You can fall into dull routines in your kitchen. You can make it more exciting by turning cooking into a hobby. The tips can give you a start toward becoming an excellent cook.
Apples tend to be a big ingredient during fall and winter, but they tend to spoil quickly if not stored properly. Apples rot in dry warm air, so store them in loosely tied plastic bags in the refrigerator or a cool basement. Check them frequently, since if one apple goes bad, the rest will quickly follow.
Being organized is a key step when planning to prepare a meal for your family or friends. Make sure that you have all of the ingredients ready. This process will reduce your stress level and anxiety levels.
Regardless of the recipe, you can always bet that a fresh ingredient is better than its dried or frozen counterpart. Whenever possible, incorporate fresh ingredients; they enhance the flavor of other ingredients and may even be less expensive.
Slice meat thinly on the bias when prepping for stir-fry. This can be quite tricky and be hard to do.
If you are going to be making chicken stock, it is best to go big or not at all. Plan on preparing a large batch so that the excess can be frozen and used later. A rich chicken stock makes a savory base for soups, stews and other dishes. Put the stock into freezer bags and put it in your freezer.
This will help your food more flavorful when it is ready to serve.
Going over labels on ingredients for what you’re going to make to eat is important to do. Most cooking supplies have hidden ingredients that could be unhealthy. You want to ensure that anything you buy is not high in sugar or salt because both can cause major health problems if eaten too much.
Sharp knives are an essential to cooking. Dull knives are hard to cut with and the certainly make chopping difficult.
If you find that making a whole dinner at once is too much work, do parts of your food preparation the night before. Easy ways to prep in advance include cutting up any ingredients that needs chopping, throwing together the ingredients for any sauces or marinades or assembling a casserole before you head to bed for the night. Preparing your meal the next night will be a snap, and much more relaxing.
The downside of tasty ingredients like garlic can transfer to your hands easily. Try rubbing your hands on stainless steel sink after you work with the garlic or other potent ingredients. This will clean your hands and prevent the smell that can get onto to the food that you have to handle next.
Your cutting board retains the odors of certain herbs and vegetables despite repeated scrubbings. Mark the end of your cutting board with indelible ink to remember which side is which.
Never throw away your leftovers whenever you have cooked a turkey for Thanksgiving or another meal. Cut it up and put it away in airtight containers. The turkey meat will keep its freshness and can stay fresh for making sandwiches or as a salad ingredient.
It is a good idea to store unripened fruits in perforated plastic bags. As fruits ripen, ethylene gas is released. Bags with holes will prevent already-ripened fruit from rotting, since the ethylene gas can escape; on the other hand, under-ripened fruit benefits from a bag without holes, since the gas that causes ripening is retained.
You should discard your spices about twice a year.The flavor of spices fade just a few months after opening the container. If you do not think you will use all of the spice within six months, give some to a family member or friend.
Put your fresh herbs together in a bunch and use kitchen shears to cut them all at once. This method of cutting herbs provides a drier, more flavorful product than chopping.
If you are going to use fresh herbs, such as dill or parsley in your meal, form them into bunches and cut them with scissors. This will keep them drier and less heavy than chopped with a knife.
While engaged in cooking, get in the habit of cleaning dishes as you finish using them. Have full sinks of wash and rinse water at the ready. Utensils and mixing bowls are easy to rinse off right after being used and will be nice and clean for the next ingredient in your meal.
You can reduce the cleanup required from meal preparation by washing dishes as they are used.
Prior to cooking ground meat, blot it with a paper towel. Before cooking ground meat it is always important to blot away moisture. Leaving it can cause the liquid to release when cooking. The water will be cooked away. When this happens, your ground meat may actually steam, instead of searing like you want it to.
There is sulfurous gasses in onions. This unappetizing gas by-product can ruin the flavor of your salsa. Rinsing the chopped onions with cold water removes this gas.
To make your pasta sauce a little better, use some of the water that you cooked your noodles in. Use about a fourth of a cup for this tip. When you are going to mix your pasta and sauce together, add some of the saved water. The starch from the pasta water will add body and a “creaminess” to your sauce through amalgamation.
There are many ways to correctly heat a tortilla in the right way. One of the easiest methods is to simply place tortillas on an oven at a temperature of 350 degrees and watch it closely until it is heated to perfection. You can also heat the tortillas by placing them on a gas stove. These techniques will result in a delicious tortilla.
Use high-quality utensils to cut with in the kitchen. Besides letting you work faster, a sharp knife is actually less likely to cause injury. Dull, hard-to-control knives cause far more cuts and accidents than well-sharpened ones do.
Fresh Herbs
Timing is a crucial element when baking a cake. Box times are more of guidelines than the actual time a cake should be baked. This is due to various factors that can make a difference, such as elevation. To determine if your cake is done, use a toothpick or clean knife blade to find out. Poke it gently into the center of the cake. The cake is ready if the toothpick comes out clean; if not, let the cake bake some more.
Fresh herbs and different types of seasonings can add a kick to the traditional dish. Dried herbs lose flavor as they cook and are fine to use in recipes that have a variety of flavors. Fresh herbs produce a stronger flavor and can improve the taste of any dish.
When you are working with a fruit or vegetable you are unfamiliar with, take some time to learn about it. Your new food item could be quite versatile in use, so it is good to do the homework. Becoming knowledgeable should precede any work you do in the kitchen, and it will also help in giving you a more enjoyable cooking experience.
