Try using vegetable stock instead of chicken or beef stock when cooking. It has a lot more flavor.
I will add this: I often use a crockpot so I don’t have to do a lot preparing dinner after work. I have a big one I use for turkeys with onions, celery and other flavorings. Cooking rice in the leftover broth gives it a nice flavor.
First, you make a roux. (This is the beginning of every Cajun recipe, even if it’s not written down–it’s assumed. If you’re making a cake or something, freeze the roux for later.)
Making brown gravy is all about psychological warfare. You must convince the roux that you’re going to let the flour burn before you add the water. Adding the water too soon will make the gravy pallid and bland, almost as bad as that library paste Texans call “gravy”.
Figure out ways to use your microwave more often, and save yourself time and labor. Here are a few things I do:
Microwave a big pile of raw spinach to wilt/cook it before chopping it to add to omelets, etc.
Microwave minced onions and butter or oil together when you need a small amount of sauteed onions at the end of a recipe or to add to a stuffing
Microwave equal parts of butter and flour together for several seconds, stirring once or twice, for a fast blonde roux to add to a stew or soup at the end of cooking. Careful not to let it go too long - it cooks up very quickly
Microwave bacon on a section of newspaper which has been covered with a couple of paper towels. Move the bacon after one minute of cooking or it will achieve a molecular bond with the paper towel that’s impossible to separate! Cook about 3 minutes total for 4 strips of bacon.
If you are cheap, you can’t beat the Mexican ethnic market for spices. Everything costs 99¢ or less. Store them in the freezer because they might have insect eggs in them (I’ve had moths growing in the chili powder). Heh, I guess one must sacrifice something for spices that cost 1/5 as much. It’s extra protein anyway.
Thank you, no. I’ll pay extra to get bug-free spices. :eek:
I love my herb garden. My cilantro is waist high, and I made spaghetti the other night with crumbled sausage, a bit of olive oil, oregano, rosemary, sage, and minced garlic.
Mmmmm…
Add to that Indian, Middle Eastern, or any other ethnic markets. I try to avoid buying McCormick’s as much as possible, as it’s ridiculously expensive and the quality is not so hot. Their paprika, in particular, is awful. If you cook anything with a substantial paprika component to it, buy either Hungarian (Pride of Szeged being the most commonly available) or Spanish paprika. And, yes, paprika does have flavor: it’s the beautiful sweet essence of red peppers. McCormick’s is red colored dust.
I’ve never had problems with finding bugs in my spices, but I have noticed that paprika (especially) will attract bugs like nobody’s business, so keep it well sealed!
Well, I guess I shouldn’t post FDA regulations on exactly how much extraneous organic matter is permitted to slip through before it’s considered a defect… (as an example, ground black pepper can have up to 475 insect fragments per 50 grams, and 2 rodent hairs per 50 grams. As Rachel Ray would say, YUM-MO!)
And I learned yet a third way.
Lay your palm out flat, and press on that little fleshy pad at the base of your thumb. As **bump[b/] said, this is rare. Now, touch that thumb to the forefinger and touch that pad again, that is medium rare. The thumb and middle finger is medium, ring finger is med-well, and pinky in well done.
If you cook enough steak, you’ll eventually know what a rare, med-rare, etc… steak feels like without having to compare it to something.
This can be extended to include almost any grain. I regularly toast quinoa, oatmeal & cream of wheat before cooking them as usual.
A dull knife is much more dangerous than a sharp one. The extra force that you need to apply to force a dull blade through what you’re cutting means more damage to your fingers if you slip, and increases the likelyhood of slipping. If you do cut yourself; a dull blade will leave a rough gash that hurts like hell and heals poorly, while a sharp one will make a neat incision that hurts less and heals better and quicker.
DO NOT catch a dropped knife or other sharp implement. Having to wash and/or sharpen is infinitely much more desirable than bandaging. Don’t just stand there either–I’ve seen more impaled feet than I ever wanted to–hop back a bit.
Always salt beans prior to applying heat. Not only does failing to correctly season the beans from the outset have nothing to do with how long they must cook, but I find that the flavor of the finished dish is significantly poorer than the flavor of properly seasoned beans.
With apologies to the cook above who recommends holding off until the beans are soft. This is an easy truth to verify, however.
That said, don’t skimp on knives. Yes, spend $300-$400 on a good set. You will not regret it.
I got Ivylad some Henckel knives one Christmas and he loves them.
Bought too much milk? Is it about to go bad? Freeze the extra in ice cube trays to add to coffee later.
Sesame oil is a must-have for the kitchen. Sauteing chicken or vegetables in it for a nice not-the-norm flavor.
<Martin Lawrence>
Oh HELL no!
</Martin Lawrence>
Too many people overcook their food. Get your oven/grill/whatever calibrated properly, and you can trust the timer at that point.
I second the sharp knife comments that several of you mentioned. I don’t necessarily think you have to have a $300 set; I have a really mixed bag of knives- a Mercer Genesis chef’s knife (Henkels/Wusthof quality, but from a chef’s supply store at $40), some stamped Chicago Cutlery knives, a small Kitchen-Aid santoku, and a couple of random paring knives.
What’s important is to keep them good & sharp. Better knives just have better balance, and hold an edge longer. But, if you’re just cutting up chicken breasts to saute, or chopping up lettuce for a salad, then washing the knife in the dishwasher, a $100 Wusthof knife is overkill. Just hit it with a steel or some kind of sharpening gizmo before you use it.
Another cooking tip is to use the freshest spices that you can get hold of. Usually, this means getting the fresh ones, but it extends to dried spices as well. Toss the bottle of paprika that’s turned a funky brown color, and get rid of the fennel seeds that are from 1985!
One more thing… cooking isn’t generally terribly measurement or temperature dependent(although there are exceptions). However, baking and candy making are. Follow the measurements EXACTLY, otherwise you’ll end up with pots of rock-hard gunk, or sticky, hard to remove gunk.
Until you know what you are doing. Then you can play around with things. I’ve been baking for 30+ years, so I have a pretty good intuitive feel for the ingredients. So I don’t get anal about my measurements. If you haven’t been doing it that long, it will pay to follow directions exactly.
A medium-sized santoku is the only knife you need 99% of the time. Get a good one, and keep it sharp.
A bachelorette can too!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If the recipe calls for blanched almonds, even if you don’t feel like making another stop, don’t substitute hickory-smoked salted almonds.
But seriously, my tip is in regard to quickbreads like banana and pumpkin. Let them cool somewhat on the rack but wrap them up in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil while they are still warm. It will hold in moisture and keep them nice and…well, moist.
Always keep lemons around. They keep a very long time in an loosely closed plastic bag in the refrigerator. They are good for all kinds of drinks, veggies, meat, sauces, desserts, cleaning, deodorizing, and probably more stuff I can’t think of. They can make your food taste ten times fresher.
Keep a pair of Kitchen shears, or just plain scissors nearby. I only discovered this handy tip a few years ago, and now I use a small pair of thread scissors a dozen or more times a day, and full-fledged kitchen shears a few times a week. I can’t remember what in the world I did before I started using them!
This is a great thread.
Oh, yes, I don’t know what I’d do w/out my kitchen shears, and can’t wait a few mo’s till it’s warm enough to get my herbs growing outside again.
Also, love the idea of having fresh lemons around all the time, but honestly, I often forget they’re in the fridge, and end up throwing them out, and since they’re running just under a buck apiece, I am holding back unless I have a definite use…I AM, therefore, soooooooo jealous of the FN’s host/hostesses that have gigantic bowls of them sitting on their counters at all time…would that I could…wah… 