A well-organised kitchen makes cooking easy, you dont have to be frustrated each time you want to fix a new meal, here are few tips for you to follow to make a quick and a successful meal each time. Whether you are new to the kitchen or have been cooking for sometimes now, here are some cooking tips for you to adopt and maybe improve on some of the errors you been making in your kitchen.
- Keep your kitchen clean and tidy always-Your kitchen should always be neat and well arrange at all times, a clean kitchen can contribute to your passion cooking skills, it brings happiness and keeps your mind in one place and helps you to stay focus to think well. If your kitchen is always scattered and piled up with dirty dishes, you wont really have the urge to cook and even if you walk in there to cook your mind will not be in one place, thus, you may end up ruining your food for the day.
- Buy fresh vegetables from the farm-Always use fresh ingredient for your cooking; fresh vegetables are key ingredients for tasty meals, make sure you visit the market as early as possible to get some fresh vegies from the early morning sellers, hence, you can as well go to the farm and buy from the farmers directly.
- Arrange your fridge properly from time to time– Each time you bring new vegies, endeavour to rinse and arrange them properly in the fridge, this will make it easy for you to locate them whenever you want to use them. A well-arranged fridge will also help provide you with some ideas on what to fix for the day when you open the fridge and see that everything well arranged. See how to clean and maintain your refrigerator.
- Purchase new and enough spices– Spices are very important in meals like jollof rice, fried rice, beans, chips and soups(white soup), get more than the amount you think you need so that you wont have to run to the store immediately when they are out of the shelf. Use more than one spice in your soups, rice meals and other food. However, you can buy spice blends instead of a single spice; spices enhance the taste of food, dont do without them.
- Learn new recipe and read them thoroughly before embarking on your cooking journey-There are many ways you can learn new recipes- by reading many cookbooks or by watching some cooking shows on TV or on YouTube. This will expose you to some new cuisines and help learn new skills on how to prepare some familiar recipes differently from what youve known.
- Master a particular meal first before trying out another new one-As a beginner, you can learn how to make two breakfasts, two lunches, and two dinners that arent complicated and master them before moving to new ones. This will help to build a platform of condence and you wont end up being a jack-of-all-trades and master of none
- Defrost your meat or any diary product ahead of time-Before you start your cooking process, it is best you bring out your meat or fish from the fridge at room temperature; this is to give it time to thaw gently. Assuming you want to fry the meat, the outside will overcook before the inside if you use it directly without thawing it first, and the liquid in the meat may cause the oil to splatter all over the kitchen and even on your skin.
- Use the right tool to measure your food stuff always– Sometimes, we so much rely on assumption, just because it worked out the other day doesnt meant it will another day. You may decide to pour out grainy food without measuring it with a cup or spoon, you might get it the first time, but it may not always work that way. This is one of the mistakes a friend makes almost all the time; she fetches raw rice without measuring it and at the end of her cooking, the rice turns out too much and she ends up throwing half of it away because she cant finish it. Am sure you wouldnt want to throw your food away repeatedly even if you purchase it at very low price. In this case, consider using the right measuring tools for any food you want to prepare to prevent wastage; a good measurement prevents food wastage.
- Organise all your food ingredients in one place before you start cooking-This is not always easy though, but you can try your best to do this each time you want to cook a meal; putting all your ingredients in one place will ease a lot of stress. For instance, if you are going to make use of some vegetables like fresh tomatoes, onions and spinach, it is important you start chopping and arranging them into some separate bowls before you start heating up your pan. It makes it easy and enables you to make use of the right ingredients at the right time.
- Use a sharp kitchen knife for cutting veggies– A sharp knife should always be one of your best kitchen tools; it enhances easy chopping of vegetables and meat. If your knives are all blunt, get them sharpen, you dont want to end up with painful fingers or maybe waste much time while cutting vegetables. Look for a knife that is convenient for you to hold and use it always, you can have more than one knife for flexibility.
