Learning to cook is a skill that will prove to be useful to you throughout your life. Cooking is useful, because you need to feed yourself and your family, and it is fun too. Following the tips provided in this article will help you learn more about this useful life skill.
Perfect pasta every time. Never add oil to the water when you are boiling pasta. It prevents the sauce from coating the pasta properly. Just before you drain the pasta, set aside about 1/3 cup of the cooked pasta water. When you mix the sauce with the pasta, add a little of the cooking liquid. The starch in the water adds body and flavor to the sauce.
Purchase a quality loaf of bread that you can use as a side piece to a variety of meals. Bread goes great with any dish that has sauce or cheese, as you can dip it in a variety of different toppings. Include a loaf of Italian or French bread with your next meal.
Leave the bone in a roast to speed up cooking. By leaving the bone in, heat moves to the inside of the meat faster, speeding up the cooking process. Because the bone transmits heat, the entire roast cooks more evenly throughout the cut of meat by leaving it in rather than removing it.
When cooking steak, make sure the pan you are using is really hot so that it sears the outside of the meat and keeps all of the juices inside. This will make your steak taste great, and it won't be dried out, since all of the flavor is still sealed inside of the meat.
Tofu is a great source of protein that vegetarians should use to get the nutrients their body needs. Many vegetarians are lacking in protein because they are not eating meat. Tofu can be prepared in a variety of ways and really soaks up flavors so it can be served as a meal or as a quick snack.
Before frying raw potatoes, let them sit in cold water for at least a half an hour. By doing this, the fries will be more crispy. Also, letting them sit in cold water will cut down on the time it takes for them to cook thoroughly.
When you have taken enough celery off the stalk for your recipe, place the rest of it in aluminum foil and then place it in the refrigerator. The celery will stay fresh for at least a week by following this method and it will still have the same taste as when it was first bought.
Prepare as much of the food as you can the night before. The cooking process will go much smoother when you can concentrate on the more difficult parts of cooking instead of worrying about the mundane tasks. Many dressings and vegetables, for example, will stay in the refrigerator quite well.
Get creative when you cook your food. Cooking is an art-form. You should not limit yourself to the usual flavors and combinations. Try adding different fresh vegetables in place of canned vegetables. Use varieties not found in canned vegetable mixes. You will soon find your meals have much more flavor.
To save money and improve your health, cook the recommended portion sizes and plan your meals ahead of time. Meat is one of the most expensive ingredients on your plate. By eating the appropriate portion sizes you can be sure that your family is getting plenty of vegetables and whole grains. For more healthy cooking tips, visit www.thinkcook.com.
Sprinkle salt liberally into the boiling water that is used to cook pasta. The seasonings in the water will infuse the pasta thoroughly. Pasta salted during cooking tastes better than pasta salted after the fact.
It sounds kind of funny, but to be a better cook, one should make sure they have a large enough kitchen. Some kitchens, simply put, are not large enough to accommodate a good cook. The more space you have, the more free you'll feel. The more free, then the less confined, cluttered, and un-inventive you will feel.
Stock up on ingredients at your local farmers' market. This fresh, healthy food pretty much prepares itself. The flavors of natural foods dress up the taste of any dish. Avoid over preparing these foods to preserve the natural flavor, and follow your instinct when it says to leave an ingredient out. Sometimes, the most simple dishes are the best.
Add salt when boiling pasta. Not only does it shorten the cooking time by increasing the temperature of the water, it also adds great flavor and keeps the pasta from tasting bland. A general rule is to add one and a half tablespoons of salt to each pound of pasta.
While it is easy to just grab a spoon to scrape prepared, wet cake mix from the mixing bowl to put into pans for baking, do yourself a favor an invest in a good rubber scraper. A rubber scraper is made to be pliant, is curved on one side and straight on the other, just perfect for scraping the bowl of every last drop of cake and brownie mix. Using a rubber scraper gets all of the mix where it belongs in your baking pans and that quantity is what the baking time on boxes of mix are based upon. Too little mix in the pans leads to burnt goods when relying on the stated baking times.
As you can see, cooking is not as hard as you may have previously thought. By following these tips, you are well on your way to becoming a competent chef. Your family will love the delicious meals you provide them, and you will likely pass these skills along to them too.
