Have you ever sat down to a gourmet meal and wondered how on earth a person could make such a delightful dish? You will be able to improve your healthy cooking skills after reading this article.
Your spices and herbs should always be stored in a cool and dark place. Humidity, light and heat can cause your spices and herbs to lose their flavor. It has been found that ground herbs and spices maintain their flavor for roughly a year. Whole spices, on the other hand, can retain their freshness for 36-60 months. As long as they are stored properly, they will hold onto their flavor for several years.
During autumn, apples are an important ingredient in many recipes; however, they do turn bad if they are not carefully stored. Storing apples in warm, dry air will cause them to rot. Instead, store your apples in a cool place. Check your apples regularly. If one apple starts rotting, the whole bag will be spoiled.
Garlic’s only disadvantage is that it transfers smell onto your hands. After healthy cooking with garlic, rub your hands across a stainless steel table or sink to rid them of the smell. This handy trick cleanses your hands so the smell will not be transferred to what you are going to touch next.
If you cooked with a sauce, save the leftover sauce in an ice cube tray that you can freeze. This makes it easy to prepare a quick meal by reheating the sauce using a saute pan. Sauce cubes made this way are safe and will taste great!
Chicken Broth
When simmering or boiling vegetables, try adding chicken broth. Chicken broth is a great way to add flavor to your vegetables while keeping them from sticking to your pan. Chicken broth is easily purchased at almost every supermarket, and is quite inexpensive.
Take a look at the nutrition facts when you buy ingredients to cook with. Lots of the time, healthy cooking supplies have hidden ingredients that may be bad for your health. Keep track of the amount of sugar and sodium in the staple products used for your recipe, and make adjustments by omitting additional sugar or salt, to avoid diet-related health issues.
Doing so will give you fresh fruit year round. Since many fruits are not in season during certain parts of the year, doing this will allow you to enjoy them anytime.
Dried Tomatoes
Try making your own dried tomatoes. Dry your own by slicing ripe tomatoes 1/2″ thick, or cut Romas in half, lengthwise. Next, lightly salt the open sides and place them salt-side up on a wire cooling rack. Set your oven to 190 degrees, place the rack on a baking sheet and let the tomatoes dry in the oven for approximately 10 hours. They can then be stored in plastic freezer bags in your freezer. Dried tomatoes could also be put in a jar with fresh herbs and topped up with olive oil. The jars can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
To maintain the flavor and freshness of spices and herbs, make sure you keep them stored in someplace that is cool and dark. Using a cabinet over the stove to store herbs and spices will cause them to lose their flavor and you will lose money too.
New spices should be purchased every six months. Quite often, spices pass their sell-by-date before you use them up, losing their flavor. If you know you can’t use as much as is in the package, give some to a family member or friend to keep from wasting it.
The best way to prepare fresh herbs, like parsley or dill, is to bunch them together and cut them up with scissors. The leaves will be fuller and more crisp than they would have been if they were wet.
If you decide to take a shortcut and prepare boxed foods, follow the directions exactly. This way, the macaroni ends up immaculate and the cheese is melted perfectly of the pasta. A solid, wooden spoon is the perfect serving utensil. Consider adding some spices to switch up the flavor of the dish.
If you want your dishes to be more flavorful, try preparing your own stock. Make as much of it as you want and keep the excess in your freezer. This allows you to have savory homemade stock available that you can use for various dishes, like soup. If you make your own stock, it will not be full of preservatives.
Cutting Board
When chopping fresh herbs, try shaking a small amount of salt on your cutting board first. Salt will not only add flavor to your herbs, but it will keep the herbs on the cutting board. Do not add too much salt to your dish. The salt that you sprinkle on the board sticks to the herbs and gives them just the right amount of flavor.
A great tip to use when making any type of salsa is to rinse your raw onions once they’re chopped. Also, make sure that you dry them before adding them to your mix. Fresh onions contain sulfurous gas. Sulfurous gas is not good for salsa. You can remove the gas from your onions by rinsing them and drying them with a paper towel.
Make all necessary preparations for whatever you are planning on healthy cooking before you start healthy cooking. This will keep you from being distracted while the food is healthy cooking. It can be dangerous preparing ingredients while hot oil is healthy cooking on the stove, for instance. Having everything ready beforehand is safer and less stressful.
If you are going to have a barbecue, then prepare your grill in advance so that you can start grilling right away. At least half an hour before you plan to cook, prepare the grill in readiness. The coals should be at medium heat and they should be ash covered. Grilling at this temperature is highly recommended.
Utilize all of the suggestions you can from this article. Before you know it, the situation will be reversed, and guests eating your food will be the ones wondering how you make such delicious meals.