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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.

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.)

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!

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

With the kind of lifestyle that we are leading nowadays, time has actually become the most precious commodity. If you have to cook when you get back from work, then you must have wished a number of times how you could have used the same time soaking in a hot bath or relaxing on the couch in front of a TV instead of slaving over the stove. While no amount of tips and tricks can actually save you from going into the kitchen, these tips will definitely ensure that you spend lesser time there.

Keep stuff ready for cooking. We might not realize it but defrosting and washing food takes quite a lot of time. In order to save up on this, plan a little ahead and save yourself the hassle of defrosting. If you are planning to cook some meat from your freezer for dinner, take it out of the freezer and keep it into the fridge around the time that you have breakfast. Take care to keep it in a vessel that will take the leaks and save your fridge from getting dirty. This way, you will find that your meat is thawed and ready to cook in the evening. No microwaving and no running under the water. All you have to do is put it into the pan and you are done.

Defrost fast. You can defrost frozen vegetables in no time at all by putting them in a bowl full of warm, instead of cold water. By the time you pan is ready, your vegetables will be as soft as fresh.
 
Use the right equipment. Machinery and equipment have been created in order to increase human efficiency and to save on time. So if you want to spend lesser time in the kitchen, make sure that you have all the correct equipment ready. Keep a set of good knives and chopping block so that you can deal with all your cutting needs efficiently. A simple knife is simply not enough for all your needs, and every kitchen should have at least a peeler, a chef’s knife, a serrated knife, a paring knife and a bread knife. If you can afford it, go ahead and buy a food processor, and you will be able to chop your vegetables in seconds instead of hours. Invest in some non-stick pots and pans, since they also cut down cooking time considerably and you do not have to keep stirring food continuously when using one. This means you can easily go and catch snippets of your favorite soap instead of being glued to the stove.

Multitask. Many people first prepare all the stuff needed for cooking—chop vegetables, assemble spices and sauces, wash and chop meat and only then put on the pans and pots on the stoves. With a little thought and planning, you can start cooking the moment your first ingredient is ready for cooking and keep on preparing and adding the others as and when the time comes.

There used to be a time when dinner was a leisurely affair where family members got together and shared information about their day. Alas, with everything being dictated nowadays by a shortage of time, both dinner and its preparation have become rushed. We hardly have time to cook after a hectic day at work and supermarket casseroles, frozen dinners and take outs comprise dinner for a large number of families more often than not. However, with a little planning, you can make delicious home cooked dinners within a very short time. All you need to do is follow these simple tips to cut your time in the kitchen without compromising on health and nutrition.

· When you go grocery shopping, it would help if you have planned your meals in advance and buy all the ingredients that you would need for cooking in the coming week. A lot of times, we forget to buy a crucial ingredient for a meal which results in that particular dish never being prepared as we go back to our dependence on take outs and frozen dinners bought from the supermarket.

· Spend an extra hour in the kitchen on a weekend and you can find yourself saving at least half an hour everyday. Whenever you have some free time to spare, or when you get your vegetables from the market, chop them up first before putting them in the fridge. Take out your food processor and chop all the vegetables that you have bought. Store different vegetables in different boxes. Keep the ones you are planning to use within a day or two in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. This way, you would save yourself the hassle of washing your food processor everyday and chopping vegetables. All you need to do is take out the required box from the fridge and pop the already chopped veggies into your pan. Just make sure that you do not mix your raw veggies, otherwise they might turn bad.

· Another method of saving time spent in the kitchen is by washing and cleaning up as you work instead of piling up all the stuff that you get dirty to be washed up later. This way, at the end of the meal, you only have to wash plates and serving utensils. You can ask your family members to wash their plates and one serving utensil each if you want to and you will also have to wash just two pieces after dinner instead of tackling a huge load of dirty plates and pots.

· Before storing fresh meat in your freezer, divide it into portions, making one portion for every meal that you plan to make. This way, when you want to cook that meat, you will have to defrost only the required portion instead of the whole stuff.

· Defrosting meat also takes up a lot of time. You can avoid the delay created by this by taking out the meat that you plan to cook out of the freezer and keeping it in a bowl in the fridge while making breakfast. This way, you meat will be thawed and ready to cook by evening.

Most people nowadays look upon cooking as a burden rather than as an enjoyable chore. As a result, we not only cut down on cooking times by making short-cut meals and dishes, we also fail to pay attention to our own safety while in the kitchen. Having a safe cooking environment is the most important thing to pay attention to before you start cooking. Follow our tips to a safe cooking environment to avoid kitchen accidents.

