12 Cooking Tips From José Andrés You Need To Know
Professional chef and humanitarian José Andrés has been recognized as much for his charity work as he has for his cooking. Named one of the 100 Most Influential People in 2018 by Time Magazine, Andrés is known worldwide as well for his efforts to bring more food to more people across the globe as he is for cooking up some delicious Spanish dishes at one of his many restaurants. With years of experience in the kitchen, fans are likely wondering what his closely-guarded secrets are to perfecting tapas, paella, and other Spanish meals.
As it turns out, Andrés is a pretty open book when it comes to sharing cooking tips. His advice can be found all around the internet, from his YouTube channel to interviews to even his TikTok videos that grew in popularity during the COVID-19 lockdown. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to cook as well as Andrés, we have assembled some of his most accessible tips for you today.
1. Toast your pasta prior to boiling
Few meals can bring a large group of people together as pasta can. It is an instant crowd-pleaser, plus it is incredibly easy to prepare. Pasta is an incredibly versatile ingredient in that it can be accompanied by a number of other ingredients and sauces to change the flavor profile. But as it turns out, pasta is also versatile in the way it is cooked. While most of us likely prepare pasta by cooking the noodles in a pot of boiling water, there is another method that José Andrés employs in his kitchen.
José Andrés shared a video on his YouTube channel where he is shown toasting his pasta on a stovetop. This method will add a nutty flavor to the pasta dish without having to worry about adding any other ingredients. Once the pasta is toasted, you will then want to add your water and cook for several more minutes before serving it with your favorite sauce.
2. Use remaining bits of mayonnaise as a base for a creamy dressing
Scraping the bottom of any food container can be frustrating, especially if it is something that could get all over your hands and get messy. So, it is probably just as easy to toss that jar of mayonnaise in the trash when you get down to the final thin layer, right? Before you throw out the jar and open up a new one, however, keep the following tip from José Andrés in mind.
During the pandemic in 2020, Andrés shared several quick and easy cooking tips from his home on his Instagram account. There, he showed the remnants of a jar of mayonnaise that only had a trace amount left. But rather than create waste and throw it out, he offered a tip that could extend the life of the leftover mayo. He suggested adding a dash of mustard and some olive oil to the mayonnaise jar and closing the lid before mixing it all together. That way, you have created a creamy dressing to use on your favorite salad.
3. Temper your steak prior to cooking
Cooking a perfect steak can seem like a daunting task. After all, it is usually one of the more expensive meals at a restaurant, so it must involve a lot of complicated steps to prepare, right? On the contrary, it really only involves using high-quality ingredients and perfecting your timing. Whether you are cooking steak on the grill or stovetop, little adjustments and small steps here and there can make a huge difference when preparing the perfect steak, and that starts with taking your meat out of the refrigerator and letting it sit to reach room temperature before cooking.
While many suggest resting your steak at room temperature for 30 minutes is ample time, José Andrés pushes the clock a bit further. In an interview with Tapas Magazine, Andrés advises cooks to let the meat sit at room temperature for one to two hours prior to cooking. The reason for this is if you move the steak straight from the refrigerator to a hot pan, you run the risk of it cooking unevenly.
4. Crack your eggs on a flat surface
Eggs are one of the most common household ingredients, most widely used in the United States as a breakfast food. Across different cultures, eggs are used in all kinds of meals and for a variety of different purposes. Depending on how you are preparing your egg, you will want to take extra caution to keep the yolk intact as it comes out of the shell. While this may seem like a luck of the draw type of scenario at times, there is actually a useful technique to keep in mind to make sure your egg comes out of its shell clean every time.
On his YouTube channel, José Andrés warns against cracking your egg against the rim of a Pyrex or a plate. Instead, he indicates that you want to crack the egg on a flat surface like your counter or cutting board. Cracking the egg on a rim will cause the shell to puncture the egg, whereas using a flat surface is a much more gentle means of keeping the egg in one shape. That is not to mention that cracking an egg on a flat surface will also reduce the risk of getting shells in your egg.
5. Keep the skin on garlic to prevent burning
Garlic is a great way to incorporate bold flavor into any dish, but it does require some added prep work when cooking. Peeling garlic cloves can be a tedious task, but it is one that you do not necessarily have to worry about depending on how you are prepping and incorporating the garlic into your recipe. While there is technically no right or wrong way to remove the skin, it can really slow you down.
Another trick with garlic is preventing the cloves from burning in a hot pan. José Andrés has a tip that will prevent burning while also eliminating unnecessary time wasted on peeling garlic. A quick way to loosen the skin around the garlic is to smash the flat edge of a knife on the clove. While this is a trick that many home cooks might be aware of, you may not realize that you do not want to remove the skin just yet. Andrés shares this tip on "The Drew Barrymore Show's" YouTube page to cook the garlic with the skin still on so it does not burn. The skin acts as a protective layer that allows the smashed garlic to still cook without burning.
6. Skip the seafood when cooking paella Valenciana
If you have eaten at any of José Andrés' restaurants, you will know that one of the signature dishes is paella. The Spanish dish commonly made with rice and seafood is often recognized by its larger-than-life serving size, enough to feed a crowd and then some. But while many think that seafood is a necessary component of making paella, Andrés would beg to differ.
