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Quick cooking techniques, tips, and tricks

Hello, I decided to do an occasional article that may not merit a video, some quick tips or techniques or other information that would be helpful to you. Some of these articles are from one of my old websites that I thought would be helpful to you here. This article is one of those. Let me know what you think of these articles.

There are good cooks out there and there are bad cooks out there. I have included several tips and techniques to help make good cooks better and bad cooks good. Hopefully you will bookmark this page or take at least one of these suggestions to heart and use it in your everyday cooking.

Thickeners:

Roux

This is a thickener using equal amounts of flour and fat. It is the most common thickener used for soups sauces and gravies. To make it you melt the margarine or heat up oil and then add the flour and cook it over low heat for at least 5-10 minutes to cook out the gluten flavor out of the flour. You then slowly add in the liquid stirring constantly. Then you cook it down until you get the consistency you are looking for. You can make a large batch of roux and then refrigerate or freeze until needed. If you are watching your fat intake you can take some flour and slowly toast it as well. There are several different kinds of roux and you use them according to what you are trying to cook and accomplish color and flavor wise. A pale, or blonde roux should be straw-colored, a brown or black roux will be deep in color, have a nutty aroma, and is used in brown sauces and Cajun cooking.

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