Don’t leave your stove unattended: The leading cause of homes burning down in America is kitchen fires that have been caused by unattended stoves. In order to avoid this scenario in your life, never leave a pot unattended while it is cooking. If you have to rush off during cooking for a minute or two, make sure that you set the stove to lowest or dim it. If you have to leave the kitchen for more than two minutes, then turning off the stove is a better idea.

Play safe with oil: A large number of burns in the kitchen are caused due to oil spatters. While most of us who have ever ventured into a kitchen have been subjected to minor burns caused due to oil spattering, the same has proved fatal in many cases. Make sure that the pan you are using for deep frying is stable and sits properly on your stovetop. Change the stovetop or the pan if it doesn’t. When your oil is hot, drop food to be fried carefully, always dropping it in a direction against your body, rather than towards it. Take care not to drop water or use wet spoons in hot oil.

Keep your kitchen clean: Food cooked in a dirty kitchen is liable to be contaminated by harmful bacteria that could cause serious illnesses. Make sure that your kitchen, countertop, stove and utensils are clean before you start using them for cooking. If you use a chemical or commercial cleaner for cleaning your countertop, then do not keep either raw or cooked food on it since the residue from the cleaner can poison your food. Avoid cross contamination by washing your chopping board and bowls every time you use them.

Have the proper accessories on hand: In order to indulge in safe cooking, it is important that you equip your kitchen with the proper accessories. So make sure that you have strong tongs to handle hot pans and dishes and thick oven mitts for taking out hot dishes from the oven. Use only good quality stuff made of non inflammable materials. As far as cleaning cloths and mitts are concerned, use only cotton ones, since synthetics are very prone to catching fire.

Dress appropriately: The kitchen is not the best place to show off your scarves and boas. The proper attire for working in the kitchen are clothes that are made out of cotton and keep close to your body. Flapping or loose clothes, especially nylon and polyester mixes can spell disaster in the kitchen. So say no to long, bell shaped sleeves, extra loose tops, shawls and scarves in the kitchen if you want to avoid personal accidents and injuries.

Barbequed food tastes like nothing else does. At the same time, while all of us try barbequing, not everybody manages to get great results. This is because there are various little nuances involved in barbecuing food that come only with experience and practice. If you have hopes of becoming a great outdoor chef, then read on, for the barbecuing tips given here will help you become just that.

• The first thing that you need to pay attention to when barbequing, is of course the meat or whatever foodstuff you are planning to grill. In a large number of cases, we end up with meat that is charred on the outside and raw inside. In order to avoid this scenario, avoid putting frozen or even chilled meat on your grill. Keep the foods you plan to grill outside the freezer into the fridge for twelve to twenty four hours so that it thaws properly. Once this is done, take out the meat half an hour or so before cooking and keep it outside the fridge so that it attains room temperature. This will ensure that your food gets properly cooked both inside and out.

• Another thing that causes food to be improperly or partially cooked like in the above mentioned scenario is the temperature of your grill. Unless your food is cut into very small pieces or if you like your meat dry, try to regulate the temperature of your barbeque between medium and high instead of keeping it very high. If you grill on coals that are very hot, then you might end up with dry or partially cooked meat.

• Now that we have tacked partial cooking, let us discuss flavor. A lot of people find their barbequed food tasting of lighter fluid. If you also face this problem, then you should wait for at least fifteen minutes or till the coals are grey in color before putting food on your barbeque. By this time, all traces of lighter fluid will have vanished and you will get food that tastes only like food and nothing else.

• Talking about flavor, if you use any kind of sauce for your barbecue, then you will get the best flavor only when you marinate your meats in the sauce at least three to four hours before cooking. Take the meat pieces and pierce them with a fork all over. Then add the marinade, sauce or seasoning and keep it in the fridge till it is time to take out and barbeque.

• Try not to pierce meat when barbequing. Use a flat spatula or tongs for turning so that you do not abrade the surface. This prevents juices and flavor from flowing out of your food and ensures that your barbequed food is juicy and tasty.

• Last but not the least; do not forget to cover your barbeque grill with a non stick spray before putting any food on it. Food, especially meat has the tendency of sticking to very hot surfaces and if you do not spray your grill with such a formulation, then you might end up losing half of your food to the grill.

Just follow the tips mentioned above, and very soon you will find yourself being crowned the “king” or “queen” of barbeque among family and friends.

