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Vitamins are nutrients that are necessary for the proper functioning of the human body and its various organs. While vitamins are found in fruits, vegetables, cereals and other foods, they cannot be synthesized by the human body. As a result, we need to obtain our vitamins from food so that our bodies remain healthy and function properly. Unfortunately, many popular cooking techniques lead to excessive vitamin loss, due to which we often end up being deficient in essential vitamins in spite of having a “balanced” diet. Minimizing vitamin loss from food during cooking will not only help you eat healthy, it will also make your food tastier.  Some tips that will help you minimize vitamin loss while cooking and get the maximum benefit from what you eat are listed here.

• Before we get down to vitamin loss through cooking, it is important to realize that food items also lose vitamins through exposure to air, water, light and heat. It is because of this reason that nutritionists advise eating fresh produce as much as possible, since they fresh foods get exposed to the elements for the least amount of time. If you cannot go out and buy fresh produce everyday, make sure that you store your fruits, vegetables and meat at the right temperatures in the fridge and freezer. Wrap and pack everything so that exposure to light and air is the least. This will ensure that your food items are still left with vitamins to lose when you pop them into the pan.

• Fruits, vegetables and meat lose the maximum vitamins when they are cooked at high temperatures for long periods of time. Therefore, one of the best ways of reducing vitamin loss during cooking is to use the microwave. Since foods get cooked quickly in the microwave, they end up retaining most of the nutrition. Try to avoid adding water to the food as much as possible since this aids vitamin loss. Research has shown that broccoli and cabbage cooked in the microwave lose only one third the amount of vitamin C that is lost when they are boiled. It has also been proven that a minimal vitamin loss takes place when food is reheated in the microwave.

• Another method of cooking where vitamin loss is the minimum is steaming. Steamed food also gets cooked quickly, does not involve loss of vitamins to water drainage and is generally not overcooked, especially when compared to boiled food. As a result, it has been found that vegetables lose less than 50% of the nutrition when they are steamed as compared to when they are boiled.

• If a recipe leaves you with no option but to boil a vegetable, then make sure that you put it in the water only when the water starts boiling instead of putting it on the stove with cold water. Use the minimum possible amount of water and cut the vegetables into large pieces or boil them whole to keep exposure to a minimum. Also, do not over boil and let the veggies stay on the stove for as little a time as you can, of course ensuring that they are done for the recipe.

• Baking, roasting and deep frying food at high temperatures leads to the maximum amount of vitamin loss during cooking. So make sure that you avoid over cooking food in the oven. Try to cut out deep frying from daily cooking as much as possible and save these techniques for special occasions and parties.

At talkingcooking.com, we believe that good cooking is necessarily healthy cooking and vice versa and in recent times, the term healthy cooking often has to do with organic cooking. In fact, a large number of people who have taken to cooking at home have done so because they want to eat healthier food that is not laden with preservatives and chemicals. So a switch to organic cooking might prove natural in such cases. However, like almost everything good in life, organic cooking also has its own pros and cons. Here we give you a list of the main advantages and disadvantages of organic cooking that will help you decide whether you should switch over to organic cooking or not.

Advantages Of Organic Cooking

• The main and major advantage of organic cooking is that it is healthy cooking. Since foods are labeled organic only when they have not been treated with pesticides, preservatives, drugs, chemicals, antibiotics or hormonal modifications, you end up eating food that is as natural as nature meant it to be when you go organic. It has been proven that eating organic food decreases chances of getting afflicted with most immune system and lifestyle related ailments, and this is a major reason why you should consider switching to healthy organic cooking.

• When you go organic, you not only avoid elements that are disease causing and harmful, you also end up eating food that is richer in nutrients and antioxidants. It has been proven that organic foods often have a level of antioxidants that is 50% higher than that of conventionally grown foods. This extra dose of antioxidants ensures that you stay healthy, beautiful and fighting fit with organic cooking.

Disadvantages Of Organic Cooking

• Most people who switch all of a sudden to hundred per cent organic cooking often complain that the food is not tasty enough. This is mainly because we are so used to eating hormone pumped foods that the taste difference when you switch to healthy and wholesome organic food is considerable. However, this is just a matter of getting used to. Instead of switching to organic food all of a sudden, you should start introducing it into your cooking and diet little by little so that the difference in taste is not drastic. Also keep in mind that organic food is not “less tasty”, it only tastes “different” from the chemical pumped food that we are used to eating!

• Organic food is costlier and not very easily available. At times, you might not always find organic substitutes for a number of foods. And when you find them, you might notice that they are exorbitantly priced. Another thing that discourages many people from switching to organic cooking is that many businesses have started selling non-organic food as organic in order to make money. Make sure that you buy organic food that has been approved by the USDA to avoid getting cheated. As for the cost of organic food, you might want to check out fresh produce or farmers’ markets for getting cheap and fresh organic fruits and vegetables.

Health consciousness and an aversion to eating store food have led to many of us spending more time in our kitchens. However, the main disadvantage of home cooking is that we often end up spending way “too much” time in the kitchen; time that can be more valuably spent in other activities with family and friends. Another major downside to cooking at home is that it often ends up costing way too much because you end up buying special ingredients for dishes of which major portions expire before they are used. To remedy both these downsides of cooking at home, we provide you here with a couple of simple recipes and ideas for entrees that are not just fast and easy to make, but can also be made with regular ingredients that you always have on hand.

Noodle and Pasta Soups: While a soup can always be served before a meal, you can convert the soup dish to a main course by adding noodles, vermicelli or pasta to your soup. Check out our entry “Cooking Recipes: Make A Three Course Meal In Less Than An Hour” for a Simple And Nutritious Tomato Soup Recipe. You can put in noodles boiled in salt water to the tomato soup once it is done.

