Cooking 101 - The Raw Beginners Guide to Cooking

!±8± Cooking 101 - The Raw Beginners Guide to Cooking

Here is how to get organized and learn all you need to know to start on your way to becoming a proud chef.

What Does Saute Mean?
If that throws you then you have to learn food terminology of cooking terms. It is pointless at this stage to guess what some of these terms mean. The best way to learn is to start small. Don't bite of more than you can chew. Start with simple dishes like scrambled eggs or an omelet.

The No. 1 Tip
Get organized. Look at the ingredient list, prepare the ingredients that the recipe calls for and place the ingredients in small dishes in the right sequence that the recipe calls for and when to add them. Have all your utensils handy and any pots or pans ready before you begin. Know what goes in what and when by again following the recipe.

Measuring
Some recipes are metric, such as add 30ml of liquid, confused? get a metric conversion chart. Many measuring devices are in metric and ounces, if not have a set of both. Many cookbooks will have a conversion chart in the index. Ounces can be confusing. For instance 16 ounces can be by weight or volume. Just be sure you read carefully when measuring anything in ounces.

Temperatures
Many recipe books will show different temperatures for the same dish. Why is that? There is no quick or right answer because some stoves or ovens are not rated exactly the same. Use some common sense if you know that 400 degrees is going to be too hot 350 degrees will work just as good if not better, and you wont burn that wonderful creation of yours.

Time
Same guidelines as temperature. Observe what is happening while cooking, all food will eventually be cooked. Some recipes are very sensitive to time so when starting out don't attempt any of them until you gain some experience.

Spices
Getting this wrong can be a disaster. ALWAYS if anything use less and adjust by taste when cooking. Spices are highly personal, if you like your chili hot you can adjust for your own taste even if the recipe calls for less. Other spices such as garlic powder or fresh garlic falls under the same guidelines. Whatever you do don't overdo it with most spices.

Away You Go
Once you've learned the basics of cooking it is unlikely that you will ever need to relearn them. This means that you can constantly build up and expand your cooking skills after gaining experience. There are plenty of good beginners cookbooks to choose from at your local bookstore and more recipes online that you can browse.

Just remember cooking is always a learning experience. Once you get past the basics you can expand your creativity in many ways wherever your interest may take you. Food is an adventure, Chinese, Thai, Italian or good old American traditional food, be patient, be calm and have fun.

Cooking 101 - The Raw Beginners Guide to Cooking

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Cooking With Jess - Grilled Chicken and Apple Panini

!±8± Cooking With Jess - Grilled Chicken and Apple Panini

Hi guys! It's LUNCH time! What you will need: -1 panini bread or any bread of your choosing -Mustard or mayonnaise -Pieces of Chicken breast -Shredded Partially Skimmed Mozzarella cheese -Apple slices, finely chopped You can use a panini press for this recipe or a pan on top of your stove top! ENJOY! Much love, Jess xoxo

Cooking With Jess - Grilled Chicken and Apple Panini

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How Heat Affects the Food You Eat

!±8± How Heat Affects the Food You Eat

The application of heat to a food can change the taste of that certain food so that it seems to be entirely different. Here's how:

By subjecting food to heat we are able to change its color, texture, form and flavor. For instance, as meat cooks in the oven, it shrinks and its shape changes. It goes from deep red to reddish brown. The soft texture of the uncooked meat fibers hardens and then tenderizes which changes the flavor. Fats in the tissues melt. You may notice that some fat escapes from the pan from even the best trimmed piece of meat. When meat is cooked properly, the fat and juices are dispersed among the fibers to make the meat tender. Meat that is over cooked loses too much juice and liquefied fat. Meat that is undercooked will retain its juices but the proteins will not be sufficiently cooked and the muscle will be tough.

Some foods that are heated together become completely changed and form something quite different from the original. An example would be gravy; the butter, flour and liquid, which originally have individual identities, are joined into one by heat. Slow and gentle heat makes the flour swell and absorb the liquid.

The same processes take place in vegetables and fruits; the harder fibers are softened and the starchy elements absorb liquid. Overcooking fruit makes the fibers soft and it loses its shape and becomes mushy. If you want to make jelly, the fruit should be cooked until it is completely shapeless; then it is strained to make the jelly.

Some vegetables, such as spinach, contain so much liquid that you do not need to add more for cooking. More starchy vegetables, like potatoes, need some liquid to make their starches swell and soften.

Cooking heat can be applied in many ways.

1. Hot liquid as in boiling, simmering, blanching, poaching and scalding.

2. Hot bath such as frying as in fat (or in deep fat) where foods such as French fries are immersed in the fat.

3. Hot metal as when a steak is pan broiled, or where any food is cooked in greaseless pans.

4. Radiation, where the heat is given off by the red hot coils of an electric stove unit or by the flame of the gas stove or charcoal of a barbecue.

5. Trapped heat, which is the heat contained in ovens of various kinds. This type of heat combines two basic principles: Part of the baking is done by heat coming from the hot metal walls and grill of the oven and is therefore radiant heat; the other part of the baking is done by the trapped heat, the heated air. When the oven door is opened, part of the heated air from the oven escapes and the oven temperature is reduced. This explains why oven doors should be opened as few times as possible when a delicate food like a cake is baking.

The heat adjustments between a gas and electric stove are different. On a gas stove, the degree of heat can be changed almost instantly. It takes somewhat longer for the heat to increase or decrease on an electric stove. You will have to watch your foods closely to make sure that they are not overcooked. Take your pan of food off of the stove immediately instead of just turning off the heat.

The effects of cold and heat on your foods can change their taste and texture dramatically. Some people may love raw carrots but hate them when they are cooked. Knowing how heat can affect the foods that you eat will help you become a better cook.

How Heat Affects the Food You Eat

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