Better Home Cooking Basics: #5 Use Fresh (Not Jarred) Garlic

Have you ever seen garlic in a jar? I honestly didn't until post-college. I saw it popping up in my super market & in the fridges of people I knew. So I jumped on the band wagon & tried it. For the longest time jarred garlic is what I used to cook with until it wasn't. One day I didn't have jarred garlic so I resorted to the good old fashioned head of garlic I had sitting on the counter. Albeit it wasn't pre-diced & it took a minute or two to peel & chop but the taste was like nothing jarred garlic could deliver.  Sure the jarred stuff smells delicious & the aromatics will fill the room but the taste just isn't there for me. As a garlic lover the taste needs to be there.  Do we have a jar of garlic in our fridge - sure we do. Do we use it? Nope.

The moral of this tip is fresh is best - if you can & it's available leave the jarred stuff on the shelf & grab a the head of garlic when you're cooking.

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Better Home Cooking Basics: #4 Take Time to Prep Your Ingredients

The French (& the culinary world) refer to my 4th tip as mise en place which translates to "putting in place." When you first read a recipe or even when you're making something from memory take the time to prep all your ingredients ahead of time. Pretend you're on a cooking show or taking photos for a blog (whatever gets your through) & you need all of your ingredients ready to use before you even turn the stove on.

Chop your veggies. Measure out flour. Zest & juice your citrus. Crack your eggs.

I like to separate mine into small ramekins to organize them. Even if I'm creating an herb mixture I like to add them in a small bowl first & then to add them to what I'm cooking. This also serves as a good checks & balance system especially when following a new recipe then you can cross check to see if you're missing anything.

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PS: Happy Birthday to my Dad! I love you!

Better Home Cooking Basics: #3 Never Store Fresh Tomatoes in the Fridge

If you keep your fresh tomatoes in the fridge they won't taste any different but they will definitely have a different texture- a mealy one. Keep your fresh tomatoes out on the counter in a pretty bowl or one of these ceramic farms market baskets & show them off while keeping their texture firm yet juicy.

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Better Home Cooking Basics: #2 Use a Garbage Bowl

I remember when I was in my mid-twenties one of my best friends (& also roommate at the time), Dawn, & I would come home after work & turn on Rachael Ray & watch her make 30 minute meals on the Food Network.  Then we would go into the kitchen & make the same pasta nearly every night regardless of what we just (thought) we learned in the half hour of Rachael Ray's cooking lesson.  The one thing I always remembered her talking about was a "garbage bowl." I remember smirking & thinking Rachael needs a garbage bowl - I don't. (WRONG young Heather - you do & did.)

Fast forward & I'm taking a cooking lesson with Chris & the instructor tells us to basically establish a garbage bowl - because my friends & fellow food loving cooks you always should.

I usually use a large mixing bowl for my garbage bowl but you could use a plastic grocery bag too or whatever you have on hand. You just put it on your counter right next to your cutting board & it's like the sous chef you've always wanted.

It really saves so much time & keeps your work space & you cleaner. By using a garbage bowl you don't have to open & close the trash & worry about cross contaminating your food (like when you don't know how to open the garbage when you have chicken juice on your hands without washing the garbage too).  If you are peeling veggies you can peel them right into the bowl. If you're cracking eggs, you can throw the shells in there too. It's just a great way to corral all that trash you'd be running back & forth to the garbage can with. Then when you're finished prepping or if the bowl gets full (whichever comes first) you simply toss all of it in the trash. This has honestly saved me hours on my life.  Try it, you may be surprised about your new free time you just gained.

Thanks for reading my better home cooking basics. I'll be posting them every Tuesday so come back for a visit or read more of them here.