Andrés has clearly spent many years not only perfecting his paella recipe, but truly mastering the history and basic structure of the dish. As he shares in an interview with Tapas Magazine, Andrés has very simple criteria for what qualifies to be an authentic paella Valenciana. According to Andrés, a true paella Valenciana is "one made with the caldero, with chicken and rabbit, with the garrofón and the bachoqueta" — those last two ingredients being a lima bean and a flat green bean respectively. While many would think you have to incorporate several seafood elements to create a true paella, Andrés notes that those are not necessary at all for this particular style.
7. Do not haphazardly chop your tomatoes
While tomatoes are popular ingredients to add to salads and sandwiches, they are prone to being quite messy. Ripe, juicy tomatoes are exactly that: juicy. Whether you are slicing or dicing a tomato, the moment you cut into one, you will notice right away the juices escaping and getting all over your cutting board.
José Andrés shared a simple trick with Vice to keep in mind when slicing a tomato. The first step involves identifying the tomato's different chambers, which you can spot by looking at the center of the tomato and noticing the lines coming out from that center. Once you slice the top and bottom of the tomato off, you are left with the exposed chambers. From there, you want to cut along where the inner wall of the tomato meets the outer wall, from top to bottom. This will allow you to pull back the outer wall, revealing the heart of the tomato that you can then use in your dish without creating any added mess. Removing these hearts is important when working with large tomatoes, but you do not necessarily have to worry when working with the smaller grape or cherry tomato varieties.
8. Cook your eggs in water that is 147 degrees Fahrenheit
There are many ways to cook and serve an egg, from scrambling to hard boiling. One of the methods that require a little more finesse and proper timing is poaching your eggs. But according to José Andrés in a video posted on TikTok, "one of the saddest things in the history of mankind is a poached egg." Fortunately, he offers a far better method of cooking your eggs that takes a little more time, but according to him comes out perfect as a result.
This method involves slowly cooking your eggs in water that is at a precise temperature where the eggs can coagulate. Andrés recommends that your water be 147 degrees, though anywhere in the neighborhood of 143 to 148 degrees should work. From there, you will cook your eggs for 35 to 40 minutes. That combination of temperature and timing will yield a perfectly cooked egg that Andrés considers to be much better quality than your garden-variety poached egg.
9. Save a trip to the grocery store and use what you already have
For many of us, planning out our trips to the grocery store involve coming up with ideas for what we want to eat that week, looking up the recipes to identify the necessary ingredients, and building a shopping list for those meals. While that is certainly a good place to start, there are more effective ways to save money on your next grocery trip. José Andrés offers an easy tip to keep your grocery budget as lean as possible in a video shared on TikTok.
In the video, Andrés suggests opening up your refrigerator first before looking up any special recipes or writing down any extensive grocery lists. In this particular instance, he is seen showing all of the ingredients to be used in a cocido, or a Spanish stew. He confesses that while it is not a perfect recipe, this approach helps him make sure he uses everything in his kitchen so nothing goes to waste. Plus, it saves a trip to the grocery store.
10. Stop overcooking your Brussels sprouts
Brussels sprouts are notorious for coming out brilliant or frightening, depending on how they are prepared. The general school of thought these days is to make sure you are roasting them in the oven and that you are not solely boiling them. There are many ways that cooking Brussels sprouts can go awry, and one of the quickest ways to turn a dish into a total train wreck is by overcooking it.
As José Andrés explains on TikTok, overcooking Brussels sprouts is one of the biggest reasons people are often so turned off by the vegetable. If you are new to cooking Brussels sprouts, you will definitely want to keep an eye on the timer so that they do not burn in the oven. While Brussels sprouts tend to do better in high heat, you want to make sure you are not overcooking them too quickly. This is especially true if the Brussels sprouts you are preparing are on the smaller side.
11. Chop garlic like a professional chef
We have all been there: You read through a recipe and discover that the prep work involves chopping garlic. You breathe a heavy sigh, knowing that just added several extra minutes of prep work to your dish. This is why knowing how to peel and chop garlic is an important skill to learn. This is not only because garlic can add so much flavor to a dish, but because learning how to chop the right way can save you a lot of time in the kitchen. And like any culinary skill, there is a simple hack that you can learn to save yourself even more time.
When the occasion calls to finely chop your garlic, it can feel intimidating to use a sharp knife on such a small clove of garlic. Instead, do as José Andrés suggests in a TikTok video and use a microplane grater to finely chop the garlic. It is a quick and easy way to get ultra-fine minced garlic in a matter of seconds that can then be added to any dish.
12. Your hands are best when opening a pomegranate
Even though it may cost extra at the grocery store, there are times when pre-chopped fruits and vegetables make sense, especially when it is an ingredient that is notoriously difficult to work with. One of those fruits is pomegranate with its extra-tough exterior. While you might think that pomegranate is best handled with a sharp knife, José Andrés actually makes a convincing case for a tool in the kitchen that is completely free and easy to find: your hands.
In a video shared on TikTok, Andrés demonstrates how simple it is to open a pomegranate with your bare hands. His argument for using your hands is in part due to the fact that cutting it with a knife can break the seeds that are found at the center of the fruit. As he shows in the video, pomegranates are actually quite easy to open once you break into the skin, so it only takes a little bit of effort. Once open, your hands can more easily pop the seeds out of the fruit.