Or you can prepare a nice Hot And Sour Noodle Soup in fifteen minutes. Take three cups of water, about 75 gms of instant or fast cooking noodles, finely chopped onions, beans, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, bell peppers, peas and corn and boil for four to five minutes. Once the veggies and noodles go soft, add salt to taste, a little pepper, a teaspoon of soy sauce, a quarter spoon of sugar, a teaspoon of red chili sauce and two to three heaped spoonfuls of tomato puree. You can also use ketchup if you do not have puree, but in a smaller quantity. Add a little cornstarch to thicken you soup, boil for a minute more and your hot and sour noodle soup is ready. The recipe is perfect for winters and is a good alternative to hot chicken soup when you are down with a cold. You can make umpteen variations by experimenting with vegetables, chicken broth and by using different types of non vegetarian foods with the veggies.

Casseroles: Casseroles are not just healthy and nutritious; they are a great way of taking care of leftovers as well. Take cooked noodles, spaghetti, pasta or rice as a base for your casserole. Add in chopped vegetables and cooked chicken, beef or sea food. To save time, use store ready peas or corn kernels and for flavor, use shallots, tomatoes and bits of ginger and garlic. Mix with some broth or your favorite soup, add in herbs or sauces that you like and feel would complement the other ingredients. Top the casserole with dried bread crumbs or sprinkle all purpose flour, cover with grated cheese and bake till the casserole bubbles. Garnish with fresh herbs and serve your family a healthy, nutritious and balanced meal. You can make a wide number of variations with casseroles depending upon what you like and what you don’t and you will very soon have your own collection of recipes for quick and tasty casseroles.

Valentine’s Day is just a couple of weeks away, and if you are on the lookout for some quick and easy recipe ideas to impress your loved ones with, then you have come to the right place. Even people who do not usually cook, should be able to take some cooking ideas and turn their Valentine’s Day meals into something memorable and momentous.

Since love and Valentine’s Day are generally accompanied by heart shapes, the color red and loads of chocolates and other sweet somethings, this is what we will concentrate upon when suggesting love recipes that you can use to impress your loved one on this special day.

Cooking Ideas For A Valentine’s Breakfast

Strawberries have long been known as an aphrodisiac, and the color that they impart to food makes them the perfect ingredient for a valentine breakfast. Cranberries are also another tasty and healthy choice for a breakfast ingredient. Make sure that you serve some cranberry juice during breakfast to add color and romance top the meal. One simple love recipe that you can try for breakfast is strawberry French Toast. Beat together two eggs, a cup of milk and a tbsp of sugar. Dip some fruit or regular bread in this mix and shallow fry in butter or vegetable shortening. Chop fresh strawberries and top the French Toast with these and some strawberry preserve or sauce to serve a tasty and lovely looking brekky. You can also make heart shapes with the strawberry sauce or pieces on top of the bread. Serve along with red roses on a breakfast tray and your lover will be floored!

If your guy or gal likes pancakes, then here’s the recipe for an easy and tasty one that you can serve on Valentine’s Day. Whisk together 2 cups of baking mix( buttermilk), 2 eggs and a cup of milk till the mixture is smooth. Drop in chopped cranberries/chocolate chips/ strawberries into the mix and pour this batter onto a greased frying pan. Turn over when the mix bubbles and cook till lightly browned. Cook some berries with a little sugar in a thick based pan to make your own topping. Serve your pancakes with berry toppings or with oodles of chocolate sauce for a sexy looking breakfast.

Cooking Ideas For A Valentine’s Dinner
 
You can make a Valentine’s Day dinner special by giving it a red color theme. Serve deep red tomato soup for an entrée. You can make a heart shape on top of the soup with a little cream. For the main course, you can serve some red hot tandoori chicken (if your partner likes Indian food) or a pasta dish with red sauce like Arrabiata if you are into Italian food. A seafood main course with oysters will not only be very “gourmet”, it might also be a sexy aphrodisiac.  While a typical Valentine’s dessert should be laden with chocolates and cream, you can try and keep it light and healthy by serving a selection of fruits topped with a little confectioner’s or brown sugar or dipped in chocolate. Remember that while you can always go for a rich dessert, a very heavy dinner might leave you both too full for any kind of action afterwards!

Setting up a new kitchen is no easy feat by any means. This is especially true if you have never cooked before, because often, you will never get to know what you need in your kitchen till you are in the middle of trying out a new recipe. Most beginners often shy away from buying cookware because they are generally unaware of what is good and useful and what is simply good to look at and costly to buy. Good cookware often does not come cheap, but with the beginners’ cookware buying tips provided here, you know what will suit your needs best when it comes to cookware.

What To Buy: If you are a new cook, then you might want to look at readymade cookware buying sets that generally include most of the basic cookware that you will need. Generally a set comprising of a saucepan, frying pan and a couple of pots will suffice of you are planning on regular American food. However, if you like Chinese, then you should definitely buy a wok as well. If it is Italian that you like, then you might need more than one saucepan because these dishes will require you to make different sauces. So decide upon the kind of food that you are planning to cook before you buy your cookware. If you want to cook what your mom does, then think of what she has in her kitchen when buying your own cookware.

What Size To Buy: Often, enthusiastic beginners end up buying pots and pans in sets of four or five with each set comprising different sizes ranging from extra small to extra large. However, this will not only empty your pockets, it will also clutter up your kitchen with a number of useless cookware pieces. Others might buy cookware pieces that are generally too big for their cooking needs thinking that they might have to cater for guests. However, cooking for a small number of people in a pan that is too large will often end up taking the taste and pleasure out of your recipes. The key too determining size is to buy medium sized pots and pans where you can easily cook a meal for one or two and go up to at least six people. Mid size is the way to go for almost all cookware that you are buying in single pieces. Buy a set of three to four different sizes for one item that you plan to use the most, like the saucepan or the pot.

What Material To Buy: While pots and pans are available in almost all kinds of materials ranging from copper and aluminum to steel and cast iron, you will find that most have their own advantages and disadvantages. Most people buy steel cookware because it conducts heat evenly, is long lasting, strong, non reactive and economical.  If you are into quick and easy cooking, then a combination of steel and non stick pots and pans should do it for you. You can pass on copper and cast iron till you move to more advanced cooking.

