Basic Cooking Techniques

If you are going to be a good cook, then you need to learn basic cooking techniques.

Knowing these techniques can not only make it more enjoyable to prepare food but also more enjoyable for everyone who gets to eat your food.

Cooking is not just about recipes. It is also about how to take the ingredients and make them taste as good as possible.

The basics of cooking include knowing how to bake everything from bread to cakes and cookies, roasting a turkey and grilling a steak, making the perfect pot of stew or sautéing mushrooms or onions for a topping on that perfectly grilled steak.

For a quick meal, it also helps to know how to make a stir fry.

If you look up baking in the dictionary it will tell you: to cook by dry heat in an oven or on heated metal or stones.

Today’s modern ovens would have made our grandmothers envious and the only heated stones you might find in the kitchen are the ones for making pizzas.

I’m sure you can remember the wonderful smells of freshly baked bread in your mother’s kitchen or the local bakery.

There is an art of baking and any good cook will tell it always starts with the recipe.

Go into any book store and you will find many books on the art of baking.

In fact, there is a book store in my neighborhood that only sells cookbooks.

It’s a wonderful place to spend a couple of hours and to top it off there is usually a local chef demonstrating some great recipes.

Baking for me brings back memories of birthday cakes, Christmas cookies, and homemade fudge.

What are your favorite baking memories?

There are many ways to prepare fish, meat, and poultry and one of the most popular is grilling.

This can be done under the broiler in an oven or on the barbeque.

We North Americans seem to love our barbeques and there are plenty of opportunities to get out the grill in the warm months of summer.

Add some fresh vegetables to the grill along with your favorite cold beer or glass of wine and you have a wonderful and easy to prepare dinner.

One of the other ways to prepare fish, meat, or poultry is by braising.

You simply add some oil to a frying pan add your fish, meat, or poultry and a little liquid, put on the lid, and let it simmer slowly in the liquid.

Ready-made gravy and an easy dish to prepare.

On the other hand who hasn’t enjoyed a Sunday dinner of roast beef or a Christmas dinner of roast turkey.

One of the easiest ways to prepare a roast or turkey is to simply put it in the oven.

There are various methods on how to have the moistest turkey but my favorite is to put it in a special bag.

It takes less time and you get the perfect turkey every time.

Note: You can find the bags in the poultry section of most supermarkets.

Stewing meat and vegetables is a very old recipe and every country seems to have its own recipe.

Stewing is taking a combination of meat or poultry with vegetables, herbs, and spices and simmering in liquid for a period of time.

Some of the more popular dishes include Hungarian Goulash, Coq au Vin, Beef Stroganoff and Boeuf Bourguignonne.

There is nothing better on a cold winter’s day that a great bowl of stew with a slice of your favorite crusty bread, some fresh butter, and a glass of red wine.

Sauteing is cooking food in a small amount of fat or oil over high heat. Often considered a French method of cooking, sautéing is often done in a proper skillet also called a sauté pan.

These pans usually have a heavier bottom to ensure that the base doesn’t warp from the high temperature required to sauté.

Although similar to pan-frying, sautéing is done with more heat and usually with small pieces of food such as onions or mushrooms.

Also, sautéing doesn’t use a lot of oil and you constantly move the food around to cook it evenly.

The bases of any good sauce generally start with the basic white sauce.

There are many other sauces that can be produced once you know how to make them such as hollandaise sauce as well as cheese sauce, curry, and Mornay sauce.

Here is the basic White Sauce recipe:

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup milk

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and then whisk in the flour (a bit at a time), salt and pepper until smooth.

Gradually add in the milk and bring everything to a boil. Cook stirring for about two minutes or until the sauce has thickened.

Makes one cup.