Chinese is most probably the world’s most famous cuisine. Almost one third people across the globe have Chinese food every day, so we can easily dub it the most popular kind of food in the world. Apart from being uniquely tasty, Chinese food is also extremely nutritious and its method of cooking is such that the majority of nutrients are saved in their original form. Even though Chinese cooking is quite easy and simple, most of us still rely on take outs and restaurants when it comes to having Chinese food. If you are one of those people who love Chinese food but do not make it at home, then you can easily start doing so with the easy Chinese food recipes provided here.

To prepare a three course meal with a salad, a chicken dish and noodles, just try out the easy to make recipes given below:

For Chinese Fried Chicken, you will need:

A pound of skinned chicken
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 tablespoons, tomato ketchup
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon red chilli sauce
1 table spoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon garlic paste
1 egg
Salt to taste

Method: Mix all ingredients except chicken to create a lump-less paste. Mix in chicken pieces and keep covered in the fridge for  2 to 4 hours. Take out and drain excess liquid, if any. Heat oil in a wok and fry chicken pieces, dropping them one by one in the oil. Drain fried pieces on a kitchen towel and you are ready to serve.
For Chinese Cabbage and Fruit Salad, you will need:
For the Salad-
1 medium sized cabbage, thinly sliced
1 cup pineapple chopped pineapple, fresh or canned
1 cup chopped oranges
1 cup sliced water chestnuts
1/4 cup sliced green onions

For the Dressing-
1/2 cup mayonnaise or dream whip
1/2 cup yogurt
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp red chilli sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt

Method: Mix all ingredients for the dressing and beat lightly with a fork till it gets a creamy texture. Toss chopped fruits and vegetables with the dressing at the time of serving and you are done. Simple, no?

Szechwan Noodles, you will need:

1 12oz packs of noodles
4 tbsps. white vinegar
4 tbsps. oil
¼ cup chili oil
2 tbsps. soy sauce
3 tbsps. szechwan sauce
Salt to taste

Method: Cook the noodles as per instructions. In a Wok, heat oil slightly and add soy sauce, vinegar, szechwan sauce, chili oil and salt. Stir for half a minute and add noodle. Turn the flame to high and mix everything thoroughly. Your noodles are ready to serve.

After having a taste of these simple and easy to make Chinese dishes, both you and your family will be craving for more Chinese food. In order to get more simple Chinese recipes, keep checking this space! Till then, happy cooking!

Cooking is generally time consuming and tedious, and most people with busy jobs and busier lifestyles really do not fancy cooking much. At the same time, we all get fed up of eaten store bought frozen food or calling for takeaways all the time. Nothing equals home cooking when it comes to taste and nutrition, and eventually we all have to end up spending time in the kitchen. However, you can easily shorten your time in the kitchen by using the microwave for cooking instead of just using it as a heating and defrosting device. Modern microwaves with convection and grill make it possible to prepare delicious food in a short span of time. Apart from making the usual steamed vegetables, instant noodles or rice in your microwave, you can also use it to prepare finger licking good meat. Just follow these simple microwave cooking tips for cooking meat and you will start using your oven more and more often for making non vegetarian food.

• The first thing that you should pay attention to when cooking in the microwave is the kind of container you use for your food. While plastic containers that are microwave safe are usually good enough to heat food, use only utensils that are specially manufactured for microwave cooking if you really plan to cook. Glass and good quality microwave proof plastics are best for microwave cooking. Using any other material, including cheaper quality of plastics might lead to chemical transmission into your food, which will not only spoil its taste, but also make it dangerous for consumption.

• When you plan to cook meat in the microwave, it is a good idea to defrost it by keeping it in the fridge twenty four to twelve hours before cooking. This is because when you defrost meat in the microwave, it gets partially cooked in places. On top of this, defrosting takes almost as much time as cooking, so you won’t save much cooking time if you defrost in the microwave. 

• The microwave oven is most suitable for making dry meat dishes instead of stews and gravies. In order to make your chicken, lamb or beef soft and tasty, you should always marinate it before putting it in the microwave. Dishes that use marinades or sauces turn out best in the microwave because the spices and flavors have already permeated the food before you put it in the oven. Pierce the meat to be cooked with a fork or a sharp knife all over and then coat it with salt, spices or sauces—whatever you plan to cook it in—at least four hours before cooking. Leaving it overnight in the fridge will give you the best results, however. Once the meat is marinated, all you need to do is take it out and put it in the microwave.

• Remember that turning and moving around meat in the microwave is important if you want your meat to be thoroughly cooked all over. Keep turning meat pieces every ten minutes or so and move them around in their container so that they are thoroughly cooked.

• Always keep your container covered with cling film till the meat gets tender. Once it is three fourths cooked, you can remove the plastic covering and let the excess moisture vaporize. This would ensure that your meat is not hard and dry when cooked.

