Taste, Taste, Taste!

 One thing I can do is teach anyone to cook. The only problem is when something goes wrong that there are difficulties. Experience after many years in the kitchen cannot be taught in a short time but there are ways around this. Taste everything you, do as you go along! Any veritable disaster, in the kitchen, can be avoided with this simple rule.

Any slow-cooked sauce or stew can "catch" or start to burn on the bottom of the pan when not regularly stirred. This could be because the phone rang, the doorbell rang, a child destroying your home or any number of distractions that can occur whilst cooking. Stay calm, leave it as it is without disturbing the layer stuck to the base and get another pan then in one movement pour it from one to the other. As long as you weren't stirring with a metal spoon, I always suggest wooden, then your sauce should transfer without any taint.
Using a wooden or plastic spoon will allow you to feel what's happening on the bottom of any pot, be it a soup, stew or sauce. If any burning or build-up is happening you will feel the resistance before things go wrong.

Seasoning should never be a problem if you taste, taste, taste! Although sometimes even the best of us are heavy-handed. So should something be a little salty you can add some sugar to counteract it, equally if the reverse and something's too sweet a little extra salt usually balances things out. This understanding, through taste, is what helps out frequently in the kitchen. A great example is when using canned tomatoes, often they lack a certain freshness of flavour but the addition of half or a teaspoon of sugar and perhaps a splash of vinegar brings life and sunshine taste back to whatever they were being used for.

to be continued...