Master Two Basic Cooking Techniques – Sauting and Cooking Pasta

You may roll your eyes at the title, but everybody has got to get the fundamentals right before they can progress up the cooking ladder. If you ignore the basics, be prepared to suffer through frustrating times in the kitchen. To get your essential skills down, the following are some useful tips.

Saut Sizzle

In French, the word saut translates to “to jump”. This is an accurate translation as the food literally jumps as it cook over a hot flame. Using a bit of oil or butter to keep vegetables and meat from sticking also gives the process its distinctive flavor. When sauting meat, it is best to trim off the excess fat since you will be adding oil or butter anyway. A light coating is best and too much can ruin a dish. With vegetables, chop or dice them so that they will be easy to mix and cook.

Start by placing the pan over high heat and melting a piece of butter. You’ll know if it’s ready when the butter starts to foam a bit and turn slightly brown. Add the meat first so that the released flavor will infuse with the rest of the dish. Keep everything moving and add the vegetables in next. This is a great way to make steak toppings or soup bases.

Perfect Pasta

While you would think that this is a rather simple task, how many times have you had a pot boil over on the stove? There are few tips to keep this from happening and to make sure you have the perfect pasta when you’re done.

You can avoid a common mistake by using a large pan. Using something that is too small will make stirring difficult and boiling over more frequent. Four to six quarts of water for every pound of pasta seem just right – make sure that your pan can accommodate this much liquid. Make sure that you add in a teaspoon of salt to the water.

A tablespoon of oil will do wonders for your pasta not clumping together. Also, the water will have less of a tendency to boil over. An added tip for this is to have a wooden spoon lay over the top of the pan. Try it, it works!

A vigorous boil is what you are looking for. After adding in the pasta. Stir continuously for the first two minutes. This boils off the excess starch and makes the cooked product even less likely to clump together. Stir every couple of minutes or so until you reach the recommended cooking time.

Begin checking for doneness before the time is up. It’s easier to just cook longer for underdone pasta than to try to salvage some overcooked ones. You can fish one out and bite to see if it’s done – careful, it’s hot! You can also try to cut it by pinning it with your spoon or ladle against the side of the pan.

You would want to attain a level of “al dente”, meaning the pasta is firm to the bite. Even if you have drained the water, the pasta will continue to cook, so be aware of that. You can run it under a faucet to stop the cooking process and immediately add it to salads or your favorite sauce. If you plan on serving it later, adding some oil or butter and lightly tossing it will keep it from sticking.

Michelle is definitely an accomplished artice writer whose discipline is writing about quick, yet delicious, house cooking. Her posts normally stress the benefits of crock pot meals including slow cooker recipes, which is one of her favorites.

Incoming search terms:

Share
"The Money Is In The List"

AWeber proves it to thousands of businesses every day.

Learn how email marketing software
can get you more sales, too.