My Top Tips to Improve your Cooking IMMEDIATELY

If you don't have a lot of experience in the kitchen- maybe even none!- cooking can seem like a daunting task. These cooking tips will help you improve your cooking skills right now!

1. Read your Recipe in Advance

There's nothing worse than being excited to start a recipe, getting halfway through, and realising your forgot to preheat the oven. I cannot tell you how many times I've been guilty of this. Read that recipe all the way through and preheat anything that needs to be preheated!

2. Mis en Place

Everything has a place. Before you even begin cooking, try gathering all your ingredients and prepping them up - just like a real chef in a kitchen! Cut your vegetables, gather your spices, and measure everything out. That way you won't be scrambling to cut up your carrots while your onions brown too much in the pan! I've been there and it's no fun having to restart because I didn't plan my time well. Save yourself the headache and prep all your ingredients first!

3. Wait for the Pan to get Hot

It can be tempting to turn the pan on and then put all your food in right away. Resist! One of the best ways to prevent sticking and get a more even cook is to wait a few minutes before putting anything in your pan. Turn it on and wait 5 to 10 minutes for your pan to get nice and hot before adding your oil and then your food. This will especially help when your trying to get a good colour or crisp on foods, such as steak or crispy potatoes. Putting food in too early can make it stick to the pan or steam your food rather than fry.

4. Don't Overfill your Pans

I'm guilty of it. My mom is guilty of it. I don't know anyone who hasn't been guilty of overfilling or overcrowding their pans at least once. I just want to get as much food cooked as I can, you know?! Unfortunately, overfilling pans causes food to cook unevenly, reduces the pan temperature making food stick, and steams instead of fries your food. Instead, cook in batches. You can always keep food hot in the oven. Set your oven as low as possible, cover your food with tin foil and pop it in there!

5. Season your Foods from Up High!

When you need to add salt to foods after cooking or season prior to grilling, lift your hand up high and sprinkle that salt with some sass! Salting your food too closely will give you too salty parts and not salty parts. We want to cover our steaks, mushrooms, and chicken as evenly as possible with seasoning and to do that effectively we can just do it from a little higher!

6. Keep your Knives Sharp

A sharp knife is a safe knife. It's also the most essential tool you have so maintaining the sharpness is necessary. Dull knives are more likely to tear through food leading to uneven shapes. They're also more likely to slip and accidentally cut you! There are many amazing tutorials out there on honing and sharpening knives. The one I always go back to - for his humour and skills - is Joshua Weissman's. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhRjIFwExqI

Cooking is a learnt skill and no one is born a master chef. I hope these tips help you in your cooking journey as much as they help me!

*I am in no way affiliated with Joshua Weissman and am simply sharing my appreciation for him. I in no way profit from his videos!