Are you one of those people who has the bad luck of having your gourmet dishes failing on you just when the appetizers have already been served and the guests are waiting for the main course with their wine glasses in hand? In fact, it often happens to the best of cooks that our lovingly prepared meal ditches us in the middle and dinner turns to disaster as you discover that your vegetables have turned soggy and you have added too much salt to the gravy. If you are faced with a similar situation the next time you cook dinner, despair not, because our quick fix solutions to fixing common cooking disasters will help you make the best out of such situations.

Too Much Salt in Gravy: It has often happened to me that as guests pour into the kitchen to exchange pleasantries and small talk, I end up sprinkling too much salt into whatever I am cooking. The quick fix to too much salt in a gravy is to quickly slice a potato and put the slices in the over salted gravy while it simmers. Take out the slices before you serve.  If your gravy can take a couple of tomatoes, then chop some up and add to the gravy. This generally ends up making gravy tastier, zingier and there are no traces of excess salt left in the dish.

Cake Sinks In The Middle: You take out your nicely baked cake to cool on the rack and after fifteen minutes, you find that your cooked lump of dough has a big dent in the middle. Definitely un-servable to dinner guests as is! However, you can still put it to a number of good uses to make lovely dessert. If you have some canned or fresh fruits ready, pierce the cake all over the top with a knife, soak with fresh fruit juice or syrup from the can, put all the fruits on the top to make an even top and pour on whipped cream or some fruit sauce for a fruity cake desert. You can also cut up the cake and serve in separate bowls as a trifle after topping with ice cream, fruits and flavored sauces.

Lumps in the Sauce: You might follow instructions to a T when making white sauce, but it can still turn out to be lumpy. While stirring it and breaking down lumps by a spoon might solve the problem in some cases, the best things to do is to either put it in the blender and give it a whiz or to pass it through a thick sieve. Your sauce will instantly get back the smooth and creamy consistency that you wanted in the first place.

Overcooked Vegetables: Mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables often have a tendency of turning into mush, especially when you have invited guests over. The best way of using the veggies to your advantage as a main course is to mash the over done vegetables properly, add fresh bread crumbs, some corn flour and salt to taste. Fashion this mix into patties or cutlets, dip into a beaten egg, cover with bread crumbs and fry to make crisp vegetable cutlets for your main course. Just make sure you add enough bread crumbs so that the mixture becomes solid enough to hold shape.

Different people at different times often think about joining cooking classes or joining a cooking school. Of course there are a number of reasons for which people often want to go down this road. While the ones who aim for cooking or culinary schools generally aspire to become professional chefs, the main crowd that gets into cooking classes comprises people who just want to learn a particular style of cooking or hone their cooking skills for personal reasons. Depending upon what your aims are, we will give you a brief rundown of the things that you need to consider before you go on and join a school to learn cooking.

Cooking Classes For Personal Reasons: Many of us are often faced with situations where we wish we were better cooks. Every time guests drop in or we throw a party, we pledge to ourselves that we would take cooking classes so as to prepare a better spread the next time. If you want to impress your friends and family with your cooking skills, or if you are planning to start cooking at home, or if you simply enjoy cooking as a hobby, then taking cooking classes can prove to be an enjoyable and worthwhile experience for you.

Most of these classes often run for very short periods like one to three months with just a few hours every week. You can join a class to meet new people, relax and enjoy the company of like minded people and to make new friends. These classes are not competitive at all, you can learn in an easy and casual atmosphere. It is a great way of getting out and learning something while enjoying yourself. And the best part is that you will learn how to cook a number of new recipes pro style. If you are not short of time and money, then these classes come highly recommended. In case managing any of these two things is a problem, then learn cooking tips, techniques and recipes online to save on both time and money.

Cooking Classes Or Culinary School For Professional Advancement: Some people consider joining cooking school in order to make a career as a chef. However, if you think that you are going to get a cooking program of your own or get a high paying job with a five star hotel the moment you pass out of school, then you need to think again. The first thing that you need to realize is that cooking school is not cheap. You might need to take out a loan to pay for your culinary degree. Combine this with the fact that starting salaries in the hospitality and restaurant business are not nearly high enough to make ends meet comfortably.

You will definitely need a couple of years of experience on the floor before you get a well paying job. Also consider the fact that you will most probably spend the rest of your life sweating in warm kitchens, standing all day, taking directions and criticism from others and getting very few perks( unless you are actually employed by a five star). If you feel that you know everything there is to know about cooking as a job (opportunities, pays, perks, promotions, competition, costs etc), and you still want to go ahead, then you should definitely embark on the search for a good cooking school.

Personalized gifts are always appreciated in a day and age when most people have almost everything that can be bought in stores. Instead of giving out flowers, chocolates and prepackaged toiletries as favors in your parties, during holidays and to hosts and hostesses, why not create gifts in your own kitchen? When you give people something that you have made all by yourself in the kitchen, you not only let them know about your love for cooking, you also make them feel special by giving them something that you have made personally. Given here are some cooking ideas for making gifts in your own kitchen.

Cookies and Cakes: Cakes and cookies are all time favorites when it comes to cooking to gift. These are the best things to make in your kitchen if you are a good baker. Even if you are not, you can try out a few simple recipes for dry cakes and cookies. Some much appreciated and gifted baked goodies include chocolate chip cookies, walnut cookies, coconut macaroons, oatmeal cookies and chocolate cookies. Fruit cakes like Dundee and pineapple upside downs are also a good idea. Make sure that whatever you bake will last for a few days outside the fridge and be carried around without breaking up. You can gift the cookies in glass cookie jars wrapped with ribbons or decorate your cake tins with bows and ribbons to make the gift look nice and festive.

