Tips from the Kitchen

Tips To Know Before Cooking:

**FOLLOW THE RECIPE THE FIRST TIME

If it's your first-time cooking something, we recommend you follow the recipe exactly. No leaving things out, no substitutions, no skipping steps in the recipe. All of those things are there for a reason, and you have no idea how changing one of those things will affect the final product.

After you've cooked it the first time, you'll be able to see how it should taste and find out what you did and didn't like. This will allow you to make informed changes the next time around! If you need to find substitutions BEFORE making the dish.

**PREP YOUR STATION

Multitasking can be hard for even experienced cooks! It's important to plan ahead, and be organized so you can focus on cooking. Instead of prepping three things at once while your pan gets too hot and burns something as you're digging around in a drawer for the spices you need.

Is best to prep and cut all the vegetables and meats, measure out your spices and make sure you have all the ingredients ready and near to the stove when before you start. It may seem like overkill, but it will make you much more organized and stop you from frantically multi-tasking when you realize you don't have an ingredient!

CLEAN AS YOU GO

Along with prepping all your ingredients, this will help you feel less overwhelmed while cooking. While prepping, I keep a "garbage bowl" handy to put any food scraps into.

START WITH A HOT PAN

Adding food to a cold pan with cold oil means the food is going to release more moisture as it cooks. This means less even oil distribution, too! This makes the food steam and cook unevenly.

Once the pan is heated, you can add the oil at any time and start cooking. This allows you to better control the temperature of the oil - you can let it heat only a moment or let it heat until it shimmers to sear something like a steak.

COOKING AND THE SENSES:

We eat with our 5 senses, so we should cook with our 5 senses as well.

Cooking by sight, smell, taste, sound, and touch allows you to cook the food to just the way you like it.
Time estimates specified in the recipes are not always the best guide: They do not necessarily apply to all situations since cooking conditions will vary depending on the type and materials of utensils and stoves. Different materials in cooking utensils: aluminum, carbon steel, copper, non-stick, composites, ceramic, etc. Different types of stoves: gas, electric, infra-red, induction, etc.
Cooking by sight: vegetables turning a vibrant, brighter green; vegetables and meat browning when caramelized; pasta turns translucent (or less opaque), fish turns opaque; rapid, large bubbles mean boiling, whereas small, slow bubbles mean simmering, etc.
Cooking by smell: cooking is also about bringing out the aromas from the ingredients - smell the aromatics, herbs, and spices as they cook.
Cooking by sound: the sizzling of the food tells you the pan is hot enough to vaporize the moisture rapidly, using ingredients with crunch adds to your eating experience, etc.
Cooking by touch: vegetables turn soft, proteins firm up when cooked. Control your preferred doneness by feeling the food with your spatula or chopstick, and if you prefer, with a clean finger. This will take practice and you will get better at it over time.

FOOD SHOPPING

This course will have information about new ingredients so getting smarter about your grocery shopping trips is a good way to start. Attached are tips to get the most out of your shopping trips. When we dive into actual cooking and trying international dishes (ie: Korean cuisine) your list will expand but you have to be savvy about what to buy and where to buy it. Keep in mind a lot of the international ingredients might not be found locally and many of you can’t buy certain things or even their substitute so being mindful of your budget when trying new foods is something to start thinking about, for example, you may want to save up to try some of the more advance dishes we will try in the future!