Tricks To Help You Become A Better Cook

Do you love to eat different foods? Do you mind yourself craving sweets? Do you enjoy interesting and unusual ethnic dishes? Have you ever wanted to be able to cook these meals yourself? Instead of thinking about it, do it! Put on your chef hat! Read this article to get started with this art.

A cool and dark location is best for storing spices and herbs. Exposure to humidity, light and heat all affect the flavor of your spices. For most grounded herbs and spices keep a lot of their flavor more than a year. Whole spices can retain flavor for about three or five years. If stored the right way, they keep fresh for a lot longer.

Freeze meat partially to facilitate slicing meat into thin strips. For Asian meals, such as Thai and Chinese dishes, this technique creates strips that are particularly ideal. Uncooked meat is easier to cut when it is partially frozen. Just remember, though, to let the stripped meat completely thaw out before you start cooking. This keeps the meat from cooking unevenly.

Cook your vegetables quickly to preserve flavor. Vegetables that are slowly and thoroughly cooked, are less tasty and nutritious than vegetables that are cooked briefly. The quick cook methods generally make the vegetables tastier and more nutritional. It is worth it to take the time to use cooking methods that preserve the most nutrients.

Freezing meat will make it more solid, and easier to cut into thin strips. When you are making stir fry Asian dishes, this technique for thinly sliced meat is ideal. By doing this, the meat becomes much easier to slice as the meat fibers are less likely to tear. To keep your meat cooking evenly, make sure you let the slices thaw completely before you cook them.

To reduce the calories and fat of mashed potatoes, and to avoid sacrificing taste or texture, replace some potatoes with the same amount of cauliflower. Cauliflower has little taste of its own, so it will blend right into your potatoes and pick up flavors from whatever other ingredients you use. Additionally, cauliflower has the same texture and color as mashed potatoes, so it makes it an easy, healthy addition to your dish.

Garlic may be a tasty addition to your meals, but the smell that stays on your hands is a bit of a downside. However, rub your hands inside a stainless steel basin when you have finished working with any strong-odor ingredient. Rubbing your hands on the stainless steel, helps remove the odor from your hands, so that every other food you touch does not smell like garlic also.

After Thanksgiving or any other time you cook turkey, save the leftovers. This is a meal that will freeze really well so you can enjoy it again later. The turkey will be more fresh after a couple of weeks when doing this. It is great in a sandwich or a salad.

A great cooking tip to employ is to cook your vegetables in chicken broth. Not only will chicken broth help to keep vegetables from getting stuck to the pan, but they will add some nice flavors to the dish. Chicken broth doesn't cost much, and is widely available at most grocery stores.

Make your own sun-dried tomatoes. You can use Roma tomatoes cut lengthwise, or ripe tomatoes sliced about a half inch thick. Put them facing upwards onto a cooling rack and add a little salt. Place the cooling rack on a cookie sheet and dry in a 190 degree oven for up to 10 hours. Once done, you can store them in your freezer in plastic bags. You can store dried tomatoes in an olive oil filled jar. Add fresh herbs for seasoning. The jars can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Look for different opportunities to use these tips. Your loved ones will quickly be asking you for your recipes. Great Tips To Help You In The Kitchen Professional Tips And Tricks To Better Cooking Take Your Cooking To The Next Level