Vinegars and Oils: Flavored oils and vinegars are getting popular as more and more people turn towards salads as meals and accompaniments. You can easily flavor wines, ciders, vinegars and oils using herbs and spices. Pack them up in interesting looking glass bottles and tie on the top with twirling ribbons to get a gift that is both classy and useful. Some combinations that you can try are cilantro, lime and jalapenos in synthetic white vinegar, lemon and tarragon in white wine vinegar and basil and garlic or garlic, oregano and onion in olive oil.

Tea and Coffee: You can also gift your friends your own personalized brew. For tea drinkers, you can create spiced tea by combining one part peppermint leaves to one part of regular tea leaves. Add some spices like cinnamon, cloves, all spice and dried orange or lemon peels in small quantities. Let this mixture stand for a week before transferring to a steel or glass jar to gift. Your friends will love this aromatic and unique brew. You can also gift people cappuccino powder created in your own kitchen. Mix two cups of drinking chocolate powder with two cups of dry dairy creamer, a cup of powdered sugar and one and a half cups of instant coffee. Add a teaspoon of cinnamon powder for flavor to this mix and pack in jars tied with colorful ribbons. 3 tablespoons in a cup of water will make instant cappuccino. Make sure that you tell the receivers of these gifts how to use your instant tea and coffee mixes.

Ever wonder why you promise your friends and family home cooked meals when they end up in your spending all your free time in the kitchen? Or do you wonder how people manage to feed guests who drop in just when they are all out of pre cooked meals? These and other similar questions make us wish we were one of those people who could just wave a wand and the food would be there on the table, Harry Potter style. Unfortunately for us muggles, cooking food is never going to be that easy. The best we can do is learn cooking recipes for fast meals, and what better place to start than right here, where we tell you how to put together a three course meal in less than an hour.

Chinese food is not only like by most people, it is extremely fast and easy to cook once you get the hang of the various sauces. If you have an hour or even less to prepare a home cooked meal, then why not try a menu of tomato soup, chili garlic noodles and stir fry vegetables? You are wondering whether we can do all this in just 45 minutes? You bet we can! Just follow the instructions below:

Tomato Soup: Put a pressure cooker on the burner and pour in a tablespoon of vegetable oil. While the oil gets hot, chop a medium sized onion, then pop into the oil to fry till tender and translucent. While the onions are getting fried, you chop two medium sized tomatoes. Drop these in the cooker; add a cup and half of water, salt to taste and a pinch of black pepper. Cover and cook for five minutes. Put the whole thing in the blender and churn for a few seconds when done. Pour into soup bowls, garnish with cilantro and serve with soup sticks. Serves 2. Note: Be careful when you put the hot soup mix into the blender. Splashes can cause serious burns.

Chili Garlic Noodles: Put a pack of quick cooking noodles in a pan of boiling water. While the noodles boil, chop some pods of garlic into small pieces and break a few dry red chilies into pieces (decide on the quantity of chilies based upon how hot you want your noodles to be). Heat oil in a wok, drop in garlic and red chilies, add a tablespoon of vinegar, one and a half tbsp of tomato ketchup and salt to taste to the wok. Once the oil starts coming to the top of the ketchup mix, put in cooked, washed and drained noodles and mix it all up. Garnish with more chopped garlic and your chili garlic wonder is ready to serve 2.

Vegetable Stir Fry: To make your vegetables in record time, I assume that you will have chopped and ready to cook carrots, capsicum, broccoli, corn and peas in your freezer. Take a wok or a frying pan, put in a tbsp of vegetable oil and add the chopped veggies. Fry for two minutes, then add salt and fry for a couple of more minutes on low heat. Once the vegetables are tender enough for your taste, add one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, a dash of white vinegar and some pepper. Serve as a side dish with your noodles and you will definitely have people asking for second helpings. What’s more is that you have cooked a three course Chinese meal for two in record time!

(Note: If you are cooking for more people, just add to the recipes, without varying the given proportions. Time taken will more or less be the same.)

Gourmet cooking is definitely not as easy as regular cooking. The main reason behind this is that it involves a lot of preparation time, since every little thing that goes inside a gourmet recipe has to be just perfect. As regular cooks, you might never have mastered the techniques used for gourmet cooking, so we will provide you here with a list of the tips and tricks that you need to learn before you perfect your gourmet cooking style. Please keep in mind that our list of tips and tricks is simply indicative and not exhaustive at all!

• All gourmet cooking recipes require the best quality ingredients. So if you have been one of those people who thought that herbs grew in little plastic packets and jars and that vegetables come from freezers, then you will need some practice fast. If you are seriously into gourmet cooking, then start visiting the fresh produce areas of the supermarket to source your herbs and vegetables fresh. You will be able to get the best quality ingredients from farmers’ or fresh produce markets. Even if you cannot frequent such markets regularly, go there initially to at least find out how fresh, fresh is.

• You must have seen on television shows how the cooks always dice vegetables into equal cubes and julienne them as if they have used a tape measure to measure every cut and julienned vegetable piece. Alas, if you do not have practice, you might not be able to cut vegetables into such equal portions even if you use a tape measure. However, to start with, watch the cooks on TV when they chop. You will notice that to dice veggies into equal cubes, the chef will first cut out a 1cm thick strip of the vegetable, then slice lengthwise to get veg strips that are 1cm wide and 1 cm thick. Then he will chop these strips into equal parts that measure 1 cm on all sides. Definitely not tough but it will take time and practice to get such perfect results.

• Seafood is a crucial ingredient of many gourmet cooking recipes. But you might find yourself at a loss when a recipe calls for boneless prawns and salmons. After all, most regular supermarkets will not be stocking this, and no fresh produce mart will give these for sure. So you will have to learn to use tweezers or needle nosed pliers to pull the bones out of salmon fillets. In order to shell prawn, you will have to hold it tightly by the body and twist the head off. This will let you remove the whole shell easily.

