Cooking at home can be hugely rewarding. If you don’t enjoy cooking, these cooking tips should help you increase your confidence in the kitchen, and allow you to enjoy the experience.
Basic Cooking Tips
RELAX – Cooking should be an enjoyable experience. Ensure you have plenty of time, put on your favourite music, pour yourself a wine or a beer, and allow yourself to become absorbed by your time in the kitchen.
ASSEMBLE – When you are just starting to become comfortable in the kitchen, it’s best to have everything ready, so things don’t become hectic if you reach a point in a recipe when something needs chopping and you don’t have the time. Read the recipe through a few times before you start and ensure everything is weighed and chopped.
RESEARCH – If you’re not sure about any ingredient you are using, the Internet is the perfect resource. It is very easy to find out huge amounts of detail online: how long to cook things for, how long items keep when refrigerated, and many other important details.
More Cooking Tips
TASTE – Taste what you are cooking all the way through the process. If you are adding a herb or spice you’re not familiar with, taste it first. This is the only way to become comfortable with and knowledgeable about your ingredients.
USE YOUR INSTINCT – Recipes are not about set rules. If you taste a sauce and feel it would benefit from more pepper, add some. There is no right or wrong.
EXPERIMENT – If you like chilli, add some. If you like garlic, add some. Sometimes you will get it right, sometimes you will get it wrong. Remember though that if you add too little of something you can add more—you can’t always remove something if you add too much!
Cooking Tips – Serving Your Food
PREPARE – Think about how you are going to present your finished product, and try to find a suitable moment during cooking your meal to get the dishes ready, to avoid a panic at the end.
CONSIDER – A key cooking tip is to ensure your meal is balanced. Sometimes all that is required to make an incomplete meal perfect is the simple addition of a tomato salad or dressed leaves. Think in advance about the meal in its entirety and try to address any gaps, based on what you think is needed.
CHECK – Food safety is important. If you are not yet confident about when meat or fish is thoroughly cooked, invest in a meat thermometer to give yourself peace of mind.
ENJOY – When you are first learning to cook, you will make mistakes, but it’s rare that every component of your meal will be a disaster. If it is, laugh it off and enjoy the excuse for a guilt-free takeaway.
Following these cooking tips should help you enjoy the benefits of being a regular home cook, which include saving money on poor quality ready-meals and take-aways, and being in control of exactly what you eat.
Ben Taylor - Ben is an aspiring travel writer, competent cook, Microsoft certified techno-geek, music obsessive, and recent migrant from rainy London ...
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