Quick Cooking is a Mind Set

Quick cooking is a mind set, it's not about time. You'll always spend time on cooking, the goal is to make it more time effective and user friendly.

If you're not prepared, you'll never have a "quick" meal, so it's important to do the following:

Plan ahead - Make a menu plan:

I recommend that you menu plan for the month. It doesn't matter how often you shop, it's important to know what you're going to eat. When planning your menu, remember to allow for leftovers. If you cook more than one meals worth of a recipe, you can always freeze it and serve it again later in the month or use it for a night that you don't feel like cooking.

If you menu plan for the entire month, you won't have any overlaps and you'll cut down on your waste factor. Remember that you can always fill in with soup. This is a great way to use up the leftovers in your refrigerator. Cut up the veggies that are starting to look a little worse for wear, add the leftover baked or mashed potatoes, toss in a can of stewed tomatoes and add the "scrappy" looking roast chicken carcass, leftover lunch meat or meatloaf. Just add a little stock and you have homemade soup. Add some hot biscuits or cornbread and you're family will think you're amazing.

Check the pantry and go shopping:

If you keep a well stocked pantry, you'll never be out of the basic ingredients necessary to make a meal. For those days when you're behind schedule, or just forgot to take something out of the freezer, your pantry can save your day. I've given you lists of suggestions for a well stocked pantry on your first cd - you should probably check it out.

Once you've made your monthly menu plan, check your pantry items to see what you're short of. Write your shopping list and go shopping. DO NOT buy anything that's not on your list! If you stick to this, you'll be amazed at how much money you save. A quick tip - leave the kids and hubby at home - it really saves on the grocery bill.

Pre-prepping - a real time saver:

Whether you're shopping for a week, two weeks or a month, pre-prep your meats when you get home. If you don't want to cook all your meat right away, break it down into serving sizes or recipe sizes and then freeze. If you pre-cook your meats, which is what I recommend, place the amount called for in the recipe in freezer containers or bags, label with the recipe name and place them in the freezer. If you'll do this, then you'll truly have a 20-30 minute meal. You can spend 3-4 hours in the kitchen one day cooking all your meat, but it will save you 10-20 hours in the kitchen over the month. You choose.

The only item in your budget that's fluid is your grocery budget. Your monthly expenses are pretty much set; you may find yourself financially short some months due to unanticipated expenses. Where will the money come from? Your food budget. Get ahead of the game, learn how to shop wisely and cook your meals at home. They'll not only be better for you, but you'll be amazed at how much money you'll save.

Enjoy using your kitchens, they're not a surgery center, you don't need a degree to go there, you just need to take a deep breath, strap on your apron and read your recipe twice before starting and don't forget, I'm only a phone call away.

Meats - Practice Makes Perfect

The biggest challenge in cooking meats seems to be overcooking your meats and having them turn out dry, or undercooking your meats and having them turn out raw. Sometimes it’s a challenge to get the perfect in between

My good Friend, Anne Steele, the kitchen manager at Anasazzi Stone in St. George, told me a good trick for testing your meats. Place the pad of your thumb against your pointer finger, forming a teardrop shape. Now poke the “ball” of your thumb with the pointer finger on the opposite hand. The “give” you feel in your thumb is the “give” you’ll feel in meat when it’s “rare”. Now move your thumb to the middle finger and poke the “ball” of your thumb, the “give” is equivalent to the “give” when your meat is medium, move your thumb to your ring finger, the “give” is the same as well done.

Pretty cool, huh? When your cooking your meat, press it with a pair of tongs and you’ll feel the same density of “give” in the meat as you do in your thumb. Practice and you’ll get pretty close to the doneness that you desire in your meats.

Chicken seems to be the most challenging, although an overdone beef roast or steak is, truly, a terrible waste of meat. If you want to be more accurate, use an instant read meat thermometer and always remember that meat will continue to cook after you’ve removed it from the heat, so remove it just shy of what you want your finished degree of doneness to be and allow it to rest for 10-15 minutes.

Here’s a meat temperature chart for your convenience:

Meat Temperature Chart (Fahrenheit)
Beef Rare Medium-rare Medium Medium-well Well done	120° - 125° 130° - 135° 140° - 145° 150° - 155° 160° and above
Lamb Rare Medium-rare Medium Well done	135° 140° - 150° 160° 165° and above
Poultry Chicken Turkey	165° - 175° 165° - 175°
Pork	150°

Resting is very important. If you cut your meat immediately, all the juices in the meat will flow out, causing your meat to be dry. Allow it to rest and all the juices will remain in the meat and give you a nice moist, juicy end product.

I’ve given you recipes for “quick meals”. Many of these require you to pre-prep your meats in order to be able to “finish off” your meal within 20-30 minutes. Some forethought goes a long way in keeping your meal preparation time down to a minimum.

I often cook a lot of meat at one time. I usually have in mind what I want to use the meat for; after it’s cooked, I can package it in serving, or recipe, sizes and place it in the freezer. I write on the bag what my intentions are for the meat, thus saving myself considerable time.

