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21 September 2012

Easy Cooking Ideas To Make Great Tasting Dishes

By Anna M Purginton


If you are trying to achieve a wonderful eating experience, there are countless cuisines and techniques to help you reach your goal. Some cooking methods are simple while others are more complex. You will discover some suggestions to help you cook better, no matter what level you are on.

If you love fish and you have time, catch your own fresh fish for your next meal. There are many advantages to one catching his or her own fish. Cost effectiveness and freshness aside, it's also a great money-saver.

Wooden skewers should be soaked in plain water before each use for an absolute minimum of thirty minutes. This will help to prevent burning when they are cooking. You can keep food on the skewer when you use two parallel skewers instead of one.

To make sure you know when the food is done, set the timer on the oven, but set a watch timer as well. If you use a watch or a cellphone as a timer, you will be sure to hear the alarm go off even if you are out of the kitchen.

When you have a large or complicated meal to prepare, you can eliminate a lot of the stress by doing any prep work the day before. You can double-check the availability of everything required, get your ingredients together, chop herbs and vegetables, and measure out quantities in advance. When it comes time to cook, all you will have to worry about is assembly and cook time.

Different recipes require different types of potatoes. Waxy, mealy, and all-purpose are the three main classes of potato. Mealy potatoes are usually dry and crumbly, which makes them ideal for mashing. One popular mealy type is the russet potato. Yukon gold potatoes are "all-purpose", which means they are suitable for most dishes. Since they hold their shape well, waxy potatoes are suitable for steaming and boiling. Plain red and white potatoes are typical waxy potatoes.

Baking dishes with oil in place of microwaving them prevents a greasy mess while reheating. Microwaves have such intense heat that they separate oil, which gets hot the quickest, from other ingredients that heat more slowly. If you bake it and slowly heat it up it will keep the ingredients together.

When you purchase fish and meat, buy it on the bone. Place bones in a large, heavy-duty freezer bag and place the bag inside the freezer so that it is ready when you need it.

If your recipe calls for a liquid, try using something other than water or milk. This will add a spark to that tired old dish. For example, you might try chicken broth or beef broth instead of water in a meat dish. You might even try fruit juice when cooking certain veggies. Instead of milk, try sour cream, yogurt or buttermilk. Changing up the liquids in your recipes can add nutrition, while livening up a standby dish.

Perhaps the easiest way to add new flavors and shake up your regular dishes is to experiment with different sauces and seasonings. Finding new sauces to marinate your food, and adding new spices, can create different flavors that are drastically different than you're used to. A great place to find a variety of lesser-known sauces and spices is at an ethnic food store.

When mashing potatoes use hot, but not boiling milk. This creates fluffier and lighter potatoes, than if you used cold milk. Nobody wants to eat mashed potatoes full of lumps.

If your family enjoys corn, but you find it grows boring as a side dish night after night, change things up a bit. Mix your corn with coconut flakes for Thai-inspired flavor that everyone will love.

Add a squirt of ketchup to the batter when making fried foods. Ketchup is not only for dipping cooked foods into, but it can also be used to dip chicken or vegetables into before dipping in breadcrumbs. The ketchup adds a surprising zest to any fried food, and most people would never think of ketchup in that way.

It is possible to over-think things in the kitchen. Meals can easily be ruined by making them too complicated. When you keep your meals simple and tasty, they are often healthier as well, without any salty or fatty additions. Use the tips in this article to start cooking with more understanding of how to make the best meals you can.




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