Culinary Tips

More and more people are cooking at home primarily for two main reasons – it is less expensive than eating out, and secondly it is self-pleasing.

Cooking is the front burner in all home kitchens. A national survey conducted by Taste of Home magazine, say most Americans cook dinner for their families at least four nights a week, and 62 percent cook at least one meal a weak from scratch. Indulgence of such an activity requires a few culinary tips which make life easier in the kitchen.

General Culinary tips

Before you begin, prepare yourself and check out that you have all the ingredients to finish the meal. Go in for recipes that are not too complicated. Go through the recipe carefully and make sure you have all in the ingredients, utensils, etc. If it is chicken that you want to cook, heat the oven before you put the broiler in. This helps to preserve the juices of the broiler in. Use a spatula or thongs to turn the broiler rather than fork or a knife. If it is chicken soup on the menu, go in for a young female chicken, preferably a kosher pullet raised in a farm in natural surroundings. Cook the chicken first and then cut into pieces.

If you have a problem with beef not being tender enough, try adding a few pieces of raw papaya while cooking the meat. Papaya not only makes the meat tender, it adds taste. Raw papaya contains vitamins A, B, C and D, so makes the meat healthier. Besides raw papaya is said to clean the liver and helps in digestion.

If it is veggies on the menu, culinary tips are simpler. Vegetables can either be eaten raw, can be steamed, boiled, stir fried, even baked and barbequed! Vegetables can be cooked in hundred different ways and the key to enjoying veggies is variety. An important cooking tip for veggies is not to overcook. Overcooked vegetables loose its nutritious values and are ruined. If boiling veggies, find a way to use the water in making a gravy or sauce, rather than throwing it away.
Experimentation with different ingredients is a useful cooking tip for the not-so-expert cook. Try substituting beans for meats, or use carrots instead of sugar to sweeten sauces. While stir frying meat, chop to small pieces to allow quick cooking in the wok which is pre-heated to a high temperature.

For kitchen appliances, a salad spinner, hand blender to puree soup is easier to handle than a food processor. A folding steamer platform which can accommodate any pot work is ideal for cooking or steaming vegetables. The roasting pan should be of correct size. Try using non-stick pans, which use less oil and prevent sticking of cooked food to the pan.

Basic culinary tips concerning hygiene is wash hands with warm water and soap before any cooking. Wash regularly after handling meats and never put pre-cooked food on to plates, boards or other surfaces on which raw meat, fish or poultry have been placed without washing these utensils/surfaces with warm water and soap.