Recipes That Are Easy--Cooking Tips And More

Recipes that are easy

Recipes and Tips for beginners!

Basic equipment

No matter what recipe you will use, there are basic equipment needs for it. Most chefs and cooks agree that if you “ad-lib” to a recipe by not using measuring spoons, cups, etc. chances are that your recipe will not come out as it should have. It takes just a tiny sprinkle more flour that called for in a recipe to change the whole outcome for the final product. In order to make recipes that are easy, below is a starters list of basic equipment you need when following recipes.

A measuring cup is a kitchen utensil used primarily to measure the volume of liquid or bulk solid cooking ingredients such as flour and sugar, especially for volumes from about 50 mL (2 fl oz) upwards. The cup will usually have a scale marked in cups and fractions of a cup, and often with fluid measure and weight of a selection of dry foodstuffs. Measuring cups are also used to measure washing powder, liquid detergents or bleach, usually with a measuring cup not also used for food.

Measuring cups may be made of plastic, glass, or metal. Maximum capacity usually ranges from 0.2 to 1 litre, though larger sizes are also available (for commercial use). Smaller measuring spoons lack a scale and are filled and leveled to maximum capacity.

Measuring cups usually have capacities from 250 (approx. 1 cup) to 1000 mL (approx. 4 cups = 2 pints = 1 quart), though larger sizes are also available (for commercial use). They usually have scale markings at different heights: the substance being measured is added to the cup until it reaches the wanted level. Dry measure cups without a scale are sometimes used, in sets typically of 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, and 1 cup. Transparent or translucent cups can be read from an external scale; metal ones only from a scale marked on the inside. There are different types of measuring cups, such as glass or/and plastic

The units may be millilitres or fractions of a litre, or (especially in the United States and Australia) the cup and its fractions (typically 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, and 3/4), pints, and sometimes fluid ounces. Sometimes multiples of teaspoons and tablespoons are included. There may also be scales for the approximate weight for particular substances, such as flour and sugar. There are eight ounces in one cup (American measurement).

A measuring spoon is a spoon kitchen utensil used to measure an amount of an ingredient, either liquid or dry, when cooking. Measuring spoons may be made of plastic, metal, and other materials. They are available in many sizes, including teaspoon and tablespoon. In the U.S., a measuring spoon is typically sold in a set of various number of pieces, especially four or six. This usually includes ¼, ½, and 1 teaspoons and 1 tablespoon.

A mixer is a kitchen appliance intended for mixing, folding, beating, and whipping food ingredients. Mixers come in two major variations, hand mixers and stand mixers.

A hand mixer, as the name implies, is a hand-held mixing device. The modern electrically powered type consists of a handle mounted over a large enclosure containing the motor, which drives one or two beaters. The beaters are immersed in the food to be mixed. A simpler manually-operated type, which preceded electric mixers and is still used today, consists of a handle with a hand-operated crank on the side, geared to two beaters. The handle is held with one hand and the crank is turned with the other, turning the beaters.

A stand mixer is essentially the same as a hand mixer, but is mounted on a stand which bears the weight of the device. Stand mixers are larger and have more powerful motors than their hand-held counterparts. They generally have a special bowl that is locked in place while the mixer is operating. Heavy duty commercial models can have bowl capacities in excess of 100 quarts (95 L), but more typical home and commercial models are equipped with bowls of around 4 quarts (4 L). A typical home stand mixer will include a wire whip for whipping creams and egg whites; a flat beater for mixing batters; and a dough hook for kneading.

Mixers should not be confused with blenders. Blenders contain sharp blades and typically operate at higher speeds that chop, liquefy, or otherwise break down larger food items. A mixer is a much slower device without sharpened blades.

A food processor is a kitchen appliance used to facilitate various repetitive tasks in the process of preparation of food. Today, the term almost always refers to an electric-motor-driven appliance, although there are some manual devices also referred to as "food processors".

