A lot of cooks collect snippets over the years of cookery items. If you take a look in to my kitchen, you’ll find my cooks scrapbook. It’s crammed with tips, clippings, recipe variations and other bits i wanted to keep, all of which I have collected over the years. This book which I cherish, is held tied together with ribbon, from years of repeated use while cooking through the seasons. Some of my cookery notes, which I have made may only be referred to once a year, such as Christmas. I might  simply remind myself how I varied a recipe in the previous year and how my guests had commented on my changes. Just  like the christmas pudding that Auntie Pat preferred due to the addition of a variety of nuts, sherry and port.

I was looking through my book at some notes I had made for my daughter. This was when I was teaching her to cook, and I had written about ’skinning’.

I was explaining to her that some fruits, vegetables and  fish can be skinned that little bit easier with a little know how. For example to remove the skins easily from  peaches, small onions and tomatoes, all you need to do is pour over enough boiling water to cover them. Then leave them to stand for a minute or two and you will then find that the skin will simply peel off cleanly and easily.

However Peppers are not so easy and quite a few people do not like pepper & tomato skins in their meals so it is well worth knowing how to quickly take these skins off.  I skewer peppers and hold them to a gas flame turning them gently until blackened. You will then find that the peppers skin will peel of easily. You can alternatively cut them in half and roast under a hot grill until blackened, to do the same thing.

What about skinning a fillet of fish. This can be made easy if you place your fish on a chopping board skin side down. Insert your sharp kitchen knife at the tail end, with the blade held at a angle between the skin and flesh of the fish. Then while pulling the skin with one hand and using a sawing motion with the blade in your other hand to cut the flesh away from the skin. Let the fish flesh fold over away from you do this.

Any cook needs a good set of knives as their tools to create any recipe. This set of superb knives is a great collection of knives for many a culinary dilemma. This set would also make a great gift for a new chef starting their training or for a great home cook. Made from a special steel to provide a tough edge to last but an edge that can be sharpened too.

Did you know that in a busy kitchen a chef or cook may sharpen their blade up to 10 times a shift depending on what they are preparing?

What tips have you given to a new cook?