The heat is on - Nick Nairn Cook School

It's 8pm, your guests are about to arrive – and dinner is going up in smoke. How can you stay cool and calm in the kitchen? The secret, says Nick Nairn in our second helping from his new book, all lies in the preparation

I had a friend who wanted to invite some people round for dinner. He made a few phone calls from work, planned the meal for 8pm, then sat back and relaxed in the convivial glow that comes with planning a gastronomic evening in the company of good friends.

Dropping into the supermarket on his way home, he picked up a basket and thought he'd just do that Delia dish with the chicken and pesto he'd seen in a magazine, and maybe that Jamie dessert with the raspberries. He couldn't remember the exact recipes, but they hadn't looked too hard. An hour later he emerged pushing a massive trolley bulging with top-quality produce, most of which he'd bought 'just in case'.

At home he discovered there wasn't enough space in the fridge for all the food and his work surfaces were still cluttered with yesterday's dishes. Then the real world paid a visit: the phone rang, someone came to the door collecting for charity, the kids ran in, the dog knocked over the raspberries, and to cap it all, the magazine with that chicken recipe in it had long since vanished down the back of the sofa.

Things began to go horribly wrong as he guessed the ingredients, turned the oven on too high (he meant to adjust it later) and forgot he needed toothpicks to hold his pesto-stuffed chicken together. As it cooked, the pesto squirted out all over the elements like toothpaste, catching fire and filling the kitchen with smoke, and my friend, who was now getting hot under the apron, began to wonder why he'd bothered.

It was about this point, so I am told, that the bottle of nice chardonnay he'd bought began to look very tempting. One glass to steady the nerves led to another as he realised he was out of time, the chicken was burnt and the raspberries were on the floor, and it wasn't long before the whole meal and the empty wine bottle were in the bin, and he was on the phone calling for a takeaway to save the day.

If you have ever had an experience like this, you probably thought: Never again. That was a disaster. I can't cook. But all that's really happened is you've tried to do too much in too short a space of time without enough planning.

If that strikes a chord, you might be interested to know how big restaurants manage to dish up so many meals to so many people on a nightly basis, and without all this panic. There's no big secret, it's just preparation, what chefs call mise en place. Literally translated as 'set in place', to a chef it means having everything ready before you start cooking, and this includes preparing as much as you can in advance – all the more so when preparing fish dishes, such as the ones overleaf. You can't pull a great meal out of the ether, and if you try, chances are you'll end up hot, bothered and throwing in the tea-towel.

Structuring your cooking time like this is not about trying to be perfect, it's about making things easier on yourself. How many times have you tried to do a big dinner party and been stuck in the kitchen with your hair plastered across your face, cheeks pink, listening to the distant sound of tinkling glasses and laughter? You just end up feeling like a kitchen slave.

One of the secrets of success lies in having a well-stocked store cupboard, with all the essentials close to hand (see panel, right). The other is to look at a dinner party as a reheat job. That's what I do. I'd never plan to cook three complicated courses all at once, but rather top and tail the meal with, say, a simple soup or cold dish like smoked salmon and dressed leaves and then a dessert such as a panna cotta that can be made in advance and whipped out of the fridge at the last minute. It's helpful to sit down and plan your menu like this.

Most of us have quite narrow culinary horizons and a repertoire limited to five or six dishes. But if you want to progress as a cook, you will eventually have to move out of this comfort zone and cook new things. But my last words of advice would be not to do this wholesale. Don't cook a whole new menu for a dinner party. Stick to a couple of dishes you're comfortable with, and plan to change one at a time to improve your repertoire and increase your skills. Allow yourself to be challenged and you'll be amazed by the results.

So, with all that in mind, why not tackle the mouthwatering recipe for scallops and pancetta overleaf.

READER OFFER

Extracted from Nick Nairn Cook School (£20, Cassell Illustrated) © Nick Nairn/Octopus Publishing Group Ltd. To buy the book at the special offer price of £16 (free P&P), call 01903 828503 and quote ref CAM32. Offer subject to availability.

