Quote (Taurean @ Apr 9 2023 10:01pm)
- Use a cast iron pot for quickly boiling water, it absorbs heat much better than steel or aluminium alloys.
- Make it a habit to buy in ingredients for, and cook 3-4 times the amount you need, room temper, then portion it into glass/plastic storage boxes and freeze it. This way, it becomes so much easier to eat home cooked food instead of ordering fast food or eating snacks or low quality food. Take out a box, flush it on the outside with warm water until it loosens from the box, fill a little bit of water in cooking pan, add the frozen food to it, reheat on low heat for 30 minutes, while stirring occasionally, until hot. Or leave it out on counter/fridge if you can plan that well ahead. In time, you have like constantly 4-5-6 different dishes in your freezer, it makes it easier to eat diverse high quality food.
- Make an effort to not buy anything you really have no plan for using. It increases the risk that it gets forgotten in the freezer or fridge and goes bad, thus money wasted. Try to have at least some form of plan with whatever you buy, even if it is a good offer. Nothing is as expensive as throwing food away.
- There is usually no need for lots of equipment. You can do most things with a good chef knife, ladle, and a whisk. Unless cooking for a big family though.
- Buy silicone spatulas for non-stick pans. Or they (pans) get destroyed in few months and release dangerous chemicals. I sweared to using cast iron pans for long over a decade, but after going over to high quality non-stick pans with silicone spatulas, it works much better for me. Cast iron can work well, but requires more maintenance. It is better for certain things though, as mentioned in the first post.
- Baking cakes or confectionary and portioning them is a great way to make eating snacks healthier, and more wholesome. It is definitely more healthy to eat one small piece of cake or confectionary, instead of processed chocolate bars which are most added vast amounts of sugar, and then manipulated by sweetening balancing products to become edible, which gives a huge shock to the system. When you make this yourself, you have better control over the amount of sugar and fat, which most often you can cut down on without significant loss in flavor. Adding crushed nuts and dried fruit (if you like that) is a great way to give texture, increase flavor and nutrient value.
- Jasmine rice recipe (i've always done this with any type of rice with great success): Boil excess amount of water relative to amount of rice. Cook until soft, taste. Rinse in sieve. Fill pot with warm water, flush rice with it. If cooking a lot of rice, flush twice, to get rid of all the starch. Shake sieve to get out excess water. Add back to pot. This should be fluffy and nice to use for 10-15 minutes. After this, it should be either stored or mixed into the other food to prevent drying out, and then fridged/frozen to prevent going bad. Peas go well with rice, add frozen peas last 10 minutes, boil for 5-8 minutes.
- Brussels sprouts is my favorite vegetable. Easy to cook and taste good even on it's own, usually not expensive, and very healthy.
Wow, these are some pretty amazing tips! Thanks man.