It's no secret that I love to cook, but no one is born a superb cook. I started really getting into cooking when I started Standard Grade Home Economics and that is where I learnt the basics that still come up in even in complex recipes I attempt today. Because I think the world should cook and appreciate food as much as I do but instead of blatantly nagging people I should post some useful cooking tips so people who want to cook but believe they can't, can now start trying.
And here I have hunted down some YouTube videos for very basic food preparation techniques. These foods come up in so many recipes (the videos are ranked by commonness) so if you want to get into cooking it's near essential that you know these techniques and understand what the recipe means by them.
By far the most important. Not only do chopped onions feature within many recipes but because of the way a onion is formed it could fall apart if not cut properly.
I LOVE garlic and it is in almost every savoury dish I create. And judging by the amount of recipes I see garlic feature in I'm obviously not the only one.
Sifting flour isn't a hard technique. However I have come across comments and questions on the internet from budding cooks and bakers not knowing what it means. So now you know. And remember whenever you use flour, baking powder, cocoa powder or any other powder in your baking: sift it! Unless the recipe explicitly explains not too (which would be close to never).
Common in stir-fries and curries a pepper adds quite a bit of flavour so my tip is to make sure you don't cut the slices too thick.
Admittedly I'm not a huge carrot fan however I recall using one for a recipe for the first time since school a few months back and couldn't understand how to chop one. Slice one, yes, that is simple. But chop? As the video states they roll about on you and the presenter explains how to stop that.
Potatoes aren't something you'd use unless it was a potato based dish (in my experience) so it comes near the end of the list. However, just like carrots, due to it's circular shape they can roll about you. Again, this video shoes you how to stop that.
Not the most exciting blog post - but if you want to get started in a kitchen these are techniques you are going to have to know.
Lots of chopping and dicing love!
