English Deutsch Français Italiano Español Português 繁體中文 Bahasa Indonesia Tiếng Việt ภาษาไทย
All categories

2006-08-22 09:37:28 · 19 answers · asked by angela b 1 in Food & Drink Ethnic Cuisine

19 answers

great recipe and lots of passion!

2006-08-22 09:43:00 · answer #1 · answered by laughing cat 2 · 0 0

How To Make the Best Soup

Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 5 minutes
Here's How:
Make soup 1 to 2 days in advance to let flavors blend.
Reserve the vegetable cooking water and use in place of plain water to improve soup flavor.
Shin, marrow, neck and oxtail bones are best for stock flavoring.
Veal knuckles are best for making jellied stocks.




If soup tastes thin or weak, add bouillon cubes or powder as a strengthener.
Cool soup uncovered as quickly as possible by placing pot in sink of ice water.
Cold soups dull the tastebuds and usually need more seasonings than hot soup. Taste and adjust before serving.
If using beer or wine in the soup, reduce salt slightly.
Wine added to soups should be done shortly before serving and do not let it boil.
Too much wine will make soup bitter. 1/4 to 1/3 cup per quart is plenty.
When reducing or boiling down a soup stock, do not add salt until the end.
If soup is too salty, add half a peeled raw potato and simmer about 15 minutes to absorb excess salt and then remove potato.
1 teaspoon of sugar or light brown sugar will mellow the acidity of tomato soup.
Vegetable cream soups can be thickened by pureeing some of the vegetables with a bit of the liquid.
Add herbs at the end to preserve the most flavor.

2006-08-22 11:23:55 · answer #2 · answered by catherinemeganwhite 5 · 0 0

Hmm. You might want to get a simple cook book at first. If you do really well at one of your favorite recipes, try to spice it up a little by adding one of your favorite ingredients. (that would taste good with the meal) If you practice enough with things you cook regularly you might be surprised at the things you learn along the way, like temperatures in the oven, and how long to boil, things like that. Then you can move on to cookbooks which become a little harder and practice. Sooner or later, you'll be cooking Fettucini Alfredo with a creme brulee for dessert!! :)

2006-08-22 09:48:08 · answer #3 · answered by greenoreo14 1 · 0 0

The first thing to do is decide what you wish to eat.
Secondly, have you got, or can you get, the ingredients to cook it.
Thirdly, have you got the equipment ( knives, pans, stove) to cook it.
Lastly, do you have the skill to cook it.

A great meal need not be over-elaborate. Paul Bocuse, the inventor of the French "Nouvelle Cuisine", has stated that, for a three-course meal, only one course need be hot. Bocuse is a great influence in European cooking to this day.

Let us examine the question in greater detail, and provide some answers.

1. Can you cook? By this, I mean can you boil, fry, braise, roast, poach, simmer etc. If you cannot, do not despair. Go to a good bookshop, and ask for Volume 1 of "Ceserani and Kinton" - Practical Cookery. This book is used as the standard textbook at colleges for professional chefs, and describes all basic cooking techniques, delineates the equipment you will need, makes you au fait with cooking terminology, such as "sweating onions" and gives foolproof recipes from the easy to the complex. Even if you do not plan to do European cookery, this book is a must, because all cuisine shares the same basic techniques. In particular, the British Army uses it to train its chefs, and I can swear that British Army food is utterly excellent.

If you wish to cook outside of the European range, then books by Hussain and Fernandez will give you the basics of Indian cuisine, and Ken Hom will introduce you to the rudiments of Chinese cooking. The web-sites of Antony Worral Thomson, Ainsley Harriott and Brian Turner will give you simple, but mouth-watering recipes and ideas.

2. Ingredients. Buy the best. Meat from an independent butcher, not (as a rule), a supermarket. In a lot of cases, frozen vegetables are better than fresh, unless you can purchase direct from a farmers market or from a local grower.

3. Keep it simple. Do not ignore canned soups as a first course - soups like Lentil are neutral, if you intend the main course to be meat, and can be jazzed up with the addition of a little bit of chilli powder, coriander, paprika etc. Cook the main course from fresh, and do not present the food overloaded on the plate. You can keep some back for "seconds". The last course can be something easy like canned peaches served covered with ice-cream.

A small cheeseboard - Cheddar, Stilton and Gruyere with a cream crackers and water biscuits, provides a pleasant finishing touch.

4. Avoid all packaged microwaveable food. This is not cooking a great meal, it is heating up a reasonable meal that has been cooked in bulk by someone else.

5. Wines. A glass of chilled white wine of a fairly dry type is a good introduction to a meal. Try South African Steen, or one of the dryer Chilean whites. For the main course, if it is meat, a robust Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot is good. Do not skimp on this - at least 2 glasses per person. South African and Chilean Cabernets are good, also the French St Emilion, or Corbieres. Alternatively, Hungarian Bulls Blood is a noble accompaniment to meats such as beef steak, roasts or venison. Corbieres also goes nicely with chicken dishes. Alexis Lichine does a very reliable range of wines from France. As an ex-sommelier (wine-waiter), I recommend his range.

With the cheeseboard, offer port, cognac or armagnac , and a pot of mild tea - Darjeeling tea finishes a meal well.

Finally - keep learning. Beans on toast that you have cooked yourself is more fulfilling than the most elaborate microwaved curry. There are oodles of web sites and cookbooks out there, but if you stick with the chefs I have mentioned earlier, you will get good, reliable recipes, and excellent results.

I wish you luck and success, and I hope I have been of help.

2006-08-22 10:31:10 · answer #4 · answered by ? 6 · 0 0

How about trying a Marks & Spencer meal that you need to prepare - just throw away the containers so no one will know that you didn't cook it all yourself!

2006-08-22 09:52:41 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Practice

2006-08-22 09:44:19 · answer #6 · answered by Pookie 4 · 0 0

cook anything u want to serve,the add lots of affection and loads of love and a splash of smile while u serve it.every meal will be a great meal.
good luck

2006-08-22 16:01:56 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

first you need a head chef from a 5 star hotel that you have kidnapped. the Ozzie's are the best as they know how to make excellent Yorkshire puddings

2006-08-22 10:29:15 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Get a good cook book and a decent oven!!

2006-08-22 09:44:14 · answer #9 · answered by Dragon Empress 6 · 0 0

in my case get someone else to do it
Or ring a take out and say it was my cooking after hiding all the foil raps lol

2006-08-22 09:43:12 · answer #10 · answered by kj 5 · 0 0

Easiest way - fresh good quality ingredients simply prepared.

2006-08-22 09:48:12 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

fedest.com, questions and answers