Treat Your Family To Restaurant Dishes At Home
Eating out is always a treat for family members. Perhaps this is because everyone can order whatever they like and nobody has to do the dishes after. In addition to these two reasons, however, there is just something special in the way restaurant food is cooked and presented. Sometimes though, it would be nice to rise to the challenge of serving restaurant dishes at home. Here are some tips that can help the ordinary cook surprise the family with a meal that looks and tastes as if a professional cook prepared it.
1. The fresher the vegetables and fruits, the better the meal will be. Try to find a local farmer’s market and get your produce there. Restaurants, especially the good ones, have fresh produce delivered to their kitchens almost every day so if you want your salad to have the same sweet crunch, get the best greens you can. Big supermarkets have a wider assortment of goods than farmer’s markets sometimes but usually what they have on their shelves was grown with shelf life rather than taste as the main consideration. Fruits and vegetables grown by small independent backyard producers are usually harvested ripe; supermarket fruits and veggies are usually only half ripe when picked then artificially ripened in some warehouse.
2. Always prepare ahead before cooking. A Chinese chef who learned to cook from her parents said that in the morning her mother would wash, cut and dry the vegetables that went into the evening’s stir fry to make sure every bit of extra water had been drained and the heat of the wok would not be decreased by any moisture other that the vegetables’ juices and the seasonings she would put in. Another cook said when he bought ground meat he would freeze flatten it and freeze it in a big bag. When he packed the meat he would press through the plastic with the back of a knife so that he would have large cubes to break off and cook as needed. This meant less time thawing and less time cooking.
3. Use the right cut of meat. Pay attention to the cut your recipe requires and either make sure you have it or look for another recipe. If you are going to cook steak you will need to choose meat that is labeled prime or choice to make sure you get something that is soft and juicy. If you are making a stew then you can choose from chuck, brisket, rib, or plate. Even in the case of poultry, you have to know which part your dish calls for. Serving restaurant dishes at home means paying attention to meat cuts.
4. Do not overcook. When you cook steak, use one of the ways to test how well done your meat is. If you are cooking turkey, do read the instructions about thawing and baking and follow them. Depending on its thickness, fish fillet usually cooks in seven to ten minutes and is turned only once. A pork chop about 3/4 of an inch or an inch thick should cook for about 4 to 5 minutes on each side while chicken thighs deep fried in 375 heat would take about 15 minutes. All foods have their own cooking time and temperature so find out what these are.
5. Complement the main dish with side dishes. Give serious consideration to the vegetables and carbohydrates you will be using. All the flavors and textures of your meal should blend well. Pillsbury steak would be nothing but a wet burger if some wise cook had not thought of serving it with gravy, mushrooms, green beans with butter and sweet corn kernels with mashed potatoes on the side. So there, hungry already?
These tips make cooking easier so that you can serve restaurant dishes at home with more ease. After all, when we talk about replicating restaurant dining, you need to set the table and arrange some fruit or flowers for the ambience that would complete the picture.