If I’m going to grill 2 chicken breasts for dinner, it doesn’t take any longer to grill 4 or 8. You can leave the breasts whole, or slice them before freezing or refrigerating.

When cooking chicken, I usually leave my meat a little shy of done (I do not like raw chicken), especially if the meat is going to be reheated or used in another recipe. If you’ll do this, your meat won’t be overcooked when the dish is fully prepared. If a breast is a little undercooked and I want to use it immediately, I slice the meat, place it on a plate or in a microwave container and microwave it for 30-60 seconds or just till done. You’ll always have perfectly cooked chicken.

Be sure to choose meats, especially with beef and pork, that have some fat marbling, this is essential in having a tender, moist and flavorful cut of meat. Meat that is without marbling will be tough and dry. The fat will cook off, I promise.

Try slow roasting cuts of meat that have a tendency to be tough. Season your meat all over and place it in a roasting pan with the fat side up. This allows the meat to baste while roasting. I start it in the oven about 200 degrees, covered (no added water or liquids). If I’m cooking a 12-15 pound beef brisket, I’ll start the meat 10-12 hours before I want to serve it. Allow it to roast till it reaches “rare” on a meat thermometer, then uncover, turn the heat up to 225 and continue to roast till it reaches your desired doneness. For smaller cuts of meat, the time will be considerably reduced. Just calculate the time against the weight and adjust accordingly.

Poultry and pork can be slow roasted also. It’s a great way to get a head start on a meal and requires very little “hands on” attention. Try it, you won’t be sorry.

If your meats seem bland, try some spice blends, new seasonings or marinades and don’t forget the salt and pepper. If you’re not sure what you like, S&P with some garlic and/or onion powder is pretty safe and always good.

Whether it’s grilling, pan frying, poaching or roasting, spend a little time experimenting with timing and seasoning. The old saying, “practice makes perfect”, really does hold true. Enjoy!

The Use of Salt

Salting your food is very important for many reasons. It enhances the flavor of your foods as well as creating levels of flavor when other herbs and spices are added as well.

Salt will draw the moisture out of vegetables and will also draw out the sugars causing onions and carrots, for example, to taste sweeter, especially when sautéed.

Remember that when you’re making a recipe, you’re starting with separate elements that will come together as a whole. If you salt one element to taste, and add another, which is unsalted, the end result will be altered. Salting as you go is important, but you need to remember to consider what your end product will be and the components of your recipe; for example:

In one of our first classes, you learned about white sauces. You start with equal amounts of butter and flour. “Cook off” your flour and start adding liquids. You may “thin” your sauce with some kind of stock, milk or cream, depending on what the end use will be. If you’re making a cheese sauce, you’ll be adding cheese at some point. You must consider this:

If you use unsalted butter and salt free stock, milk or cream, you’ll need to add salt to your sauce, however, if you’re using salted butter and bullion to thin your sauce, there is quite a bit of salt already in your recipe. If you then add something like Parmesan cheese, which is more salty, you definitely don’t want to add salt along the way. Think of the ingredients you’re using in a recipe. This will give you a good indication of how much you want to salt your recipe along the way. You may have several different components; consider each component and how it affects the whole. There’s nothing wrong with salting at the end, but you’ll need to add salt slowly, taste and allow the food to cook a little to allow the flavors to blend, then re-taste.

I think that salting along the way is a good thing, it actually will enable you to use much less salt at the table, however, always remember that “less is more”. Don’t loose sight of the end results and what ingredients are contributing to the whole.

Pasta, Potatoes, Rice and Beans - important staples in your pantry

As I said at the cooking class, pasta, rice, beans, potatoes, soups and salads are the least expensive things you can cook. Since pasta, rice, beans and potatoes are often added to soups and, sometimes, salads, these are great meals to make when trying to reduce your food budget.

When trying to save money in your food budget, you need to have a new mind set about meats. Americans think of meat as our main dish and pasta, rice, beans and potatoes as sides, you need to reverse that and consider these ingredients as your main portion of your meal and meat as the side dish. We should only be eating 3 ½-4 ½ oz. of meat per meal. That’s a piece of meat about the size of your palm, before it’s cooked.

If you’re concerned about carbohydrates or overly “processed” foods, here’s some information for you: Beans are a great source of protein and fiber; You can always purchase wheat pasta, or make your own, as we did in class; brown rice is a high fiber alternative to processed white rice with a nutty flavor and chewy texture. Just remember brown rice takes longer to cook and doesn’t store as long as white rice, so if you’re buying in bulk, refrigerate or freeze for longer storage. Potatoes are actually pretty good for you, especially if you don’t add all the toppings. Be sure to eat the skin, as in baked potatoes, that’s where most of the nutrients are and sweet potatoes are one of the best foods for you. Check out this link to see the nutritional value of sweet potatoes, I think you’ll be surprised:

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2667/2

Tips for cooking pasta:

When cooking pasta, use plenty of water. You want the pasta to be able to move around as it boils and don’t forget to stir periodically. Pasta is done when it has some chew, but is not hard. Do not over cook your pasta.