• In order to be a proper gourmet cook, you will need to equip your kitchen with gourmet cooking tools and accessories. You will regularly keep coming across gourmet cooking recipes that call for basting roast meat with butter or fruits with egg whites. So you will need to equip yourself with brushes for this purpose. Similarly, you will need to stock up on a number of cookware pieces ranging from specialized spoons and knives to pans and cookers. Remember that having the right tools and cookware is crucial to the success of your gourmet cooking recipes.

All of us who like and enjoy cooking either consider ourselves gourmets in our own right or at least want to be gourmets after some years of experience. However, turning out nice noodles and pizza is not going to brand you a gourmet any time soon, neither is making instant soup. There are a number of things that anybody claiming to be a gourmet needs to do. For that matter, there are a number of cooking techniques that any good cook should be aware of. We list here a number of things that you will need to learn and know about before you find or perfect your gourmet cooking style.

Get Your Proportions Right: You will never see a great cook fiddling around with measuring spoons and cups. While you can definitely do this even if you are a gourmet cook, the main thing is to know about what will go in a recipe in what proportion. Knowledge of portion sizes for small and large gatherings and multi course menus is also important before you can be called a ‘great cook’.

Learn To Make Your Own Sauces And Stock: Gourmet cooks do not use instant stock cubes or bottled sauces. You can still be a pretty good cook if you use both these things, but getting to know how to make different types of stocks and sauces will let you play around with your recipes more. While making both vegetable and non-veg stock is easy, you can learn how to make some common sauces that you constantly use for your recipes.

Prepare Marinades: Get to know about some basic marinades and then tweak them to get a variety of different tastes and flavors. Remember to give your marinades at least 4 hours. The best food of course is one that has been marinated for at least 24 hours, but do not try this with fish.

Cooking With Wine: A large number of classy recipes call for wine, alcohol or liqueur. You can also give your own recipes a unique taste and flavor by knowing which alcoholic drink to use with which food and how. Once you get the basics of wine and food pairing, you will be able to personalize almost every dish that you make.

Know Your Flavors: Gourmets always turn out food with the perfect combination of different spices and herbs. To attain gourmet status, you will actually need to learn about the right herbs and spices to use for different recipes along with the correct proportions. Different recipes for the same dish will often list different proportions of the same herb or spice. You will have to decide and determine the proportions that suit your style of gourmet cooking.

Presentation: You will never see Michelin starred cooks presenting you with a dish that does not look like a piece of art itself. While you cannot become a gourmet artist in a day, you should start experimenting with different types of garnishing, food colors and decoration styles so as to always serve food that is good looking and appealing.

Hosting a child’s birthday party is both a pleasant as well as an unpleasant experience. While you want throw that best bash for your little one and to see all the guests enjoy themselves to the hilt, you also know that this is going to be one of the most trying and tiring times for you. Keeping the fact that you will be responsible for the décor, the invites, the games, the gifts and baby sitting to hordes of kids, we provide you here with some cooking ideas for simple to make, easy to handle, children friendly foods for a kid’s birthday party.

Snacks and Finger Foods: Most small kids find it very tough to handle plates and eat properly, especially when there are so many other things that they can do. However, you cannot really send your child’s friends back home with an empty stomach either. The best way to cater for your little guests is to have a large number of finger foods that the kids can pick up and stuff while carrying on with their games. If your guests’ parents will not mind, then French fries in different shapes and sizes, wafers and sausages or chicken fingers, nuggets etc. make for filling and tasty snacks. Of course, supplement these high fat content finger foods with fruit and vegetable sticks served with a couple of nice dips, harmless popcorn and low fat crackers and pretzels.

Adult Food In Kid Sized Portions: Children generally love pizzas and burgers, but when they get adult sized slices or portions, they generally end up making a mess out of it. If you do not want children dropping off the insides of their burgers or the tops of their pizzas when eating, then cater for mini pizzas and mini burgers that each child will be able to handle independently. Apart from the fact that this will make for a cleaner party, you will also save a lot of food from being wasted since most children should be able to finish off these small portions easily. Another advantage is that mini pizzas and similar food is easier to serve since you just need to hand one each to each child instead of cutting slices or portioning large burgers.

Drinks: While most kids simply love soda, you might not be very loved by their parents if that is all you serve at your child’s birthday party. To make for a balanced drinks table, serve different flavored sodas along with juices, ginger ale and lemonade. Try not to serve drinks that leave strong stains like grape and pomegranate juice or pink and orange soda etc.

Cakes and Ice Cream: No kid’s birthday party is complete without a cake and an ice cream. While you will have to cut and serve the cake only in the middle of the party, serving ice cream to hordes of little children can get to be a troublesome task. One thing that you can do is to scoop out as many portions as you need way before time, roll the scoops in fruits, nuts, choco chips or sprinkles and set in the freezer on top of a waxed baking sheet. Once the scoops are solid, you can wrap it up in plastic bags to take out and serve on waffle cones or cups during the party.

Baking can be different things to different people. While as an experienced baker, I use baking to unwind and relax, it can provide the opposite stimulus to someone who has just started baking. While most of us can eat almost anything that we cook as long as it is not burnt, raw or over salted, the same cannot be said about baking. Unsuccessful baking experiments generally end up in the garbage bin sooner rather than later, instilling a fear of failure in beginners who are learning this cooking technique. Keeping this phenomenon in mind, we provide you here with a list of some online baking tips for beginners that will help you get better baking results and become friends with your oven.

• Always Start Simple: Baking is a skill that needs to be learned step by step. You can start out trying to make a three tiered cake as your first baking project, but it is a given that you will somehow mess up. Choose and try easy recipes in the beginning since this will not only result in success most of the time, it will also give you the required confidence to handle complicated recipes in the future. As a beginner, do not go for a recipe where the preparation time is more than thirty minutes or the number of ingredients is more than 10.

