healthy cooking
Give Your Kitchen Skills A Makeover With These Tips
A lot of people consider healthy cooking to be tedious. This article will provide you with some creative culinary tips that will make your time in the kitchen more enjoyable.
If you are baking crusts for a pie or tart, you will probably need to bake them for a while longer than you thought. Go past the usual pale tan color and take them to a caramel gold. This color means that the sugar has caramelized within the pie crust and will have a crunchy and sweet flavor.
Always keep your spices away from light in a cool place. Storing them out exposes them to light, excessive heat and humidity, which can reduce their shelf life. Spices last longer and taste better when stored in cool, dark locations. You can prepare tastier meals if you use fresher spices.
Have you ever had feelings of guilt when you have thrown away rotten fruit? Is it a good practice to save them by cutting out the rotten, moldy part? It is not possible to save rotting fruit. In fact it is best to throw away the fruit. Mold can grow much deeper than the eye can see, and eating it could potentially make you very ill.
For crispier French fries, you should chill the peeled potatoes in water for 30 minutes or more before frying them. By leaving the potatoes to soak up cold water, the fibers are reinforced. This makes it so when you fry them, they’ll withstand the heat better and won’t break down completely.
You can reduce the fat and calorie content of regular mashed potatoes by substituting part of the potatoes with mashed cauliflower. This won’t affect the taste but it adds a handful of nutrition. Cauliflower does not have a strong taste and will be virtually undetectable when mixed with the potatoes and other ingredients. Cauliflowers look very similar to potatoes in texture and color when they are mashed. It will allow you to have a delicious side dish that is healthier and still flavorful.
You can also use this seasoning on foods other than meat. It can spice up snack foods such as roasted pumpkin seeds, or provide a little zing to your breakfast menu when used on your morning eggs. No one will know how you made that tasty food!
If burgers get stuck to the grill, it will be difficult to flip them without mangling them in the process. The way to prevent this is to coat the grill with some vegetable oil prior to putting any food on the grill.
Preparing healthy vegetables can be easy if you choose to saute them in chicken broth. The broth adds flavor to them, while reducing oil that is usually used for sauteing. This is a tasty way to cook your veggies.
If you are trying to cook pumpkins, cut it exactly in half from top to bottom. Place each half of the pumpkin on two separate baking sheets with the cut side facing down. Sprinkle the baking sheet with water, and bake the pumpkin for an hour at 350 degrees.
If you have a recipe that requires water or milk, you can change out the liquids to create a whole new flavor. Try adding some stock instead of water, or even the water your cooked veggies in. To replace milk, yogurt, sour cream and buttermilk can make good substitutes. By using different liquid ingredients in your side dishes, you can increase their flavor and nutritional value.
If you’re feeling stressed at the idea of making dinner for the family, consider doing much of the prep work the evening before healthy cooking. The night before the big day, prepare a sauce, marinate meat or chopping up and measuring out vegetables and herbs. With far less work left, you’ll be eager to pick up where you left off at dinner time.
Cutting Board
There are many herbs that have a strong smell that will stay on your cutting board. Mark one end, or side, of each cutting board so that you know which is which.
Put your fresh herbs together in a bunch and use kitchen shears to cut them all at once. This will prevent them from clumping together and they will be drier than when you chop them.
Macaroni and cheese can take on many forms and varieties, but you’ll get the best results by simply following the instructions on the box. The macaroni will be cooked just right and the creamy goodness of the cheese melting everywhere will be a crowd-pleaser. To serve the macaroni and cheese, a solid faced spoon works just fine. You can add more flavor to your dish with pepper, a spoonful of mustard, or additional cheese.
Homemade stock adds lots of flavor. Made in large batches, it’s easy to store in the freezer, if you use resealable plastic bags. By making the stock in bulk, there will always be some available for your soups and other dishes. In creating your own stock at home, you are assured that it isn’t loaded with preservatives.
Wait a few minutes before you serve a meal to allow the food to sit for a bit. A lot of people aren’t aware that flavors will improve if a meal can rest a bit before being served. We are inclined to serve meat and other foods as soon as they are cooked. But if you do, you miss out on the full flavors of the dish. Always wait a awhile before eating your meal; allow it to cool slightly before digging in.
This article has shown you that there are a multiple techniques which make healthy cooking exciting and enjoyable. By following the tips presented above, your time in the kitchen can be a creative, joyful experience.
Healthy Cooking Tips And Tricks To Amaze Everyone At Your Table
Are you a lover of all things edible? Do you have a large sweet tooth? What about delicious ethnic foods? Do you ever wonder how you can make these meals yourself? Stop asking questions and start learning how to do it right! Implement the steps in the article to gain information on how to start making wonderful meals.
