Category Archives: Cooking

Cooking Tips Will End Your Recipe Guessing

Cooking is not made easy when youre still guessing. In fact, guessing at cooking increases the stress because guessing makes you unsure of the results to come. Im going to give you a little cooking help by offering some tips on how to end your guessing.

One of the reasons that you guess is because its hard to believe something until you can actually see it. But I want to help you to wrap your head around the idea that you have to believe it first and then youll see it.

Quantifying your portion sizes, temperature and testing are great ways to allow you to stop guessing. Lets go ahead and look at how that might work.

4 Ways to quantify your cooking and eliminate guessing:

Cooking Tip #1: Temperature

Temperature is important in cooking. Some foods will make you sick if you dont cook them at the right temperature. Other foods will be utterly destroyed if you cook them much above “medium heat”.

Use water as an indicator of temperature. Water evaporates at 212 degrees F, so if you are using a saute pan, if you sprinkle a little water in the pan and it evaporates, you know that the pan is at least at the boiling point of water. The quicker the water evaporates, the hotter your pan is. This works on the grill as well.

You can also test a small piece of your food to test for temperature. For example, maybe youre going to fry some chicken in oil on the stove, but you cant tell if the oil is hot enough or not. Dont ruin a whole breast by putting it into oil thats not hot enough. Instead, take a small piece of the chicken and drop it in the pan. Youll know right away whether the oil is hot enough or not to cook your food.

Cooking Tip #2: Test a Small Quantity

Sometimes, you just need to test a small quantity of something before cooking the whole thing. This is especially helpful in roasting. I can tell you that when I had my catering business, sometimes we would have to make hundreds or thousands of crab cakes in one big batch. Well, we would take one crab cake, cook it and test it. This would allow us to make adjustments on the rest of the batch and make a superior product! Cooking or roasting a small piece of something is a great way to see if your plan is going to work without sacrificing all of your ingredients during one of your guessing adventures.

Cooking Tip #3: Portion Size

Get a digital scale and begin to understand your raw portions sizes. Let me tell you a story about how I discovered the importance of this tip.

When I used to make spaghetti for myself and my wife, I would cook a whole pound of spaghetti, basically one whole box for the two of us. When we sat down to eat, because so much spaghetti was available, we ate more than we should. After finishing our meal, there was always spaghetti left over, we would put the leftover spaghetti in the refrigerator and a few days later throw it out because we wouldnt eat it.

With my digital scale, I started by weighing 8 ounces of dry pasta for the two of us. I cooked the 8 ounces and still had some leftover, so I adjusted it down until I knew EXACTLY how much dry pasta to cook for the two of us5.3 ounces is our perfect amount. Knowing this finally made cooking pasta easy, we dont overeat and we dont have leftovers.

A Deep Fish Fryer and California Rock Cod Combine to Make a Delicious Meal

One of my favorite fishing trips is to the north coast of California for rock cod, and one of my favorite ways to prepare it is with a deep fish fryer. The problem is you have to catch it before you can cook it, and thats why I like fishing for rock cod. If you can get your boat in the water, and you know where the reef is, you are going to catch fish. Its just that simple. And a fresh catch along with a deep fish fryer, combine to make a delicious meal.

After all, one of the reasons we fish is to put food on the table. After spending a day on the water, and the time and effort to clean and prep your catch, a tasty meal of deep fried rock cod is a nice reward.

When selecting your deep fryer, the first choice you have to make is, electric or gas. If you’re like me and do a lot of outdoor cooking with no electricity available, your only choice is a propane burner. My favorite is the Bayou Classic fish cookers. They are well built, portable propane burners, and easy to use.

To prepare your rock cod for the deep fryer you will want to fillet them. You will have to cut out the rib cage and check for any other bones you may have missed. Then cut your fillets into 2″ strips. Keeping your pieces of fish approximately the same size, helps ensure that all are properly cooked.