• Do Not Substitute: While cooking food, we often substitute one thing for the other and it still turns out to be tasty and edible. However, unless a sub is mentioned in your baking recipe, it is best to use all original ingredients. The key to do this is to check that you have all ingredients in your pantry and fridge before you start mixing them. If you do not have all the ingredients for a recipe, select a different recipe or do not start till you buy all of them.

• Get Everything Together Before You Start: Timing is quite crucial in baking, and therefore it is important that you have everything at one place before you start mixing your ingredients. Beginners often get confused and add things to the recipe before or after they are supposed to be added. This will definitely result in imperfect products. So have everything on hand before you take out the mixing bowls.

• Preheat The Oven: You might get so mixed up preparing your dough or batter that when the time comes to put it in the oven, you will find that you have forgotten to preheat it. Not preheating your oven, or letting your batter stand for long after it has been prepared does not make for good baking. Always ensure that your oven is preheated at the right temperature before you put your dough or batter in it. Otherwise be prepared for partially raw or burned cookies and cakes.

• Use The Correct Measures: Not mixing ingredients in the proper ratio when baking is a major cause of failed baking attempts. If you want your recipe to turn out properly, take care to mix everything in the exact amount that it is mentioned—no more, no less. Remember the main fundamentals of baking are proportion, temperatures (ingredients and ovens) and timing. Getting these right will take you long on the way to successful baking.

If you are just starting to bake, then you might want to know about what to stock in your kitchen and what you can do without. Initially baking can prove quite discouraging for most people, and no one ever became a good baker without loads of patience and perseverance. So if you are just starting out or if you want to be a weekend baker, then stocking your kitchen with loads of so called “baking essentials” will only result in a lot of expenditure, most of which will not be put to use any time soon. If you are into fun and easy home baking that you want to do with kids, family and friends or just to unwind, then you can do it with just a few basic things. A small list of the essentials that you will need for fun and easy home baking is provided here.

Ingredients:  People who bake frequently need to stock all kinds of flours ranging from all purpose to bread flour and cake flour to self rising flour. As an infrequent baker, you can do with plain and simple all purpose flour. You can always go out and buy a special kind of flour that your recipe demands as and when you need it instead of stocking it all beforehand only to throw it all out when it expires unused. You can easily indulge in weekend baking with all purpose flour( can do for cakes, bread, cookies and pies), castor sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and yeast in your pantry.

You will also need solid vegetable shortening and vegetable oil for baking cookies and cakes etc. If you are into easy baking, then you would definitely not want to prepare frosting at home, and having some containers of ready made frosting will let you frost your cakes without any hassle. Vanilla flavoring is an essential for most cookie and cake recipes, with most recipes requiring different flavorings based on what you are making. For every ingredient that is not an essential, go out and buy when you need instead of stocking up. Fresh ingredients will always give you better baking results.

Electronic Appliances: Assuming that you already own an electric or gas oven, there are just a couple of other appliances you will need for baking basics like cakes and cookies. If you don’t feel great about kneading, you might have to put your food processor to use. Otherwise, you will need a heavy duty hand blender with a whisk for beating eggs, cream and butter etcetera and a dry grinder for grinding sugar and spices. Using these few appliances, you can tackle almost all kinds of baking ranging from pies to cookies and cakes to breads.

Cookware: You might find baking utensils in aluminum, steel and glass in your local cooking stores. Even though glass is costlier and looks better, the best cake and pie pans are the ones that are made of dull, solid aluminum. If you are into long term baking, you might want to invest in a few non-stick ones, since they make it really easy to take out pies and cakes once they are done. You will also need a measuring cup for liquids and one for solids. Take cups that are marked for all kinds of ingredients so that you can do with just one each. Apart from these, a couple of mixing bowls, a set of measuring spoons and some basic spoons and spatulas will take you a long way on your fun and easy home baking route.

Buying cookware for a kitchen is not a very tough or tricky task. You can in fact go into a store and pick up anything that you like. But if you want cookware that is really efficient, cost effective and long lasting, then you might need to put some thought in there. Cookware today comes in all kinds of shapes, sizes and materials. Apart from the regular materials that have been used to make cookware since ages, there are a number of new materials that keep entering and leaving the market. While at times, they turn out to be good, they might turn out to be really bad too. However, the text here will help you make the right choice when it comes to buying cookware.

When buying cookware, it is best to stick to traditional materials until and unless you are in the mood to experiment with “xenon blasted titanium pans” or some such hyped up, costly and unheard of before product. Most cooking pans and pots are made from steel, copper, aluminum, cast iron or a permutation and combination of these. Among these metals, copper is the best conductor of heat, followed by aluminum, iron and steel. However, the problem with copper is that it is hard to maintain if you use it rarely, and that it reacts with a number of sour and acidic foods. The same is true of aluminum too, so both of these materials, while being the best choices for cooking food evenly and properly, should not be hoarded in large quantities. However, you can keep a couple of some copper or aluminum utensils for specialty cooking. You might have to restrict your number of copper utensils because of the high cost also.

Cast iron cookware is something that is cheap and conducts heat nicely, but will not come with any great suggestions or recommendations unless you are anemic and need to increase your intake of iron. If you fail to season your cast iron cooking pans and woks extremely well, you will find a lot of your food changing color due to the high iron content that it will get from your pan.

Stainless steel is the best choice if you are looking for a cooking pan or pot that is easy to maintain, non reactive and economical. Yes, stainless steel is value for money. It will last and keep well and it is a fairly good conductor of heat too. If you need large pots, pans and cookers, then stainless steel would be the best option.

If you want to listen to some personal opinion, then non stick cookware is the best for all kinds of cooking purposes. It is generally light and conducts heat nicely, making for evenly and perfectly cooked food. The best part of course is that the food does not stick to the pan and gets cooked pretty fast when compared to steel and iron pans. Many of these non-stick pots and pans are made out of aluminum and then coated with Teflon to make for lightweight pans that make cooking real fast. The only disadvantage is that if you are not careful with washing and stirring, you might land up with utensils where the non stick coating gets scratched or worn out easily.

