Healthy Cooking
An Article To Help You Become A Great Cook
Learning to cook can be just as fun as mastering it. By reading this article, you will find yourself becoming a better chef, as well as gaining overall confidence in your skill. Enjoy yourself once you have all of this knowledge.
Do all the prep work ahead of time. Before you start making your food, it is a good thing to have everything prepared. Trying to cook a meal that has to be on the table by a certain time can be stressful. You can help lessen the potential stress by getting all your prep work done early.
Let raw potatoes soak in some cold water for a half hour prior to frying them to increase the crispiness of French fries. A cold water soak helps the potatoes stand up to the rigors of deep fat frying.
You can sprinkle it on many other foods besides meat. A little on seeds or eggs can liven it up. All your guests will be left wondering where the delightful flavor came from.
Fresh Ingredients
Nearly any recipe benefits from using fresh ingredients rather than the frozen or dried version. Use fresh ingredients as often as you can; they offer more flavor and tend to be less expensive as well.
Mushrooms absorb large amounts of water, and this excess water will go into whatever you are healthy cooking with. Get a wet cloth instead, and wipe off each mushroom by hand.
If burgers get stuck to the grill, it will be difficult to flip them without mangling them in the process. You should brush a thin layer of vegetable oil over the grill before you begin healthy cooking. This will keep the food from becoming stuck to the grill surface.
Chicken Stock
If you are going to be making chicken stock, it is best to go big or not at all. Plan to make a big pot of stock so you can freeze and store it. That tasty chicken stock is very versatile and can be perfect for your next stew, casserole or soup. First, cool the stock and then stick it in the freezer.
Sauteing vegetables in a small amount of chicken broth is a healthy and delicious way to cook. Broth adds flavor to the vegetables while reducing the quantity of oil necessary for sauteing. Try this next time you cook vegetables for a great meal.
If you find it too much to prepare the nighttime meal, then take care of some of the work the day prior. Chop your onions, slice your vegetables, make the sauce or marinate your meat before bed. Healthy Cooking will be less stressful if you have prepared everything in advance.
Don’t throw out turkey leftovers, whether it is from a holiday dinner or an everyday meal. Rather, cut up the meat and store it in an airtight container in the freezer. Leftover turkey can be used for enchiladas, pot pie, sandwiches and salads.
Many herbs and veggies make odors on your cutting board no matter how many times you clean it. Use a permanent pen to make a mark so you know which side you are using.
Ethylene Gas
Place any unripened fruit that you buy in a plastic bag that is perforated. Fruits produce ethylene gas when they become riper. Bags with holes will prevent already-ripened fruit from rotting, since the ethylene gas can escape; on the other hand, under-ripened fruit benefits from a bag without holes, since the gas that causes ripening is retained.
It is very important to make sure your healthy cooking utensils are clean before you start healthy cooking. If there is food leftover after washing, this could ruin whatever you are going to cook. This could spread harmful bacteria into your food, and could be detrimental to your health.
Fresh herbs in a meal are delicious. Bunch them together and then use a pair of scissors to snip them. This will keep them drier and less heavy than if they are chopped.
Allow the food to sit for a little while before serving. It is a new idea to many, but allowing your food to rest can be quite beneficial. It has become almost habit now to serve up a meal as it comes right off the stove. However, you will miss out on great food if you do. Instead, allow each dish to cool briefly before serving it.
Having the prep work done a day in advance will make the healthy cooking process less stressful. Get everything together beforehand; ensure you have all the ingredients, and chop or measure anything you can in advance. This way, you won’t have to do the tedious tasks when you are ready to cook.
To give your pasta sauce some additional flavor, use some of the water that the pasta was cooked in. Set aside approximately one-fourth cup. When you are ready to mix your sauce and pasta together, incorporate some of this water. Starch in pasta water has a thickening effect on your sauce, making it seem creamier.
Run cold water over the onions after you cut them, if you plan to make salsa and keep it more than half an hour. Then use a towel to get the water off the onions. Fresh onions can emit sulfurous gas. If you wait long enough until the onions start emitting gas, your salsa could be ruined. Then you run the onions under water, much of the gas is removed.
Healthy Cooking
As you have learned from this article, there is much you can do to improve on your healthy cooking skills. All you need to have is a desire to learn new things and the time to do it. Busing this article, you could get around the kitchen easily. When you go into with the right attitude, healthy cooking can be quite fun.
