A new kitchen is the perfect opportunity to upgrade your kitchen skills. Learning to cook well can improve your health, shrink your food budget and impress friends and family. Whether you’re a stranger to the kitchen or an experienced stove-top jockey, there are always new cooking tips and techniques to learn.
Start with these tips below, and getting cooking in your new kitchen!
Plan ahead
Planning out meals for the coming week can save you both time and money. You can buy all of the things you will need beforehand without having to make spontaneous trips to the store during the middle of a busy week. Have a planned schedule and it will make it easy for you to prepare things before you actually cook.
If you are planning a complex meal, reduce your stress by doing the prep the night before. You can double-check the availability of everything required, get your ingredients together, chop herbs and vegetables, and measure out quantities in advance. When you are ready to get started with the meal, you will only have to deal with the actual cooking.
Store your spice correctly
Do not keep your spices above your stove. They need to be located in a cool, dark area; if they are exposed to either warm conditions or a light source, they will not taste as good and your cooking will suffer as a result. Think about using one of the cabinets near your refrigerator as a storage space.
Deep frying
Trying to deep fry at home? Whenever your food is ready for the fryer, use tongs to gently hold the item just below the surface of the oil so that it has a sealed exterior and then let it go. If you toss it in without holding it for a few seconds, you might see your food stick to each other or to the fryer itself.
Use quality knifes
When cutting vegetables or meat it’s very important to have sharp, high quality knives. This will help you to evenly cook the meal, and it the food will look nicer with clean cuts. If you use dull, low quality knives, instead of cutting your food, they will rip it which can cause uneven cooking and a not so appetizing looking meal. Buy some new quality knives to go with your new kitchen!
Faster baked potatoes
If you like having baked potatoes with your meal but do not like the long cooking time, you should soak them in salt water for twenty minutes before you bake them. They will take only about half of the usual time to bake after being soaked.
Easier hard boiled eggs
Hard boiled eggs are an easy breakfast or snack, but it can be frustrating when the shell cracks while it’s cooking. To prevent this, add some vinegar to the boiling water. This helps to seal the egg inside the shell and keep it all in one piece.
Replace liquor with fruit juices
For recipes that call for liquor or wine, you can substitute with fruit juices. Some people simply do not like the taste of liquor or wine while others do not want children eating meals that contain it. Therefore, fruit juices is suitable substitute that still provides your meal with the flavor it needs. Stock your new kitchen with fruit juices.
Better 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.
One of the greatest things about cooking for yourself is that you are free to cook the way you want to. As you refine your cooking skills, keep looking for recipes and techniques that will help you to make the kind of food that you want to enjoy.