Secrets of the Best Chefs

IF YOU NEED to save time in the kitchen, use a pressure cooker.
You can make lentils in just 5 minutes, and chickpeas, which
normally take 2½ hours to cook, take only 55 minutes. Plus,
stock made in a pressure cooker comes out crystal clear.
WHEN YOU KNOW ingredients are going to cook together—
celery and carrots in a soup, for example—cut them to the same
thickness so they cook in the same time.
WHILE SOME CHEFS insist that you have to soak beans or
chickpeas before cooking them (see Peter Dale’s recipe), Raij
disagrees. “I don’t find that soaking impacts the quality of the
beans,” she says. (She simply pours them straight from the bag
into simmering water.) Also, somewhat subversively, she
doesn’t believe in waiting to salt the beans or chickpeas at the
end. She salts them early in the cooking process, arguing that it
won’t affect the texture.