Cooking Tips - 5 Ways to Create Magic in the Kitchen

By Jeannette Marcoaldi

Cooking Secret No.1 – Buy Top Quality Ingredients

Leading chef's only use the freshest and best tasting food they can find. Even the best chefs in the world would have difficulty making food taste good from inferior products. However, this does not mean everything has to be made from scratch.

When buying pre-prepared goods always go for quality and freshness. If cost is an issue try smaller portions. It is better for your waistline and your health to have small servings of good quality food rather than a large serving of an inferior product.

A helpful tip when using frozen or canned goods is to use them up as soon as possible. Don’t wait until they are near the end of their shelf life, as there is already deterioration in quality by then.

Cooking Secret No.2 – Keep it Simple

Some of the best tasting meals in the world are the simplest. I find that they have fewer ingredients but just compliment each other superbly.

Adding too many ingredients to a dish can create a canceling of flavors. Like when making pasta sauce, where the onion in the dish overrides the garlic flavor. I prefer not to add onion to my pasta sauces so the full flavor of the garlic can be brought out.

The opposite is the case when making French Onion Soup. For a fuller bodied onion flavor, don't add garlic.

Cooking Secret No.3 – Use Complimentary Foods

A secret to cooking well lies in combining complimentary foods, where one ingredient actually enhances the flavor of the other. One of my favorite combinations is tomato and basil. Whether you’re making a pasta sauce or just putting tomato on a pizza nothing compliments it better than the herb basil.

Another great mix is oats, brown sugar and cinnamon. Whether I've used this complimentary combination for an apple crumble topping or just for hot oatmeal it creates an unbeatable flavor

You can come up with more of your own complimentary food groups simply by taking note of what foods taste great together!

Cooking Secret No.4 – Use only the Best Equipment

Good equipment makes your work in the kitchen a breeze. Ask any craftsman and he will tell you the value of good tools. Go for quality, ease of use and buy the best that you can afford. If there were only one thing I would recommend investing in, it would be to get a good knife set and keeping them sharp.

Good tools not only make your life easier in the kitchen but can also improve the final result, like in the case of my stainless steel cooking pots. Everything I cook in them comes out better than average simply because the cooking utensils are better than average.

Cooking Secret No.5 – Collect Good Recipes

Good recipes can come from many sources other than a cookbook or finding them online. Most of my favorite ones have actually come from family and friends. The benefit of obtaining recipes this way is that I have usually been able to taste them for myself beforehand. Live cooking demonstrations sometimes offer free samples so that you can test to see if the recipe suits your taste.

Televised cooking shows and magazines are another way to collect good recipes. I keep organized by putting any loose-leaf recipes I collect in a plastic leaflet file folder.

I'm glad to have been able to share my easy to follow secrets for creating cooking magic. Remember that being selective and keeping it simple are the two main ingredients to creating magic in the kitchen.

Happy Cooking!

If you would like to print out a free copy of Jeannette's favorite recipes, go to http://cookingmagic.blogspot.com/ Then click on "My Favorite Recipes" on the right hand side of the page.