Next, you need to coat your fish. You can use a batter or coat it with egg and breadcrumbs. I generally prefer a beer batter, but, it comes down to personal preference. Just make sure you do coat it. This helps keep the oil out and the moisture in.

Make sure you use a vegetable oil with a high smoking point. I generally use peanut oil, but canola oil or soybean oil will work as well. You need to pre-heat the oil to 350-375 degrees F. You don’t want it to fall much under 350 degrees , or the oil will soak through the batter making the fish taste greasy.

When cooked at the proper temperature, your batter will be a crispy golden brown and the cod will be moist and delicious. So, make sure you have a quality thermometer with your deep fish fryer. If not, you can drop a small piece of bread in the hot oil, if it turns golden brown within 45-60 seconds, the oil temperature is fine.Don’t overload your fryer, as this will lower the oil temperature. Just fry 3 to 6 pieces of fish at a time, depending on the size of your fryer.

And now, it’s time to eat, and there are a variety of tasty ways to consume your deep fried rock cod. It tastes great all by itself, or dip it in your favorite sauce. One of my all time favorites is fish tacos. Whether you like a crispy shell or a soft shell, deep fried cod fits very well in either, and makes for a delicious meal.

So, if you like catching fish, give California rock cod a try. Just remember, you need to know where the reefs are, so make sure you get some local knowledge. Oh yea, and don’t forget your deep fish fryer.

Have You Tried The Morocco Cooking Vacation

Do you want to improve your cooking ability? You can enroll in cooking courses even on vacation. If you want to go Paris, you can learn French cooking. You can learn different menus from this training. Cooking holidays give you opportunity to meet new chefs. Make your vacation time most memorable with this experience. Want to learn more about these types of vacations? Then, read this article.

A Cooking Vacation is among the top choice of destination for kitchen enthusiasts. No matter if your plan is to have a short break from your neighborhood, or to travel for few days, culinary tours allow you to explore, experience, and learn the unique cuisine of your chosen destination.

Among the outstanding destinations for cooking holidays are Spain, Greece, Italy, Paris, and Portugal. There are many benefits you can gain from cookery holidays.

Many people who love cooking can learn a lot from cooking classes held particularly for vacationers. Each cooking class is handled by seasoned local chefs in order that you understand and differentiate the taste of native cuisine.

You can also be assured of thorough guidance from the chefs because the cooking vacation is set up for limited seats. During the cooking class, you are given activities to test your lessons from the local chefs.

This can be a great way to win a friend. As you mingle with your chef instructors and classmates, you can build rapport with them, making your culinary tours memorable as you exchange ideas relevant to your cooking lessons, travels and many more.

Moreover, it allows you to showcase your skill in cookery. You can use your existing skills in cooking the best-tasting dish. If you are a newbie, this can be an excellent way to learn from the expert. Nobody is born great, even in cooking. It can be learned, and nothing beats the idea of learning from the great local chefs.

To make your cooking vacation something worth reminiscing, you need to consider few things. After you have determined the destination for your culinary tours, you need to know the best cooking schools of your destination. You can do a search on the web to find out the curriculum.

Know the type of cuisines being taught in every school so you will have an idea on what to expect from your cooking classes. Find out the schedule of the classes so you can organize your vacation itinerary.

At most, the cooking schools are accredited throughout the world and the chefs are equipped with necessary qualifications, experience, resources and skills to make you the best chef of your own kitchen or restaurant.

Although surfing their websites can be a good source of information, it will even be rewarding if you contact them to pose your queries. This is a good way to know about their customer service.

Ask them everything you need to know about their culinary, especially the enrollment process, requirements and the opening of cooking classes. Try to request special discounts.

