Home cooking is a talent that many people try to improve. Learning some basic cooking skills is a great way to diversify the meals you can enjoy on a daily basis and help you become more cultured. This article will contain some tips to help improve your abilities as a home cook.
When cooking a big meal, try to do your prep work the night before. This saves you time when you’re getting things ready for your dinner the next day. Have everything washed, chopped, and ready to go. You’ll thank yourself because there is less stress the night of the big meal.
If you are making mashed potatoes, return them to the pot after you have drained them cover the pot tightly and then let it steam for about 5 minutes. By doing this, the potatoes are able to dry out, which will make them mash into the perfect texture. It will also soak up butter and and cream easier.
An easy way to skin nuts. When used in cooking, nuts such as almonds and pistachios need their skins removed. Blanch the nuts by boiling them in a pan of water for one minute. Drain the nuts, and place them on a clean dishtowel. Fold the dish towel over the nuts, and rub vigorously. The skins will rub off onto the towel.
Tomatoes can be easily dried. Prepare by cutting ripe tomatoes into half-inch-thick slices or slicing Roma tomatoes in half down their long axis. Set them on a rack cut side up and sprinkle lightly with salt. Next, the tomatoes need to spend about 10 hours in an oven set to 190 degrees. Put a cookie sheet under the rack before it goes in. You can then freeze your tomatoes in Ziplock bags. You can pack dried tomatoes in a jar stuffed with organic olive oil and your favorite freshly cut herbs. Use them within two weeks of refrigerating.
You can save time and energy by cooking larger batches of a meal at one time, and then storing some of it in the freezer for later. Divide the meal into several serving-size containers and put them away. On a night when you don’t have time to cook from scratch, just pull a container out and defrost it.
Many of the vegetables and herbs give off a strong odor which tends to leave your cutting board smelly no matter how hard you try to scrub it off. Use permanent ink to mark one end of the cutting board to identify which is which.
Before grilling any foods, make sure your grill is clean. A dirty grill surface can cause many problems. Excessive smoking, soiling of flavors, potential for bacterial illness, not to mention being a fire risk, are all side effects of a filthy surface. Clean your grill with a wire brush often for best results.
If you want to pan sear a nice tuna steak, you want to do it right! Make a baste for the tuna that is comprised of ginger, cilantro, soy sauce, pepper, and salt. Put oil on the pan and heat it, sear for one minute on each side. The middle of the fish should still be pink.
If you are one of those people that does not eat a lot of vegetables so the fresh veggies you buy go bad very fast you should buy frozen vegetables. Frozen vegetables are flash frozen so they are the same as eating fresh veggies and you only have to take as much as you need from the package and return the rest to the freezer.
The tips previously stated are important to remember, but make sure you take more steps beyond them. If cooking is a passion, pursue it further. If it isn’t a passion and you just want to cook better meals for your family, pursue it more casually and more opportunities will open up.
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