Everyone from the novice cook to the professional chef has room to grow in their cooking abilities. Cooking is a key skill that we can improve throughout our lives. Going from someone who doesn’t cook at all to a good cook who enjoys it will take a little time. By following these suggestions, your overall cooking approach will improve.
Your meat need to be sliced thinly across the grain when you are preparing stir-fry. This is not easy to do and could take some time. Take the meat out of the freezer when it’s firm to the touch, and slice across the grain at an angle of 45 degrees.
You can fix a pie crust. If you knead pie dough too much, it tends to crack. After putting a little cold water on the crack, repair it by gently rubbing the dough together using your index finger. Cracks in the fragile top crust of a pie are no problem, either; just brush on a dash of milk and sprinkle the area with sugar. When you remove the repaired pie from the oven it will have a lovely glaze disguising any cracks.
Save yourself some time and stress by doing prep work a day ahead. The prep work should be done before you even start cooking. When you have a limited amount of time, cooking can become stressful. You can save yourself a lot of stress by doing as much preparation ahead of time as you can.
Strain unnecessary fat from the top of your soups and stews. If there is too much fat in your soup or stew, cool the dish completely and allow the fat to rise to the surface. Place an ice cube in a spoon and slowly skim the spoon across the surface of the soup or stew. The fat will accumulate on the ice cube. You can also blot up the fat with a paper towel.
When soaking dry beans such as pinto beans, avoid adding salt until after the beans have re-hydrated and softened. Adding these ahead of time will not allow your beans to cook properly, and this will have more importance if your beans are older. If you are looking for the perfect texture, hold off on the seasonings till the beans are soft.
If you are going to experiment a little with spices, take on one of the best: saffron. Saffron can create a sunny, delicious flavor that you can’t get from anything else. The unique flavor of the herb saffron has ensured its popularity in cooking for thousands of years. Because it is so popular, it is also expensive.
If you are like many others, you have probably mistakenly added too much salt when cooking. Do not fret, though; when this happens, it does not have to stay a disaster. Add two or three peeled and cut potatoes, and let simmer for around 15 minutes. The potatoes will absorb the extra salt that is in the dish. For a tomato-based dish, simply add more tomatoes to dilute the saltiness, and continue cooking until they are tender.
Brine is a great cooking method. Add the brine approximately one hour before preparing any poultry dish to really bring out the flavor.
Learning new ways to cook can be exciting! In fact, learning how to prepare a delicious meal is almost as enjoyable as savoring one! Hopefully, this article has given you useful information that you can incorporate into your cooking skills, or at the very least inspired you to seek out better and newer ways to cook! Cooking is a journey that should never end.