Cooking Tips on Shrimps and Cocoa

Shrimps Cooking Tips

Boiling is the common method of cooking shrimp. In a large pot, add 4 cups of water for every pound of shrimp. You can add seasonings of choice to the water if you want. Bring the water to a boil before adding thawed shrimp. How long to cook shrimp depends on whether the shrimp are large or small. Shrimp are done cooking when the skin turns bright pink to red in color. The meat will be opaque, and the shrimp will float to the top of the water. Average cooking time is 1 to 3 minutes. When the shrimp are done cooking, remove from the pot and place on ice. Steam shrimp by filling a large pot with water and bringing it to a simmer. Turn the heat on low before adding a steamer basket filled with shrimp. Cover the pot and cook until the skin or shell of the shrimp turns bright pink and the meat turns opaque. Shelled shrimp can be deep-fried. Dip the shrimp into milk and then coat with flour or cornmeal. Fry in a deep fryer filled with peanut oil and heated to 360 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove shrimp from the fryer once they are golden brown, usually after 2 to 4 minutes of deep-frying. Drain it and serve it hot and enjoy the taste.

Cocoa Tips

There are quite a lot of ways to cook meat. Pork should not be overcooked. Your cooking method determines how long the pork should be cooked. Broiling pork ribs in the broiler takes about 35 minutes for them to get done. Turn ribs frequently while broiling. Boneless center cut pork chops should be broiled for 5 or 6 minutes on each side. Thin cuts only need to be broiled for 2 minutes on each side. Pork chops can also be pan broiled over medium to high heat. Brush the bottom of the pan with some olive oil before broiling boneless center cuts for 3 minutes on each side. Center cut chops with the bone will need a slightly longer cooking time. Roast a pork loin 28 minutes for every pound. A center cut roast with the bone in needs additional cooking time and should be roasted for at least 35 minutes per pound of roast. Roast pork in an oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook the meat in a shallow pan.

You Wont Believe This Easy, Simple Method for Cooking Sauce

One of the most difficult things for a cook at home to make is a flavorful sauce. A great sauce will cover some of the worst cooking mistakes, enhance most of the best cooking successes and make you appear to be a home cooking genius.

Cooking a sauce means adding flavor, texture, and appearance to your home cooking dishes. A sauce or gravy is made of three simple ingredients: liquid, thickener, and flavorings. When you need easy cooking ideas for cooking sauces at home, you need only think of these three things.

Liquid for Your Sauce

If youre making a chicken dish, youll probably want to add something like chicken broth. If youre making a tropical dish, you might add a fruit juice or add soy sauce to an Asian dish. Add the liquid that makes sense for the protein that youve cooked and once youre comfortable making sauces, be open to experimenting with new and different flavor combinations. Next, you will need to be able to thicken your liquid so that it sticks to your food for some great home cooking.

Thickener for Your Sauce

A sauce needs to be thick enough to cling to food and not wind up as a puddle on the bottom of the plate. The easiest way to thicken a liquid is with a cornstarch slurry. This is the same method that most of our grandmothers used to make gravy from the pan drippings of the holiday turkey. When you dissolve cornstarch in a cold liquid, then add it to a hot liquid (your sauce), it will gelatinize, and thicken the sauce.

While slurry is the easiest way to cooking sauce success, roux is the most widely used and most flavorful because of the fat needed to separate starch molecules. If youve ever noticed lumps in your gravy, its because groups of starch molecules have stuck together and only thickened on the outside of the group. Butter, oil, or solid fats in a roux help to “line up” the starch molecules for the introduction of hot liquid and their opportunity to individually absorb the liquid and swell, this thickening the sauce.

Flavoring for Your Sauce

The liquid that you used to create your sauce may give you enough of a flavor profile that you dont need to add any additional flavors. However, if there isnt enough flavor, add some! You could add garlic, onions, ginger or any number of different ingredients while you are cooking your sauce to help to liven up your home cooking.

No matter what the liquid, thickening agent or flavor profile you choose, you can find that cooking sauce is a skill youll enjoy and will lead to more easy cooking ideas without recipes. Before you know it, everyone will be begging you to have them over to your house for some great home cooking.