Learn To Cook With These Easy Tips
It’s important to take the time you need to learn how to cook both healthily and correctly. There are many benefits to cooking your own food including financial, nutritional and social. The tips in the following article will provide you with a whole lot of valuable cooking information.
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. Focus on one recipe at a time and give yourself enough time to improve your cooking.
Here is a way to save your sauce and use it in your recipes. Try mixing two tablespoons water and a tablespoon containing corn starch in a bowl. You can then stir this solution into your sauce to instantly thicken it. Don’t add all the starch at once, and avoid stirring erratically. Either of these could over-thicken the sauce.
When cooking for someone who is important to you, it’s best to prepare something that you are skilled at making. Stay away from using new ingredients, or a new recipe. This will help you feel less stressed when preparing your meal.
Have you felt sorry for tossing moldy fruit away? Is it possible to simply cut out the moldy, rotten part of the fruit? A half rotten fruit cannot be saved. It must be discarded because mold spores that you cannot see may be present on other areas of the fruit. If eaten, you could become ill.
To reduce fat and calories in mashed potatoes without sacrificing texture or taste, replace some of your potatoes with an equal amount of cauliflower. You will not even taste the cauliflower in with the potatoes, because it is so bland. Cauliflower also matches the color and texture of the potatoes. This is a great way to add veggies and eliminate calories from a favorite dish.
Fresh Basil
If you love using fresh basil, try growing it on your own to always have it on hand. Place several sprigs of fresh basil into a glass container. Next, ensure the stems are covered with water. Place the glass of basil leaves on the counter in your kitchen, and watch it keep its freshness for weeks. Refresh the water quite often, and you will notice that the basil starts to grow roots. Picking the leaves from time to time will cause the basil to put out new growth, so you will have a constant supply!
If you are going to be making chicken stock, it is best to go big or not at all. If you make a large pot of stock, you can freeze it and store it for future use. This stock is a popular base that can be used in a variety of dishes, from soups to casseroles and much 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.
Try to cut down the amount of oil used when cooing if you are trying to lose weight. Adding unnecessary butter, oil and lard can increase your intake of fat. Consider giving non-stick cooking spray a shot. The end result is virtually the same, but these sprays are often fat-free and have ingredients that are more friendly to your diet.
If you’re cooking pumpkins, cut them in half by positioning them upright and slicing down the middles. Put each half with the cut side facing down on their own baking sheet. Sprinkle a tiny bit of water on them and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour.
Fresh Garlic
If your dish calls for a bit of garlic, make sure the garlic is as fresh as possible. One rule to remember is that if you want sweet garlic, choose fresh garlic. Fresh garlic is firm and lacks bruises.
Don’t use bitter, sour, or tasteless wine in your recipes. Using a wine that you are not familiar with in your food can cause you not to like the flavor that’s produced. If you want a safe bet, most liquor stores carry cooking wines.
If you’re feeling stressed at the idea of making dinner for the family, consider doing much of the prep work the evening before cooking. Cut up veggies, marinate your meat or make a sauce the night before. This way, you will be completely ready to cook and less stressed when you have to complete the meal.
Spices don’t last forever; replace them every 6 months. Spices lose their flavor if kept too long. When you know you’re not going to be using a spice for a long time, give it away to someone in your family or to a friend before it loses its flavor.
Always make sure that the cooking utensils you are about to use are clean before starting any cooking. This is a basic but very important rule for any cook. If items are not completely clean after you put them away, you could ruin everything you cook. This can also spread harmful bacteria.
Do all your cooking prep work well ahead of time. This will aid in avoiding cooking disasters that can arise from being unprepared, including flare-ups from overheated oil or choosing the wrong temperatures for your needs.
The ability to cook for your family, or just yourself, is a skill that is beneficial to your life. Cooking can improve a lot of aspects of you life. Although a drive through can be convenient, a home prepared meal is often better!