Kitchen Secrets: Learn To Cook With The Best Of Them

Many people are intimidated by the thought of trying new recipes and learning new ways to cook, but cooking can be fun if you know what you are doing. If you follow the tips in this article, you will be on your way to cooking gourmet food in your home kitchen.

If you have already cooked before for someone that you know and love, try to shake things up a bit and add some new spices to the recipes. Changing things up can keep things fresh and make your cooking very spontaneous. This will improve your ability and skills in the kitchen.

Leftover vegetable pieces shouldnt go to waste. Broccoli tops, carrot pieces and onion peelings can be added to your vegetable, beef or chicken stock, to fill it with extra flavor. Dont forget to add the stock to your favorite meals to enhance their flavor and appear as a great cook in front of your friends and family.

Prepare your ingredients, cookware, and cooking utensils in advance of starting to cook. Your time spent in the kitchen will be greatly reduced, and you will have less chance for error, when you do this. Make sure you remember to get the spices you will need ready as well.

If you are cooking pastries or foods that can get very messy, make sure that you wear an apron at all times. The last thing that you will want to do is to get food on your clothes and have to change before you eat your meal with friends or family.

The downside of tasty ingredients like garlic and onions is that their flavors and smells transfer to your hands. Rub your hands thoroughly on the interior of a stainless steel sink after working with garlic or other odoriferous cooking ingredients. Doing this will remove the scent from your hands, and keep it from spreading to the next food you touch.

Cooking tip "? sweet treat for smelly fingers! Cleaning fish or shrimp is a messy task and leaves a distinctive smell on your hand for at least a day. There is an effective way of removing the smell. Squish a few fresh strawberries between your fingers for a couple of minutes and rinse your hand with soapy water. The smell will disappear instantly!

You should cook chicken stew if you need to make a quick meal. Take a carton of chicken broth and put it in a large stock pot. Add cooked shredded chicken, diced potatoes, carrots, green beans and onions to the pot. Season to taste and cook for three hours on low. It is a tasty meal that does not take a lot of work.

Nutrition

In recipes that call for milk or water, try substituting more flavorful liquids. When a recipe calls for water, you can try chicken or beef broths. You may even want to try something like juice. Use yogurt, buttermilk or sour cream in place of milk. Using different liquids is an easy way to make an old dish more interesting and more nutritious.

To preserve more of the nutritional value of your vegetables dont cook them for too long. As you cook a vegetable, its nutrient content diminishes. Good techniques for quickly cooking vegetables are steaming and stir-frying. Slow cooking has its place, but dont neglect the quicker techniques with their greater nutrition.

As was stated in the beginning of this article, cooking gourmet food at home is really just a matter of proper education and practice. Anyone can cook tasty, healthy food if they can follow directions. Apply the tips in this article and soon you will be known as the neighborhoods gourmet chef.