The best kitchen would be one that has some of all kinds of cooking utensils in different shapes, sizes and materials. If you can afford it, then always go for the best of the range, because this kind of cookware will last and make you kitchen proud every time you look at it.

All parents want their kids to eat and drink healthy foods. However, this is not always possible, because most of the time, this is simply “not” what your kids want. Many mothers often try to control their children’s diet by packing extremely healthy lunch boxes for their kids, thinking that the kids will eat anything when they are really hungry in school. While this strategy is simple and easy, it often backfires, what with today’s kids being smarter than most of us grown ups.

You might end up finding that your healthy lunch is being traded for something ‘not so healthy’ by your street smart kid. If your child is one of the simple, innocent ones, then she might just be dumping the major portion of her lunch into the garbage bin. Packing lunches that are healthy while appealing to the taste buds of small children is not easy, but these cooking ideas and tips will hopefully make it easier for you.

• Ask your kids what they want. This is the first thing to do if you want to start cooking healthy lunches for small kids. Of course, you will not be surprised with the answers that you get—chocolates, cakes, fries, wafers, soda and every other thing that you actually do not want your kids to eat. However, once you know what they want, tell them why they should be eating what you will pack for them and how good it is going to be for them. Instead of telling them vegetables are good for health, tell them how they will be smarter, taller and stronger if they start eating what you pack. And of course, start including small portions of your kids’ favorite food too, maybe on alternate days, as a reward for eating healthy food the rest of the time.

• One of the easiest and healthiest ideas for cooking kids’ lunches is leaving it raw. Both fruit and vegetable salads are extremely nutritious, and you can make them kid friendly by cutting it out like fries or pick me up portions that can be eaten without a fork. Kids love finger food, and to further snazz up their salads, make sure it has enough colors in it. Use at least three fruits or veggies of different colors, and add one or two healthy dips. They will stay fresh till lunchtime and if they are colorful enough, your kid will eat it.

• Cereal will definitely need to be the major portion of your child’s lunch box, since this where all the energy is going to come from. However, packing whole wheat bread vegetable sandwiches is not going to make you the world’s favorite mom anytime soon.  To make sandwiches more appealing to your kids, you can try cutting them down in easy to eat pieces and decorate them. Making smiley jam or ketchup faces etc. will make them highly appealing for small children.

• One of the best cooking ideas for kids lunches are home made bars. Home made muesli and cereal bars can be made in a bunch whenever you have time and be added to your kid’s lunch box every day to provide for a major portion of his or her calorific requirements. Make sure that you use a balanced mix of cereals, nuts and dry fruits so as to cover as many nutrients as possible.

All of us with family and friends are often blessed (and sometimes cursed) with unexpected company at or right after mealtimes. Catering for surprise guests generally becomes a tough job when they land up just as you put the dinner dishes in the dishwasher. However, with our short and sweet list of surprise cooking ingredients to stock in your kitchen, you will never be at a loss for cooking ideas for surprise guests, no matter what time of the day or night they land up.

Quick Cooking Cereals: Small pasta like angel hair, bow or even shells can be boiled in minutes to form the base for a main dish or salad. If you have pasta in your cupboard, you can whip up a meal by either adding cooked or uncooked vegetables to make pasta or a pasta based salad as your main course. The same goes for quick cooking rice. Cook rice in the microwave, it will be done within 5 to 5 minutes. Meanwhile, sauté some chopped veggies like onions, peas, carrots, beans and capsicum along with some salt and pepper or some Chinese sauces in a wok, and pour in the cooked rice and fry some more. You are ready to serve Chinese style fried rice to your guests!

Frozen Vegetables and Non-Veg: Chopped frozen vegetables will cost slightly more than regular ones, but they are extremely convenient and they can last in your freezer for ages. These veggies can come in very handy to make a salad or a side dish. Add some boiled pasta or croutons for a light salad or add a heavy dressing if you want something slightly rich. You can also stir fry your veggies within minutes to make a side dish for your pasta or rice or bread. And these are a blessing if you want to have pizza within fifteen minutes. For those who like non vegetarian food, stock some packages of ready to eat chicken or fish nuggets, sausages or salami etc in your freezer.

Instant Stuff: Guests dropping by unexpectedly should not mind getting instant soup and noodles. But to show them what a proud kitchen you keep, you can add a little portion of your frozen vegetables or cooked chicken to instant noodles or soup. This not only adds nutrition to the food, it also imparts it a different taste and flavor that will make your instant very unlike “instant”. Remember that a little garnishing in these cases goes a long way. You should also stock up on pizza bases, because you can make a great pizza with these things within fifteen minutes when you use your frozen veggies and chicken nuggets as toppings.

Different Types Of Sauces: Readymade sauces and dressings can do wonders for any dish that you have to make instantly. If you have one Italian sauce, then you can use it on your pizza or to top off boiled pasta and your fresh, home made meal is ready for your guests. Similarly, with a couple of sauces like pesto, remoulade, teriyaki, hoisin or salsa, you can dish up an aromatic, flavored dish within minutes. Flavored vinegars and oils are great for salad and veggie lovers and some desert sauces let you convert plain ice-cream into a Sunday with the addition of a few fruits( of course canned!)

So go ahead, stock up and let the cook in you experiment with these easy to use, versatile ingredients. Trust me, you will never get anxious about unexpected dinner guests in your life!

Grilling is an interesting cooking technique that all home cooks should know about. It provides a nice change from supermarket and regular food and has its own charms. Unfortunately, most of what we produce on our home grills bears only passing or coincidental resemblance to what we eat in grill bars and good restaurants. While grilling is such an art that people have written books and guides that will tell you how to do it right, a few simple grilling tips and tricks will help you get the hang of it more quickly:

Always Preheat The Grill: Most of us using gas or electric grills wait till the last moment to fire up our grills. This results in the food getting charred on the outside while being raw on the inside. If you want food that is evenly grilled to perfection, always preheat your oven for at least 15 minutes before you start putting the food on it.