Food processors are similar to blenders in many ways. The primary difference is that food processors use interchangeable blades and disks (attachments) instead of a fixed blade. Also, their bowls are wider and shorter, a more appropriate shape for the solid or semi-solid foods usually worked in a food processor. Usually little or no liquid is required in the operation of the food processor unlike a blender, which requires some amount of liquid to move the particles around its blade.

Food processors normally have multiple functions, depending on the placement and type of attachment or blade. These functions normally consist of:

Slicing/chopping vegetables
Grinding items such as nuts, seeds (e.g. spices), meat, or dried fruit
Shredding or grating cheese or vegetables
Pureeing
Mixing and kneading doughs

Today, wooden spoons in western cultures are generally large spoons used for mixing ingredients for cooking or baking.
a number of wooden spoons, of various construction and purpose.

Before electric mixers became common, wooden spoons were often used to cream together butter and sugar in recipes such as shortbread or Victoria sponge cake.

They are still used for stirring many different kinds of food and beverages especially soups and casseroles during preparation, although they tend to absorb strong smells such as onion and garlic. Some cooks prefer to use wooden spoons when preparing risotto because they do not transfer heat as much as metal spoons. Unlike metal spoons, they can also be safely used without scratching the bottom of the saucepan. This is useful when making dishes such as scrambled eggs. The wood can be maintained by rubbing it with mineral oil after washing. Do not use vegetable oil, as it can go rancid.

In making recipes that are easy you will also need the following:

A spatula, also called an egg slice, a flipper in Canadian English, or a yiwen or tosser in Image of Spatulas Singapore, is a kitchen utensil with a long handle and a broad flat edge, used for lifting and turning fried foods.

In American English, the word spatula is often used to refer to a scraper.

The word spatula, known in English since 1525, is a diminutive form of the Latin term spatha, which means a broad sword (as in spatharius) or a flat piece of wood and is also the origin of the words spade (digging tool) and spathe.

There are several types of kitchen implement which are termed scrapers. They can be made of metal, plastics such as polyethylene, nylon, or polypropylene, wood, rubber or silicone rubber. In practice, one type of scraper is often interchanged with another or with a spatula, for some of the various uses.

Bowl scrapers are, as the name suggests, used to remove material from mixing bowls. Often, a plate scraper is used for this purpose, particularly since the long handle allows it to be used to remove contents of bowls as well as jars, such as mayonnaise jars; however, for bowls, dedicated scrapers are available, lacking the handle, and consisting of a flat, flexible piece of plastic or silicone rubber sized for convenient holding with the palm and fingers, with a curved edge to match the curvature of the average bowl. The degree of curvature can vary from a slight curvature along one edge of a rectangle, to a complex shape composed of changing radii to adapt better to bowls of different sizes. Sometimes a hole is provided in one corner, to allow for hanging the utensil, as well as for placement of the thumb to allow for more secure grip. Prices vary from below one American dollar, to as much as $20 American.

Dough scrapers, or pastry scrapers, are more rigid implements, often made of a metal rectangle with a wooden, plastic, or metal handle running along one long edge not only for more comfortable grip, but also to add rigidity; some bowl scrapers, however, are designed to be stiff enough to serve a dual purpose and are sold as such. Occasionally, an implement resembling a putty knife is sold for this purpose.

This implement is used to manipulate raw dough, by scraping it from a surface on which it has been rolled, as well as to slice it. It can also be called a spatula.

Recipes that are easy also suggest having a whisk which is a cooking utensil used in food preparation to blend ingredients smooth, or to incorporate air into a mixture, in a process known as whisking or whipping. Most whisks consist of a long, narrow handle with a series of wire loops joined at the end. The wires are usually metal, but some are plastic for use with nonstick cookware. Whisks are also made from bamboo.

Whisks are commonly used to whip egg whites into a firm foam to make meringue, or to whip cream into whipped cream.

A makeshift whisk may be constructed by taking two forks and placing them together so the tines interlock and make a cage. This is far more effective than a single fork at incorporating air into a mixture.

