that I use other than salt and pepper, are onion powder, and sometimes I use garlic powder, but I prefer to use fresh garlic – it gives a fuller flavor. Then the spices are smoked paprika, regular paprika, and nutmeg, which is great with mushrooms. I like to use a herb mix, but usually it’s nice to have Italian herbs separate from the others – things like basil and thyme would be separate from rosemary. I would use cumin in things like chickpeas, hummus, or vegetable dishes. Cinnamon is great with carrots or butternut, and also great for lowering your blood sugar. You can use it in oats porridge. We use it in the high protein pancake mix. I always add rosemary and thyme to lamb dishes, and thyme to any fish dish. And I try to add basil to bolognese; fresh basil is always great. Oregano is lovely, obviously you’d use that on pizza.
So, find the herbs and spices that you love. I love seeing Jamie Oliver’s videos where he has his little herb garden in the kitchen with all these fresh herbs growing that he goes to cut off. I never managed to keep that many herbs alive, but sometimes we just buy fresh herbs from the grocery store. Maybe some of you actually have a herb garden, that’s amazing!
Point number three: when you’re cooking meat in a pan, it’s very important to have good color on the meat. So, no color, no flavor. I definitely see that a lot in masterchef. Whether they’re doing a steak, or whether you’re browning meat like a leg of lamb to go in the crock pot, it’s so important to start it off with a piping hot pan.
Now, often when I put fat in the pan while it’s still warming up, it starts to spit and to burn. Even coconut oil that’s got a high smoke point can burn very easily, so I like to let the pan get hot with nothing in it. Especially if it’s a stainless steel pan, you don’t need to put anything in until it’s nice and hot. Then I turn it off, I add the oil, and let it melt. Then I only turn it on again when I’m actually putting the meat in. I do the same in the instant pot when we’re browning short ribs or lamb stew. It helps to just heat it up and then put a little bit of oil in at the end. Getting nice color on the meat adds so much to the flavor; it gives you that wonderful rich flavor.
So, then when you’re browning in a pan or in the instant pot, you need to scrape that color off the bottom. For that we use a deglazing liquid like red wine. You pour that in on the brown that’s left in the pan, and scrape it into the crock pot. That adds to the flavor of the sauce or the gravy. So, make sure to brown your meat well, to give it a good color, and then to deglaze and use that flavor in the dish. That’s something I’ve learned from Masterchef.
Number four of the things we can learn about cooking from Masterchef is to always let your meat rest after cooking and before eating. I find this fascinating and I didn’t really know much about it before watching Masterchef. But whether you have a steak, a lamb, or a turkey, it’s so amazing when you let it rest.
Now, you don’t want it to get cold, and certain things are best eaten quite soon after cooking, like fish. But pieces of red meat generally work well if you let them rest, and then they reabsorb the juices. You don’t cut them before letting them rest because then the juices leak out. You want to just let it rest. Cook the whole piece in the oven or in the pan, and then let it rest on a plate for about 10 minutes after it’s cooked before you eat it. So, this would apply to any kind of steak really, especially to steak, and then things like a big joint of meat as I mentioned. That time really helps to make the meat more tender, to make it moist inside, and to really settle its flavor before you eat it and enjoy it.
Number five: learn your French sauces. I’m always fascinated by all the sauces they make in Masterchef that I’ve never really heard of. I’ve heard of a couple, but not most of them. It’s amazing how a simple sauce can really elevate a dish, as they say in Masterchef. It can really make it taste so good, and just add that edge, especially if it’s something that’s a little boring on its own, like a piece of chicken or fish. A sauce adds so much. So, here are five French sauces that are good to learn.
So, Hollandaise is one I’m sure that you’ve heard of. It’s more common than many others, and it’s often used on the poached eggs for breakfast in the eggs Benedict dish. It’s basically egg yolks and butter with a bit of lemon juice. That’s a really easy one to make.
Then, there’s Bechamel, which is like a cheese sauce without the cheese. It’s very, very good. You can flavor it with salt. Traditionally it’s made with milk or cream and a roux. So, you start with the thickener, which can be flour or potato starch or something like that. Then you add the milk, but then unlike cheese sauce, you don’t add cheese. Sometimes I like to make a bechamel with a bit of a cheesy flavor by adding some very finely grated Parmesan cheese, and it gives it a nice flavor. This sauce would be great on a fish dish or in a lasagna.
Then there’s the Velouté, which is made with a roux as well, flour and butter, and then by adding beef stock, or some other kind of brown stock, but it’s traditionally beef. Sometimes it’s lamb, as that gives it a nice meaty flavor like a gravy that you can add to your meat
Then the Bordelaise sauce. This is basically a reduced red wine, and it can go brilliantly with beef or with any red meat. So, you would take the wine, and then something like shallots, and some herbs, and then you bring it to the boil. You reduce it by half, and then you add beef stock and bring it up to the boil again. That’s really delicious too.
There are many different kinds of sauces and derivatives of French sauces, but the other one I wanted to mention is the Espagnole, a brown sauce. So, for that one, you would cook up some good flavored vegetables like carrots and onions. Then add thyme, then something like bacon, then you deglaze it with a white wine, and then you add tomatoes. It’s finished with the wine as well. This is delicious to add to soups, stews, or risotto. Knowing these sauces can really just enhance your meal so much.
So this leads to the next point, in which Masterchef teaches us that you shouldn’t have too much on the plate. The food shouldn’t be too complex or have things that don’t go together well. So, something simple like a wonderful piece of meat, and something underneath the meat like a puree, maybe a vegetable on the side and then an amazing sauce over the top should do it. The sauces enhance your meal so much without making it too complicated.
