A lot of people think cooking involves a life of drudgery spent chained to the stove, and they try to avoid it as much as possible. This article has many suggestions so that you can enjoy cooking.
Add some interest to a basic ear of corn or dinner roll by using flavored butter. Allow your butter to become soft by sitting at room temperature or placing in the microwave for a couple seconds. When soft, throw in some spices, herbs or sauces to give it an extra kick. You can dabble in any sort of taste from hot peppers to acidic citrus, or even the sweetness of honey.
To maintain the flavor and freshness of spices and herbs, make sure you keep them stored in someplace that is cool and dark. Humidity, light and heat can cause your spices and herbs to lose their flavor. Herbs and spices that are ground usually remain flavorful for a year. Whole spices can keep their flavor for up to five years. If you keep these properly stored, they can sometimes stay fresh for an even longer period of time.
When you are cooking beans that are dry, wait until the beans are soft. Salt and garlic can both keep your beans from getting soft as they’re cooking, particularly beans that are old. You should also hold off on adding seasoning until the beans are partly cooked. This will give you the desired texture.
Boiling and other long preparation methods tend to eliminate key nutrients in vegetables. To keep them loaded with nutrients that are beneficial to your body, chose faster cooking methods like steaming or sauteing, or enjoy them raw.
Cook your veggies in chicken broth! Not only will the chicken broth stop the vegetables from getting stuck to the pan, but it will also make the dish more tasty. Chicken broth is economical and widely available.
Do not throw your sauce away. This simple trick can save it. Combine a tablespoon of starch with two tablespoons of water. Stir this solution into your simmering thin sauce until it thickens. Add the starch slowly and stir the sauce constantly to avoid making it too thick.
When recipes call for wooden skewers, make sure to soak them for half an hour at least before you use them. Using this method, you will not burn them when you’re cooking. Double up on the skewers per kebab to ensure that nothing falls off of them.
Regardless of what you cook, it is always better to use fresh ingredients as opposed to those that are dried or frozen. The more fresh ingredients you use in your cooking, the better your dishes will be. Fresh ingredients have more flavor, and are less costly than frozen and canned ingredients.
You can reduce the fat and calorie content of regular mashed potatoes by substituting part of the potatoes with mashed cauliflower. This won’t affect the taste but it adds a handful of nutrition. Because cauliflower has a pretty bland taste, it blends well with the potatoes and enhances the flavors of the other ingredients. Additionally, mashed cauliflower has the same texture and color as mashed potatoes, so no one will know that you’ve boosted the veggie content of the dish while removing calories.
You can use it on other foods besides meat. Put in on pumpkin seeds or in scrambled eggs to add a new flavor. It will be hard for people to guess where the flavor is coming from!
This article describes a number of ways to add more life and enjoyment to your cooking. Following the advice presented above will help you see cooking as way to get creative, instead of it being boring and annoying.