Cooking tips!
Here are some tips and techniques I've picked up. I hope you find them useful!
Flavor Tips:
- Flavour profiles - when you're making sauces or seasonings (especially for asian and indian dishes), you want to try mixing flavour profiles. I've found the best way to do this is to balance acidic and basic ingredients with each other. Heres some combos that have worked for me:
- Salty/Umami (like soy sauce) - add some sweetness (honey, a dash of sugar, a little finely chopped apple, etc) or spicy (your favourite hot sauce or chilli paste, to taste).
- spicy (hot curries or chilli based oils/sauces) - salt and umami ingredients (garlic, pepper, Worcestershire sauce)can add complexity, where as mild ingredients (mayonnaise, an egg or coconut milk) will allow you to adjust the spice level. This is how I survive eating super spicy ramen hahaha
- sour (acid-based sauces like lemon or vinegar, or tomato-based sauce) - adding herbs (parsley, basil, dill - any common kitchen herb) or cutting through the acidity with an oil or other mild ingredients. If you want a bold flavour and don't mind the heat, add something spicy (EG try adding some chilli to a lemon-based marinade for meat)
- sweet (anything calling for honey or fruit) - aromatic spices are fun to work with and add a nice earthiness (cinnamon and ginger are my favorite). Sour elements (like a squeeze of lemon) can actually enhance sweetness without feeling like you're eating raw sugar.
- mild (cream-based sauces or anything plain) - honestly, as long as you avoid ingredients with a sour or acidic flavour, you can do anything with this. Although my go-to is something with umami - Usually garlic and paprika.
- Salt will enhance any kind of flavour in small amounts - not just make things salty.
- Cheesy recipes can be enhanced by adding garlic (in any form), and paprika or mustard powder. It's a godsend in pastas like Mac and Cheese.
- I also like adding some white pepper, if it's ground fine - the spice is very subtle, so it ends up boosting the creamier flavors of the cheese.
- Curry powder or curry flavouring can add a later of complexity to tomato-based dishes without making it spicy. You only need a little bit! I've been using it in my meatloaf and it helps brighten up the greasiness.
- Olive oil and butter get a bad rap nowadays, but they're actually better to cook with than you think! The higher fat content actually makes it easier for you to gain nutrients from whatever you cook, not to mention that (a bit obvious) you'll gain more nutrients from eating foods you actually like the taste of, on the account of you're less likely to spit it out. Still be wary of them if you get high cholesterol or lactose intolerance, but don't be afraid!
- In cooking, texture is just as important as flavour! I try to cut most of my ingredients to match. For instance, I always dice my vegetables small if they're going in a rice-based stir-fry; I also like to cut my roast ingredients into cubes to get them to cook consistently; This isn't a hard and fast rule, and in the case of dishes like salads or pastas, having differently cut ingredients will make for a tastier, more interesting dish.
Methods:
- The perfect time to get a softboiled egg is 6 1/2 minutes. Make sure the water is at a full boil before you add your eggs, and keep them covered while boiling. Keep the flame on a consistent high heat! Once they're done boiling, put the eggs in a bowl of ice water - this will make them easier to handle, while also making the whites shrink away from the shell due to the drop in temperature. They're now ready to peel and serve!
- Here's how I cook short-grain rice - Rince your rice 3-4 times, or until the water becomes clear (this removes excess starch and possibly fungus from the rice). Once washed, add water to the pot or rice cooker bowl with water until, if you point your index finger on top of the rice, it measures up to the joint of the first knuckle. For stovetop, cover the pot and bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the water has evaporated. For a rice cooker, just let it do its thing. Don't forget to fluff the rice once it's done!
- For long grain rice, your water to rice ration should be 1.5 parts water to 1 part rice.
- Salting boiling water for pasta and rice will help to draw starch from them. However, it will also slightly increase the water's boiling point...
- The denser a vegetable is, the more time it will take to cook; you’ll get a more consistently cooked meal if you add your vegetable depending on density. Roots, then shoots, then fruits, then flowers/leaves.
- Aromatics, like onions, garlic or shallots, are usually added before any other vegetable, so that they have time to “sweat” their flavours into the oil. Add these to your pot/pan before anything else, and cook til transleuscent (1-3 minutes, depending on the heat of your oil).
- If you're trying to thicken a sauce with cornstarch, mix it with 2 parts cold water before putting it in the sauce - this will prevent the cornstarch from clumping, and the water will cook off.
- If a sauce is cooking too fast, add a little water. The pan might hiss at you, but it will buy you some time - the water will evaporate without burning the sauce, so the flavor wont be affected.