Whisks have differently-shaped loops depending on their intended functions:

The most common shape is that of a wide teardrop, termed a balloon whisk. Balloon whisks are best suited to mixing in bowls, as their curved edges conform to a bowl's concave sides.
With longer, narrower wire loops, the French whisk has a more cylindrical profile, suiting it to deep, straight-sided pans.
A flat whisk, sometimes referred to as a Roux whisk, has the loops arranged in a flat successive pattern. It is useful for working in shallow vessels like skillets (in which a roux is normally prepared).
A gravy whisk commonly has one main loop with another wire coiled around it.
Similarly, a twirl whisk has one single wire that is spiralled into a balloon shape.
Ball whisks have no loops whatsoever. Instead, a group of individual wires comes out of the handle, each tipped with a metal ball. The heavy balls are capable of reaching into the corners of a straight-sided pan. Since there are no crossing wires, the ball whisk is easier to clean than traditional looped varieties. Manufacturers of ball whisks also purport that their shape allows for better aeration.

Additionally, a mechanical device known as a rotary whisk consists of 2 sets of beaters that are joined together with a hand-operated crank and handle.

Now in order to make recipes that are easy, you must have a kitchen knife. While much of this work can be accomplished with a few general-purpose knives – notably a large chef's knife, a tough cleaver, and a small paring knife – there are also many specialized knives that are designed for specific tasks. Kitchen knives can be made from several different materials.

Also known as a cook's knife or French knife even though the knife style originates as the German cook's knife , the chef's knife is an all-purpose knife that is curved to allow the cook to rock the knife on the cutting board for a more precise cut. The broad and heavy blade also serves for chopping bone instead of the cleaver making this knife the all purpose heavy knife for food preparation. Chef's knives are most commonly available between 15 cm and 30 cm (6 and 12 inches), though 20 cm (8 inches) is the most common size.

A paring knife is a small knife with a plain edge blade that is ideal for peeling and other small or intricate work (such as de-veining a shrimp, removing the seeds from a jalapeño, or cutting small garnishes). It is designed to be an all-purpose knife, similar to a chef's knife, except smaller. Paring knives are usually between 6 and 10 cm (2½ and 4 inches) long.

Lately, the Santoku knife has been a chef’s “all purpose knife” It is called an Asian chef's knife in deference to its general utility at a variety of cutting tasks. The santoku is not a traditional Japanese knife – rather, it is a Japanese adaptation of a Western chef's knife, developed since 1945, and in turn has been re-imported to the West, yielding Western-style santoku, which are a Western adaptation of a Japanese adaptation of a Western design – see reborrowing for analogous linguistic process, such as "anime".

The Santoku has a straighter edge than a chef's knife, with a blunted sheepsfoot-tip blade and a thinner spine, particularly near the point. From 12 cm to 18 cm (5 to 7 inches) long, a true Japanese Santoku is well-balanced, normally flat-ground, and generally lighter and thinner than its Western counterparts, often using superior blade steels to provide a blade with exceptional hardness and an acute cutting angle. This construction allows the knife to more easily slice thin-boned and boneless meats, fish, and vegetables. Many subsequent Western and Asian copies of the Japanese Santoku do not always incorporate these features, resulting in reduced cutting ability. Some Western Santoku-pattern knives are even fitted with kullens, scallops on the sides of the blade above the edge, in an attempt to reduce the sticking of foods and reduce cutting friction. A standard in Asian (especially Japanese) kitchens, the santoku and its Western copies have become very popular in recent years with chefs in Europe and the United States.

Also in order to make recipes that are easy, you must have a sharp knife.

Sharpening knives:

Make sure when you use a knife of any kind that it has been properly sharpened. A dull blade will cut flesh worse than a sharp knife will.

In ordinary use, a knife gradually becomes blunt over time. This is because the sharp edge is very delicate and it rolls over and develops microscopic areas of flattening or indentation. It's a very simple matter to realign the blade using a steel, and you should do this on each occasion before you use the blade. By doing this, in addition to restoring it to its original sharpness, it will delay the time untill you next need to sharpen it formally on a stone. Sharpening a blade on a stone, by its very nature removes metal from the edge, and so shortens the life of the blade.

