There is a lot you can do to make meals fun for your children! Theme nights are a great hit. Try a pizza night, Mexican night, green food night or anything special that you can come up with. Even let your children in on it. This will be fun for everyone in the family! Read on for other great cooking tips, just like this one.
When cooking, the smaller the item the higher the cooking temperature can be. For instance, if you are cooking mini muffins they can be baked at 400, where as if the muffins are regular size the temperature should be no higher than 325. Cooking at the right temperature will optimize your cooking time and keep items from becoming dried out.
For stir fry with an authentic Chinese touch, try using their velveting technique! Prepare a mixture of corn starch, egg whites, seasonings and sherry and set your pork, chicken or shrimp in it for about half an hour. Then, blanch it in hot oil or boiling water for shiny, tender and delicious restaurant quality stir fry.
A good thing to remember regarding cooking is to store your ingredients and spices in a cool dark place and not on top of your stove. This is because humidity and light tend to cause spices and herbs lose their flavor. This is one of the things new cooks tend to forget.
Use a collapsible steamer basket to make the best steamed vegetables. These devices are available widely and cheaply. They can slip into almost any pot you already have and can be used for almost any vegetable you would like to enjoy. Be sure to watch your cook time to avoid getting mushy vegetables.
If you would like to bake a berry desert in the winter (when most berries are out of season), use frozen berries as a delicious and more eco-friendly alternative to fresh ones! Thaw your frozen berries for 45 minutes, drain the excess, then use as you normally would when making a berry pie or cobbler.
If you are having a big party, one of the worst things that you can do is to put dressing on the salad. Since the salad will sit out for a long time, it will probably get soggy after a while. Instead, leave an assortment of dressings out for people to choose.
It is important to know that the smaller the item, the longer it takes to cook. Many people think that smaller items do not take long to cook, therefore the item does not cook thoroughly. Usually, larger items do not take as long to cook and because people think they do, these items get burnt.
While your cooking it is important to be passionate and interested about what you are doing. With cooking, the taste you get out of your food isn’t only linearly connected to the effort put in, it’s exponential! If you don’t put effort into your food while cooking it, you will get something you don’t even want to eat or feed to anyone!
Use this tip when cooking chicken. Rather than using a roasting rack to cook the chicken, slice an onion and put the slices in an oiled pan. Then take the chicken and place it on top of the onions. While cooking, the the onions will absorb the juices of the chicken. This is useful for later when you make a sauce from the onions by pouring water or stock into the pan and cooking on high heat for three minutes.
Use a few tablespoons of sugar in the boiling water when cooking orange and yellow vegetables. Foods like squash and corn have a natural sweetness to them that is brought out when cooked in sugared water. This is a great way to get some healthy veggies into a kids diet as well as yours.
Cooking Skills
If you would like to know more about cooking, do not be ashamed to go to cooking classes. These classes can give you some really good ideas to increase your cooking skills. Many locations offer cooking classes at reasonable prices and some even give you supplies that you can bring home with you.
If you are looking to improve your cooking skills, learning from experienced cooks is a great way to avoid making their same mistakes. While testing out new recipes on your own can be fun, messing up in the kitchen can end up wasting time, as well as money that was spent on ingredients.
Mixing up the menu can help a picky eater want to eat. Who can resist food on green food night? How can a kid resist when he came up with the theme? Make a list of menu ideas and start cooking. Your whole family will love it. Continue reading other articles such as this one, so that you can learn all you can about cooking. There is always something new to learn, which is what makes cooking so exciting and fun.
