Even casual cooks can learn something new every now and then. Learning the best ways to prepare different kinds of foods can turn your cooking from average to spectacular. Make every meal exceptional with the following tasty tips.
After eating turkey, such as for Thanksgiving, never throw away leftovers. Place the remains in a container and store in the freezer for preservation. This will keep the turkey fresh for a month or more, and can be easily thawed to use in sandwiches, soups, and salads.
The best way to prepare fresh herbs, like parsley or dill, is to bunch them together and cut them up with scissors. This practice does not get herbs wet like chopping would, and makes them generally fluffier and lighter.
Be sure not to overfill your pan when sauteing foods. The extra moisture will steam the food instead of sauteing it and will not add that little bit of crispness that sauteing is good for. Remember, sauteing is always done at low temperatures.
Beans or tofu are excellent sources of protein that you may not have yet considered adding to your diet. Both are readily available in grocery stores. Fry up the tofu with seasonings to get a great meat alternative. For a tasty bean dish, simply boil them with your favorite herbs.
Before cooking ground beef, pat it gently to remove moisture. The reason for the blotting is to remove the surface moisture. Leaving the moisture there will cause it to release when you cook it. The moisture will steam away. This can cause the meat to become steamed instead of seared as it should be.
It is necessary for all cooks to organize their cooking supplies. Supplies and staples kept in disarray will have you scrambling when trying to find a needed utensil or ingredient. You may find it beneficial to group similar items together. As an example, you may want to keep all of your spices together.
Mushrooms soak up water that you don’t want to be added to the recipe. You should wet a cloth and wipe the mushrooms off, rather than soaking them.
Add a little salt to your cutting board whenever you are slicing up some herbs. This should add flavor to the herb as well as keep them in place. Don’t add to much salt when doing this. The salt sprinkled on the board adheres to the herbs, which takes the flavor up to 11.
A nutritious way to reduce the calories from your mashed potatoes is to replace some of the potatoes with cauliflower. Cauliflower has little taste of its own, so it will blend right into your potatoes and pick up flavors from whatever other ingredients you use. At the same time, cauliflowers mash into the same color and texture as potatoes, giving you a fail-proof way to add vegetables and subtract calories from a classic mashed potato dish.
Ketchup makes a great ingredient to batter for fried foods. Ketchup isn’t only a condiment to dunk your food in, it is also great to use as part of a pre-battering dip. By using ketchup as a base for your fried foods you will add another unexpected layer and tang to your food.
After you have prepared some sauce, freeze the leftovers in ice cube trays. All you need to do next time you want to use it, is reheat in a saucepan. Do not worry, the sauce will still be edible after it has been in the ice cube trays!
Apply the tips from this article to help guide you towards having a better handle on cooking. Fortunately, this article is packed with advice and tips that could truly become your recipe for success. If you remember these guidelines, you can create standout dishes for yourself and your loved ones.