First then, the stance. This refers to the way you hold the steel. So standing comfortably with the steel held firmly in your non-dominant hand. If you’re right-handed, use your left hand. Your elbow should be slightly bent, and slightly away from the side of your body with the steel angled at a comfortable angle across and in front of you with the tip higher than the handle.

You should hold the knife in your dominant hand with the blade horizontally and your thumb on top of the blade at the spine. If the knife is very large, or you want to pay particular attention to the tip of the blade you can advance your hand along the blade so the fleshy part of the thumb is over the junction of the handle of the blade, and the thumb itself is further advanced along the spine. It's important that this is a firm grip.

The angle between the side of the blade and the side of the steel which you need to maintain throughout the sharpening process. And it's usually suggested this should be approximately 20 degrees. It doesn't need to be an accurate angle, but whichever angle you settle on needs to be maintained throughout the process. Twenty degrees approximately is easy to visualize if you imagine the blade vertically like this, this is 90 degrees; halving that angle is 45 degrees and halving it again is 22 and a half degrees or as we say approximately 20 degrees. And so it's this angle that you are going to maintain.

With the steel in your non-dominant hand held comfortable across the body, a firm grip on the knife, angle at 20 degrees between the blade and the surface of the steel we're going to move from the heel of the knife to the tip, from the tip of the steel to the handle. So heel to tip, tip to handle like this. Angle at 20 degrees as previously mentioned, no more pressure than the weight of the blade itself. The movement is achieved by a specific movement of your dominant arm; which is divided into three for simplicity of explanation. And these are internal rotation of your upper arm, which brings the forearm across the body, lifting of your elbow; so internal rotation, and lift and flexion of your wrist. So the whole movement is rotation, lifting and flexion. And that will easily allow you to make the action like this. It becomes unconscious after you've done it a couple of times. So the first action is with the blade on top of the steel and the second with the blade underneath the steel. That's one cycle, and you'll need to do six or eight cycles on each occasion before you use the knife. It doesn't have to be done fast, although you'll find you'll speed up with practice.

To make recipes that are easy, you will need a cutting board or chopping board that is a durable board used to place material on to be cut. Most common is the kitchen cutting board for use preparing food, but other types exist for cutting raw materials such as leather or plastic. Kitchen cutting boards are often made of wood or plastic. There are also chopping boards made of glass, steel, marble or corian, which are easier to clean than wooden or plastic ones, but tend to damage knives.

Regardless of the material, regular maintenance of a cutting board is important. Even recipes that are easy to make, can turn bad, because of cross-contamination, where they cause someone to be sick, or even to the extreme of killing them.

Sanitation with cutting boards is a delicate process, because bacteria can reside in grooves produced by cutting, or in liquids left on the board. For this reason, it is often advised to cut raw meat. Regardless of the material, regular maintenance of a cutting board is important.

Sanitation with cutting boards is a delicate process, because bacteria can reside in grooves produced by cutting, or in liquids left on the board. For this reason, it is often advised to cut raw meat on separate cutting boards from cooked meat. Regardless of the material, regular maintenance of a cutting board is important.

A frying pan, frypan, or skillet is a flat-bottomed pan used for frying, searing, and browning foods. It is typically 20 to 30 cm (8 to 12 inch) in diameter with relatively low sides that flare outwards, a long handle, and no lid. Larger pans may have a small grab handle opposite the main handle.

A pan of similar dimensions, but with vertical sides and often with a lid, is called a sauté pan or sauté. While a sauté pan can be used like a frying pan, it is designed for lower heat cooking methods such as sautéing.

The cooking surface of a frying pan is typically coated with a layer of oil or fat when the pan is in use (though greasy foods like bacon do not need additional oil added). In pan-frying, a layer of oil has four functions: it lubricates the surface; increases contact between the food and the pan; acts as a thermal mass to reduce cooking time; and increases flavor and color.