Olive oil has generally been declared as being the healthiest cooking oil. No wonder then, this light and fragrant oil is finding its way into everybody’s kitchen shelves. Apart from being healthy, olive oil is also one of the tastiest cooking mediums and definitely adds lovely flavor to your food. Since most of us are new to cooking with olive oil, unlike many of our European cousins, we can definitely do with some tips about using olive oil in cooking.

• Since we know that extra virgin olive oil is the best, almost all of us who can afford it have started using it for all our cooking needs. However, you might have noticed that this oil fails to give you the same flavor it does in salads and dressings when you use it for frying. This is because extra virgin olive oil, being of a very light consistency, smokes very fast and is not suitable at all for deep frying and cooking under high heat. So if you want your food to taste as good as possible, use regular (or mixed) olive oil for deep frying. This will not only save you money, it will also give you better taste.

• Now that you know where not to use extra virgin olive oil, let’s talk about where exactly you should use it. Extra virgin olive oil is a delight when used in dressings, salads and vinaigrettes. You can also sprinkle a little on top of your Italian pizzas and pastas before baking and relish the instant improvement in flavor.

• If from the above two tips, you have not already gathered that you should keep at least two kinds of olive oil to cater to your cooking needs, then let us spell it out. Keep at least one regular olive oil in large quantities-this can be a cheaper variety (but not too cheap either)-and a good quality extra virgin olive oil in your kitchen at all times.

• Special care is involved in storing olive oil if you want it to retain its flavor. It is best to keep your olive oil in a cool, dark place. This is because both heat and light are like absolute poison for your olive oil and will spoil it sooner than later. So do not store your oil near or above your cooking range, like you do with other cooking oils. Keep it in a cupboard instead, since it might spoil due to condensation if kept in the fridge. Make sure that your bottle of olive oil is tightly capped to prevent it from aeration.

• Olive oil, unlike other oils turns rancid quite fast. This is especially true of cheaper varieties of olive oil. In order to judge whether your oil is rancid or not, taste it. If it tastes buttery, that means it has already turned rancid. In some cases, you might find that a new bottle tastes rancid. While you can use rancid olive oil for cooking, it will not taste as good as fresh oil. The trick here is to taste your oil before buying if possible. Once you have bought your oil, keep it tightly capped and use it within 6 to 8 months, extending to a maximum of one year at the most. Olive oil stays best in tinted glass bottles, so transfer your oil into these if you have some. Green or brown wine bottles with light caps, which have been properly washed and dried, will do just fine.

Different people will tell you about different temperatures and times for the roasting of meat. And you might find that there are huge differences in the information people give you, leaving you not just confused, but thoroughly flummoxed if you actually want to know how to cook that perfect roast you had at your favorite restaurant last week yet have no clue how to go about it. First things first, you can make roast meat at about every temperature possible, it is just that every temperature and time possible will not give you perfect results. Secondly, cooking is more of an art than a science and people also appreciate the results as an art rather than a science most of the time. So what could be perfect roast for you could be slightly rare for my taste and what would be perfect roast for me could be overcooked for you. That said, however, the temperatures and times for perfect roasting of meat given here should let you roast meat the way it is done in good restaurants, but if even this is not good enough for you, then you might have to go back to asking some more.

Let us discuss cooking times first and foremost. In order to cook chicken or other poultry so that it is thoroughly and nicely cooked, you should roast it at a constant temperature of 160C or 325F. In case your oven marks by numbers, then this would be 3 in a gas oven. If you want to roast beef so that it is well done on the outside and rare on the inside, then a temperature of 180C or 350F should do it. This is around gas mark 4 in a gas oven. If you are roasting pork using these temperatures, while it will be cooked, it will look slightly pink. The same might happen in the case of lamb, but if you keep your meat in the oven long enough, that is at least thirty minutes per pound, you will be able to eat it without any danger since by this time, all the harmful bacteria would have been killed.

Coming to cooking times, while I have mentioned earlier that you should at least roast your meat for thirty minutes per pound, meaning you should keep it in for an hour if you are roasting two pounds, let me tell you at the outset that this cannot be sacrosanct. The reason behind this is that cooking times vary a lot based on the kind of oven that you use and its size. So while a gas oven would generally take a shorter time than an electric one, a larger oven would take a longer time than an oven with a smaller cavity. However, the time provided should give you a general idea of when your roast is about to be done. In order to make sure with your own oven, you can keep checking the results at approximately the same time and after one or two attempts, you will easily be able to determine the time period for roasting meat perfectly in your oven.