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If you are someone who likes cooking and keeps on trying new things in the kitchen, then it is a must that you learn some professional cooking methods. These methods will not only advance your cooking knowledge but also change your perception about cooking as the ingredients vary in texture and taste when they are subjected to different forms of cooking. For instance, tomatoes, when fried with butter and garlic, taste much different from those that are boiled or grilled on charcoal. Here are eight cooking methods that all cooking enthusiasts can learn and try in their kitchens.
Also Read: Boiling Vs Broiling: Know The Difference
* Broiling
Broiling is a high-heat cooking method that involves exposing food directly to radiant heat from above, typically in an oven. In this technique, the heat source is located at the top, and the food is placed on a rack or pan positioned close to the heating element. The intense heat quickly sears and caramelizes the surface of the food, creating a flavorful crust while keeping the interior moist. It's a fast-cooking method suitable for items like meats, vegetables, and seafood, producing a desirable charred exterior and succulent interior.
* Braising
Braising is a technique that is specifically used to cook meat and vegetables. It is also known as the moist-heat cooking technique, as the meat and vegetables are cooked at a low and slow temperature that helps in tenderly cooking the meat. Even the rough cuts of vegetables and meat become tender and cook evenly.
Braising is a type of simmering technique in which food is covered in a vessel by using some liquid or even vegetable stock. It is important to have the right amount of liquid in the vessel to ensure that the food remains moist, and there is also some light gravy that one can have with the food. It is very important to maintain a balance between the temperature and the quantity of liquid to ensure that the technique is done in the right way.
It is a very popular technique in the West and is rampantly used by people to prepare chops, soups, and stews. For instance, while making braised pork chops, the apple sauce is poured over the chops repeatedly and cooked on slow heat to cook the meat tenderly by retaining all its juices and yet imparting the flavours thoroughly to the meat.
* Simmering
A lot of people confuse boiling with simmering. But simmering is a very different technique in which the food is kept just below the boiling point and cooked for a prolonged time, which can vary anywhere from 8 hours to a day or even three. It is very useful in cooking vegetables and stews. The meat bones are simmered for over 24 hours to extract a rich broth that can be used for soups, gravies, and stews. It is a very effective technique for breaking down the toughest of proteins while cooking and making even the hardest of ingredients edible. Also, it helps in killing the bacteria that might be present in any meat or vegetable. For instance, dal makhani is usually simmered away overnight in most hotels to serve a luscious and creamy dish with naans and other flatbreads the next day.
* Poaching
This is a very famous technique for delicately cooking an ingredient in hot water. Vegetables are poached before being used for side salads with steaks, etc. And the most popular ingredient that is popularly enjoyed in its poached form is eggs.
The poached egg is cooked by cracking a raw egg in the centre of hot water that has not yet boiled. The water generally contains vinegar. One has to be extremely careful while poaching eggs. It is also a skill to take the poached egg out of the water at the right time without breaking it while the yolk inside is still runny.
Image Credits- Unsplash
* Sauteing
Many of us use this technique at home, but only a few of us know the right way to do it. Sautéing is very much like shallow frying, in which vegetables or any other raw ingredient are cooked in a pan with very little oil or butter. This is a French technique, and maintaining the relevant temperature is very important to make sure that the vegetables get cooked while still remaining crunchy.
* Roasting and Baking
A lot of people think that roasting and baking are the same thing, as both of them are done with the help of an oven. Contrary to popular opinion, these two techniques are different, although they do have a lot of common steps. Both methods require dry heat to cook and are often cooked in the oven. However, to roast vegetables, meat, or anything else, you have to put it in an oven and use either butter or vegetable oil . On the other hand, baking doesn't necessarily require you to use vegetable oil or butter. It uses the moisture within the dish or tray to cook under dry heat. While practising these two techniques at home, you will experience the browning of the food items. While roast vegetables wilt and are more brown and caramelised as compared to baked vegetables, which are lightly browned and caramelised and retain some moisture even after they are well done.
* Pressure Cooking
Using a pressure cooker is a very common thing in India, but it is a technique that is also becoming popular in the West. It is a faster way of cooking things and making them softer by using steam pressure that builds from the water added within the cooker. Generally, it takes two or three whistles of the pressure cooker to get anything cooked. You have to be extremely careful around the pressure cooker and handle it with care to avoid harm or injury. Ingredients like rice, millets, lentils, and meat are popularly cooked in a pressure cooker.
Video Credits- Ethan Chlebowski
* Pan Frying
While pan-frying something, you use a generous quantity of oil or butter to cook something in a pan. The food is cooked on medium-high heat, which prevents moisture from escaping from the food. Pan-frying is a great way to avoid shallow-frying and make anything crispy. Although it is not a health-friendly technique, it is better than shallow-frying or deep-frying something.
These are some of the top cooking techniques that you can start practicing at home. Most of these will take you one or two times to master. To get these techniques right the first time, you can also refer to the videos of prominent celebrity chefs and learn how they do it.
