Cooking can be one of the hardest things to learn. Find tips below that give you a few steps to take in mastering the art of cooking well.
Store all spices and herbs in dry, dark and cool conditions to get the maximum amount of flavor from them. Exposure to light, heat and humidity can cause them to lose a lot of their flavor very fast. This will keep them exposed to heat and other unfavorable conditions that zap all of their flavor.
Mix things up if you’re feeling like you and your children want something different instead of using frozen sweet corn. Add a pinch of coconut flakes to your corn for a Thai-inspired taste.
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. Cauliflower blends perfectly with your potatoes without changing the taste of your mashed potatoes. You’ll still be able to enjoy mashed potatoes, but with less fat and calories!
Prepare all of your ingredient before you begin cooking. Doing this will allow you to focus on putting the dish together. You won’t waste electricity by letting something cook just a little longer, so you can prep the ingredients for the next step, or be distracted when cooking with hot oil.
Make your own sun-dried tomatoes. You can do this by slicing your tomatoes about a half an inch thick, or Romas in half. Take a cooling rack and place the tomatoes on it. Sprinkle them with salt. Set the rack on a cookie sheet in an oven at 190 degrees for a 10 hours. Put the bags of tomatoes in your freezer. Another way to preserve your dried tomatoes is in olive oil, with herbs for added flavor, in a glass jar. Place this in the refrigerator and be sure to use it within 2 weeks.
To use all of your leftover vegetables before you go out shopping, try putting them in a wok with some fried rice. Cold, day-old rice works great, but if you desire to use fresh rice be sure to use less water to make the rice drier. Fry up your veggies and meat in a little bit of oil, then add rice, and season your dish with garlic, soy sauce, ginger, white pepper and any other seasonings you like.
When mashing potatoes use hot, but not boiling milk. Using hot milk, instead of cold milk, will make the potatoes much fluffier and less dense. Nobody looks forward to mashed potatoes that are lumpy and bland.
Mushrooms soak up water that you don’t want to be added to the recipe. Try using a clean, wet cloth and wiping them off instead.
It’s vital that you ensure that the utensils you cook with are clean prior to cooking. If old, leftover food is stuck on your cooking utensils, it could ruin the meal you are making. This can also spread harmful bacteria.
Cut down on cooking time by doing your prep work in advance. It’s possible to get and mix ingredients in advance of upcoming meals. Try getting the ingredients together a few days in advance. Sometimes, preparing your ingredients in advance yields a bonus in the form of better flavor. When you become used to preparing your cooking ingredients in advance, you will wonder how you ever managed to cook without this practice.
Cooking is an easy skill to improve just by using the ideas detailed within this article. Knowing what you have learned here, you just need to head to the kitchen and go for it. You’ll improve your cooking and make everyone who has to eat it a happy customer.