STORE CUPBOARD ESSENTIALS

Most of us have store cupboards that are full of ancient jars of who-knows-what, but we can't bring ourselves to clear them out and start again. Take a wet Saturday afternoon and work your way to the back. Even the most fastidious of us will have something that's out of date, so check and chuck out anything that's past its best. If you haven't used something in a year you probably never will, so ditch it and claim back the space.

After all, if your cupboard is a mess, you'll never find what you want. So if you're re-stocking, try to put things in some sort of order. I use a couple of shoe boxes at home to keep my herbs and spices tidy – it's such a simple solution. Use your cooking habits as a rough guide to what you should have in store, but here are a few basics that I wouldn't be without.

Salt and pepper

Use sea salt rather than table salt, which has anti-caking chemicals such as calcium silicate added. At the Cook School, we use Maldon sea salt, which has big soft, flaky crystals that you can crush between your fingers. Maldon salt has a clean, iodide-type flavour.

White pepper and black pepper come from the same plant, black being the dried, unripe berries and white being the seed. For the best black pepper, look out for the Indian varieties Tellicherry and Malabar. Always buy whole peppercorns, the fresher the better, and get yourself a good grinder.

Dried herbs

I use dried herbs (basil, oregano and thyme) for long, slow cooking, where the more intense flavours have a chance to mellow and absorb into the dish. They lose their potency within weeks of opening, so keep them stored in air-tight containers.

Ground spices

Like dried herbs, ground spices quickly lose their distinctive flavours, so if you can, buy whole seeds and grind them as needed in a spice mill or pestle and mortar. If you toast them before grinding, it intensifies the flavour. I keep coriander, cumin, cardamom seed and cinnamon bark. Ground Garam Masala, ginger, paprika and cayenne are good too.

Curry paste

The advantage of a paste is that the spices are already cooked out, so you'll find it less harsh than a powder.

Sugar

For me, unrefined sugar is the only choice; give it a sniff and you'll appreciate that whack of molasses character. In contrast, refined sugar has virtually no scent. Keep golden-brown granulated and caster. I also like to keep unrefined icing sugar in a duster – perfect for topping a crème brûlée before blasting it with a blowtorch.

Stock cubes

Your number-one option for stock is making your own. Your second option is to find a good liquid stock (many supermarkets now do ready-made fresh stocks – though they can be salty). Your third is stock cubes. Commercial cubes tend to be very strong, so only use with dishes that can hold their own in terms of flavour, such as a beef and red wine casserole or minestrone soup.

Garlic

The bulbs of garlic you buy at the supermarket or greengrocer are usually dried, and if stored properly (in a dry place at room temperature and away from direct sunlight) they should keep for weeks, or even months. The flavour of garlic varies depending on how you prepare it: halved bulbs or whole cloves for a sweet, subtle flavour; finely diced for something with more oompf.

Flour

Once opened, flour must be kept in an air-tight container and should keep for a few months. Cornflour is a thickening agent used mainly for sauces and stews, though I prefer to use arrowroot (it doesn't go opaque or leave a trace of starchiness).

Raising agents

Shop-bought baking powder is the easiest raising agent to use, but you can make your own simple baking powder by mixing 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda with 2 tbsp cream of tartar. 1 tsp of this will turn 200g of plain flour into self-raising flour.

Rice

There are loads of different varieties of rice, but you only need to keep basmati and risotto. All rice contains two different types of starch, and it's the relative amounts of each (as well as your cooking methods) that determine its ultimate stickiness. Basmati has a lot of stable starch molecules so tends not to clump together when cooked. Risotto (such as arborio or carnaroli) contains a core of stable starch surrounded by more sticky starch, and when this layer is scraped off with stirring, it gives risotto its characteristic creaminess. You can also use risotto rice to make rice pudding.

