Cooking Disasters & How To Avoid Them - No1

A big cause of food waste is the dreaded cooking disaster. Not only does the food go in the bin but you have wasted all the time and effort of preparing it. Here is No1 in a series of tips on how to avoid and get around these events and a few other food saving techniques as well.

• Don’t tell people what you are serving until it arrives at the table. If the food doesn’t turn out as expected invent a name that better describes what you have produced. For example, if the pastry on your pie burns, remove it and cover the pie with the cooked potatoes you were going to serve with it (mashed or sliced) and put it under the grill for a couple of minutes to brown. It is now Shepherds or Cottage Pie or whatever you fancy. Only you will know that wasn’t how it was intended.

This has saved me some embarrassment  on a number of occasions. I was once serving a dessert with a fruit sorbet and left it out of the freezer for too long. No time to re-freeze it so I called it a chilled coulis & was complemented and asked for the recipe.