Recipe Your simplest cooking tips, tricks or recipes

Have you ever wanted to share your simplest cooking tips, tricks, recipes?
Not elaborated detailed advanced cooking procedure or recipe. May be that should be separate thread.
I will post some of mine
--- merged: Oct 25, 2013 at 6:10 PM ---
Eating plain white rice each time? How about a cumin flavor. For every cup or white rice, add 1/4 tea spoon of cumin seeds, just 3 black pepper balls, 1/4 tea spoon of unsalted butter. Cook them all together.

 

Simplest tip: use fresh herbs.

It can make a big difference in flavour.

 

Call for a pizza....

 

nobody likes you Borla

 

Did you mean nobody else???

 

I always add a little sea salt to the mix before baking. Salt is the key to superior chocolate chip cookie.

 

Honest grilling noob question: Is there a way to let the meat rest after cooking, while still retaining some of the heat? Every time I grill something and let the meat rest afterward, even underneat tinfoil, I either end up with a lukewarm slab of meat or a puddle of juice on the plate. It seems that there's very, very little in-between wiggle room.

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Honestly, one of the biggest tips that I have, is to experiment. If two or more ingredients sound like they'd be tasty together, give it a shot! The worst that happens is that you end up with something that is seasoned wrong and tastes funny. I've found some of my favorite recipes this way.

GeneticShift is the queen of this.

 

Add a few pieces of ice to your cereal bowl to keep your milk cold while you eat your cereal.

 

Salt your pasta water "saltier than the sea" and drizzle with a high quality olive oil to keep from sticking. It makes a huge difference.

Don't skimp on quality when it comes to meat or vegetable or fresh herbs in your ingredients.

And make sure your pan is well oiled or lubricated. Stuck food doesn't taste good and makes a mess.

 

I like to cook, I don't do anything too fancy. In general my wife is the one who cooks, with help from me, the more elaborate meals.

My favorite ready-to-use marinade is fat free Zesty Italian dressing (not the creamy). I like to use it on 'lighter' meats such as chicken, fish, etc. The trick is don't leave it marinating too long, the vinegar & salt will start to 'cook' the edges of the meat, & it can make outer part of chicken breasts tough (same advice applies to the below mentioned marinade).

I also make up a quick marinade that can be used on a variety meats & even veggies--Two parts worcestershire sauce, one part soy sauce (I use the reduced sodium SS because we're not getting any younger), and a half part apple cider vinegar. This marinade isn't half bad, & it's easy to experiment with.

 

Clearly you are not a vampire.

 

Pay close attention to your temperatures - less is often more. If you are ending up with burned, undercooked, or both in the center, it'd be worth calibrating your oven by sticking a thermometer in there and seeing what the actual temperature is versus the dial.

I tend to opt for a lower temp and longer cooking time for most things. I find it helps build flavor a little better, especially in casseroles. Also, Do Not Keep Opening The Oven to Check! Every time you open the open you are releasing the hot air. Probably the only exception to this would be to rotate a pan.

 

We do a lot of broiling. I turn the meat often so that it doesn't get dried out, esp. when broiling lean meats such as chicken breast, lean pork chops, etc. 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 is much better than 8 + 8. I've experimented with using the Hi and Lo settings for broiling, but I still prefer the meat to be about five inches away from the element on Hi.

A huge and emphatic +1 for plenty of garlic.