the "EASY COOK" function
handy Hints and Tips
Pizza
To ovoid having cheese and tomato sauce dripping in the
oven, place the pizza on a sheet of baking parchment directly on
the shelf.
Poultry
Make sure the dish in which the chicken cooks is big
enough to prevent fat burning.
Flans
/
Quiches
:
Metal trays are better than glass or porcelain, which are
often too thick and food takes longer to cook. Metal also gives a
crisper finish to the pastry.
When cooking fruit tarts, to prevent the juice soaking into
the pastry and leaving it soggy, sprinkle the base with some semo-
lina, crushed biscuits, grounds almonds or tapioca to absorb the
excess. When cooking savoury flans with vegetables containing a
high-water content (leaks, spinach broccoli or tomatoes) or frozen,
sprinkle with a tablespoon of cornflour.
Fish :
Check when buying that the fish has a pleasant smell
and if it is a sea fish, with a faint salty tang. The fish should be
firm and solid and the scales well attached to the skin. The
eyes should be shiny and raised and the gills bright and moist.
Beef
/
Pork /
(AND MEAT IN GENERAL)
Always remove meat from the fridge well in advance of
cooking. The sudden change in temperature from cold to hot can
toughen meat. Ideally beef should be well browned on the outsi-
de, red in the middle but hot throughout. Do not sprinkle with salt
before cooking as this draws out the blood and dries out the meat.
Try to turn meat using spoons rather than a fork to keep the blood
in the joint. Always leave the cooked joint for 5 to 15 minutes after
cooking to recover. Wrap it in kitchen foil and leave in the open
warm oven. During this time the juices, which were drawn out,
can soak back into the meat.
Use earthenware dishes to roast joints; glass ones tend to
make the meat spit.
Do not pierce the leg of lamb with garlic cloves or else it
will lose its blood.
Do not use the enamel grill tray for roasting.
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