Great Ways To Improve Your Healthy Cooking Today
Healthy Cooking is a generally rewarding and relaxing hobby. A kitchen that smells wonderfully like fresh herbs and spices creates a mood-enhancing atmosphere. If you’re new to healthy cooking, the abundance of utensils, ingredients and recipes can be overwhelming at first. Let this article be your guide into the wonderful and rewarding world of healthy cooking.
Cool, dark and dry places are ideal for keeping herbs and spices. Humidity, light and heat can cause your spices and herbs to lose their flavor. When properly stored, ground herbs and spices can retain full flavor for up to a year. Whole spices, on the other hand, can retain their freshness for 36-60 months. Spices that are stored correctly remain fresher for longer.
If you are learning to cook for yourself or your family, pick up a cookbook from your bookstore or library. Look for one that has basic, easy recipes that will be fun to cook. Try a few recipes, and be patient with yourself as you are mastering this new skill.
Try adding oil to foods from the sides of a pot or pan in able to jump-start the heating process. Your food will taste better, and you will not have a lull in the healthy cooking process waiting for the oil to heat up.
Do not throw your sauce away. This simple trick can save it. Start with about two tablespoons and add more until your sauce is at the desired consistency. Stir the sauce constantly to avoid letting it get too thick. Be sure to gradually stir in the solution, and frequently stir the sauce so that it does not become too thick.
It can be used on food other than meat. Add this savory seasoning to snack foods like Chex mix, or use it to spice up your omelet. It will add a little bit of mysterious flavor to your meal.
Fresh ingredients are much better to use in all of your healthy cooking than those that are frozen or dried. Use fresh foods any time you can, as they bring out the best flavor of the dish, and can be real money-savers too.
By doing so, the mushrooms will absorb the water like a sponge. Wipe them off with a damp cloth to clean them.
Healthy Cooking
If you choose the wooden versions of healthy cooking skewers, it is a good idea to immerse them in water, and leave them there for about half an hour before using them. This will help to prevent burning when they are healthy cooking. You can make sure that food stays on your skewers by skewing the food with parallel skewers.
Beans and tofu are great sources of protein if you need to add some to your diet. These can be found at most grocery stores these days. Tofu is great meat alternative when baked, broiled, or pan-fried with seasonings. Beans may be boiled with herbs for a delicious protein source.
When preparing dishes that require heavy seasoning, you should add the seasoning gradually over the total cook time. This is a great way to increase the flavor of your foods and make your seasonings last longer.
If you have to prepare any dish that involves garlic, get the freshest possible garlic available. Generally, garlic will taste sweeter if it’s fresher. You can recognize fresh garlic from its firm skin and lack of bruises.
Do not dress your guests’ salads. Serve the dressing on the side and allow your guests to dress it to their liking. The amount dressing that people prefer on their salad varies so allow guests to add their own dressing. Give them a choice of salad dressings.
If you are healthy cooking a roast and are short on time, make sure to leave the bone in. This will allow your meat to cook faster as the bone will warm up the inside quicker. Before serving the roast, simply cut the meat from the bone.
If spices and herbs are used regularly in your healthy cooking, keep them somewhere dark and cool in order to keep their fresh flavors. Do not keep your spices in a warm place or where they would be exposed to the sun because they could lose their flavor.
Save leftover meat and bones from poultry. Place the remains in a container and store in the freezer for preservation. The turkey will stay fresh for a couple of weeks, and it can be used in open-face sandwiches or as a salad topper.
Be creative with your approach to healthy cooking. Following a recipe word for word and teaspoon for teaspoon is not always what healthy cooking is about. Sometimes if you add a little extra, or refrain from using an ingredient you do not really enjoy, you can turn an ordinary dish into something extravagant. Now that is a real cook!
Make sure you use a thermometer to see if the meat is done. Different kinds of meat must be heated to a certain temperature inside to be safe to eat. If the meat is not cooked thoroughly there is a chance that the bacteria living on the meat could remain and make someone sick if they eat it.
Herbs and spices need to be kept in a dry, cool area, away from light. Being exposed to humidity, heat, and light will cause your spices and healthy cooking herbs to lose some of their potency. This only exposes the spices to the elements which make them lose their flavors.
As this article has discussed, healthy cooking is revered by many as an excellent and enjoyable hobby. However, some people don’t know where to start, in terms of picking the right recipes or using the proper techniques. Follow this article’s advice and you will be on your way to healthy cooking great food.