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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.

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.

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!

A lot of people are taking to cooking at home in their quest to get well balanced, tasty and nutritious meals. However, as a result of too much reliance on takeouts, supermarket frozen dinners and all kinds of meats, we are used to diets that are unhealthy and fattening. Most of us who are non-vegetarians shy away from vegetables and fruits while stuffing ourselves with sugary and fatty food. However, nutritionists and doctors have declared that it is important to eat a minimum of five to seven servings of fruits and vegetables in order to have a healthy diet. Eating such a large amount of fruits and veggies is quite difficult, not to say distasteful for a number of non-vegetarians. However, with our easy tips on making meals tasty and nutritious, you will soon start loving healthy eating.

· When we look at an average American’s diet, there are three things that are drastically wrong with it. Too much fat, excessive sugar and too little fiber. In order to remedy this situation, you will first have to look at your own diet and weight and think of the changes that you really need to make to your diet. The best way of adding fiber to your diet is by eating more fruits, vegetables and whole grain cereals. The best way to start this is by incorporating a small salad into every meal. This would not only add three to four portions of fruits and veggies to your diet, it will also add the fiber required to convert your diet into a healthy one.

· Coming to salads, while most salads are healthy, some salads drenched in heavy dressing contain fat that should be avoided if you are overweight. Try going for salads that have been tossed in transparent and light dressings instead of going for creamy dressings.

· Start having fruit salads. You can start substituting your desserts with fruits and fruit salads. This will have multiple benefits. Not only will this save you from consuming the excessive amount of sugar that you do with normal desserts, it will also add the required amount of fiber to your diet. Fruits are very rich in anti-oxidants and therefore help in controlling aging and increasing your immunity.

· If you find chopping vegetables a big chore, then you can always start using your food processor to do it. You can avoid cleaning your food processor every day by spending an extra hour in the kitchen on a weekend and chopping up all your vegetables one by one in your food processor. Store chopped fruits and vegetables in separate plastic containers; otherwise they might turn bad sooner than later. Unfortunately, you cannot cut and store apples, bananas, eggplants and potatoes etcetera since they oxidize very fast and will turn brown within minutes of being chopped.
· Start adding chopped fruits and vegetables to all the dishes that can take them. They will not only enhance their flavor, but also make them more nutritious. Try different fruit and vegetable mixes for your salads to add flavor and variety.