Anyone can cook! Are you able to purchase ingredients and follow recipe directions? Can you access basic equipment for cooking? If so, then there is no reason you should not cook! If you are looking to take your culinary skills a bit further, see the tips below for some advice of how to effortlessly make delicious dishes that you and your family will love.
You should store all herbs and spices in cool, dark places. Their flavors are weakened significantly by things like heat, light and humidity. Usually herbs and ground spices tend to stay fresh for about a year. Whole spices last longer, possibly as long as five years. If stored the right way, they keep fresh for a lot longer.
Prepare to cook before you actually start cooking. It is essential to have all prep work finished before it's time to begin cooking. Trying to prepare a meal without handling the preparation beforehand can get stressful, especially if you need to finish your cooking in a set amount of time. You can spare yourself a great deal of hassle by doing prep work in advance.
When you are going to cook, make certain all the knives are sharp. You are more likely to injure yourself using a dull knife. With a dull knife, you may have to struggle to cut a vegetable, making it more likely that you will get injured in the process. Using a sharp knife will make it easier to cut that vegetable, so you are less likely to get hurt.
You can reduce the fat and calorie content of regular mashed potatoes by substituting part of the potatoes with mashed cauliflower. This won't affect the taste but it adds a handful of nutrition. You will not taste the blandness of cauliflower, but notice a new interesting flavor instead. Cauliflower mixes easily with potatoes and will become hard to notice while reducing your intake of carbs.
Garlic is a tasty ingredient that has a flavor that can, unfortunately, transfer to your hands. If you have a stainless steel sink or other utensil, rub your hands over the inside of the sink to remove the smell. This works for onions as well. 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.
When preparing chicken stock, it is best to make a large batch. Plan on preparing a large batch so that the excess can be frozen and used later. Homemade chicken stock makes a great base for casseroles, soups, stews, and many other wonderful dishes. Let your stock come to room temperature before you freeze it.
Cooking can be a helpful skill, a fun hobby, or even a profession. There are millions of ways to prepare food, and the best way to learn new cooking skills is to take advice from people who are good at what they do. So, the next time have control of your kitchen and a potentially fabulous meal, refer to these tips for some inspiration!
