Restaurant chefs know a lot of tricks and options for cooking dishes that seemingly cannot be repeated at home. However, to please your inner gourmet, it isn’t necessary to go to an expensive institution. You can treat yourself to haute cuisine dishes at home while playing Money Train 2 demo or watching movies. Just use a few simple techniques in the process of preparation.
Sugar
Sugar is not just a sweet additive to food or drinks, it’s also a powerful flavor enhancer. Not only can it sweeten a dish, but it can also change its flavor and aroma, as well as set off other ingredients.
We are used to adding sugar to baked goods and desserts, but real professionals include it in almost any dish, even in small quantities.
Sugar should be added to homemade sauces, when frying vegetables and meat. Thanks to it, a thin crust is formed on the products, which is characteristic of restaurant dishes. It’s because of the sugar content in some dishes that there is a desire to eat another portion.
Bake, Not Boil
Beets, carrots and potatoes lose some of their flavor when boiled. That’s why chefs like to bake them. If they are salted, peppered, splashed with vegetable oil, wrapped in foil and sent to a well-heated oven for 25 minutes, then on the way out you will get cooked vegetables in which all the nutrients and texture are preserved. Such potatoes in olivier or herring under a fur coat can improve the flavor of the whole dish.
Baked potatoes are suitable for many recipes. For example, it can be stuffed with cheese and bacon.
Fry the Spices
Before adding spices to meat, pilafs or salads, fry them in a frying pan with a little vegetable or olive oil and only then add them to dishes.
Heat treatment helps bring out the flavor and aroma of seasonings in a stronger and new way.
For example, if you are preparing a vegetable salad, just add a small amount of roasted sesame seeds to it. This will be the difference between a familiar homemade salad and a dish you might be served in an expensive establishment.
Marinate the Onions
In the usual salad, it’s better not to add fresh onions. It will give a not entirely pleasant bitterness, which many people don’t like.
It’s better to marinate the rings of white or red onions in vinegar or lemon juice for a few hours or overnight.
So the salad will turn out much tastier, and the onions won’t be bitter, but sweet and sour.
Semolina and Starch in the Dough
If you like to make pies, pizzas or buns at home, then when kneading yeast dough, add a little diluted starch or semolina.
With these ingredients, the baked goods will become more fluffy and soft, and won’t stale for longer.
This technique is used by almost all bakeries and pastry shops that have their own production facilities.
Fry in Breadcrumbs
The next time you are going to fry, for example, chicken legs, be sure to make a breading of egg, flour and crushed breadcrumbs. This will make the meat incredibly juicy and give it an appetizing crispy crust.
Sous-vide Cooking
This is a relatively new type of cooking. Products for it are defined in a special vacuum bag, from which the air is pumped out. The vegetables are then cooked in a water bath at a constant temperature. Vegetables in this method retain their texture and all the useful substances, and the flavor is rich.