Do you find cooking stressful or intimidating? Do not allow the challenges of creating great meals lead you to frustration. The following piece includes several terrific ideas that will remove any anxiety you have about preparing meals. Once you follow the tips from this article, you will look back and laugh at how stressed out cooking used to make you feel.
TIP! Don’t throw away that runny sauce, as there is an easy fix available. Mix together a solution of one tablespoon corn starch and two tablespoons water.
If you want to start cooking more, go to the bookstore or library and get a cookbook of simple and basic recipes that appeal to you. Focus on one recipe at a time and give yourself enough time to improve your cooking.
Pie crusts and tart crusts should be cook a bit past the point that you think they should be cooked. It will help if you achieve a darker, more delicious golden caramel color, rather than stopping when the crust is still pale. The golden color indicates that the sugar in the pie crust has caramelized and this will give a sweet and crisp flavor.
TIP! Boiling your vegetables may cause you to miss out on many of the benefits and nutrients to be found in your meal. Keep them healthy by choosing fast methods of cooking such as steaming or sauteing, or better yet, learn to love them raw.
Freeze meat partially to facilitate slicing meat into thin strips. This method is especially useful when preparing Chinese or Thai entrees. Partially freezing meat keep the fibers in meat from stretching and tearing resulting in perfectly sliced strips. To ensure that the meat strips cook evenly, make sure they thaw out before use.
While garlic is excellent for cooking, it can also be absorbed into your hands. If you have a stainless steel sink, simply rub your hands vigorously on the inside of it, when you are finished handling the garlic. Doing this will remove the scent from your hands, and keep it from spreading to the next food you touch.
TIP! Leave raw potatoes in cold water for at least 30 minutes before frying them to make crispier French fries. Soaking the sliced potatoes in cold water strengthens the potato fibers so they will not break down so much when you fry them in the hot oil.
When trying to eat a healthier diet or lose weight, you should decrease the portion of oils used in cooking meals. Butter and oils are often unnecessary fats. 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.
When you plan on using wooden skewers for cooking, soak them in water for 30 minutes prior to cooking. By soaking, you can prevent the skewers from burning while cooking your food. Instead of cooking food on a single skewer, opt for two parallel skewers. This prevents the ingredients from sliding off into the fire.
TIP! Keep sauce easily by filling an ice tray with the leftovers and freezing it. When you do this, making a quick meal can be accomplished by simply reheating by using a saute pan.
If you are preparing pumpkins for a meal, position the pumpkin so it is sitting upright, then cut it into two equal halves. Put each half on a baking sheet, with the cut side facing downward. Sprinkle your baking sheets with a little water, and roast the pumpkin halves for an hour at 350 degrees.
If your dish calls for a bit of garlic, make sure the garlic is as fresh as possible. A rule of thumb for garlic: Fresher means sweeter. Fresh garlic is hard, not wrinkled, or mushy-feeling.
TIP! It is important to keep your items fresh, so always store your perishable items, sugars, flours, etc, in sealed, airtight bins. Reducing exposure to air and insects will allow food to remain fresh and edible for longer periods of time.
When you prepare a turkey for Thanksgiving or any other time, don’t ever toss the leftovers. It is smarter to divide up the meat and seal it in airtight containers that you freeze. This will keep the turkey fresh enough to make salads and sandwiches for a couple of weeks.
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TIP! It’s important to include beans and tofu in your diet if you’re trying to increase your protein intake. You can buy these in almost any grocery store.
If you purchase fruit that is still green and want it to ripen quickly, put it in a plastic bag with perforations. As fruits ripen, ethylene gas is released. The perforations in the bag allow the air to circulate while the plastic retains enough of the ethylene gas to increase the ripening process and keep the fruit tasting sweet and delicious.
Cooking for a family can be more than a little overwhelming. Fortunately, there are many shortcuts and tricks to make cooking for a family quick and easy. You no longer have to dread meal time.
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Do you find cooking stressful or intimidating? Do not allow the challenges of creating great meals lead you to frustration. The following piece includes several terrific ideas that will remove any anxiety you have about preparing meals. Once you follow the tips from this article, you will look back and laugh at how stressed out cooking used to make you feel.
If you want to start cooking more, go to the bookstore or library and get a cookbook of simple and basic recipes that appeal to you. Focus on one recipe at a time and give yourself enough time to improve your cooking.
Pie crusts and tart crusts should be cook a bit past the point that you think they should be cooked. It will help if you achieve a darker, more delicious golden caramel color, rather than stopping when the crust is still pale. The golden color indicates that the sugar in the pie crust has caramelized and this will give a sweet and crisp flavor.
Freeze meat partially to facilitate slicing meat into thin strips. This method is especially useful when preparing Chinese or Thai entrees. Partially freezing meat keep the fibers in meat from stretching and tearing resulting in perfectly sliced strips. To ensure that the meat strips cook evenly, make sure they thaw out before use.
While garlic is excellent for cooking, it can also be absorbed into your hands. If you have a stainless steel sink, simply rub your hands vigorously on the inside of it, when you are finished handling the garlic. Doing this will remove the scent from your hands, and keep it from spreading to the next food you touch.
When trying to eat a healthier diet or lose weight, you should decrease the portion of oils used in cooking meals. Butter and oils are often unnecessary fats. 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.
When you plan on using wooden skewers for cooking, soak them in water for 30 minutes prior to cooking. By soaking, you can prevent the skewers from burning while cooking your food. Instead of cooking food on a single skewer, opt for two parallel skewers. This prevents the ingredients from sliding off into the fire.
If you are preparing pumpkins for a meal, position the pumpkin so it is sitting upright, then cut it into two equal halves. Put each half on a baking sheet, with the cut side facing downward. Sprinkle your baking sheets with a little water, and roast the pumpkin halves for an hour at 350 degrees.
If your dish calls for a bit of garlic, make sure the garlic is as fresh as possible. A rule of thumb for garlic: Fresher means sweeter. Fresh garlic is hard, not wrinkled, or mushy-feeling.
When you prepare a turkey for Thanksgiving or any other time, don’t ever toss the leftovers. It is smarter to divide up the meat and seal it in airtight containers that you freeze. This will keep the turkey fresh enough to make salads and sandwiches for a couple of weeks.
Ethylene Gas
If you purchase fruit that is still green and want it to ripen quickly, put it in a plastic bag with perforations. As fruits ripen, ethylene gas is released. The perforations in the bag allow the air to circulate while the plastic retains enough of the ethylene gas to increase the ripening process and keep the fruit tasting sweet and delicious.
Cooking for a family can be more than a little overwhelming. Fortunately, there are many shortcuts and tricks to make cooking for a family quick and easy. You no longer have to dread meal time.