How many of Buddy Oliver’s top cooking tips do you know?

Buddy Oliver may just be 13, but he already knows his way around a kitchen. Could you or your child learn a thing or two from him?

Buddy Oliver has been learning cookery skills from one of the best (his dad, Jamie Oliver) since age four.

As you can imagine, he’s picked up some hacks, tricks and techniques along the way. In his new CBBC series Cooking Buddies, we see him help other children to make the dish of their dreams and in exchange they teach him a skill that they have mastered, from dance to football.

While making the dishes on the show, Buddy highlights some impressive cooking skills. So, whether you’re a child or adult watching the show, could you pick up some new tricks of the trade? Here’s some of our favourites from the series…

Use ‘the claw’ for chopping

“This is one of the most common techniques you’ll use,” explains Buddy. The claw is the go-to method for chopping longer vegetables like carrots, celery and courgettes. Buddy explains: “Curl your fingers into a claw shape and use your knuckles as a guide to help. That way your fingers are kept totally out of the way from the blade.”

Finding it hard to picture? Here’s Buddy in action…

Make your breadcrumbs special with a budget ingredient

Buddy uses breadcrumbs in several recipes, including homemade fish fingers and crispy chicken . But rather than just sticking bread into the food processor, he ups the flavour by adding just one commonly-used ingredient.

For example, in his crispy chicken recipe he adds half a clove of garlic and in the fish fingers recipe, a grating of cheddar. Just adding one of these budget ingredients increases the flavour tenfold. And another breadcrumb tip? If you haven’t got a food processor, just use a slice of frozen bread and grate it.

Now make:

• Tinned mackerel spaghetti with lemon chilli breadcrumbs
• Glamorgan sausages
• Breaded chicken nuggets

Make a dinner staple with just egg, flour and a pinch of salt

OK, we all know that shop-bought pasta – both dried and fresh is the ultimate in convenience food, it’s quick to cook and budget-friendly. However, Buddy points out that homemade pasta – which feels special, is also easy to make and uses just three store-cupboard staples, flour, an egg and a sprinkle of salt.

Now make:

• Fresh pasta dough
• Microwave creamy fresh tomato pasta
• Creamy pasta with broccoli and sweetcorn

Get creative with pancakes

Pancakes are a great recipe for beginners. The only tricky bit is getting the heat right so they cook through without browning too much. If you don’t know when to flip them, look for bubbles to appear on the surface. That’s a sign they’re ready to be turned over. Turn down the heat a bit if they're browning too much.

Buddy also highlights that you don’t just have to top or fill them with ingredients, you can also blend them directly into the batter. He does this when making a spinach pancake bake that resembles lasagne (coming soon). Not only does it give them a vibrant colour, but it also adds nutrients and flavour.

Now make:

• Fluffy American pancakes
• Pancakes recipe
• Green pancakes

Use your shell

It’s a problem we’ve all faced, no matter how ‘clean’ the break, occasionally you find bits of eggshell amongst your egg. Avoid the frustrating dance between cutlery and moving shell in the egg white, by scooping it out with the remaining shell – effectively using it like a ladle. It’s far quicker than using cutlery and less messy than using your fingers. Buddy demonstrates this technique when making the fish finger sandwich. “That’s a really good tip, that helps a lot,” says his cooking buddy on the episode.

Now make:

• How to make perfect scrambled eggs
• Kids’ easy omelette
• Easy breakfast wrap

Try the jam jar technique

Save time and washing up when you’re making a salad dressing and put all of your ingredients in a clean jam jar instead of using a bowl and whisk. Just screw the lid on and shake. It’s the quickest and easiest method and you've automatically got a container to store any leftover dressing in.

Now make:

• Three salad dressings
• Cobb salad
• Mixed bean salad

You don’t always need yeast for bread

From pizza dough to tortillas, some types of bread contain just flour and water, a pinch of salt and maybe a bit of oil. What’s more, there’s no long proving or resting required – just 20 minutes will be fine. And if you want a tangy taste you can use yoghurt instead of the water. You can even make them gluten-free.

Now make:

• Tortilla wraps
• Chicken TikTok wraps
• Gluten-free tortilla wraps

Give it a squeeze

Looking for the easiest way to get your avocado stone out? You don’t need a spoon or to stick a knife into it, just give the halved avocado a squeeze on the side and it should pop out. If it doesn’t? That means your avocado isn’t quite ripe yet.

Now make:

• Smashed avocado on toast
• Avocado eggs
• Pasta with avocado and peas and mint

Watch Cooking Buddies on CBBC and iPlayer from 10 July, 2024

Originally published July 2024