Rory O'Connell - Master it - How to cook today

This repertoire of recipes that I have chosen, though by no means exhaustive, should be a good starting point for the modern cook. The recipes are based on important techniques that all cooks will benefit from. When you master a technique, such as making a shortcrust pastry and lining a flan ring, a year-round soup formula to follow the changing ingredients of the seasons, using gelatine, making mayonnaise and so on, you open up a huge range of possibilities. That is the aim of this book – to demystify; to arm you with skills; to help you avoid the mistakes that my cooks, students and indeed I myself have made; to cook lovely food.

I have chosen my words carefully, highlighting the crucial ones to describe the particular details of a technique or the distinguishing features of a good ingredient.

This is not a ‘chuck it in and see how it goes’ book. I find that approach irksome and unfair, as unless the cook is utterly instinctive and much practised, this approach is fraught with pit falls. Food is too precious and expensive for that sort of game of chance.

So many times, I have witnessed the wide-eyed amazement and delight of a cook who, when finally cajoled into reading, weighing, heating and timing a set of ingredients, has produced a dish that has previously eluded them.

My approach to cooking is simple and not new. Use the best ingredients you can find, get organised and follow the recipe. A potter will have his own recipe for success and will measure his carefully chosen clay, set his kiln at the correct temperature, shape his pots and bake them for the correct length of time. If he doesn’t follow all of the steps, he will most likely have an oven full of pieces of pot rather than the desired perfectly formed vessel. So it is with cooking.

On a deeply personal level, I am charmed by what the earth produces to nourish and pleasure us. I am thrilled by the unconventional beauty of a cabbage leaf, the cross-section of a kiwi fruit closely observed, the heady smell and ticklish feel of a peach, the razor-like edges and sharp fizzing flavour of a verbena leaf, the sound of an egg shell being cracked and an egg spluttering in hot butter, the intensely modern shape and markings of a mackerel. I love it all.

Cooking is my beautiful game, my centre court, my George Best moment. Few things make as much sense to me as cooking the ingredients that fuel and pleasure us. Nothing else grounds me as cooking does – it makes me happy.

A note on cream

In Ireland, the cream I generally use, and the one that is most widely available, is called ‘fresh cream’ with a fat content of 35–40%, I refer to it in the recipes as ‘regular cream’. It is a good all-rounder, rich enough for whipping and for use in sweet and savoury sauces and in ice cream. It is similar to the British ‘whipping cream’ but you can also use double cream in its place.

Spoon measurements

All spoon measurements in this book are rounded unless stated otherwise. ‘Rounded’ means the same volume of ingredient on top of the spoon as below. For example, a rounded spoon measurement is the same as two level spoon measurements.

Oven temperatures

All oven temperatures in this book are for conventional ovens. If you have an exclusively fan oven, refer to your oven manual for instruction. The general rule is that you subtract 20°C (about 36°F) from the recommended temperature when using a fan oven.

Shop well – eat well

If you don’t shop well, you won’t eat well – it’s as simple as that. So this requires a bit of effort. If you rely on the corner store for all your food, much as we love them, need them and use them for their convenience, the chances are, except in most unusual circumstances, that you will not get the variety and quality of ingredients you need in order to have a varied basket of food that is full of the nutritional value we require.

Make a plan and make a list

Be aware of what seasonal ingredients are available and use that information to help you plan your meals. Seasonal ingredients taste better, are easier to cook and are the best value for money. Some weekend newspapers have lists in their food sections of what is in season at any time of the year. Use these lists to help you plan your meals.

If your house is a place where meals need to be cooked every day, it’s worth sitting down for half an hour at the weekend to make a simple list. This will save you time and money when you go shopping, help prevent waste and give you a chance to cast your eye over the variety of foods that you and those you care for will be eating in the days ahead. This list will help you to buy the five oranges you really need rather that the ten you might not use, and so on.

When shopping, be 90% focused and 10% open-minded – that 10% gap gives you the freedom to snap up the ingredient not planned for, but clearly at the time in great condition and a good addition to your basket.

With your list in hand, use specialist shops such as the butcher, fishmonger and greengrocer. Build up a relationship with the person whom you rely on for the food to sustain you through life, because that person has an important role to play in your wellbeing. Ask them what they consider to be the best value at that time of the year. Let them know when an ingredient was a success, and also if it did not meet your expectations.

Try to allow time to get to a farmers’ market. In some cases that will require a bigger effort. When you get there, have a walk around. Take your time to have a look at everything that’s available. Look for the ingredients that are practically jumping off the table with freshness. Those are most likely local, and due to their short journey may be the best value going.

Some of the specialist ingredients such as smoked fish or cheese, meat and poultry, may seem expensive – they are a treat, but you can balance the cost of those hand-crafted artisan products with the less expensive but no less worthwhile seasonal vegetables and fruit.

Buy just what you need. Balance your budget in this way.

Shopping can be pleasant, even enjoyable. It can be sociable and educational and it’s a crucial part of the process that ends up with good food on the table.

Accurate measuring spoons: teaspoon, dessertspoon and tablespoon

Getting started – get organised

Being organised is a great help in the kitchen. Once you have decided what you are going to cook and have completed your shopping, you are ready to start cooking.

Sit down for a moment before you start and write out a work list, ‘an order of work’. Read through the recipes and decide how you will divide up your time, what needs to happen first and so on. This will mean you are organising your cooking in the correct order. The dishes that take longest to cook or that need to rest and chill, such as pastry, need to go on first and so on. When you do this, nothing is forgotten and it helps you to make the best use of your time. You then have the added pleasure of ticking things off your list as you go, a simple pleasure that I enjoy greatly.

Having written out your order of work, I suggest that you measure out all your ingredients before you start to do any cooking. Keep plastic containers and the like for this purpose. Keep the measured ingredients for each recipe on a separate tray, or, if you want to be pedantic like me, line them up in a row in the order they go into the dish. I find this time-saving and satisfying, and I can then focus on the dish rather than juggling with cooking and measuring at the same time.

Multiple ingredients that go into a dish at the same time can be combined in one bowl or on a plate, thereby leaving less clutter on your work surface. I get a considerable amount more done when I measure ahead like this. The clearer my workspace is, the clearer my brain seems to be and the more I enjoy the cooking process.