Good Cooking

Tastier Sandwiches

Toast your bread before assembling your sandwich or, better yet, grill it and rub it while it's still hot with a cut clove of garlic - it tastes great and your sandwich won't get soggy.

Try a different spread such as green olive tapenade, hummus or baba ganoush. All are healthy alternatives to mayonnaise and more interesting than mustard.

Adding sliced tomato? Salt them first on both sides of the slices and then let them drain on a rack for 15 minutes. Pat them dry. Not only will they be more tastier, they won't waterlog your sandwich.

Use assertive greens instead of iceburg. Try watercress, with stems removed, rocket or even fresh basil for a flavourful alternative. Leave lettuce aside entirely by substituting radishes, jicama or daikon. Shred them coarsely and toss them with fresh lemon or lime juice, oil and salt for a different crunch.

Make a quick homemade pickle a tasty addition to any sandwich. Combine think sliced red onions or cucumbers with some vinegar, sugar, salt, garlic and pickling spice, ring the mixture to a boil and take it off the stove to cool.

Sous Vide

The inspiration for this indispensable culinary technique came to me straight from the grocery store meat isle. Vacuum sealed packaging inspired chefs to play with cooking things in air tight plastic packaging with astounding results.

Sous vide entails sealing a protein or vegetable in plastic (using an industrial vacuum packaging machine) then poaching in simmering water for a long time. Pressure exhorted on the covered food encourages any additional ingredients wrapped in the package, diced veggies for example or a spice rub, to deeply penetrate the food. Shielding from direct contact with hot water, food looses none of its flavour and gives up none of its mass. The proteins cooked this way gelatinize and yield buttery soft texture. Heat is distributed throughout the encased food and a sous vide fish will be cooked to a uniform doneness and texture from skin to spine.

Sous vide cooking can be easily replicated at home by oven sealing food, wrapped tightly in several layers of good quality plastic wrap. Note that sous vide cooking adds zero fat to your food but yields maximum flavour.