In My Kitchen with Paula

Paula's 10 Tips To Cook Confidently And Calmly

• Paula Mohammed • Episode 7

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“Remember people want to be with You, not your Socarrat”

That’s is just a small sample of the advice Paula shares, to encourage people to host their post travel dinner parties.  Paula’s 10 tips will help you cook confidently and calmly while sharing your travel stories, hosting and cooking all at the same time.  

This episode is for anyone, who would like to be a little more relaxed in their kitchen when cooking for friends and family, or anytime.

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In My Kitchen creates connections one dish at a time, by exploring culture through food. I do this through unique culinary workshops, speaking engagements, and of course, this podcast.

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Today, I want to share with you tips on how to cook confidently in calmly. This has come up a few times recently where friends have pointed out that I do this. Or ask me, how do I do this? I actually haven't really given it too much thought, but when I did, I realized that over time I had developed some techniques or, or tips, I guess, processes. This info that I'm going to share is helpful for anyone who wants to become more confident in the kitchen, especially when you're hosting dinner parties with friends and especially for those post travel dinner parties. I love the post travel dinner party. It is a time when I share some new dishes I learned to make. Um, when I share my travel stories to people who actually want to hear them, and I serve the dishes on some of my favorite pieces that I brought back from my travels, but I realized as I'm starting to encourage more people to do a post travel dinner party. That many people are not feeling relaxed about this idea of hosting storytelling and cooking new recipes all at the same time. So I want to help you get more comfortable with that. And this is just a start. However, please remember. Most importantly, your guests are there to spend time with you. Don't fret too much about the meal. I want you to learn to enjoy the moment and relax during your dinner parties. So 10 practices I have used and do use to cook confidently and calmly in the kitchen. I hope you find some of them helpful. Many of you will already do some of them, but I hope you walk away with one or two that can help you carry on and cook on. All right, let's get right to it. Number one, pretty obvious. Read the entire recipe first. I cannot stress that enough. Especially the methods. There may be some methods that you do not understand when you're cooking recipes from different cultures. You want to know the full process. And understand it before you get started. Often I'll make a dish first before my dinner party. Not always, but a big reason why I do do this is I'll end up tweaking the recipe and making it my own. This is where I want you to get to eventually, if you're not already there. I want you to learn, to start feeling or start feeling comfortable to cook without a recipe and have the confidence to adjust recipes to your liking. You know, like, look at the recipe, like a coloring book, it's just the foundation. You can add in the color. Any color you want. You're allowed to go outside of the lines. It doesn't need to be a paint by numbers scenario. Okay. Number two. You make your shopping list and your get your ingredients the day before don't try and do this the morning of your dinner party. When you make a shopping list, I like to make four headings just on a scrap piece of paper. Doesn't need to be an Excel spreadsheet or anything. My headings are pantry dairy, meat, veg, and then just list your ingredients under those headings. Guarantee it's going to make that shopping experience much easier. Don't forget to cross check ingredients before you go shopping and your supplies. Makes it easier than coming home and realizing that you thought you had something and you didn't. Personally, I also like to visit the liquor store the day before I even get my groceries. I don't like doing it all on the same day. I like to make it. Enjoyable. When you get home with the groceries, first thing I want you to do is fill your sink with cold water and add some white vinegar to it. Roughly quarter of a cup. Put your produce into this vinegar bath. It's super easy, great way to clean your produce. And you know, I do this actually every time I go grocery shopping. When the veggies are in the bath, it's time to clean out your fridge and get organized. Wipe it down again with a vinegar water solution. Um, usually I ended up doing this once a week after I've done a larger shop. And I just actually renovated my kitchen about two years ago and I had to sacrifice. And get a smaller fridge. After two years of doing. Dinner parties with a smaller fridge. I finally bit the bullet and bought a second hand. Second fridge. That sits in my basement. And that has been a game changer for me. It's where I can go and put platters when I'm marinating stuff, it goes down there. The boys to my teens, they have it, the freezer part filled with quick, quick meals, drinks, that kind of thing. I know that not everybody can have the space or the means to go get a second fridge. So this is what I did before that. I would get my cooler, clean it out. And on the day of a dinner party, I would move ingredients and things that are in my fridge that I wasn't going to need that day or night and just toss them in the cooler. Put ice over it. Forget about it. All of a sudden they've got clear shelves. Just don't forget to put it back in your fridge at the end of the night. Moving on, take your products, your produce. I mean, out of the vinegar bath and lay them on a rack to dry. You want to dry your produce as much as possible before you put it in the fridge this is the main reason actually, why I get my groceries the day before. To make sure they're fully dry before I put them away. There is nothing worse than having a wet Caesar salad. When your romaine lettuce isn't properly dry. Quick food safe tip. When you place your meats in the fridge, put them on