Dried pasta

The crucial thing with pasta is matching the shape to the sauce – you want something that picks up the maximum amount of sauce possible. Thinner shapes, such as spaghetti, are best for thinner, butter- or oil-based sauces, whereas thicker shapes are better for heavy sauces. Choose a pasta shape with holes or ridges for sauces with chunks as they help to pick up the 'bits'.

Dried noodles

Noodles come in many forms – I find egg noodles are the best, and medium ones hold a decent amount of sauce, cooking in around four minutes. I'm not a fan of glass noodles – they tend to go a bit slimy when cooked – but fine rice noodles are fantastic when deep-fried.

Oils

Standard blended olive oils have a mild flavour and are suitable both for frying and dressing salads. Pay a bit more for extra-virgin or the top single-estate oils and you'll enter a world of big flavours. Use these oils for dressings and sauces (never for frying, as they break down at high temperatures). Sunflower oil is good for shallow-frying.

Vinegar

Vinegars can add a real depth of flavour. Keep a white-wine vinegar, such as chardonnay, for general use, and a cabernet sauvignon vinegar for dishes that can stand up to the strong, distinctive flavour. A decently aged balsamic has a fab flavour, and is great for salad dressings or with strawberries.

Tinned anchovy fillets

The ones in oil are best, and the fillets are fat, pink and luscious. Ortiz is one of the top brands. Cheaper ones tend to be pickled in vinegar.

Honey

I mostly use Scottish heather honey for its depth and complexity of flavour. It's a million miles from the stuff you get in plastic bottles for drizzling.

Tinned tomatoes

Buy Italian – San Marzano if you can get it, and brands like Vitale and Mutti. I've found non-Italian brands can be watery and quite acidic, and tins of chopped tomatoes in particular are often produced from inferior quality toms. A bottle of tomato ketchup is also good for adding richness to soups and casseroles.

Soy sauce

A Japanese brand is best, such as Kikkoman's, and I prefer light soy sauce. Look out for Kecap Manis, a thick, sweet soy sauce from Indonesia, great for dips.

Thai fish sauce

Essential in Asian cookery. It may smell of a Bombay sewer but, used judiciously, it tastes heavenly. Very high in salt, though.

Worcestershire sauce

Anchovy-based, but not as powerful as Thai fish sauce, its more complex flavour is great in Bloody Marys, soups, casseroles and marinades.

Sweet chilli sauce

All good chilli sauces should contain only chilli, sugar, vinegar and salt. Look for ones that are manufactured in Asia, as they tend to be better quality.

Dried mushrooms

Dried mushrooms such as ceps and morels keep for ages. Reconstituted by soaking in water, they provide an intense flavour and are perfect on their own or mixed with fresh mushrooms, added to soups, sauces and casseroles.

Fresh as a sea breeze

FISH

There are few things as delicious as a well-cooked piece of spanking fresh fish. Really fresh fish has a wonderful pronounced flavour, which unfortunately starts to recede very quickly. So the most important thing to look for is that it's fresh, fresh, fresh!

A fish caught less than 48 hours before you buy it will offer great eating potential regardless of what species it is. Fish that's been lingering in ice and polystyrene for several days simply won't. But how do you tell what's fresh and what's fit for the cat?

Buying whole fish makes this easier – get your fishmonger to fillet it for you – and look for the following:

Smell: The definitive sign of freshness. Don't be afraid to stick your hooter in and give it a really good sniff. It's the best way of judging quality. What you're looking for is a clean, iodine smell, like the sea. If the fish actually smells fishy, it's on its way out.

Eyes: They should be bright and pronounced.

Gills: As a fish ages, the blood in the gills begins to oxidise and go brown. Fresh fish will have nice pink or red gills. If the gills are pink, but the eyes are shrunken and look burst, the fish may have been frozen.

Slime: A slimy fish is a really fresh fish, as the slime only clings to the body for a couple of days.

Firmness: Firm fish is a good thing. Avoid anything soggy or soft.

