No matter who you are, cooking is an essential skill to know. Having cooking skills generally means being able to make more nutritious food, saving money, and being better able to entertain guests. These tips can help your all around cooking skills.
Do all the prep work ahead of time. The prep work should be done before you even start cooking. Trying to cook a meal that has to be on the table by a certain time can be stressful. You can spare yourself a great deal of hassle by doing prep work in advance.
You need to prepare to cook a meal before you can actually cook it. Review your recipes, and be certain the ingredients are readily available in your kitchen. Set all of the non-perishable ingredients and utensils out the day ahead. With a good plan and everything in place, you will feel far less anxious.
Longer cooking times and techniques, like boiling, destroys healthful nutrients in veggies. You can keep all those healthy nutrients by using a quick method of cooking like steaming or by eating the vegetables raw.
If you wish to have crispy French fries, then you should soak the potatoes in cool water for 30 minutes and then fry them. The fibers of raw cut potatoes that have been soaked in cold water prior to hitting the deep fryer, are stronger and can handle the heat better without breakage.
When you do this, the mushroom will become absorbent and soak up the water. Instead of this, you should use a clean, wet cloth, and proceed to wipe the mushroom off by using your hands.
Add some chicken broth to your pan when cooking vegetables. Simmering vegetables in the broth will keep them from adhering to the bottom of the pan and also infuse them with rich flavor. Chicken broth is readily available at any grocery store, and is very inexpensive.
When you want to add a bit of protein to your diet, tofu and beans are a great source of it. Both can be purchased at just about any grocery store. Tofu can be seasoned and pan-fried, and then served in lieu of a meat dish. You can boil the beans with a bit of herbs to give the protein more flavor.
If you need to cook a roast quickly, do not remove the bone. Leaving the bones in will significantly reduce the joint’s cooking time as bones are nature’s alternative to metal skewers. Once it’s finished cooking, you can plate up your meat after simply trimming around the bone.
Save the delicious taste of summer by drying tomatoes yourself. Just slice them when ripe to about 1/2″ thickness. Then put them on a rack that you might use to cool cookies and then lightly cover them with salt. Heat your oven to 190 degrees and put the cooling rack with the tomatoes directly onto a cookie sheet, baking for no more than ten hours. They can then be stored in plastic freezer bags in your freezer. You can put the dried tomatoes with fresh herbs in a jar with olive oil to preserve them. Tomatoes stored in this fashion will last for two weeks in the refrigerator.
To be able to whip together a meal for those special people in your life is a great thing. As you probably know, good cooking can enhance your life whether you lean towards hearty down-home meals, haute cuisine or comforting soul food. Though everyone enjoys a quick burger from the drive thru, even more enjoy the tastiness of a home prepared meal.
