Healthy Cooking Columns

Ten Tips to Cook Like a Pro (Sort Of)

It’s interesting that people believe that it’s more expensive to eat at home when it comes to a fast food type meal but don’t have trouble believing that it’s less expensive to have a “gourmet” meal at home. After all, pretty much every restaurant looks for the ingredient cost of a meal they serve to come in around 1/3 the amount they charge the consumer.

Here are some about some tips for cooking at home that can help you choose both the best recipes and ideas for cooking them for yourself.

1. The #1 tip for making a gourmet meal is to keep it simple. The best restaurant recipes you have had at your favorite restaurant are generally quite easy to make because they are simple and elegant.

Choose a recipe that contains fewer than ten ingredients including the herbs and spices.

2. If you are not an experienced chef, only choose recipes that have familiar ingredients and techniques at first. With each new recipe you should add a new ingredient or technique.

3. Cook often. By making this a major part of your life you will build a well stocked pantry full of great ingredients. By having all of the basic herbs and spices, pastas, rices, oils, vinegars and such on hand you won’t need to purchase them every time.

5. Don’t try to save money by purchasing “budget” ingredients. That Parmigiano-Reggiano may seem expensive, but you’ll need a lot less of it than the awful parmesan in the round green box.

The reason that your favorite chef’s food is so great is because he or she has started with fantastic ingredients, including the best cheeses, oils, vinegars and fresh herbs.

6. Go to the farmer’s market. Yes, the ingredients do taste that much better and are amazingly less expensive.

7. Be flexible and always have a back up plan. If you go to the market expecting to make a halibut dish and the fish looks awful, don’t purchase it or choose another white fish. In fact, it’s best to go to the store, find what is freshest and then build your meal around that. This applies to ingredients that might be on sale or seasonally less expensive and thus fresher.

8. Make too much and put it away. Leftovers can help extend the grocery budget by keeping you out of the restaurant in the following days.

9.  Read the recipe before you start cooking, assemble all of your ingredients and equipment, and then read it again. It’s important to know what you are doing – and that you have everything you need – well in advance.

10. Marinades are great choices. They add tons of flavor, tenderize less expensive cuts of meat and make them elegant. Best of all they are super simple.

You can save a lot of money by cooking at home.