Valuable Cooking Advice Straight From The Pros

Have you ever sat down to a gourmet meal and wondered how on earth a person could make such a delightful dish? This article is filled with all sorts of valuable cooking advice.

Adding cauliflower to your mashed potatoes is a great way to reduce the amount of fat and calories they contain. You should use equal portions of potatoes and cauliflower when making this delicious side. Cauliflower's bland taste makes it easier for it to blend with the potatoes, so that you can't taste it, and it picks up other ingredients. You'll still be able to enjoy mashed potatoes, but with less fat and calories!

When you are planning to use skewers for your cooking, always soak wooden skewers for at least thirty minutes in water prior to use. Being soaked in the water prevents them from getting burned when exposed to the cooking heat. Instead of cooking food on a single skewer, opt for two parallel skewers. This prevents the ingredients from sliding off into the fire.

When purchasing your ingredients for preparing a recipe, you should read all of the labels. Many common cooking ingredients include substances that may not be very healthy. Pay special attention to carbohydrate and salt content, as eating too much of these can be especially dangerous.

By doing this, your fruits will remain fresh for the entire year. This is also a good way to have access to fruits that are out of season.

When you are preparing food that you must season, do it a little at a time instead of all at the beginning. You can be sure that you are not cooking away the extra flavoring, but instead are making the desired impact that you want your spices to have.

Measure out your cooking oils carefully. By measuring how much oil you use when cooking, you can lower fat levels in your meals better than if you just pour the oil straight from bottle to pan. By doing this, you will know exactly how much oil you use.

You can make dried tomatoes yourself. Start by slicing a ripe tomato one-half inch thick, or you can cut Roma tomatoes in half lengthwise. Next, lightly salt the open sides and place them salt-side up on a wire cooling rack. Set the rack on a cookie sheet in an oven at 190 degrees for a 10 hours. Put them in plastic bags for freezer storage. You can put the dried tomatoes with fresh herbs in a jar with olive oil to preserve them. The jars can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Unripened fruits should be placed into a plastic bag with holes in it. As a fruit ripens, it produces ethylene gas. When they are placed in a perforated bag, the air can circulate, which ensures the ethylene gas is absorbed, so the fruit retains its great taste.

Use the helpful things that you have learned from this article. Your guests will begin to inquire where you learned your new secrets.