Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Gourmet Cooking is Easier Than It May Appear

By Ashley King

To many, learning the art of gourmet cooking might appear to be an impossible dream. But no matter what your present cooking skills are, this simply isn't the reality. There are numerous gourmet cooking techniques that you can practice to enhance your everyday cookery skills.

One way to learn these techniques is to take a gourmet cooking class, but these can be expensive and difficult to schedule.

The question remains then, how does one make gourmet cooking approachable so that you can apply it into your everyday meals?

Fortunately, there are several things that you can do that can help you learn gourmet cooking techniques that you can incorporate into meals that you make every day.

First off, you have to think of gourmet cooking in a realistic light. It doesn't mean expensive, nor does it mean rare or exotic. Gourmet cooking entails utilizing only the freshest ingredients that are of the highest quality.

A good way to approach gourmet cooking is to take a look at everyday spices. An example would be garlic. A gourmet chef would never use garlic powder, bottled garlic, or any other type of garlic that isn't freshly chopped. A gourmet chef would also never use dried and bottled herbs. Instead, fresh herbs from the produce section of the grocery store would be used.

Some ingredients in their freshest format will be more expensive than their processed counterparts. But you'll soon recognize that the cost difference isn't unreasonable, and it's still a good deal less expensive than dining at a restaurant. When you get used to gourmet cooking, you'll lose your desire to eat out. You will be capable of making scrumptious meals in your own kitchen. This way, you'll have even more chances to hone your cooking skills.

The fastest and simplest way to add gourmet cooking into your everyday meal preparation is to enhance the quality of the ingredients that you're using. Then you'll want to learn how to cook the ingredients properly.

The easiest way to do this is to browse through cookbooks, where you'll be able to study the basic principles and learn at your own rate. Your library will have numerous cookbooks that you can explore.

These books should cover all the basics of what knives to use, how to make chicken stock and how to clarify butter. All of these are simple and basic cooking techniques, even though they may seem unapproachable because they are described as being gourmet.

Hopefully you can now see that gourmet cooking is something you can bring into your everyday life, and not something that is simply in the realm of the rich.

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