Cooking Them Cold

If you’re pulling your chicken right out of the freezer and into the skillet, you’re not going to be happy with the results. This is because if the meat is super cold, getting the internal temperature of the meat will really take a while, and having you end up with unevenly cooked dry meat.

Instead, bringing any type of meat out of the fridge and letting it sit out until it’s room temperature will result in juicier, more evenly cooked meat.

Not Marinading

If you’re just salting and peppering your chicken right before you cook it, you’re not going to get a huge depth of flavor. When you marinade chicken, even for 30 minutes, so much flavor gets penetrated into the interior of the meat, making it much more flavorful.

Buying Boneless Skinless

Although buying chicken without the bone cooks faster, and skinless chicken is a little healthier, both of these things give the chicken a lot of flavors! So if you don’t mind sacrificing a little more time and a little extra — yet delicious — fat, go for bone in and skin on.

The post If You’re Not Happy with Your Chicken, You Might Be Making These Mistakes! appeared first on falafelandcaviar.com.

When to Slice

When you’re cooking and plating, it’s important to think about whether you want to serve the ingredients whole or sliced. This not only changes the way you cook something, but also the way you plate it. You might want to try cooking vegetables whole that you normally would cut up, and for a pretty presentation, always try to cut up meat like pork and steaks.

Garnishes

Adding garnishes to a plate is always a great way to add texture and color, however, making sure that your garnishes are functional and beautiful is key. If you throw a whole sprig of rosemary or thyme onto your plate, there’s no way anyone can eat that. Instead, chop up herbs to make sure it’s palatable.

Space

Something that is key to plating is to figure out how you want to use the space on your plate. Experiment by placing each ingredient in different spots to see what you like best, whether that’s all of one ingredient together, separated, or even having all of your ingredients in just one section of plate.

The post Follow This Guide to Beautiful, Professional-Looking Plating! appeared first on falafelandcaviar.com.

However, getting them right can be a bit tricky, and you can really go crazy trying to make them as flavorful as possible. Luckily, this trick will let you make the best tasting mashed potatoes of your life with one easy swap.

Next time you make mashed potatoes, skip boiling the potatoes in water, go ahead and use milk!

Although it sounds strange, potatoes absorb things like a sponge, so when you put them into the water, they take on a lot of water that provides no flavor. While if you cook them in milk, they’ll absorb all the flavors of the milk and get super creamy and luscious.

All you have to do is cover your potatoes just barely in milk and season with salt, and bring it up to a simmer for about 15 minutes until they’re fork tender.

Then, instead of pouring the milk down the drain, save the liquid in case you need some to thin out the mash! This way you get all the nice starches from the milk, and it’s already hot, which is vital in making creamy mashed potatoes.

The post Use This Tip to Make the Creamiest, Most Flavorful Mashed Potatoes appeared first on falafelandcaviar.com.

Dry Ingredients

When it comes the sugar and almond flour, even though they might seem fine, they’re probably not fine enough to make the best macaron possible.

Instead of adding the ingredients right from the package into your mixing bowl, pulse them together in a food process to get out any lumps, and if you want to go the extra mile, sift everything a few times as well.

Mixing

Over-mixing and under-mixing are definitely not your friends when it comes to macarons. There are people who say there is a certain amount of times you should mix the dry and wet ingredients together, but really the best thing to do is just to make a figure out with your spoon, and once the batter makes one that doesn’t break, that’s when you know it’s done.

Air Bubbles

To get you get all the air bubbles out of your macarons, once you’ve piped the macarons, drop your baking tray a few times onto your counter. Although it seems dangerous and the macarons are so delicate, this is a crucial step so they rise evenly!

The post Don’t Make These Rookie Macaron Mistakes! appeared first on falafelandcaviar.com.

Red Onion

Whether you want to pickle it, put it into guacamole, or right onto a sandwich, red onion is the best type of onion if you want to have it raw. Since it’s more mild and sweet than other onions, you won’t get as much of an intense punch from them if you eat them raw.

White Onion

This is the type of onion you’ll most likely see in chutneys and salsas, which can be a hit or miss for people. White onions are probably the zingiest of the onions, but are also super crispy, which makes it great for these types of sauces.

Yellow Onion

A yellow onion has what you think of as a typical onion flavor, and goes well with anything you cook. You probably don’t want to use it raw, as it’s a little intense, but once it’s cooked down, the flavor provides a great base for soups, sauces, sautees, and more.

Green Onion

Also called a scallion, this is an onion you’ll need if you want to make a lot of Asian-inspired dishes. Depending on what kind of flavor you want, the green part is much milder than the white.

The post Choose the Best Onion for Your Favorite Recipes! appeared first on falafelandcaviar.com.

Rinsing

Quinoa is naturally bitter, so before you start cooking it, pour it into a fine mesh sieve and rinse it off. That will take off some of the bitter coatings.

Liquids

You can make quinoa with regular water, but it will turn out more flavorful if you mix it up with broth or stock. Also, most recipes will tell you to use 1 part quinoa to 2 parts liquid, but oftentimes you will need 3 parts liquid.

Steaming

To get that restaurant qualified fluffy quinoa, the answer is simple; steam. Once all the liquid has been absorbed by the quinoa, the trick is to take the pot off the heat and cover it with the lid and leave it for 10 minutes. This will allow the heat to remain in the pot and let the quinoa puff up and become fluffy!

The post Expert Tips to Making Amazing Quinoa appeared first on falafelandcaviar.com.

