Do you drool enviously over the many attractive and tasty meals other people prepare? Do you wish you had the talent to offer your family these works of art? Your cooking abilities will improve by reading this article.
Layer salads properly when you are preparing a salad in advance. Put the juiciest components at the bottom. For example, the tomatoes should be on the very bottom of the serving bowl. Those ingredients that might become soggy or wilt should be near the top; one such ingredient is lettuce.
Accurately measure the amounts of cooking oil you use! Pouring straight from a bottle does not give you an accurate idea of how much fat you are using, which can result in overindulgence. Measuring your oil instead of estimating allows you to closely approximate the fat content in your dish.
If you know that you are going to be having a busy day, get some of the ingredients ready for dinner a head of time. Put together a lasagna that you can refrigerate or freeze, or chop some vegetables for stir frying, and you shave precious time off of a stressful day and still put a tasty warm meal on the table for your family.
You must start your soup or stew with a stock or broth that is fat free, and then you can make the entire dish basically fat free. Add many different types of vegetables and choose a cut of lean meat to add to the soup to make sure that you are keeping the it low-fat. When it is finished, chill the soup before serving it. The fat will rise to the top and congeal. Then you can skim off the firm fat layer and toss it. You will remove not only fat, but also around 100 calories per tablespoon of fat removed.
You can change the flavors of the food you cook by changing up the spice blends that you are using. Adding new spices or finding other sauces to marinate with can result in drastically different tastes. The best place to find exotic spices and new flavors to add to your dishes is your local foreign food store.
A great tip for using cooking oil is to ensure you pour it onto the sides of the pan, rather than directly in the pan’s center, so that it will be sufficiently heated upon reaching the food. This will optimize the flavors in your food in your final dish.
While you are cooking, it’s a great idea to clean the dishes as you go. Fill one side of your sink with hot soapy water and the other with clean rinse water. Mixing bowls and your utensils rinse rather easily and can be cleaned and wiped before the next ingredients in your meal.
If you want to eat well and lose weight, it’s a good idea to decrease the amount of oil you use in cooking. You simply do not need the added fat in a healthy diet. Instead, opt for nonstick cooking spray.
Use the freshest herbs and seasonings available, even when making a simple meal. Dried herbs aren’t quite as conspicuous in more complex or layered dishes. The flavor of dried herbs is more subtle and slightly different than the flavor of fresh ones. Maintaining a miniscule herb garden can be a fabulous way to make sure you can always have some fresh herbs available.
When you are baking pastry crusts, try increasing the cooking time a bit. Go past the usual pale tan color and take them to a caramel gold. When you see the golden color it indicates carmelization, which lends a crisp, sweet flavor to the pie crust.
This article has very useful advice. Soon, your friends and family will be asking you what your cooking secrets are.