Healthy Cooking
When healthy cooking a large meal for a family gathering or dinner party, preparation is key. Review your recipes, and be certain the ingredients are readily available in your kitchen. Plan out your healthy cooking the day before. Make sure all the necessary utensils are clean and ready to use.
This will allow you to cook without having to worry.
Apples are widely used in recipes during fall and winter, but they will spoil fast if incorrectly stored. Keep your apples in a cool and humid place and avoid dry hot areas. Remember the rule, one bad apple will spoil the bunch.
Guessing how long food will take on the grill is nearly impossible. The best way to figure this out is by using a meat thermometer (a digital one will work best). This will ensure that the inside of your meat is cooked properly. If you have thick meat, more than a inch and a half, close the grill to make healthy cooking time shorter.
Be sure to read labels when purchasing ingredients for recipes. There are many hidden, unhealthy ingredients put into common healthy cooking preparations. Two of the main culprits are added sugar and sodium. Avoiding both as often as possible, and especially in large quantities, is vital to your health.
Substituting another liquid for milk or water can help give your meals a new flavor. You could use chicken broth or juice, instead of water. If your favorite recipes call for milk, try substituting with buttermilk, yogurt or sour cream. Substituting the liquid in a dish can add nutrient content, flavor or both.
When seasoning your food, add the seasonings gradually rather than dumping it all in at once. This will allow your food to really take on the flavor of the seasonings and make the food as flavorful as it can be.
You should try and dry your tomatoes on your own. Drying them is easy – simply cut Roma tomatoes in half, or cut larger tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices. Place them cut-side up on a rack that you use for cooling, and add a little salt. Next, position a full rack on a baking sheet in an oven preheated to 190 degrees. Dry for approximately 10 hours. Place them in the freezer in plastic bags. Alternatively, dried tomatoes can be packed in a jar filled with olive oil and fresh herbs. Put this jar in the fridge and use it up in two weeks time.
To keep your dried herbs and spices flavorful, keep your spice rack tucked away somewhere cool and dark. Herbs and spices that are stored in cabinets above or beside a stove or in similar locations that may become warm or moist will lose much of their flavor, consequently costing you money.
When unpacking your groceries, place any unripened fruits in perforated bags. As a fruit becomes ripe, it puts off ethylene gasses. Putting them in a perforated bag will allow circulation of the air and keep the gas retained, thus allowing the fruit to keep it’s delicious taste.
Always check to see if your utensils are clean if you are about to cook. If food is left behind on the utensils after washing, this may spoil what you are planning to cook. This is especially bad when bacteria is remaining on the utensil.
When healthy cooking, it is always a good idea to get a little creative. Feel free to adapt a recipe to suit your particular needs. Change up the recipe until you perfect your own variation. Sometimes that’s the best sort of healthy cooking!
To give your pasta sauce some additional flavor, use some of the water that the pasta was cooked in. Set aside around a quarter of a cup of water. When you mix your pasta and sauce, also add the water you reserved. Your sauce will be thicker and creamier due to the starch provided by the water from the pasta.
Add a little salt to your cutting board whenever you are slicing up some herbs. Not only does this add a little extra flavor, it keeps the herbs you are chopping where you want them – on the board. Do not add any salt to the dish you are making to prevent over-salting. The herbs gain more flavor when the salt sticks to them.
Make sure you rinse onions that have been diced and blot them when you are preparing salsa that will not be used in 20 minutes. Fresh onions emit sulfenic acid when cut and this turns into a gas. Your fresh salsa will be ruined by this gas. If you following the rinsing and drying procedure above, the gas becomes inert.
Spices and herbs should be kept in a dark place that is cool and dry. Exposure to humidity, heat and light can cause your spices to lose their flavor fast. This will only expose your spices to elements that will make them less flavorful and aromatic.
Oysters are best when served fresh, but consider the different ways to prepare them. Oysters are usually eaten raw with some lemon juice, but you can make them in a number of different ways. Take opened oysters in shells, put them on a broiler-safe pan, and put a little heavy cream on top. Next, give them a healthy sprinkling of freshly-cracked black pepper, some Parmesan cheese, maybe a little bit of parsley, and let them broil until they’re lightly browned and bubbling. You can also saute oysters. Coat oysters with some seasoned flour and saute in warm butter for a couple of minutes, until they are golden. Keep the oysters in the shells while baking. Put them in a dish made for casseroles, and put a little of butter with fresh breadcrumbs on top of each; preheat oven to 425 degrees, and bake for 4 to 5 minutes. Carefully watch oysters that you are baking because the butter will quickly begin bubbling. Once you remove the baked oysters you can serve them with bread or some other side dish that you desire.
If you apply the tips in the article, you will be well on your way to healthy cooking dishes that you will enjoy. Live on the wild side and add some new sauces and spices to your healthy cooking. You may find a new food that you love! These tips and your trusty taste buds can guide you in your kitchen adventures.