6 tricks to rectify recipes that go wrong

From time to time we commit glitches in the kitchen It is inevitable and you learn from them. sometimes they can rectify as you go but when it comes to the nearly finished dish it seems to be doom.

There are things that cannot be fixed, like a burnt preparation. Others are salvageable with some easy remedies.

1. Soups, stews and stews… too salty?

Have you ever heard that it is enough to add potato. The potato does not selectively absorb only the salt from the food, so it is not going to do you much good. What can help you is increase the amount of ingredients and water, so that the salt is more diluted.

You can add potatoes, yes, but also carrots, coconut milk, tomatoes, fresh herbs (parsley, cilantro, etc.), more legumes if they are already cooked, onion, pepper… That is, when a stew or a stew you have left too salty treat them as if they were concentrates.

And to counteract the lack of thickness when we add more water, add a little wheat flour either diluted cornstarch in that water (2 tablespoons in a stew for 4 people is fine).

2. Too spicy

If we have gone out of hand with the spicy we can do several things, depending on the type of preparation. If it is with broth, like a stew or a stew, we can do as when we go too far with salt: add more water and more ingredients, but this time we will have to correct for salt

Add if you can some ingredients that help mask the spiciness, such as soy yogurt (unsweetened and unflavored), coconut milk (from a can or just coconut cream), nut butterssome sweet ingredient (for example a handful of raisins), etc.

If it’s a dry, loose cereal, type pilaf or paella, it’s more complicated. If it’s not quite done, remove it from the heat, add a good amount of water, stir it and drain it. By doing so you will take more things than the spicy, also the spices and flavors that you have put in it (if it has them).

Once drained, put it back on the heat, adding the salt and spices that give it back its flavor. Some spiciness will remain, but it will not be excessive. Now you just have to check that the cereal is finished cooking and the remaining water evaporates.

If you don’t want to “flood” your preparation or the cereal that is already cooked, what you can do is let it cool and store it. Use only small amounts as a garnish for other dishesor make more of the same (but not spicy) and mix it up.

If it is hot sauce or chili flakes that you have been sprinkling over the plate, it is convenient to remove it as soon as possible with a knife and kitchen paper.

3. Bechamel (and other sauces and creams) with lumps

When we make sauces that contain flours and starches, and we have to mix them by hand, it often happens that we finish adding the liquids and we still have leftovers. lumps.

To fix it you can do two things:

Take it off the heat and Strain the lumps, catching them with a small spoon. and passing them through a strainer. You will have to squeeze it, massaging gently, so that it passes undone through the mesh of the strainer.Put it in the blender and beat it until it is a fine and silky cream. If it gets cold, add a little more liquid, beat it again and heat it in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly so it doesn’t stick.

4. Vegan Burgers That Disintegrate

If when you put the first one that you have made you see that it is undone, take it off the heat. There are several reasons why you can disintegrate a vegan burgeralthough the most common tend to be that we have not added ingredients that act as “glue” (binders such as oats plus liquid, flax, gluten, flour, etc.), or that we have taken the soft dough and shaped it without compacting it or applying any pressure.

If you have caught it in time and it is only the first time, you can fix the rest by modifying the mass and pressing it well when you shape it. The one that has disintegrated you can undo it completely and add it to the dough or to other hamburgers that you have to rectify.

5. Pasta too soft

You have passed the cooking time and now the pasta is very soft. Depending on how much we have passed, we can use some solutions or others.

The first thing is to remove the pasta from the heat and drain it. Any time you spend in the water will be time spent soaking it up and getting even softer.

If it’s just softer than “al dente”, wash it in the drainer under cold tap watermoving it carefully. Then skip it for a couple of minutes in a pan with olive oil.

If it breaks easily or is already broken, change the dish you were going to prepare for a casserole either baked gratin Arrange the pasta in a baking dish, add a pinch of olive oil, mix it, add the rest of the ingredients that you were going to use and grill it in the oven.

If you want you can prepare a béchamel with a soy drink to put on top.

This is not that I fix the pasta, what we do is use it in a preparation in which perfectly cooked pasta is not that important and al dente

Another option is to cool it under running water, drain it very well and store it in the fridge for use in soups. As it is already made, it will only need to be in the broth for a minute or two to warm up. If the paste breaks easily, we don’t care what shape it is, for a soup we can use any in small pieces.

6. Rice that passes

You cannot go back to a previous state. The rice grains have been overcooked, they have absorbed more water than necessary to make them tender, they have opened up, they have released a lot of starch and now they are doughy. With this there is no turning back, but yes you can turn it into another plate.

Season that rice with cinnamon, vanilla, lemon zest and some sweet fruit and you will have rice porridge for breakfast. If you don’t quite like the texture, beat it all with the blender, add a splash of vegetable drink (whatever you want) and you will have made a great rice cream for breakfastdessert or snack.

Store it in the fridge in closed containers and serve it with dried fruit, chocolate chips or the fruits that you like the most. You can also put vegetable yogurtpeanut butter or any sweetener to your liking.