It is all too easy to fall into a rut with cooking, sticking to the same menu every week. Try spicing things up with a couple cooking lessons. Cooking is a great way to make sure your family eats a healthy meal, but can also be an enjoyable experience. Here are a few great cooking guidelines to get you started.
Use brine in your cooking. Soaking turkey, chicken, duck or goose in a brine for an hour prior to prep can help accentuate its flavors.
If you will be making dried beans wait to add the salt or other seasonings. When they have softened is the right time. If you add salt or garlic too early, the beans might stop softening, particularly if you are cooking old beans. If you are looking for the perfect texture, hold off on the seasonings till the beans are soft.
It is necessary for all cooks to organize their cooking supplies. If you do not organize them, you will be scrambling around to find where you put everything. Save time searching by keeping similar items stored together. As an example, parsley and basil are spices, so they should be stored in a cabinet together with all of the other spices.
Making a simple dish of fried rice is a great way to make use of the leftover meat and vegetables in the refrigerator. Cold rice that was prepared the day before works especially well, but if none is available, just prepare fresh rice with half the water you would normally use so that the final product is drier. First, use a small amount of oil to fry the meat and vegetables. Next, add the rice to the mixture and use soy sauce, ginger and garlic according to your taste preferences.
There’s an art to the simplest meals. For example, spreading mayonnaise evenly over bread improves the quality of your sandwiches. People usually just slap the mayo in the center and are done with it. With it evenly spread, you ensure your sandwiches are deliciously flavorful with every bite!
When you are seasoning food, a good rule to follow is to add the seasoning a little at a time rather than adding it all at once in the beginning of the cooking process. This adds a more subtle and deep flavor to your food and enhances the flavors of other ingredients to the utmost.
If you want the cooking process to be both faster and easier, prepare as much as you can ahead of time. Browse through your recipes and see what parts can be prepared early, without fear of spoiling. The day before the cooking happens, there can be a lot of prep work done. This is a great time saver, and can make that complex recipe into something that is quick and fun.
Stay organized in the kitchen to avoid easy mistakes, like overcooking or burning your food. Just like with anything you do, the more organized you are, the more productive you will be. When you are disorganized, misplacing items or making food inedible becomes much more likely.
Make use of stacking racks for cooling things straight out of the oven. If you do not have cooling racks that stack, your kitchen could become overtaken by cooling cookies the next time you need to make a large batch. Stackable cooling racks mean far more efficient use of your space. Using an area of vertical space rather than every available flat surface gives your cookies the space they need to cool and gives you the space you need to work.
By using these tips, you can start a new hobby. Cooking can be as educational as it is delicious. You can build strong bonds while making nutritious, delicious meals. As you get better and better, you’ll enjoy it more and more, and your creations will become more delicious.