The depth of the oil will vary depending on the food being cooked. When frying battered fish or chicken, for example, the oil generously covers the inner pan surface, but when frying pancakes, the oil is but a thin film to keep the batter from sticking.

Some frying techniques do not require added oil. "Blackening" dredges the food itself in fat, and uses a layer of spices to keep the food from sticking to the pan. These recipes also call for an intensely heated pan, which quickly sears and seals the food being cooked.

Cast iron frying pans must be seasoned before use and periodically afterwards, and should be cleaned with care not to remove the seasoned coating.

Frying pans made from copper that are tinned to prevent toxic reactions between the copper and the food being cooked may occasionally need re-tinning. Some cooks also polish the exterior to remove tarnish.

Uncoated aluminum and stainless steel frying pans require very little maintenance.

Frying pans with non-stick coatings such as Teflon cannot safely be heated past the burning point of their coatings (about 450°F/260°C, though high-heat coatings are available).

Braising pans and roasting pans (also known as braisers and roasters) are large, wide and shallow, to provide space to cook a roast (chicken, beef, or pork). They typically have two loop or tab handles, and may have a cover. Roasters are usually made of heavy gauge metal so that they may be used safely on a cooktop following roasting in an oven. Unlike most other cooking vessels, roasters are usually oblong or oval. There is no sharp boundary between braisers and roasters - the same pan, with or without a cover, can be used for both functions.
Casserole pans (for making casseroles) resemble roasters and dutch ovens, and many recipes can be used interchangeably between them. Depending on their material, casseroles can be used in the oven or on the stovetop. Casseroles are commonly made of glazed ceramics or pyrex.

Dutch ovens are heavy, relatively deep pots with a heavy lid, designed to re-create oven conditions on the stovetop (or campfire). They can be used for stews, braised meats, soups, and a large variety of other dishes that benefit from low heat, slow cooking. Dutch ovens are typically made from cast iron, and are measured by volume.

Saucepans (or just "pots") are vessels with vertical sides about the same height as their diameter, used for simmering or boiling. Saucepans generally have one long handle. Larger pots of the same shape generally have two handles close to the sides of the pot (so they can be lifted with both hands), and are called sauce-pots or soup pots (3–12 liters). Saucepans and saucepots are measured by volume (usually 1–8 L). While saucepots often resemble Dutch ovens in shape, they do not have the same heat capacity characteristics. Very small saucepans used for heating milk are referred to as Milk Pans, such saucepans usually have a lip for pouring the heated milk.

Ironically, the saucepan is not the ideal vessel to use for making sauces. It is more efficient to use saucepans with sloping sides, called Windsor pans, or saucepans with rounded sides, called sauciers. These provide quicker evaporation than straight sided pans, and make it easier to stir a sauce while reducing.

Sauté pans, used for sauteing, have a large surface area and low sides to permit steam to escape and allow the cook to toss the food. The word "sauté" comes from the French verb "sauter", meaning to jump. Saute pans often have straight vertical sides, but may also have flared or rounded sides.

Stockpots are large pots with sides at least as tall as their diameter. This allows stock to simmer for extended periods of time without reducing too much. Stockpots are typically measured in volume (6-36 L). Stock pots come in a large variety of sizes to meet any need from cooking for a family to preparing food for a banquet. A specific type of stockpot exists for lobsters, and an all-metal stockpot usually called a caldero is used in Hispanic cultures to make rice.

Bakeware is designed for use in the oven (for baking), and encompasses a variety of different styles of baking pans as cake pans, pie pans, and loaf pans.

Cake pans include square pans, round pans, and speciality pans such as angel food cake pans and springform pans often used for baking cheesecake.

Sheet pans, cookie sheets, and jelly-roll pans are bakeware with large flat bottoms.

Pie pans are flat-bottomed flare-sided pans specifically designed for baking pies.

image of easily prepared dish

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