Monday, 9 January 2012

Healthy Cooking For A Healthy You: Some Tips

Even if you only cook for your family, there is always something new to learn. When you feel comfortable with the basics, you can start trying to create your own recipes. Get together a repertoire of your favorite tips and you'll be a huge success in the kitchen. 
A cook sautees onions and peppers.
Image via Wikipedia


Don't completely drain the water after cooking pasta, save some to add to the pasta sauce. You will need to save roughly one quarter cup of water. Add some of it in as you mix the pasta with the sauce. The water contains starch from the pasta, and will make your sauce nice and creamy. 

When baking pie or tart crusts, bake them longer than you think you should. Rather than pale blonde, they should have a golden caramel color. The crust changes to the caramel color only after the sugar has had time to caramelize. This will give the crust the sweet flavor you want. 

When you have a big meal to prepare, get a head start by doing the prep work the night before. The night before the big day, prepare a sauce, marinate meat or chopping up and measuring out vegetables and herbs. You will be a much happier cook if you do not have to do as much the next day, resulting in less stress. 

Whenever you have a meal to cook, if you do your all your prep work ahead of time, it will be much less stressful and quicker. Look through any recipes you make before you begin and prep accordingly, this can save you time before you cook letting you concentrate on your task when the time comes. You can make a lot of your preparations a day or more in advance. More complex recipes become quicker and more fun this way. 

To improve the flavor of your dishes, mix your own broth and other stock. If you cook large quantities, you could store the leftovers in resealable bags inside your freezer. When you do this, you will have delicious, healthy stock ready-to-use whenever you make soups and stews. When you create the stock that will be used in your food, you can ensure the quality and avoid unnecessary additives and preservatives. 

If you are preparing pumpkins for a meal, position the pumpkin so it is sitting upright, then cut it into two equal halves. Next, take each half and place them cut side down onto separate baking sheets. Add a touch of water to each sheet before putting it in the oven. You will want to bake this for approximately an hour at 350 degrees. 

Using beef or chicken stock in a variety of recipes will add flavor to the meal. Bouillon cubes can also add flavor to those meals that call for water. Bouillon cubes will provide an added level of moisture and flavor to your dish. 

Don't use any wine in your meals that you wouldn't drink. If you use a kind of wine you've never tasted before, you may mess up the flavor of the dish you're working on. It is possible to find wines that are meant to be used in cooking. 

Don't ever buy boneless meat or fish. Simply place all bones (both raw and cooked) in a plastic bag in your freezer. Take them out when you want to make stock. 

Cater to your guests by serving salads with dressing on the side. Some people enjoy lots of dressing when eating salads so it is important that each person add their own dressing. Also, try and include different types of dressings. 


Pasta con funghi e piselli
Image by davide.santoni via Flickr
Don't deviate from the instructions even a little when making macaroni and cheese. This ensures that the macaroni is cooked to perfection and that the cheese is the right consistency to blend well with the pasta. A regular serving spoon is a perfectly good way to serve your macaroni and cheese. To top off this dish, spice it up with some pepper sprinkled over the top! 

Apply the tips from this article to help guide you towards having a better handle on cooking. The tips given by this article could be a fantastic way to help improve your cooking skills for your family, a party, or even just yourself.
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