Choose a variety of ingredients that complement each other for your Corporate Catering. Cooking can become drudgery after you do it for a while. To liven up your relationship with cooking, how about diving in and learning a few new techniques? Cooking isn’t just about making something to eat; it can be an enjoyable experience in itself. Here are a few great cooking guidelines to get you started.
Always have your spices stored in a dark and cool place. If they are stored in an area that they are exposed to light, heat and humidity, their shelf life is shortened. To keep your spices spicy and fresh, store them in an area that is cool and dark. Using fresher spices can make tastier meals.
Apples are a mainstay of fall and winter cooking, but they will spoil quickly if not stored properly. Place apples in plastic bags and keep them in a cool place. Be warned, there is a reason for the old adage about the rotten apple! If you fail to quickly discard spoiled apples, the rest will quickly spoil as well.
Regardless of the recipe, you can always bet that a fresh ingredient is better than its dried or frozen counterpart. Use any fresh ingredients that are available. They are not only tastier in general, but they also tend to be cheaper, as well.
When you do this, the mushroom will become absorbent and soak up the water. Instead, you want to wet a clean cloth and use that to wipe the mushroom off.
If you are left with extra sauce after a meal, find a clean ice cube tray to pour the leftovers into and store the tray in the freezer. When you’d like to make a quick and easy meal later on, you just have to pop out a few cubes of sauce and reheat them in a pan. Do not worry, the sauce will still be edible after it has been in the ice cube trays!
When boiling or sauteing veggies, use chicken broth instead of water. Chicken broth adds flavor to vegetables and prevents them from getting stuck to the bottom of the pan. Chicken broth costs very little, and can be bought at most any grocery store.
Replace the standby liquids of milk and water in recipes to mix things up. In place of water, try adding beef or chicken broth, juice or even water used to cook vegetables. Try to use buttermilk, yogurt, or sour cream in place of milk. Adding different and interesting liquids to a recipe can help the dish become more interesting and nutritious.
When you are seasoning food, a good rule to follow is to add the seasoning a little at a time rather than adding it all at once in the beginning of the cooking process. If you season your food this way, you can bring out the flavors of your ingredients a lot better.
Try drying your own fresh tomatoes. Start by slicing a ripe tomato one-half inch thick, or you can cut Roma tomatoes in half lengthwise. Place the resulting tomato pieces on a rack, then salt their exposed flesh lightly. Heat your oven to 190 degrees and place the tomatoes inside for as long as ten hours. Once done, you can store them in your freezer in plastic bags. Zing up your dried tomatoes and conserve them at the same time by canning them in olive oil and herbs. Dried tomatoes should be stored within the refrigerator and used within two weeks.
An organized cooking area is where you should focus to avoid costly mistakes while cooking your meals. Your time spent cooking will also be more productive if you are organized. Unorganized cooks can easily make mistakes, lose or overlook buying important ingredients, and waste good money and food that could be used.
Use a paper towel to blot your ground meat before cooking it. You should always blot up extra moisture before cooking ground meat. If you leave the moisture on the meat then it will release as soon as you begin cooking it. It will begin to sizzle. The meat, which is suppose to sear, may steam instead.
For an improvement to your pasta sauce, save some of the water used to cook the pasta. Set aside a small amount of the water, about one quarter cup. While mixing the sauce and pasta, add the pasta water into the mix. Amalgamation will take place in your sauce when you add the pasta water. The starch will give it the “creaminess” you desire.
When cutting herbs, sprinkle a little salt onto your chopping board first. This adds some extra flavor to the herbs while also keeping them on the board. Then monitor the amount of salt that you add to the food as it is cooking. The salt sprinkled on the board adheres to the herbs, which takes the flavor up to 11.
If you are using onions in a salsa that will sit for a while, rinse them in cool water, blot dry and then put them in the salsa dish. Fresh onions have sulfurous gas in them. Sulfurous gas is not good for salsa. By running water over the onions and then drying them off, you get rid of the gas.
If you enjoy cooking, you should learn more and make it your new hobby. Cooking is a fun way to explore the many delicious variations food can take on. You can be even more self aware, as you discover what things you enjoy making. While you culinary skill grow, you will probably enjoy cooking more, and you will not only find a fun new hobby, but your meals will have much better taste to enjoy.