Always add pasta to boiling, well salted, water. If you do this, you won’t need to add salt at the table. Your water should taste like “salt water”.

Do not rinse the pasta after it’s cooked, just drain and return to the cooking pot.

If you’re adding sauce, add it immediately. The starch remaining on the pasta will thicken your sauce and help it to “stick” to the pasta.

Never oil your water or pasta when cooking. This will interfere with the sauce sticking to the pasta.

There is an exception to the oil; if you’re holding the pasta for some time, add some oil to keep the pasta from sticking together, but be frugal.

Remember that pasta will absorb whatever sauce you put on it, so make sure you have enough sauce to keep the pasta moist. Spaghetti will absorb more sauce than macaroni, such as rigatoni, mustocolli, or penne. If you have less sauce, use macaroni instead of spaghetti, angle hair or fettuccini. Remember that if you’re adding chicken to your pasta, it will absorb sauce as well and allow for that. It’s better to pour the sauce over the pasta just before it’s served instead of trying to hold the dish. When you hold pasta it has a tendency to be dry and gummy, so you may need to re-sauce your pasta if it’s sat for any length of time. If you are reheating pasta, add a little water and reheat in the microwave. Do not over cook.

Tips for cooking rice:

Some recipes tell you to rinse your rice before cooking; this is to reduce the amount of starch in the finished product. I don’t usually rinse my rice. The worse thing you can do to rice is to overcook it. When boiling rice, I suggest you use a good rice cooker. The one I prefer is the Pampered Chef microwave rice cooker. The rice cooks perfectly every time in 20 minutes. The great thing about it is that I can leave it and not worry whether it’s going to overcook or burn.

Seasonings and spices can be added to rice before cooking, which allows the flavor to be absorbed into the rice as it cooks. If you’re adding something like tomatoes, for Spanish rice, be sure to make allowances for the liquid factor when adding the water or you’ll end up with soup.

Rice is a great staple in your pantry and very versatile. It can be used in soups, salads, main dish casseroles, as a side dish or dessert. It can be fried, browned, baked or boiled. Whether using white or brown, it’s something to consider in your pantry.

Leftover rice can be easily reheated by adding a little water to a microwave safe dish, covering and microwaving for 45-60 seconds or till heated through.

Cooking with beans:

Beans are cooked by boiling; after they’re boiled, they can be used in many different ways. Different beans have different flavors and strengths. Pinto beans have a much stronger taste than white beans. You can easily add lentils to your bean selections. These are great for adding protein to your diet without adding a lot of meat. Beans can be used in soups, salads, breads, cakes, cookies, candy and many vegetarian and ethnic dishes. Beans are versatile and are very adaptable. You’ll learn more about beans in the “Food Storage” cooking class in May.

Potatoes:

Oh, what can we say about potatoes? I’ve given you several recipes for making your own fries. Try them oven baked, it cuts way down on the grease and calories.

We’re all familiar with the “baked” potato. Next time you’re baking your spuds, rub them with oil and roll them in a salt and pepper mixture. Bake them on a cookie sheet or piece of foil, unwrapped, and you’ll get a great crispy crust and a great salt crusted flavor that’s wonderful. You could even use flavored salts, such as garlic or mesquite. When I bake potatoes, I usually bake some extra so I can make Pampered Chef’s Baked Potato Soup, one of our favorites (it’s in your recipe file). Because the potatoes are already baked, this soup can be ready in less than 30 minutes.

You know how I feel about ricing potatoes. This is still my new favorite thing. I had a bag of red potatoes a couple of weeks ago which I peeled, boiled and riced. When they’d cooled off, I scooped the potatoes into Ziplock bags and stacked them in the freezer. This is so great, I just pull out a bag, bring it to room temperature, or thaw it in the microwave, add some butter, milk, salt and pepper, and you have “crazy good” mashed potatoes. What’s not to like? My favorite for mashed potatoes is still Russets, Yucon Golds are second and Red’s are my least favorite, but it all works.

You can use mashed potatoes in Suzy’s Cinnamon Rolls – remember how great they are? I also use leftovers to thicken soups, if you have enough you can use them for a base in Shepherds Pie, scoop them on top of a casserole, or mix them with shredded zucchini, a little bread crumbs, egg, seasonings and some shredded cheese, pan fry them and you have some amazing potato zucchini pancakes. I like these best served with a little sour cream and applesauce – oh sooooo good!

Boiled and cubed, potatoes are great in your grandmother’s or mother’s potato salad. Breakfast is great with shredded hash browns or cubed fried potatoes. Potatoes can be use as sides, main dishes or in desserts.

Don’t forget the power, taste and nutrition of the sweet potato. Bake it, boil it, fry it, you won’t be sorry. Use it in a casserole, salad, as fries or substitute it for pumpkin in a “sweet potato” pie (you can use the Libby’s Pumpkin Pie recipe – yummy).

Potatoes, Rice, Pasta, Beans - when planning your shopping list, all of these should be on it. Make sure they're staples in your pantry. If you have these four items on hand, you’ll always be able to make a meal whether you plan ahead or come up with something at the last minute.