Simon Schama Quotes

The secret is to cook the aubergines the day before and let them dry of all the oil they drank in cooking. When you cook aubergine, they eat a lot of oil. It can be very heavy.

It's so important that you don't put the stuffing in the bird, where in order for the stuffing to get cooked you have to overcook the turkey. It's better to do it on the side.

That's the joke about confinement pigs: they taste like whatever sauce you cook them with.

Preparing and cooking squid is easier than most fish. The only thing to remember is not to cook it for too long.

In order to have good fried chicken, you should wash and season the bird the morning you're preparing it for dinner. Don't wait and do it right before you start cooking. Throw it in the refrigerator, seasoned, that morning, and give it a chance to soak up all the salt and pepper and goodness.

I always pan-fry sprouts - it retains texture and enhances flavour.

The trick to scrambled eggs is to remove half the milk from the container and shake what's left as hard as you can, like a cocktail shaker, before you whisk it into the eggs.

I use the confit principle for chicken thighs. I season them with herbs and garlic, let them marinate, and then cook them in chicken fat.

If you salt a chicken the day before cooking, it starts to break down the cell structure of the meat and allows it to take on more flavor and actually helps it to stay more moist. Same goes for a steak, a pork chop. A lot of people brine; we preseason.

When it comes to cooking pasta, the first essential is to make sure you have a big enough pot: it needs room to roll in the water while cooking.

I like to cook things very slowly.

You gotta have good olive oil. You should have a cooking olive oil and you should have a finishing olive oil, like an extra-virgin olive oil.

This sounds like a brag, but I know how to make good fried rice. I learned in college. There are two secrets - take the rice after you cook it and let it get cold in the fridge. Then cook the egg like you're making a fried egg and just before it's done, dump the rice and veg on it and swirl it around.

In certain European cuisines, vegetables are cooked a long time. I take the term 'al dente' and use it for vegetables.

For people who think of chicken as the meat choice of those-who-don't-really-like-meat, brining a bird will be a revelation.

I do a mean beef Wellington. Gordon Ramsay's is a phenomenal recipe. But that's a lot of prep. The secret to wrap it in Parma ham before wrapping in pastry. I'm so pro smuggling more meat in.

Stuffed vine leaves tend to burn and/or stick when you cook them. To avoid this, use a heavy based pan lined with a few layers of second-rate leaves.

I lived with a German family. I learned about schnitzel from Ritta Seiffer. When she cooked she'd get the oil really hot so that it sealed everything and in the middle was very juicy. That's the secret to a great schnitzel.

As soon as you wanna take away the flavor of anything, just fry it.

Always deep fry in a nonreactive, heavy pot with high sides, like an enameled Dutch oven. A heavy pot ensures even heating which means more even cooking.

I use vinegars to deglaze saute pans for sublime sauces.

For wok cooking, use oils with a high smoke point and low polyunsaturated-fat content: grapeseed oil, peanut oil, etc. Sesame oil and olive oil will burn and taste bitter. Oils with high polyunsaturated-fat contents like soybean oil will also make your food texturally unpleasant.

Ever crack an egg into simmering water only to watch the white spread out and form wispy tentacles? It happened to me until I came across this game-changing fix: Break the egg into a sieve set over a bowl. The watery outer edge of the white will drain through, leaving the thicker white and yolk intact.

Generally I don't find that basting does a lot of anything! I think what makes the most difference is treating the turkey ahead of time with a dry brine. It really does provide a very moist result.

I don't overcook, because you lose what's good in the food.