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Cooking is a very useful skill. To help you cook, we've searched high and low to find the best recipes. From a simple meal of chicken and salad, to a complex Mexican Meal with several kinds of appetizers, Dot-Bingo.com can help you make your next cooking adventure a success.
If you're a new cook, we have some important tips to get you started.
1.Cooking Meat and Poultry.
When you're cooking chicken, beef, or pork, remember that the main ingredient is the meat. You want to taste the meat, not to mask its flavor. Spices should enhance the taste of the meat. Side dishes should contrast gently. For example, beef goes well with a light pasta dish. If you make it too heavy, with too much cheese or cream or meat, the overall meal will be too heavy. It's also important with pork and chicken to be sure that the meat is cooked all the way through. When you cook beef, be sure that all of the meat is hot, but it's okay to leave it a little rare in the middle. For health reasons, always sterilize any surface that raw meat came into contact with. You can sterilize with diluted bleach or, if you plan to use the surface for food again immediately, with boiling water or soap followed by lemon juice.
2. Cooking Seafood
When you want to cook seafood, it's important to know the rules for it. Make sure that you buy pre-cleaned fish, as cuts from the scales of raw fish can introduce dangerous diseases into your bloodstream. Barbequed or grilled fish is generally the best. The slight burn from the grill gives the fish a crisp outer layer. You can make fish on the grill and add a little lemon juice and some butter for a simple but delicious taste.
3. Elegant meals
An elegant meal will generally have several courses; an appetizer, a soup, some salad, a main dish which includes at least one type of meat and several side dishes, and a dessert. You can make almost any course simply. For example, you can use a slice of cantaloupe at each plate as an appetizer.
If you need a simple dessert, you can serve strawberries with cream (or whipped cream) and sugar. A simple side dish can consist of steamed broccoli or cauliflower with some grated cheese on top. Even a main dish can be as simple as oven baked chicken with a few garlic cloves stuffed inside and granulated garlic sprinkled on top. For a simple soup, try split-pea.
You can chop a single onion finely, sauté slightly, then add dry peas and water. It takes a little over an hour to cook, but you only have to stir occasionally and add some salt before serving.
4. Baking Desserts and Breads
It's important to know how to follow a recipe, especially if you're baking Desserts. Cakes and cookies are a combination of magic and chemistry. When you bake cookies it's important to get just the right amount of baking soda and baking powder, and make sure to measure exactly as much as the recipe says of every ingredient. If you add too much acid to your recipe, baking soda can react too strongly. If you don't add enough, your dough may not rise. With breads, you need to be even more careful. You may, for example, try to make a lower-calorie bread by adding less sugar. This could be detrimental, because the sugar activates the yeast. If there isn't enough sugar, the bread won't rise.
5. Meringues
Another example of how chemistry affects your baking is in meringues. If you use a professional quality mixer with a stainless steel or copper bowl, you can get a good meringue without too much trouble. If, on the other hand, your mixing bowl is plastic, and your mixer doesn't have the fastest blades, the chemistry is key. For example, if you wash out your bowl with a spray of lemon juice, you'll get the oils that may not have come off the last time you washed the bowl.
Another trick is that while it's easier to divide eggs when they're cold, the whites whip much faster when they're room temperature. Dividing your eggs ahead of time can save you a lot of standing and holding the mixer. A crucial thing that many cookbooks leave out is that the small white membrane that holds the yolk goes with the yolk. It may be white, but if you put it in with your whites, they won't puff up as quickly or as high. Very few people know what the cream of tartar does or how to replace it with something else.
Cream of tartar is an acid which keeps the egg whites from breaking down. It doesn't make the eggs whip faster or better. It keeps them from over-whipping. If you don't have cream of tartar, you can use a little lemon juice, or better yet, whip your eggs in a copper bowl. The acid from the copper will hold the whites together and keep them from separating into solid and liquid parts.
6. Pie Crusts
If you want to make a pie crust, it's important to keep the fat cold when you mix the flour in. Otherwise the flour will form long chains of starch, and the dough will be tough. For the best Cookies and pie crust, avoid the easy route of synthetic shortening like Crisco, because it will leave a strange film in your mouth. The best pie crust is made with lard, butter, or a combination of the two.
7. Preparing Ingredients in Advance
Always prepare most of your ingredients before you start cooking. If you're making a stir-fry, for example, and the next ingredient isn't ready, it could ruin the whole dish. Cut your vegetables in advance and cover them with plastic wrap. If you peel or cut potatoes or apples in advance, leave them soaking in water.
8. Finishing Touches
When you set your serving platters, be sure to look at the presentation. A sprig of parsley or a cherry tomato will add color to a plate. If you're serving fish or salad, add a wedge of lemon for a fresh look. Make sure to serve several colors at a meal. Carrots and sweet potatoes add a pretty orange color and a sweet flavor.
Nothing improves the flavor of a meal like a beautiful environment. Use low lights or candles to give a softer feeling. Make sure the air is cool, but not too cool. Keep music soft and preferably without lyrics. Piano music or classical music will help set the mood.
Related Topics: Cooking Tips
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