Posts Tagged ‘Cooking’
I’ve always been used to buying pre packed ham. After all, it’s convenient and if you get the taste the difference ranges, it can be pretty tasty. However, for my past few food shops, I’ve been buying gammon joints to make and slice my own ham, and boy can you REALLY taste the difference (at no extra cost).
So I thought I’d share some of my learnings thus far!
Saltiness
If you find the ham too salty (I did), soak the ham in water for 3-4 hours before cooking. Some may advise to leave it overnight, but I found this took away too much of the salt and a lot of the flavour too.
Cooking
Cooking a gammon joint in the oven is great, but I wanted to find a quicker way to do it, so I tried the pressure cooker. As a rule of thumb, I cooked the ham for 30 minutes per 1 kg with about a mugs worth of water added. Stabilise the pressure over the high pressure setting and leave to cook.
The ham worked out perfect and needed hardly any time to steam. I found it important to use the high pressure setting and check the ham is cooked through before slicing.
Enjoy, and let me know how you get on,
Cheers!
Well, what a year it’s been! I’ve been making cooking videos on YouTube since 2009 and the past year has been (by far) my busiest. Whilst I’ve uploaded over 25 cooking videos, there’s plenty more to do – so I’ll shortly be uploading a new cooking video every week direct from my kitchen in Nottingham.
Thanks to you all!
All of this wouldn’t have been possible without the support of a number of people throughout the year. I was lucky enough to be the only UK winner of the YouTube Next Chef competition who provided great support with some top class mentors this year. Hopefully you can see how my cooking videos have come along from when I first started out on YouTube (cringe)!
What’s more, we got an extra 850 subscribers on YouTube through 2012 which means we’ve now broken the 1000 mark – huzaahh! More and more of you are signing up to my monthly email newsletter as well – so thank you to everyone who’s following me and stay tuned for more great cooking videos in 2013.
Joining Tastemade
In October I joined the Tastemade food network who will help me further to reach out to like-minded foodies looking for simple recipes to cook, along with 100’s of other creators around the globe that I can collaborate with.
And with special thanks too…
This update couldn’t go without a mention of my mentor from The Hive. Phil’s been great to throw ideas at and been there when I need him to help keep me on track with, well, everything! We met up for breakfast last month and had a few cracking ideas that I’ll be making a reality this year, so look out and you may see some exciting new things on FitBrits.com
My good friend Ross has also been a great help with his never-ending knowledge of all things ‘photography’. He’s certainly taught me a thing or two over the past year and taken some great food shots when we’ve been recording.
And one last person to thank, my lovely other half, Trish! Through 2012 she kindly adopted the role of camera woman and even let me use her snazzy new kitchen which you can see in some of my cooking videos. Who knows, maybe one day soon she wouldn’t mind featuring in an up-coming cooking video (as long as we’re cooking with wine)!
Going forward…
So for 2013, keep watching and expect to see plenty more simple cooking videos from an avid foodie from the UK.
Thanks again to everyone for supporting me – You’re amazing!
Hopefully you’ve had a chance to view our new series of cooking tips videos on the FitBrits channel.
It was a nasty knife accident that prompted me to make a video on how to use a knife safely, and since then, I’ve uploaded another tips video about high fibre foods (making good use of the green screen)!!!
It would be great to hear your feedback on what you think of our first couple of videos for the cooking tips series, so please leave a comment below, or on the comments page for each video (on YouTube) and let us know what you think.
You can see the first couple of videos in the series below, enjoy…
Well it’s been about 6 months since I was one of the lucky winners of the YouTube Next Chef competition, so I thought I’d provide my loyal followers with a recap of what’s been happening over the past 6 months and what you can expect to see for the future of FitBrits.
After receiving all our new recording equipment, and whilst having weekly seminars on Google hangouts (with some great guest speakers), each assignment was to create a new cooking video that was along a particular theme. Check out our playlist of assignments.
Hopefully you can see how each video has progressed the more we do, and we hope you’ve enjoyed them. We even had a go at using the green screen for a Mojito Recipe and I tried my hand at live commentary for our Peanut Butter Nutella Cookies Recipe – you can be the judge of how well that went! I think the key learning there was always plan what you’re going to say!
Since then, we’ve recorded a series of Jubilee themed recipes as well as other great dinnertime dishes. We still want your suggestions on what else we should include for our Summer line-up of recipes, so submit your suggestion here.
