BECOME A PRO CHEF

Go from novice cook to pro chef with these 24 easy steps, writes Dan Stock

While Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion remains the go-to cooking bible in seemingly every Australian kitchen, sitting alongside it on thousands of shelves is Campion and Curtis’

In The Kitchen, an equally weighty tome of more than 900 recipes that was first published in 2002.

But while the recipes remain as user-friendly for the home cook today as at the turn of the century, what we now eat at the end of a long day has changed. “There’s no kale or quinoa in the original book,” laughs Michele Curtis, who penned the original with then-husband Allan Campion.

“I’ve changed the way I cook a lot since then. I had very classic French training, that’s what I was taught. But now I’ve evolved into a lighter-style of cooking, not so heavy on the meat, using lots of vegetables,” she says.

Which includes, of course, kale as well as quinoa, which feature regularly on the menu at Frankie’s Top Shop, her cafe and food store in St Kilda West where she specialises in take-home meals and cakes, alongside cafe staples including dreamy scrambled eggs, buttermilk pancakes with berries and, yes, smashed avo on toast.

Michele has recently updated the book, which now includes about 800 recipes, with more than a quarter of them new, reflecting the cleaner, lighter and healthier way we eat today.

“I’d forgotten how significant the update was,” she says. “People say to me, Stephanie’s book is great, with loads of detail and it’s very technical, but our book’s a good companion book for the home cook, as it’s slightly easier, but still with lots of integrity to dishes. It’s a bit easier to come at.”

Having cooked in kitchens around the world and written more than two dozen books on food and cooking, she’s picked up a thing or two that help turn every dish into delish.

HERE ARE MICHELE’S TOP TIPS THAT WILL HAVE YOU COOKING LIKE A PRO IN NO TIME

1 Use fresh, quality ingredients. “Sounds simple, but goodquality ingredients, sourced locally and seasonally will make a big difference to the finished dish,” Michele says.

Want to crank it up a level? Free-range, organic or biodynamic is even better. “Anything grown in season has better flavour, is fresher and generally cheaper,” she says. “Free-range and grass-fed meats have a much better flavour and organic and biodynamic are grown with no chemicals, all reflected in

2 Get the final taste.” a good knife, and keep it sharp. Choose a knife that sits well in your hand and that you feel comfortable with. “Keep it sharp. It’s so much easier to cut with a sharp knife, and safer, too,” she says.

3 Make your own stock. “Generally speaking, supermarket packaged liquid stocks are high in salt. They can range from 600mg to 1300mg per 250ml, even the low salt varieties.” Making your own stock at home is cheap. Make a large batch and freeze it in

4 KISS: portions. keep it simple. “Nothing beats a goodquality simple meal. Grilled steak, baked potatoes and a garden salad is a perfect example,” Michele says. “And don’t cook many different things, it’s easier too cook one amazing dish rather than lots of smaller dishes.”

5 Be organised nised and work cleanly.

6 For cafe-quality lity scrambled eggs, always cook with butter, not oil, and over a really low heat. Add someme cream to the egg mix before adding to the pan.

7 "In a hot pan, scrambled eggs cooked fast turn rubbery. This way they are re creamier, softer.” Michele says the trick with scrambled eggs is to take the mixture from the heat when just undercooked, as the eggs will continue to cook, and serve immediately. “If you overcook your eggs, add another raw egg to the pan and stir gently. This will bring them back to fluffy deliciousness.”

8 Use a large heavy-based pan for frying eggs and bacon, making scrambled eggs, hot cakes, fritters and French toast.

9 “I use a good extra virgin olive oil for most everyday cooking, be generous with it. If you want something to brown more and need a flavour boost, add a knob of butter.”

10 Always heat your pan or oven before you cook in them.

11 Avoid shop-bought bought breadcrumbs that “make everything taste like cardboard”. Either soak day-old bread in milk to soften and squeeze to remove excess liquid or add a handful of quinoa flakes for a gluten-free option.

12 Cut things to a similar size to ensure even cooking.

13 Every dish needs a balance of tastes and textures, think salty, chewy, crispy, sweet and a fresh burst to clean the palate. Toasted pumpkin seeds are an easy way to add flavour and crunch to salads, or try making your own soy cashews. Boil cashews in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar and water until infused. Drain and bake in oven until crisp, turning often. Add into salads or a stir fry for a hit of texture and salty crunch.

14 The most important stage in low-and-slow cooking is to brown the meat first, as this gives depth of flavour as the dish cooks, as well as colour. Be sure to deglaze the base of the pan with wine or stock to ensure all the flavour goes into the finished dish. 15 Be sure to buy parmigiano reggiano or grana padano, rather than imitation parmesan. To ensure freshness, it’s best to buy a block and grate it as needed.

16 “One thing that we do at the cafe, every breakfast dish we send out we put a little drizzle of Mount Zero lime-infused extra virgin olive oil,” Michele says. “It gives it a little zing, a burst of freshness. It elevates and freshens everything, especially

17 When smashed avo!” baking, always grease your tin with the type of fat in the recipe, so butter for most cakes, but if the cake uses oil, grease the cake tin with oil.

18 Don’t mix your cuisines on one plate.

19 Salt. Michele uses sea salt,, due to its finer mineral flavour than common table salt. “Murray River pink salt is my favourite for cooking with, and I also use Sicilian Iblea fine crystals as they dissolve easily in dressings and are ideal for last-minute seasoning.” However, you can use anyny good-quality locally produced

20 Vanilla salt. a extract is pure extract from crushed vanilla beans, producing a thick aromatic liquid. Use it whenever vanilla iss called for. Vanilla essence iss a poor substitute.

21 Add indulgence: cook with both butter and oil, adding a knob of butter to a splash of oil. This adds the richness of butter to the high cooking temperature of oil. Butter will also turn food a lovely golden brown.

22 Grow some fresh herbs. “I use a heap of herbs in my cooking, and a few fresh herb will make all the difference to a finished dish. Even the basics like parsley, thyme, mint and rosema will jazz up any dish. dish.”

23A simple way to spruce up a cake is to dust it with icing sugar or cocoa powder. 24“Reducing” is the process of adding stock to the remaining juices in a pan after browning meat, and boiling rapidly to evaporate the liquid — usually by half. Once the stock is reduced add any finishing ingredients, such as herbs or cream — don’t add cream any earlier or it will curdle. “A knob of butter whisked in at the end will also thicken the sauce slightly, as well as adding sheen and richness,” Michele says.