The kitchen in your house can seem boring sometimes. With a passion for all things culinary, however, this can change. By striving to achieve excellence in cooking, the kitchen becomes a place where you enjoy working, and your family enjoys the wonderful food you serve. This article will give you some great ideas, to help inspire you to become more creative in the kitchen.
Always cook what you know whenever you are cooking for someone special. You should never attempt to cook some new dish or even a new ingredient you’ve never attempted. You will feel less stressed while cooking if you follow this tip.
You should use chicken broth when you are cooking your vegetables. The chicken broth will help to keep the vegetables from sticking to the pan and will also add some delicious flavor to them. Chicken broth is usually available for relatively low prices at most grocery stores.
Make stews and soups even healthier by using nonfat stock or broth. Also use lean meat and lots of vegetables; this will keep your soup low-fat. After the soup is done cooking, let it chill in the refrigerator. Any excess fat will surface and harden in a layer on the top. Remove these clumps of fat and toss them out. You will save approximately 100 calories for each tablespoon removed.
There are different ways to heat up tortillas. One of the easiest methods is to simply place the tortilla in your oven at a temperature of 350 degrees and watch it closely until it is heated to perfection. An additional option is to place the tortilla on the grill directly, straight above the flame. These methods can give you fresher, and more delicious tortillas.
As you are preparing mashed potatoes for a meal, be sure to use hot, but not boiling milk to stir in with the potatoes. This will result in lighter, fluffier mashed potatoes, than using cold milk. This will turn your mashed potatoes from dull to delightful with virtually no effort.
Use cooking oil to help prevent sticky messes. Prior to measuring, put a little bit of a low-flavor cooking oil on the spoon (canola works well here). This way, the food you are measuring will easily slip off the spoon. This stops you from wasting food and having to clean up afterward. Keep this trick in mind for peanut butter and honey too.
Place unripe fruits in a plastic bags you have poked small holes into. As the fruits ripen, ethylene gas is produced. 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.
Never throw away turkey leftovers. Place the remains in a container and store in the freezer for preservation. With enough leftover turkey, you can enjoy turkey sandwiches and salads for several weeks after the bird was cooked.
Think big if you plan to make chicken stock. Plan on preparing a large pot of stock in order to freeze it for storing. Good chicken stock that you make at home makes a great starter for soups, casseroles, stews and other dishes. Freeze premeasured amounts of your stock in freezer proof containers or bags when cool.
You should read the labels when you are buying ingredients for a recipe. Cooking staples can be full of not-so-nice things that can spoil your health. Do not buy anything that contains a lot of sodium, sugars or fats.
Use these ideas for generating your own. You should be able to prepare foods that your family and you thoroughly enjoy eating. If you take up cooking recreationally, you can improve your diet and have a lot of fun, too. Make eating a pleasure instead of a necessity.