Learn a little bit about any new foods that you haven’t cooked with before. You might be surprised how much you can do with that your research leads to many great new ways to use the food.
Butter should be softened but not fully melted before being creamed with sugar. Should your butter already be melted, simply place it in your freezer for a short time or use it anyway and chill the resulting dough prior to baking. Reducing the temperature of the dough will stop the butter from spreading.
A wonderful cooking method to help maintain moisture and flavor in your poultry is to first brine the bird. Soak any poultry in the brine mixture for at least an hour prior to cooking to enhance the flavor.
One unique grilling option is fruit. Thread sliced melon, peaches or nectarines on a skewer. Place them on a grill that is clean, and cook until you see grill marks on the fruit. There are a lot of different ways to serve grilled fruit. For example, try ice cream and pound cake.
You can use bouillon cubes in the water that you are using. This gives the food while adding more flavor.
Ketchup can be used to batter foods before they are fried. Ketchup is a tasty condiment when used for dipping finished foods, but you can also dip chicken, veggies, or other breaded foods into it before rolling them in breadcrumbs. Ketchup gives an unexpected burst of flavor to the foods you fry, and everyone will want to know why!
Use softened butter instead of melted butter when you are creaming sugar and butter to make cookies. If the butter is melted, put the bowl in the freezer to solidify it a little bit, or you could place the dough into the refrigerator after you mix all the ingredients. Your cookies will be less likely to spread if you make sure your dough is cool.
Leafy greens are very good for you but it may be hard to prepare them. They often have tough stems, which must be removed. Try folding the leaf across and breaking the stem out through the middle. If not try using a knife to chop out the stem from the folded leaf. When you unfold the leaves there will be perfect de-stemmed greens.
Make a flavored butter to it. Then mix in herbs, herbs or spices to give the butter that extra kick. Some great things to try are honey, honey, lemon juice or BBQ sauce.
Make some flavored butter to add to your dinner rolls or corn for an exciting experience. Allow the butter to reach room temperature, or warm it in the microwave. Include a variety of spices, sauces and seasonings to add a savory kick. Lemon juice, chipotles, BBQ and honey are some things to try.
Put the juiciest ingredients like tomatoes on the bottom, juicier ingredients like tomatoes on the bottom and lighter ingredients like lettuce and croutons on top.
When you are making a salad to serve at a potluck dinner, layer it to retain maximum freshness. Tomatoes and other juicy ingredients should be on the bottom layer and lettuce along with any other ingredients which might wilt or get soggy should be on the top.
Mashed Potatoes
For a homemade soup that is very low in fat, use fat-free stock or broth as your base. The goal is to make the soup as low fat as possible, so lean meat and masses of vegetables are next to go into the pot. After cooking, refrigerate your soup and let it cool off. The excess fat will float to the top and congeal. You can remove and get rid of this hardened fat. You will be eliminating roughly 100 calories for every tablespoon of fat you remove.
When making mashed potatoes, mix the potatoes using hot, non-boiling water prior to mashing them. This alternative to the addition of cold milk will make your potatoes that light and airy texture that you desire. Nobody looks forward to mashed potatoes full of lumps.
When the insides of fresh fruits are exposed to air, they tend to turn brown. Bananas, pears, peaches, avocados and apples are some of the fruits that brown when sliced. While saltwater and lemon are both effective preservatives, pineapple juice is the best way to preserve your fruit without affecting its flavor. Just briefly dipping it will work, so you don’t need to let the fruit soak.
Try experimenting with saffron when you want to try new spices. Saffron lends a sunny flavor. Saffron is an old herb that hasn’t lost its delight.
Eat hearty winter greens. Once the first frost occurs, winter greens like kale, collards and broccoli rabe taste a lot sweeter. The best greens will be deeply and brightly colored and won’t show any signs of limpness or yellowing. These types of greens often need a thorough washing to remove dirt from the ground. Put the greens into a bowl, cover them with cool water, shake them off, and then rinse them under running water until all traces of dirt have been removed.
Fresh fruits like avocados, such as apples, pears, bananas, peaches and pears are likely to turn brown when sliced and exposed to air. Lemon or salt water can do an adequate job of staving off the browning process, but the best flavor to use to stop the browning is by dipping the fruit in pineapple juice. A quick dip will work just fine, so don’t worry about leaving it to soak.
If you are cooking dried beans, add salt and garlic once the beans are soft. Salt and garlic in particular can hinder softening while cooking, particularly if the beans had been sitting on the shelf for a long while. So instead, allow the beans to cook partially before you add the seasonings. Then you will get the desired texture.
It is a common mistake to overly season a dish with salt, but this problem can be rectified! Just drop in a couple of potato chunks, allowing them to simmer for approximately fifteen minutes. The potato pieces will soak up the extra salt like a sponge. If your dish is tomato-based, just put more tomatoes in it to cut the saltiness, and cook them until tender.
Fix your pie crust! Dough that has been overworked will crack when you roll it out. After putting a little cold water on the crack, repair it by gently rubbing the dough together using your index finger. If there are cracks on top of the crust, brush milk on it and then sprinkle sugar over top. After the crust has finished baking the glaze that appears will cover any cracks that may be present.
Use the ideas presented here as a jumping off point for your own ideas. You can make great meals that your family will appreciate and you can relax while you cook. If you take up cooking recreationally, you can improve your diet and have a lot of fun, too. Your kitchen should be the place your family goes for some good home cookin’.