I sometimes like to serve a piece of filet or rump steak that I’ve cooked with a little mushroom cream sauce. So, for that one, all I do is cook up some mushrooms. I put a lid over the pan for a little bit so they continue to steam, and then I pour in some cream, a little nutmeg, and some salt. Then sometimes I’ll add a little thickener like potato starch, though sometimes it’s not necessary. If your cream is quite thick and it reduces fast, then you don’t even need that. This sauce is amazing. You just pour the mushrooms with the cream sauce over the steak, and it gives such a good flavor, and it’s so simple. Then maybe I would serve a little bit of sweet potato mash on the side and that’s it.
Or you could do some nice white fish with hollandaise sauce, and then perhaps some broccoli on the side, and that’s all we need. It’s really simple. It’s delicious, fresh ingredients, and it’s so tasty. It really helps the main element to shine when you don’t have too many different elements. but just the one really good one.
Then point number seven of what we can learn from masterchef. This one relates to sauces as well, but to other things too, and that is to make sure that you cook things through, or if you’re cooking alcohol, make sure you cook the alcohol out. So, if you’re using red wine or white wine, you need to make sure that you cook it in the pan for a few minutes, or even flambé it if you fancy, to get rid of that alcohol, but so that the flavor remains. If I’m doing a leg of lamb in the crock pot, and I start by browning it in a pan after I’ve browned the onions, then I’ll deglaze with a little bit of red wine – you don’t even need half a cup – and then immediately, as you add it to the hot pan, the alcohol cooks out, and then you can add it to your crockpot with the lamb.
The same goes for the sauces that we’ve talked about. You need to cook it long enough to make sure the alcohol is cooked out, but the flavor is left behind. The same goes for things like cooking with tomato sauces and purees, like in a bolognese. The longer you cook it, the more the flavor develops. The sharp tomato taste is cooked down, and it tastes really good and rich and full. The same goes for something like a stew and even something like a risotto. You really need to make sure that the flavor is there by cooking it long enough.
Point number eight is the way your food looks is important. Presentation, plating, as they say on MasterChef, affects how people perceive your food, how good it looks, and even how it tastes.
Fresh food is amazing. So, put something fresh and green on there, but not just dumping a whole lot of lettuce, but rather something subtle like a little bit of basil pesto or a piece of long stemmed broccoli. Put something that’s vibrant looking and colorful, sometimes a piece of tomato or fruit – something that contrasts with the gray color of the meat. You don’t want it to look gray, but to look inviting and vibrant and fresh.
Number nine: don’t be afraid to try new things. Don’t be afraid to cook new things, to try new recipes, and to try new meats. I was always very intimidated by big pieces of meat, but with the tools we have today, like the instant pot, the slow cooker, and the crockpot, it’s so much easier to cook meat than it used to be for our moms and grandmothers, who did it in the oven. For me, it’s really great to be able to just stick a piece of meat in the crock pot, and try one that I haven’t tried before.
I’d never done pork shoulder before, and then that worked great in the crock pot very slowly overnight. And I’d never done a piece of brisket. When I tried it in the crock pot, it didn’t work so well; it was still tough. Then I found the instant pot was perfect for that.
Trying new things, going on YouTube, searching for a sauce video, or one about a piece of meat, and copying it is really rewarding. Or you can look through your favorite recipe books and try something you’ve never tried before. Perhaps something that’s rolled in phyllo pastry, or perhaps a vegetable dish by Jamie Oliver. Those can be really amazing. I’m not a fan of vegetable only dishes, because they can be quite bland, but he makes them amazing; he has such amazing combinations of ideas. So, no risk, no reward. Just enjoy those new recipes.
Then lastly, point number ten of what we can learn from MasterChef is to have fun cooking. Challenge yourself, and be excited about it. Plan something that you really want to cook. We don’t always have to be stuck in the rut of making the same things, or cooking what our kids want us to cook. I know trying new things is hard because it takes energy and it takes time, but for me, I really need to have the joy behind cooking, so that I continue to want to do it for my family.
So, enjoy what you do and have fun. Find ways to get inspired. What inspires you? Watching a cooking video or reading a recipe book? Asking a friend what they like to cook, that they enjoy cooking the most, and asking them if they can teach you? Find what you’re inspired by, and then have lots of fun.
One more thing I’d like to mention is that sometimes it’s great fun to have a Masterchef challenge with your kids depending on their level of cooking. It’s always great in helping them learn to cook. Basically, you choose a recipe, or if they’re quite proficient, then you can choose three courses. Then you get everything they need for the recipe ready, and give them maybe five or ten minutes to look over the recipe and ask you questions. Then they have to cook it for the family. We’ve done this where my son has done all three courses, and where younger members of the family have done just a dessert or just an appetizer. They love being able to be part of that and cook for the family, and also they love learning how to cook that thing. So, that’s quite a fun way to learn to cook.
Also, we sometimes have judging where we give feedback and comments on the food. Other times we just do it for fun, and we thank them for making it for us. That’s a fun evening to plan with your kids.
As always, you can see more about these episodes on our website familyfoodformoms.com. You can see photos of how we’ve done things, and if there’s a recipe I’ve mentioned, or if I have a video for a recipe on YouTube, you’ll be able to find them on our website. I’ll put a link to a page with the recipes for the sauces. You can see photos of how we’ve done things. And if you’d like to email me, it’s karyn@familyfoodacademy.com. I’d really love to hear from you. If you have any ideas for things that you’ve heard on the podcast that you want to add to, favorite recipes, things you’ve tried, or if there’s questions you have, it would be lovely to chat.
https://www.wellseasonedstudio.com/the-five-french-mother-sauces/
