As part of our Kitchen Tips and Amazing Food & Drink series we visited Belfast Cookery School to learn more about what they do. We learned lots of great tips for cooking and caring for cookware as well as some amazing recipes for delicious dishes you can try yourself at home.
Read on to find out a bit about this video series and learn a bit more about cooking and The Belfast Cookery School.
If you are inspired by the cooking lessons of the Belfast Cookery School why not try out these beginner friendly recipes at home.
Seasoning a pan is the process of adding a non-stick layer to your pan naturally through salt and oil. By keeping your oil well seasoned you reduce the oil needed to cook in your pan as well as making your pan easier to clean.
To season your pan place it on a high heat and then add sea salt to the pan until it coats the bottom of the pan in a thin layer. Allow the salt to be heated for 5 minutes, it will become smokey but that’s okay. Dispose of your salt after cooling in a baking pan. Be aware that the salt is very hot.
Rub away any excess salt with a dry cloth ensuring you don’t burn yourself on the hot pan. Then rub two teaspoons of neutral oil into the pan with a clean cloth. Your pan is now seasoned.
The perfect steak starts one hour before you are ready to cook it when you should take it out of the fridge. This allows time for your steak to rise to room temperature. A steak which is sitting at room temperature will not be cold in the middle if cooked medium, rare, or blue which makes it much more appetizing.
Once your steak has come to room temperature over an hour its ready to go in a smoking hot pan. The hob should be at the highest setting allowing enough heat to sear the meat as it hits the pan. Just before placing the steak in the pan season with salt on both sides. Its important not to salt the steak too early as it will draw moisture from the meat.
Once the edges of the steak are sealed you can start to cook the steak on each side. Chef Ian then bastes the steak in herbed butter to ensure extra flavour. He recommends using unsalted butter to ensure the dish isn’t too salty.
For full instructions and to find out more about chef Ian’s tips and tricks, check out the video in full.
If you are more of a seafood person, you should check out this guide on how to cook the perfect salmon fillet:
Start with a cut through the root of the onion which splits it in half. The roof of the onion holds it all together while you cut to make the job less difficult.
Remove the outer skin leaving your onion half ready to cut. Make cuts across the onion cutting slices three quarters of the way towards the root. Then make three cuts in the onion going horizontally to the cuts you already made.
Then it is simply a matter of slicing across your first lines to create a neat chop. When chopping your onion ensure your fingernails are tucked in towards you palm to avoid cutting the tips of your fingers.
If you are looking for a light and very flavourful salad you can make ahead of time, this is a great recipe to try out.
Chef Ian talks us through this amazingly simple salad recipe and the dressing to pair with it. This salad consists of radish, spring onion, carrot, coriander, and cashew nuts with chilli added for a bit of heat.
If you don’t want your salad too spicy you can remove the chilli seeds. The spice of chillies come from their seeds and if you remove them it will reduce the spice level. Simply chop off the top and bottom of the chilli and roll to release the seeds.
It is served with a beautiful miso salad dressing which you can see here:
The ingredients for the dressing are:
For a beautiful poached fish dish this is a great option. Chef Ian shows us how he perfectly cooks his Cod fillets in coconut milk. This cod dish is the perfect accompaniment to the Asian salad we also featured.
This tutorial teaches so many chopping and prepping skills as well as teaching you the essentials of poaching meat. Chef Ian also gives tips on picking fresh fish at the market or shops. The salad is prepared beforehand and the fish is cooked just before serving making it a great pick for a dinner party.
The Belfast Cookery School are a great organisation. They are providing people with the skills to not only cook the basics at home but to prepare amazing meals they will love. Throughout our visit there we learned skills that will make cooking easier and even help with the cleaning up.
These great cooking tutorials are easy to follow and well worth a go at home. You can use the skills taught by chef Ian to make them all the more easy and check out the other videos we made with The Belfast Cookery School for more inspiration.
For ingredients and written instructions make sure to check out the video descriptions where you will find them in full.
Happy cooking!
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