the lowest shelf. That way there's nothing below them that can get contaminated by the juices that are dripping. Number four clear out some space, clear your counters, clear out your sinks, empty the dishwasher, stack it, run it, empty it again. Put your dishes away. Start with a clean workspace. Have a clean cloth to use to wipe up the counter and another clean cloth. That's just for your hands. I fill one sink with soapy hot water. And then while I'm prepping cooking, I throw my dishes, well, not throw them, but I put my dishes in there as I cook makes the cleanup so much easier. Number six, organize your ingredients and tools. This is when you gather your ingredients and tools, put them on your clean to workspace. And what I like to do is I like to put them in order that you're going, that I use them. It makes it super efficient and simple. Number seven, put things away as you use them. So as you used an ingredient, put it away. You use your quarter cup of olive oil, put the olive oil away. This helps keep the clutter down makes cleanup easier, but most importantly helps identify anything that you may have accidentally forgotten. This happened to me. Uh, just a couple of weeks ago. I had friends over, like to cook and chat at the same time I was making actually I was making In My Kitchen host Melissa's Nonna's fabulous. Umbrian and dessert. Um, Anyway. I think it was too busy chatting. And I couldn't remember if I put all the sugar in that I was supposed to. I had to wing it. Luckily I had, and it turned out great. But it reminded me of this tip. Number eight. I like to use visual reminders, sticky notes, scrap piece of paper. I list out everything that I need to serve that. So like basically the menu and little notes in between. Rotate the chicken at 15 minutes in stir the pot. You know, those kinds of things. It's basically back in my event days, I'd refer to this as a running order. Doesn't have to be over analyzed. Over-thought over complicated. Just write out scrap piece of paper, the order of your dishes and what you need to do. Uh, the other thing with leftovers, put a date on a piece of masking tape, stick it on the lid and put it in your fridge. That way it organizes your leftovers and you know exactly how long they've been leftovers for. My favorite piece of labeling though is my spice pantry. This was the catalyst for my kitchen, reno, about four inches in depth, not even that. And I've got all my spices labeled handwritten doesn't have to be fancy, but I use my spices more now with when they're labeled. Okay. The other thing is I like to set timers, not just for the cooking time, but to tell me when I need to do something. So for example, like I said before, stir the pot. Um, pull out the chicken or meat to bring it to room temperature. If you're using a smart device, just make sure that it actually sets the timer. There's been numerous times where Alexa didn't do as she was told. And my timer wasn't set. Okay, final tip. I like to pull up my serving planners. Platters in advance this way. I know what is going, where, and I can plan and I'm not scrambling at the last minute. Think about the stories behind your serving dishes, too. These are great conversation pieces. It's one thing that I've been bringing back for. Oh my gosh. Even when I was backpacking back in 1991, Somehow I managed to fill my backpack with dishes that I still have to this day. I love it. It's another talk again for another time, but one of the things I do when I go traveling and sort of extends that journey is I bring those dishes and recipes back. And I love having dinner parties afterwards and they become a conversation piece. So those are my 10 tips. And do you know. Uh, just use one or two or use all of them, but I hope that it will help you to cook confidently and calmly when hosting your post travel dinner parties. Actually, I do want to share one final piece of unsolicited advice. When I did events. So many of you may not know, but I did. Uh, it was in the event industry as an event producer for over 22 years. But I had a Cardinal rule during the event, no matter what was going down or what was going sideways, I would never run. I have many stories about when I wanted to run, I was panicked or panicking. Something was happening. But you never want to show it on the outside no matter what's happening on the inside And that is the same as cooking or hosting a dinner party when you have everyone over and you're sharing your stories about your recent travels and sharing the recipes and dishes Things won't always turn out perfectly Most often they don't The rice will be under cooked your Tahdig will be burned or your socarrat will burn or not be crispy i had a group over this past summer i wanted to make my big Paella out on the Paella barbecue And when the big moment came to serve it we were all excited about diving into the socarrat it out which is the crispy bottom of the rice For split second i realized i was so disappointed It was all burned on the bottom but it happens right who really cares Remember People will look to you to set the tone and your tone will make people feel comfortable or uncomfortable Just like the flight attendant on the airplane So what if the bottom of your rice is burned There's still plenty on top you laugh You shake it off You move on remember people want to be with you not your socarrat I hope you found those tips helpful. If you have any of your own tips to help people cook confidently and calmly in the kitchen, I'd love to hear them. Please send me a message at any of the links below. I am also very excited to offer my free guide, 10 unique travel and food tips. You won't find anywhere else. The reason why you won't find them anywhere else is they're actually from our, In My Kitchen, host some great information there. And the link is in the show notes. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode if you have any questions just ask me i'd be happy to chat with you in the meantime take the first step on your next culinary adventure And sign up for my free guide

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Paula Mohammed

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