cutting boards
How To Cook Like A Great Chef
Do you ever find yourself wishing that you could recreate a favorite restaurant dish? Perhaps you have even tried to recreate the dish at home. Here are some pointers that may not make you a master chef right away, but can guide you toward creating meals to be proud of. Healthy Cooking can be a rewarding hobby for nearly anyone.
If you would like to start healthy cooking more food on your own, take a trip to a local library or bookstore where you can find many cookbooks with recipes you can enjoy making at home. Try making three or four of the recipes that appeal to you the most, and give yourself plenty of time to perfect your newly acquired skill.
Golden Color
When baking crust for pie or tarts, leave them in the oven to bake a little longer than you planned. The crust should turn a golden color, not simple blonde. When you see the golden color it indicates carmelization, which lends a crisp, sweet flavor to the pie crust.
There is something you can do to rescue your sauce and use it as planned. Put some corn starch into water and mix it in your sauce. Then, stir the resulting solution with the sauce to thicken it. However, it is important that the sauce is stirred often while the mixture is being added so as to stop it becoming too thick.
Making a meal for someone important, such as a romantic partner or a boss, is not the time to experiment with new dishes. Stay away from using new ingredients, or a new recipe. This will help you feel less stressed when preparing your meal.
For crispier French fries, put raw potatoes into cold water and let them sit there for about half an hour before frying. Vegetables fibers can breakdown under high heat conditions. Soaking reinforces these fibers to produce better results.
If you are looking for a nutritionally beneficial way to cook your vegetables, try sauteing them in a small amount of chicken broth. Broth will flavor the vegetables, and less oil will be needed to saute them. Do this and you will find that your vegetables are delicious and easy to prepare.
You should read the labels when you are buying ingredients for a recipe. Unwanted additives are sometimes placed in many healthy cooking staples, and this may be unhealthy. Make sure the ingredients you get don’t contain too much sugar or sodium, because each may account for certain health problems if overused.
Healthy Cooking
When certain recipes call for milk or water, try adding some other liquids that you would see fit to experiment with flavors. For example, you might try chicken broth or beef broth instead of water in a meat dish. You might even try fruit juice when healthy cooking certain veggies. As an alternative to milk, try using thinned sour cream, yogurt, soy milk or buttermilk. Using liquid substitutions in your healthy cooking can increase nutrition and give a standby dish a new flavor.
When making a dish that needs to contain garlic, purchase the best and most fresh garlic you can. A rule of thumb for garlic: Fresher means sweeter. If garlic isn’t fresh, it will be shriveled and soft.
Many popular veggies and herbs have a strong residual odor that can remain on cutting boards well after use. Get two different cutting boards or mark one side of your board and make sure you use it for certain ingredients only.
You should let your meat rest prior to serving. Many home cooks do not realize how important it is to let the meal rest. It is highly tempting to serve the food as soon as you take it off the grill. If you serve immediately off the grill, you will lose most of the juices in meat when you cut into it. Always wait a awhile before eating your meal; allow it to cool slightly before digging in.
Prepare the meal the night before to reduce any stress when you’re going to have a complicated meal. Use this time to gather all needed ingredients, chop veggies and measure seasonings. Make sure you have everything you need. This way, you won’t have to do the tedious tasks when you are ready to cook.
Pasta Salted
Use salt liberally in the water used to cook pasta. This allows the salt to be absorbed by the pasta. Pasta salted during healthy cooking tastes better than pasta salted after the fact.
If you plan on using raw onions in your salsa, rinse them with cold water after dicing and then proceed to blot them dry. If you use fresh onions, they are going to release a sulfurous gas. Fresh salsa can be ruined by this type of gas. Rinsing the onions with cold water removes this gas.
When sauteing, don’t put too much into the pan. This will create extra moisture that will act to steam the food rather than adding that crispness that comes from sauteing. Saute at a lower temperature as well.
Cutting Board
Proper care for a wood cutting board. To keep your wooden cutting board in top shape, avoid exposing it to excess moisture. If you have to clean your cutting board, use a sponge rather than immersing it in soapy water. You can find oil designed for cutting boards to maintain yours. Make sure it is completely dry before you use it.
Don’t try out a new recipe on important guests or a special occasion. New or complex recipes will increase your stress level, and you can’t be sure how they may turn out. Please them by healthy cooking a recipe you are familiar with, and can cook very well.
