Cooking is a valuable skill that everyone should have. A home-cooked meal is enjoyable to eat by anyone! Not everyone knows how to cook as well as they want to. You can cultivate your existing cooking skills and learn about new ones by reading on.
Many vegetables and herbs have a smell that has a tendency to remain on cutting boards, despite how many times you wash them. You can mark your cutting boards with permanent marker to tell which one or which side is for each type of food.
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. Let your soup chill in the refrigerator when it is done cooking. This allows the remaining fat to congeal on the top. Then, all you have to do is spoon out the excess fat from the top of the soup. This can save you about 100 calories per teaspoon that is removed.
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. Then you want to add some sauce, herbs or spices to give the butter that extra kick. You should give BBQ, lemon juice or honey a try.
Garlic is a wonderful taste, but not such a wonderful smell to have on your hands. If you have a stainless steel sink, simply rub your hands vigorously on the inside of it, when you are finished handling the garlic. This will take care of the odors clinging to your hands and enable you to handle other ingredients without contaminating them with strong aromas.
When cooking a whole pumpkin, place the pumpkin upright first, then cut directly down its middle to create two halves. Place each half of the pumpkin on two separate baking sheets with the cut side facing down. On both sheets put a tiny amount of water, then at a temperature of 350 degrees bake the pumpkin for about an hour.
Fix your pie crust! When your dough is overworked, it often develops cracks in the crust. Simply put cold water on the cracks and rub it. If cracks appear in the top portion of the crust you can brush it with some milk and then sprinkle a little sugar over the cracks. When the pie is done baking, the top crust will be beautifully glazed, concealing all of the cracks.
It is so easy to mistakenly add more salt than is needed, but there is nothing to worry about if it happens. Just chop up some raw potatoes and place them in the sauce, allowing them to simmer for approximately fifteen minutes. These potatoes will absorb all the extra salt in your dish. If it is a recipe that is based on tomatoes, just add more tomatoes in order to dilute the salt. Cook until tender.
Always select fresh garlic for your dishes. By having fresh garlic, it will taste sweeter. If it isn’t soft, bruised or shriveled and it has some firm skin then you know that the garlic is fresh.
As you can see, cooking can be easy. With the right techniques, creating delicious dishes for family and friends can suddenly become a breeze! Now that you have been introduced to these great tips and tricks, you just need to make the time to go and give them a try!