Prep Your Food: The taste of your grilled food is eventually going to be as good or bad as the taste of your marinade. Even a good marinade can fail to make an impression if you do not give it the proper time to seep into the food to be grilled. Marinate fish for at least half an hour and meat for at least four hours before cooking. However, let all the marinade drip off the food before you place it on the grill to avoid flare-ups.

Temp Your Food: Grilling is a temperature game, and the temperature of the grill and the food that you put on it is going to make a huge difference to the end product. Never keep chilled meat or fish on your grill, because this will result in uneven cooking. Always ensure that the food that goes on your grill has already attained room temperature if you want perfect results.

Keep Your Grill Clean: Having the remnants of last time’s grilling party on your grill will not make for good results. No. It will make for food that tastes of things it shouldn’t be tasting of. The best time to clean your grill is right after you have used it and when it is still warm. Take off the residue using a fine wire brush and wash it before you keep it for next time.

Keep Practicing: There are a number of skills involved in cooking that are more of an art than others. Grilling and baking are just some of them. When it comes to grilling, remember that practice makes perfect. The more you grill, the better your grilled food will taste because you will understand the idiosyncrasies of your grill, its hot and cold areas, the marinades that work the best, the time taken for food to attain perfect taste and all the little nuances that distinguish a gourmet griller from an amateur one. Till then, happy grilling and all the best!

If you have just started cooking at home, then most of your meals must be coming from recipes of your favorite foods right out of your cookbooks or from recipes provided by friends and family members. Unfortunately, most of our favorite foods are not very healthy, or haven’t you heard that all good things in life are unavailable, fattening or married to someone else! However, if you plan to go on cooking for the rest of your life, it is important that you incorporate healthy food in your menus as much as possible so that you can actually obtain health benefits from home cooking. Some tips and tricks for making healthy, wholesome and smart food right at home are:

· Start using vegetables in your meal. Most non-vegetarians do not really like having vegetables apart from salads. But by now everybody knows that you have to have at least five to seven portions of fruits and vegetables in your diet if you want to make it a healthy one. In order to add vegetables to your diet, you can definitely start with providing a portion of salad with every helping of meat, and gradually go on to include a helping of cooked or steamed vegetables along with it.

· As far as possible, try using organic vegetables. However, you must keep in mind that organic vegetables, apart from being costlier than regular ones, also do not taste as good. So start introducing organic veggies in your diet one by one instead of using organic only all at once, otherwise you might never be able to develop a taste for your vegetables and your family might start dreading your cooking.

· Cut down on fats. Of course this means not making French fries or onion rings with every meal, but it also means that you use lesser fat for making regular dishes as well. Buy non stick pans and utensils since they actually let you cook in lesser amounts of fat than required by normal vessels. You must know that trans fats are akin to poison nowadays and anything containing this should definitely be left out of the kitchen. You should also substitute butter, margarine and animal fats with vegetable oils since these are healthier and therefore, easier on your arteries. Use olive oil or some a seed oil instead of animal fats and butter. If you bake at home, then you can always substitute seed oil in place of butter and shortening. This will give you almost the same result but will produce food that is healthier to eat.

· Do not boil, fry or cook too much. It is a long known fact that overcooking makes food lose all its nutrition. Therefore, avoid cooking food at high heat for long intervals. Do not boil it or cook it too much. In case of vegetables, try steaming them wherever possible instead of cooking them on a direct flame. While it is important to cook meats properly, try to cook them for longer periods on low temperatures instead of cooking them on very high temperatures. This will ensure that your meat gets cooked without getting burned, charred or losing its nutrients.

Most people do not realize it, but having the proper cooking equipment really makes a difference to the way your dishes turn out. No wonder then, you might have noted that most world renowned chefs pay utmost importance to the equipments they use and many even travel with their favorite equipments for shows and exhibitions instead of taking a chance with new ones. Therefore, if you are stocking up your kitchen, then make sure that you at least get the basics right. This way, you will never have to give up making a dish in the middle just because you do not have the proper equipment. At the same time, your dishes will turn out just the way they are supposed to instead of turning out to be surprises (often unpleasant ones).  We provide you here with a basic cooking equipment guide. This is stuff that every fully operational kitchen should have. You can go on adding equipments based on the kind of cooking that you do and the recipes you make.

Pots and Pans: Having the right type and the right size of cooking utensils is extremely important since they influence both the cooking time and the taste of your food. The list of essentials is as follows:

· One large, one medium and one small pot, with lids
· A medium sized saucepan with lid
· One large and one small frying pan, preferably non stick
· Two to three oven proof baking dishes in different sizes. Or buy at least two of the same size.
· Buy a pie pan and a cake pan –both medium sizes—if you plan to bake
· A set of different sized microwave proof bowls for storing and heating leftovers.
· A roasting pan and rack if you are into roasts

Knives: Most people do not pay as much attention to knives as they deserve. Buy the right kind of knives, good quality ones, and they will not only increase the quality of your output, they will also increase your efficiency in the kitchen.

· One chef’s knife 8 or 10 inches long
· One bread knife
· One paring knife
· One serrated knife
· One vegetable peeler

Spoons and Ladles: Having the right kind of spoons makes cooking very convenient. So make sure that you have the right ones for every process.

· Wooden spoons- with long and short handles
· Slotted spoons for deep frying- for non stick as well as regular pans
· Ladles
· Spatulas of different sizes

If you have non stick pans, then make sure that you buy spoons suited for such pans. This will save money since wood and plastic spoons can also be used with regular pans and pots.

Other Utensils and Accessories: No kitchen is complete without these necessities, so read on for more basic equipment that you need to stock your kitchen with.

· Grater with different hole sizes and some other basic functions
· Rolling pin
· Mixing bowls
· Measuring cups –one for liquids and one for dry items