A RECIPE FOR BETTER COOKING SKILLS

Fall is a busy time of year. The kids are back in school, work is ramping up, and activities are in full swing.

With all this busyness, who has the time – or the energy – to cook? And yet serving a home-cooked meal after a long day is the perfect way to connect with your family. Your meal can be a simple hotdog with baked beans, or a more ambitious casserole or potpie. Regardless of what you serve, cooking is the best option as you will enjoy a healthier meal than when eating out, with less added sugar and salt in your food.

One way to make the most of your time in the kitchen is to improve your cooking skills. Cooking well has become something many of us aspire to, but with time-pressed schedules, it can be difficult to make meals happen.

Here are some tips:

• Be present in the kitchen. The first step to being a better cook is to spend time in the kitchen and give meal-making your full attention. Distractions such as mobile phones and television can detract from the experience. Correctly prepared meals require attention to detail.

• Learn the vocabulary. It’s easier to prepare gourmet meals once you have fine- tuned your cooking vocabulary. Cooking may have some abstract or foreign terms that mix together to form the culinary lexicon. Taking the mystery out of a roux or learning what it really means to roast can make it easier to develop your skills to the fullest.

• Have fresh ingredients on hand. Build meals around ingredients that are available in your pantry. Shop regularly for the staples that can be turned into many different meals simply with a variation of flavor. Before cooking, practice “mise en place.” This is a French term for ensuring all of the ingredients for a particular recipe are prepped and ready to go before the stove is turned on.

• Read over the recipe and understand it. Trying different recipes can be fun because learning to cook well comes with practice. Understand the components of a recipe and refer back to it frequently so that you know how and when to add ingredients. As you develop more confidence, you can veer from the recipe and expand the flavor profile or make substitutions.

• Recognize that cooking is somewhat intuitive. A recipe can only get a cook so far. As your skills develop, you will have a better feel for good cooking. For example, you will know when a dough is at the right texture or if meat seems to be at the proper temperature (test it with a thermometer to be sure).

If self-guided lessons are not enough, cook with a friend or family member who is a proficient home chef. That’s the best way to learn techniques hands-on.