- Make use of the appropriate pot or pan– Always use the right pot or pan for all your cooking to avoid overflow or splattering. If for instance you want to cook 3 cups of rice, check for the right size of the pot that will contain that measurement, and not only that, note that other ingredients like veggies would be added too, makesure the pot is big enough to size the quantity of food you are preparing. In doing so, you wont have to turn the food into another pot when its starts bubbling and swelling up. This will also serve you the stress of having to clean your gas top with a lot of spilled food.
- Cook in batches if you are cooking for a largecrowd-You are a beginner and your friends are coming over and you want to surprise them, you dont have to cook a full pot of meal at once, you can share the food into two pots and start with a smaller quantity first, when that is done, you can continue with the other. This tip will help you to avoid some common errors you might have made while cooking the first pot of meal and it will also bring to your notice some ingredients you think where not included in the first meal. This method of cooking is not only applicable to beginners alone but to those who have never tried cooking a large pot of meal before, it helps you to season the food well and also prevent you from overcrowding the pot which may lead to burnt meal.
- Dont be afraid of making mistake-No one is above mistake, even a great chef makes mistake from time to time, talk less of a beginner. Whatever mistake you make your cooking process, you have to applaud yourself fist because you are already making progress for starting or doing something different, but you should take note of the mistake and try not to repeat it the next time you cook that particular meal.
- Get a helping hand if need be-Nobody knows it all; we all know how kitchen work can be very tedious at times. If you are making plenty meal at a time, you can call on a member of your family to assist you in few things- maybe to cut some of the vegetables, to knead the dough, or wash some of the dishes while you are doing something else. This will help to reduce the bulk of the work and your cooking will be done at ease. There is more fun when you are in the kitchen with someone you are free with than being alone.
- Watch the quantity of salt you add to your food– Salt is our everyday ingredient, but salty food sucks as well. As a beginner, you dont have to be perfect at first, but you can prevent salty food as well by paying more attention to what you are cooking. Most of your processed ingredients have a little taste of salt in them already, so when adding salt to your cooking, make sure you add little at a time. This will help you to know if you need more of the salt or not. Always have a specific teaspoon for scooping the salt to help you stay in check.
- Remember to taste your food each time you cook– Nobody wants to end up with a tasteless food, this is not only for beginners, it is also for the old timers, you should always taste your meal to know what ingredients is lacking and which is too much so that you will know which one to adjust. Food tasting helps you to predict the time it will take your food to get cooked, how soft the food is or if you need to add more water to it or not. If you have been cooking without tasting, its time to start teasing yourself as good a chef when you taste your food. This will also help you to improve on some certain things the next time you want to cook.
- Keep an eye on the food while it cooks-It is very common to end up with a burnt pot of food and I am guilty of this mistake too. Some common reasons why food gets burn are 1. When you use a small and tight pot (which means the food is more than the pot), in this case, the food starts to burn because there is no much space for it to boil freely. 2. Too much oil- If you add too much oil to food like rice, it will burn from under the pot before the liquid starts to dry up. 3. When you forget to check the food while on heat, maybe because you are doing something else at the same time.All of these cases will cause your food to burn, however these common mistakes can be avoided when you pay much attention on the food you are cooking and used the right quantity of ingredients and tool for your cooking. You can even set alarm to help you remember the food, if you are the type that easily forgets food on heat.
- Design a new and simple food menu/time table and place on the wall– Food timetable is very important not just for beginners, but for anybody who loves to cook; it helps you to plan your daily and weekly menus easily. A drafted food timetable allows you to arrange your complete nutrition in a correct manner and it allows you to make a quick choice without having to think and get frustrated on what to cook next.
- Clean up the kitchen immediately after preparing every meal-This is very important for everyone- there is this great feeling we all have when we are out of the kitchen knowing that every corner of it is neatly kept- happiness. You shouldnt always pill dishes on the kitchen counter, you can decide to wash the dishes and rinse every bowl you have used while the food is still simmering, this will get the work done simultaneously and you wont have to come back to the kitchen the second time to start all over again once you are out of there.
- Make used of your fridge at all time-This is the last tip for beginners and including everyone. Your refrigerator has important functions, which is to preserve food and to keep food safe until the time you want use it. Learn to preserve left over food in the fridge, it helps to keep the food fresh for a long time.