SHELLFISH

The key to sweet, succulent shellfish is ensuring that what you're going to prepare is alive right up to the moment you cook it. All shellfish deteriorate rapidly once dead, and crustaceans in particular, such as lobster and langoustine, contain digestive enzymes that quickly leak out into their bodies after they're killed, breaking down the flesh until it becomes soft and inedible.

Luckily, your nose should keep you right – when fresh, they'll smell of a sea breeze and seaweed. If there's any whiff of ammonia or fishiness, don't touch them.

SCALLOPS

Always look for hand-caught scallops, which will have been individually selected and picked off the seabed by skilled divers. They're expensive because of the effort and risks involved, but well worth it. Other scallops will be dredged, a process that can force sand into the scallop shells, damaging them and sometimes suffocating the scallop inside. It also tends to ruin the seabed.

Hand-caught scallops are usually shucked straight away and then soaked in water – which they absorb like little sponges – before being sold by weight. They may look nice and plump when you buy them, but when you try to cook them they squeak the water out into the pan like cheap bacon, making it very difficult to caramelise them properly. Look for king rather than queen scallops (which are much smaller) and try shucking them yourself at home (see panel above).

When it comes to freshness, trust your nose, and if they're open, give them a tap to ensure they start to close. But watch your fingers – scallops are strong.

TECHNIQUE: Preparing scallops

Like all shellfish, scallops are at their best when absolutely fresh. The only way to ensure this is to buy them in their shells and shuck them yourself at home. This is the technique for shucking king scallops.

1 Grip the shell, holding the hinged end at the join of your thumb and forefinger. It may help to balance the shell edge on your work surface, or on a tea towel, but it's not essential.

2 Insert the knife into the side of the shell, close to the flat hinge where there is a natural gap. Pressing the knife against the inside of the flat shell, sweep the blade across from top to the bottom and you will feel yourself cutting through the muscle that holds the shell in place.

When this is done, open the flat shell back and twist it off.

3 Hold the shell in the palm of your hand, with the flat hinge edge parallel to your thumb. To the top you will see where the muscle (white meat) connects to the shell, and the pink/white roe surrounded by an outer frill with little 'eyes'. Use a spoon to loosen the contents from the shell.

4 Lift the contents, holding the part that was previously connecting the scallop to the shell in your left hand and use your thumb to run back and forth to break the connection with the white muscle.

5 Once it has been loosened, you will then be able to push the white meat up, which will simultaneously pop the meat out from its skirt.

6 Pull away the skirt and the rest of the debris, leaving the white meat in your hand. Place the scallop meat in a bowl while you shuck the others. Wash the meat and roe for no more than 30 seconds and store them on absorbent cloth or paper. The frills can be discarded or thoroughly washed under running water to remove the slime, then frozen for use in stocks.

THE COOK SCHOOL DEFINITIVE BUTTER SAUCE

Makes 350ml

30g very finely chopped shallots
30ml white-wine vinegar
45ml dry white wine
15ml double cream
120g unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
freshly squeezed lemon juice
Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper
cayenne pepper

Place the shallots, vinegar, wine and 30ml water in a small, heavy-based saucepan and reduce over a medium heat until just over a quarter remains.

Add the cream and boil for one minute.

The classic way to prepare this dish is to take the pan off the heat and add the butter piece by piece. But our method is to keep it on the heat, dump in all the chilled, diced butter at once and whisk for all you're worth. This will work, but the temperature is critical: if you see any sign of the sauce boiling at the edges (conspicuous puffs of steam are a sure indication that the mix is too hot), remove it from the heat, but keep whisking. The target temperature for the mix is 50¼C. If the temperature becomes too high, the sauce will boil and split; too low, and the butterfat will start to set and also split. The sauce should be smooth and shiny but with no sign of an oily film on the surface; this would mean that the butter has not been successfully emulsified into the sauce.

Season to taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper and cayenne and keep warm ready for use.

PART ONE: 'You know what? You can cook!'