Anyone who is alive needs to eat. But who wants to merely survive? Even better than eating something wonderful is cooking something wonderful. Here are some tips that will kick your cooking skills up a notch.
To improve your pasta sauce, put aside some of the water used during the cooking of the pasta. Save approximately 1/4 cup of water after cooking your pasta. While mixing the sauce and pasta, add the pasta water into the mix. The starch from the pasta water will add body and a “creaminess” to your sauce through amalgamation.
Use fresh ingredients from your own garden or choose vegetables that are in season. Following the first winter frost, greens like collards, broccoli rabe and kale become much sweeter in taste. When selecting fresh greens, avoid any that are partially spoiled. These are identified by yellow coloring or limpness. Aim to select ones with a dark green color. Since the greens can be covered in dirt, take care when washing them. Submerge your greens in a sink full of cold water, then rinse your greens until the water is clear, and shake off the excess water.
Potatoes should be mixed with hot milk (not boiling) when they are ready for mashing. Using hot, rather than cold, milk results in more fluffed-up and lighter mashed potatoes. They’ll be so much better than lumpy, heavy mashed potatoes.
Take out the extra fat in your soup/stew. Too much fat is your stew or soup? Put your dish in the fridge and wait until the fat rises to the top so you can remove it. Then just collect the fat by rubbing an ice cube, resting on a spoon, along the surface. All the fat will gravitate towards the ice. You can also blot up the fat with a paper towel.
Do not bake a cake too long or to short of a time. The cooking times suggested in recipes are good guidelines for an inexperienced baker, but these suggestions can be misleading; other factors, like elevation, can have an effect on how long it actually takes a cake to cook. Insert a toothpick into the center of the cake instead. If the toothpick is clean and dry, your cake is done. If it is covered in batter, leave it in a little longer.
It is important to completely follow the instructions when making macaroni and cheese. By doing so, your macaroni should come out perfect, and the way the cheese tastes like melted velvet spread on top of the noodles should prove an exquisite sensation. A solid spoon should be used when serving the macaroni masterpiece. Try sprinkling some pepper on the finished macaroni dish.
Cooking with garlic, buy for the freshest garlic head possible. Fresh garlic has a sweeter taste. Stale, or old, garlic may be bruised, shriveled or soft.
You will have fresh fruits all year long. Another great benefit is that you will have certain fruits on their off season.
When cooking vegetables, it is a good idea to use chicken broth. 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 doesn’t cost much, and is widely available at most grocery stores.
A cool and dark location is best for storing spices and herbs. Moisture, light and heat can affect the flavor of your spices. As a general rule, most of your ground herbs and spices will stay fresh for about a year if stored correctly. Spices that are kept whole can keep their flavor for about three, four or five years. If you keep these properly stored, they can sometimes stay fresh for an even longer period of time.
Learning how to cook can be just as exciting as eating. Apply these tips and practice with different recipes until you feel more comfortable. You will become a better cook, and this will get noticed by friends and family alike.