If you’ve followed the tips in this article your healthy cooking skills should be much improved. Think of new and innovative recipes and techniques that will make your meals fit for a gourmet. With such a wide range of food out there, the possibilities are endless.
Pushing Your Way Through To Healthy Cooking Success
You need to get educated if you want to become a five-star cook. Take the advice given in this article to become a better cook. Follow the tips in this article and you will learn to reach your healthy cooking goals.
Quickly healthy cooking vegetables makes them crispier and more nutrient-filled. Using slow healthy cooking methods can rob vegetable of their taste and nutritional value. These healthy cooking techniques will yield vegetables that are healthier and taste great as well. Learning to cook them for the minimum necessary time is the key to better vegetables.
This product is not just limited to being used on steaks. Sprinkle the seasoning on top of roasted pumpkin seeds and make a tasty snack, or sprinkle it on scrambled eggs. Everyone will be wondering what your secret ingredient is!
Fresh Ingredients
Fresh ingredients are much better to use in all of your healthy cooking than those that are frozen or dried. Use any fresh ingredients that are available. They are not only tastier in general, but they also tend to be cheaper, as well.
A lot of preparatory work can be done ahead of time in order to speed up time spent healthy cooking. Look through your recipes and determine whether or not certain steps can be completed beforehand. A lot of the preliminary work can be done a day before you cook the meal. More complex recipes become quicker and more fun this way.
When you are purchasing food to make a recipe, read your labels. A lot of items you purchase at the grocery store will have a laundry list of unwanted substances in there. You will want to be sure that this product doesn’t have high amounts of sugar or sodium, they could cause major health problems if they are over consumed.
This keeps fruits fresh for months. In addition, you will then be able to indulge in fruits that aren’t in season.
When you are making any kind of food that requires seasoning, put a little seasoning on every few minutes instead of adding it all in the beginning. This results in a better blending of the flavors of the ingredients.
If you are about to serve salad to multiple guests, serve the dressing separately instead of putting it directly on the salad. Let people add what they want to their salad. Also, give a variety of different dressings.
Dried Tomatoes
Make your own dried tomatoes. Cut Romas tomatoes in lengthwise halves, or slice ripe regular tomatoes into half inch slices for drying. Set them on a rack cut side up and sprinkle lightly with salt. 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. Put the bags of tomatoes in your freezer. Also, you can put those dried tomatoes straight into a jar or can filled with fresh herbs and olive oil. Tomatoes stored in this fashion will last for two weeks in the refrigerator.
You should be as organized as possible when healthy cooking to avoid burning food and other mistakes, which could be costly. Organizing your kitchen healthy cooking area creates a more productive kitchen. If you aren’t organized, you will start to forget what you buy and that will make you spend too much money that could have been spent on something you would have eaten.
To quickly cut herbs, bind herbs together and snip with scissors. This will keep the herbs drier and lighter than chopped with a knife.
Healthy Cooking
Let your meal sit for a while. It is a little known fact that foods should rest for a short period after the healthy cooking process. This is especially true of meats. There is plenty of temptation to just whisk the dish off of the grill and eat it immediately. Eating it so quickly after healthy cooking doesn’t give the juices or flavors enough time to sink down into the meats, or whatever you may be preparing. Therefore, it is always best to allow the juices to redistribute by allowing for a cool down period.
Use high-quality utensils to cut with in the kitchen. Nobody wants to use dull knives, as they can take over twice the time to chop up ingredients, and they are more dangerous than sharp ones. Dull knives actually cause more cut fingers and accidents than sharper ones.
It is important to take proper care of wood cutting boards. Excess moisture, heat and dryness may cause a wooden chopping board to split and warp. Do not submerge the board to clean it, just sponge it off using warm, soapy water. Bring a damaged wood board back to life with regular oiling, using only oil made for cutting boards. Be sure to let your cutting board dry completely before you use it again.
Fresh Herbs
When making simple dishes, favor fresh herbs over dried ones. Dried herbs can be used for recipes that are complex and filled with lots of flavors. However, stronger, better overall taste is produced by using fresh herbs. You can plant an herb garden to make sure you always have your favorite fresh herbs available.
As mentioned earlier, there are a couple secrets and tips that you should understand if you want to cook well. Some of the tips that were found in this article can even help well-established cooks become better. The information found in the article should have helped you learn what you need to do to be a great cook.