Lastly, the FitBrits.com website was redesigned in December with loads more content and a fresh new look, so we hope you like it.
Going forward… We hope to see the FitBrits channel continue to grow with more and more cooking recipes. If you’d like to be a part of it, keep up to date, and help let more and more people know about FitBrits.com, please follow us on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, and remember to use that ‘like’ button! You can also sign up for our newsletter to receive monthly recipes in your inbox.
Cheers for all your support,
Warren.
So we were recording some Diamond Jubilee themed cooking videos recently when shooting had to be ‘cut short’ (excuse the pun), due to a pretty bad (and bloody) accident I had with the kitchen knife. So I thought it was about time I wrote a post on how to use a kitchen knife correctly, and most importantly, safely! Don’t worry, I’ll refrain from posting the video of when it happened!
- First things first, make sure you keep a really good grip of the handle. The last thing you want is to lose control of a sharp knife. It’s easy to forget if you’re chopping something finely as you tend to use the knife a lot quicker.
- As well as good grip, make sure you secure the food your chopping firmly with your other hand. Be aware that different foods can slide around when being chopped (skin sliding off an onion is a fine example) so always be sure to prepare your food before chopping and ensure it’s not going to move in any way whilst chopping.
- Curl your fingers (this is what let me down)! The last thing you want to do is slice off your fingertips! So by curling them, if the knife blade is to get too close to your fingers, it’ll more likely brush past your fingers, than slice over you fingertips.
- And finally, we all want to be able to chop like a pro, but take it slow to start with. It’s too easy to get carried away. If you perfect your knife skills slowly, you’re much less likely to suffer an injury.
It’s also worth considering if there’s any other utensil that can handle the job more safely for you. For example, a garlic press, or my favourite, a Mezzaluna.
Cheers
It may be out of season, but if you can get your hands on some asparagus, check out our guide on how to cook asparagus on FitBrits.com
It may make your pee smell funny, but it’s worth it! Especially as there are so many ways it can be cooked.
We cover these 4 ways to cook it:
- Steaming Asparagus
- How to roast Asparagus
- How to cook Asparagus under the grill or on the griddle
- How to cook Asparagus in the microwave
Enjoy!
 Sometimes I get ‘eating block’ when I’m struggling for inspiration at the supermarket. I want to try something new but there’s a debate going on between my stomach and my head!
Stomach says “Just buy it and feed me”, head says “Well hang on, how can I make this more interesting to eat?” So before you start going mad down a supermarket isle, it’s worth remembering that you can jazz most things up with pre-prepared breadcrumbs, yes, plain-old breadcrumbs! So you’ve bought a plain chicken breast, salmon fillet, piece of pork or a bag of white fish and you don’t know what to do next, well, you can bread them. Simply have 3 separate bowls with one of the following in each:
Dip your piece of meat/fish in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs and cook in the oven – simple! If that’s not enough, it tastes even better if you mix a little chilli powder (or other herb of your choice) in the breadcrumbs. FitBrits.com already has two great breaded recipes which are really quick and easy to make. So why not check out our recipe for Homemade Fish and Chips and our Chicken Nuggets Recipe and let us know how you get on through Facebook. |
| So, you’re a student and having to fend for yourself! Check out our Student Survival Guide and you’ll be cooking Quick, Easy Recipes in no time.
Equipment – Don’t go and buy a 12-piece crockery set, all you’re soon-to-be housemates will be doing the same. Then you’ll have one mighty large washing up problem!.. |
| It is never too early or too late to start cooking. Some people love cooking and find it relaxing. Others dread it and would rather eat TV dinners every night. Wherever you stand, cooking is something everyone should try and at least have a basic knowledge of. I guarantee that if it wasn’t for lack of time, knowledge and the proper cookware more people would try their luck at cooking. To help out any beginners, I have put together a few tips for the novice chef to hopefully make the experience as pleasant as possible... |
| When Summer is here, there’s no better way to cook and grill than on the barbecue. Whether you’re cooking Spare Ribs or have a great BBQ Chicken Recipe, check out our guide to cooking on the barbeque.
Marinating – If you want to impress your guests, marinate your meat at least 2 hours before cooking (or over night). There are plenty of marinades available off the shelf, or, it’s easy to make your own with these basics:.. |
