Hints for Rescuing Cooking Disasters

• These are a few tips for rescuing some of the cooking disasters we all make from time to time:

Baking

• If your cake has sunk in the middle cut out the centre with a sharp knife and turn it into a ring cake. Use a small bowl as a template and cut round it. You can either cover it with marzipan or icing or fill it with soft fruit.
• Soft biscuits which are no longer crunchy can be placed on a baking tray in a hot oven for five minutes and then cooled.
• Dry fruit cake. Put it in a casserole with a tight lid  pierce it with a skewer and add orange juice or brandy and let it soak  for ages and then warm it up in a slow oven and serve with custard.
• Burnt sponge cake  (but not too badly burnt!) Cut off the charred parts and cut it into cubes and use in trifle.

Casseroles, Stews and Curry

• Curry is too hot  just stir a plain yogurt, coconut milk or cream. You can use this for any spice dish that is too hot. Or you could put a bowl containing one of the above on the table for people to help themselves according to taste.
• If the curry sauce is too thin either stir in a spoonful of desiccated coconut or simmer, uncovered to reduce it.
• Casserole or stew too salty add a peeled, cut up potato and simmer until it is soft and then take the pieces out. You can also add a little plain yogurt, or a dash of sweet sherry, a can of tomatoes or a pinch of sugar. It will depend what fits in with your recipe.  Simmer for at least five minutes to allow all the flavours to mix.
• Bottom of the stew has burnt on to the pan. Don't stir! Quickly fill the sink with cold water and plunge the base of the pan (NOT a pyrex casserole or it will crack) into the cold water to cool it. Then lift out as much of the food as you can really carefully without removing any burnt bits and put it in a clean pot with a little extra liquid.  Add a few spices or herbs, or tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce or similar to mask any burnt taste.

Vegetables and Rice

• Sticky or soggy rice.  Pack it into a lightly oiled ring mould and bake in a faily hot oven for ten minutes.  Turn out onto a plate and fill with cooked vegetables.
• Overcooked brussel sprouts (you can also do this with carrots and parsnips) Serve them as puree. Drain and puree in a food processor or use a stick blender. Stir in butter and sprinkle with nutmeg before serving. (Delicious!)
• Limp lettuce. Crisp it by placing it in a smallish bowl of icy cold water and the juice of half a lemon. Leave it for 30 minutes. Dry by swinging in a clean tea towel before use.

Sauce

• Lumpy sauce or gravy. whisk it hard in the pan.  If it is still lumpy rub it through a sieve or puree it in a blender.
• Hollandaise sauce curdled. Stir  an ice cube into the warm sauce
• Curdled egg custard. Quickly plunge the base of the pan into cold water and whisk in 2 teaspoons of cornflour for every pint.
• Dessert sauce too sweet . Add a little lemon juice.

Jam

• Runny and unset jam. If you reboil it you could spoil the flavour. Set it with gelatine.  Dissolve gelatine in a little water.  Warm the jam and stir it evenly into the gelatine mixture. Report and use within a few weeks or the gelatine may attract mould.
• Crystallised jam . Heat it until melted and then re-pot. Use it fairly soon as the crystals may reappear after a while.