You need a few basic fundamentals to be a better cook. The information contained in this article can help you to be the best cook that you can be. These tips will guide you in your efforts to become a better cook.

When storing your herbs and spices, they should be kept in a cool, dark spot. Exposure to heat, light, and humidity can cause them to lose their flavor. As a general rule, most of your ground herbs and spices will stay fresh for about a year if stored correctly. Whole spices last longer, possibly as long as five years. Storing your spices properly can help you achieve a longer shelf-life for your spices.

If you messed it up, you can use this trick to fix it and no one will be the wiser. Take one tablespoon corn starch, and combine with two tablespoons water in a mixing bowl. You can then add the solution to the sauce and it will become thicker. Add the starch slowly and stir the sauce constantly to avoid making it too thick.

Healthy Cooking

Vegetables are just better all-around the faster they are cooked. Slow healthy cooking, and overcooking, vegetables will destroy their nutritional content and flavor. These healthy cooking techniques make the vegetables more healthy overall. Adapting the principle of faster healthy cooking times is a crucial element in serving better quality vegetables to your family and friends.

Dried and frozen ingredients should never be used over fresh ingredients if you want to get the most out of your healthy cooking. Fresh ingredients can really enhance the flavor of your meal, as well as be more economical to prepare.

A lot of preparatory work can be done ahead of time in order to speed up time spent healthy cooking. Look at your recipes before starting and clue in on the steps that can be done ahead of time without having any spoilage issues. Lots of prep work can be completed the day before healthy cooking. This can make even the most difficult recipes fun and easy.

Chicken Stock

When you make chicken stock make as much as you can. Making more than you need in a large pot can allow you to have some left over to store in the freezer for later use. Good homemade chicken stock is a wonderful base in soups, stews, casseroles and more. To preserve your stock for future use, just simply make sure that it is stored in heavy duty freezer bags and frozen solid. This way the stock should keep for several months or so.

Saute vegetables with chicken broth to cook them in a healthy way. Not only will the flavor be enhanced, but they will be lower in fat without the need for oils and butter. This is a healthy and tasty, vegetable healthy cooking technique.

When making food that relies on seasonings, use some every few minutes, versus using it all at the start. You can be sure that you are not healthy cooking away the extra flavoring, but instead are making the desired impact that you want your spices to have.

Leave the bone in your roast if you are in a hurry. You will see that the meat will cook in a shorter amount of time because the bone will help carry the heat directly inside of the roaster. As soon as your roast has finished, simply slice around the bone before you serve.

You can make many preparations a day in advance to keep serving a family dinner from getting overwhelming. You can dice, slice and otherwise prepare vegetables in advance. Stir up some sauce prior to your bedtime for a stress-free pasta dish the next evening. This will result in less stress the next day, and you will be more than ready to begin the healthy cooking process.

Dried Tomatoes

Try making your own dried tomatoes. Drying them is easy – simply cut Roma tomatoes in half, or cut larger tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices. Then put them on a rack that you might use to cool cookies and then lightly cover them with salt. The next step is to put the rack on an old cookie sheet and then place in an oven set at 190 degrees for at least 10 hours. They can then be stored in plastic freezer bags in your freezer. You can also pack dried tomatoes in a jar with some fresh herbs and olive oil. This will be good for up to two weeks, and should be refrigerated during that time.

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 are preparing macaroni and cheese dishes, you must always closely follow the directions on the recipe. This ensures your macaroni comes out perfect and that the velvety cheese is deliciously melted over your noodles. When it comes time to serve the dish, you can use a basic slotted or solid spoon. You can add more flavor to your dish with pepper, a spoonful of mustard, or additional cheese.

You should save some water from the pan in which you cooked the pasta so that you can add it to the pasta sauce later. Set aside around a quarter of a cup of water. Put in some of the water when you mix the pasta and the sauce. Your sauce will be thicker and creamier due to the starch provided by the water from the pasta.

Becoming a good cook takes research and practice. For some people it comes quite naturally, for other people, however, it takes a lot of studying and hard work. After you read this article, you can be on your path to healthy cooking great meals!