Cooking Them Cold

If you’re pulling your chicken right out of the freezer and into the skillet, you’re not going to be happy with the results. This is because if the meat is super cold, getting the internal temperature of the meat will really take a while, and having you end up with unevenly cooked dry meat.

Instead, bringing any type of meat out of the fridge and letting it sit out until it’s room temperature will result in juicier, more evenly cooked meat.

Not Marinading

If you’re just salting and peppering your chicken right before you cook it, you’re not going to get a huge depth of flavor. When you marinade chicken, even for 30 minutes, so much flavor gets penetrated into the interior of the meat, making it much more flavorful.

Buying Boneless Skinless

Although buying chicken without the bone cooks faster, and skinless chicken is a little healthier, both of these things give the chicken a lot of flavors! So if you don’t mind sacrificing a little more time and a little extra — yet delicious — fat, go for bone in and skin on.

The post If You’re Not Happy with Your Chicken, You Might Be Making These Mistakes! appeared first on falafelandcaviar.com.

When to Slice

When you’re cooking and plating, it’s important to think about whether you want to serve the ingredients whole or sliced. This not only changes the way you cook something, but also the way you plate it. You might want to try cooking vegetables whole that you normally would cut up, and for a pretty presentation, always try to cut up meat like pork and steaks.

Garnishes

Adding garnishes to a plate is always a great way to add texture and color, however, making sure that your garnishes are functional and beautiful is key. If you throw a whole sprig of rosemary or thyme onto your plate, there’s no way anyone can eat that. Instead, chop up herbs to make sure it’s palatable.

Space

Something that is key to plating is to figure out how you want to use the space on your plate. Experiment by placing each ingredient in different spots to see what you like best, whether that’s all of one ingredient together, separated, or even having all of your ingredients in just one section of plate.

The post Follow This Guide to Beautiful, Professional-Looking Plating! appeared first on falafelandcaviar.com.

However, getting them right can be a bit tricky, and you can really go crazy trying to make them as flavorful as possible. Luckily, this trick will let you make the best tasting mashed potatoes of your life with one easy swap.

Next time you make mashed potatoes, skip boiling the potatoes in water, go ahead and use milk!

Although it sounds strange, potatoes absorb things like a sponge, so when you put them into the water, they take on a lot of water that provides no flavor. While if you cook them in milk, they’ll absorb all the flavors of the milk and get super creamy and luscious.

All you have to do is cover your potatoes just barely in milk and season with salt, and bring it up to a simmer for about 15 minutes until they’re fork tender.

Then, instead of pouring the milk down the drain, save the liquid in case you need some to thin out the mash! This way you get all the nice starches from the milk, and it’s already hot, which is vital in making creamy mashed potatoes.

The post Use This Tip to Make the Creamiest, Most Flavorful Mashed Potatoes appeared first on falafelandcaviar.com.

Dry Ingredients

When it comes the sugar and almond flour, even though they might seem fine, they’re probably not fine enough to make the best macaron possible.

Instead of adding the ingredients right from the package into your mixing bowl, pulse them together in a food process to get out any lumps, and if you want to go the extra mile, sift everything a few times as well.

Mixing

Over-mixing and under-mixing are definitely not your friends when it comes to macarons. There are people who say there is a certain amount of times you should mix the dry and wet ingredients together, but really the best thing to do is just to make a figure out with your spoon, and once the batter makes one that doesn’t break, that’s when you know it’s done.

Air Bubbles

To get you get all the air bubbles out of your macarons, once you’ve piped the macarons, drop your baking tray a few times onto your counter. Although it seems dangerous and the macarons are so delicate, this is a crucial step so they rise evenly!

The post Don’t Make These Rookie Macaron Mistakes! appeared first on falafelandcaviar.com.

Red Onion

Whether you want to pickle it, put it into guacamole, or right onto a sandwich, red onion is the best type of onion if you want to have it raw. Since it’s more mild and sweet than other onions, you won’t get as much of an intense punch from them if you eat them raw.

White Onion

This is the type of onion you’ll most likely see in chutneys and salsas, which can be a hit or miss for people. White onions are probably the zingiest of the onions, but are also super crispy, which makes it great for these types of sauces.

Yellow Onion

A yellow onion has what you think of as a typical onion flavor, and goes well with anything you cook. You probably don’t want to use it raw, as it’s a little intense, but once it’s cooked down, the flavor provides a great base for soups, sauces, sautees, and more.

Green Onion

Also called a scallion, this is an onion you’ll need if you want to make a lot of Asian-inspired dishes. Depending on what kind of flavor you want, the green part is much milder than the white.

The post Choose the Best Onion for Your Favorite Recipes! appeared first on falafelandcaviar.com.

Rinsing

Quinoa is naturally bitter, so before you start cooking it, pour it into a fine mesh sieve and rinse it off. That will take off some of the bitter coatings.

Liquids

You can make quinoa with regular water, but it will turn out more flavorful if you mix it up with broth or stock. Also, most recipes will tell you to use 1 part quinoa to 2 parts liquid, but oftentimes you will need 3 parts liquid.

Steaming

To get that restaurant qualified fluffy quinoa, the answer is simple; steam. Once all the liquid has been absorbed by the quinoa, the trick is to take the pot off the heat and cover it with the lid and leave it for 10 minutes. This will allow the heat to remain in the pot and let the quinoa puff up and become fluffy!

The post Expert Tips to Making Amazing Quinoa appeared first on falafelandcaviar.com.