by admin on December 11, 2009
It’s your first day in the kitchen and you have no idea where to start. A haphazard way of doing things will only delay meals and see that you are stuck in the kitchen for a long time! To ensure that you produce quicker and easy-to-prepare meals, as well as please your family’s taste buds, a few cooking tips and hints are in order—
(1) First of all, there has to be a place from where you can pick up cooking tips and hints. There are many classes set up for beginners by various local institutions and organizations. In addition, they are not expensive. Since most of the students are beginners, you feel comfortable in sharing your own experiences and learning from others.
(2) Once you cross the beginner’s level and develop a taste for cooking, further instructions at an advanced level for specifics such as dessert-making, barbecuing, baking and so on, can be obtained. If you do not wish to continue as a student after learning the basics, you could turn your attention to magazines devoted to cooking. Many of them display articles related to specific cooking methodology.
(3) If you are the type of person who can get easily overwhelmed, you can just go for one favorite item and learn the related skills. Once that is mastered, you can move ahead from there.
(4) Another way of getting cooking tips and hints is to browse the Internet. This does require some time and patience, but you will be well rewarded with a number of websites offering answers to all your questions.
(5) Many cooking tips and hints are centered round recipes. Even the preparation of the simplest dish requires following a certain method. Recipes act as guides here. The instructions are presented in a precise and step-by-step format, making them easy to follow. Plenty of cook books are available in the market to help you out. Some of them are good enough to present helpful ideas as well as cooking tips and hints along with the recipes.
(6) Reading a recipe correctly is also an art! The reason is that the measurements related to ingredients presented in each recipe can be quite confusing for a beginner. Some measurements are related to liquids while others are related to solids. Look for cooking tips and hints regarding cooking measurements.
(7) Cookbooks (but not all of them) also talk about utensils required for cooking. All types of utensils are available for purchase, but you need cooking tips and hints to let you know which are more commonly used than others. You can therefore buy what you need immediately before going in for any others.
Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/cooking-tips-articles/cooking-tips-7-useful-cooking-tips-and-hints-for-amatuers-708646.html
by admin on December 9, 2009
Since ancient times, the Chinese have been known to be hung up on tradition, especially where cooking methods are concerned. They are equally concerned about nourishing food cooked in proper sanitary conditions. It is with this view in mind that the Chinese cooking wok has found its own niche in every Chinese kitchen around the world. In addition, the Chinese realized that cooking in utensils handed down from ancient times have helped their dishes to retain their exact, original flavors.
With Chinese food being so popular, it is no wonder then that the Chinese cooking wok is making its way into American households and other parts of the world. Many international stores today stock this main Chinese utensil along with others.
Why is the Chinese cooking wok so unique? To get an answer to this question, we will have to delve into its design.
The wok is basically prepared from carbon steel or iron. The round-bottomed utensil is hammered into shape by hand. The wok therefore becomes delicately flared at the edges, enabling food to be thrust inside with ease. When the perfect shape is attained, the wok is flipped from outside or inside. The rounded bottom of the wok helps it fit over the stove perfectly. Bare metal handles are more commonly used for the Chinese cooking wok. Such handles are known as loop handles. Another type of handle is the stick handle which is formed from carbon steel and resembles Teflon. Thus, the vessel is now ready for anything such as stewing, braising, steaming, deep frying, or preparing soups.
In an attempt to copy the Chinese cooking wok, yet make it more suitable for Western styles of cooking, Westerners have developed woks looking like flat-bottomed frying pans. For more compatibility, woks with double handles are more popular than those with single handles. The bottom of the wok is fitted with an adaptor ring. This helps to retain the wok’s grip over the top of the stove (western ranges).
The very design of the original Chinese cooking wok itself should be enough to convince anyone that it is better than a frying pan any day! Oil intake is very less, food can be tossed properly, and best of all, there is uniform distribution of heat. So copies can never take the place of the original.
In conclusion, the size of the Chinese cooking wok is designed to suit the purpose. A small family can make do with a wok measuring 36 centimeters, while a still larger one is suitable for a bigger household. The largest-sized ones are used only in restaurants for large-scale cooking.
Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/cooking-tips-articles/the-chinese-cooking-wok-the-traditional-way-to-prepare-authentic-chinese-food-708649.html
