Dense vegetables such as cubed potatoes, though, should be stirred once every few minutes so that they don't fall apart as they grow tender. Portion-sized cuts of meat chicken breasts, steaks, or pork medallions, for example should only be turned once so they have enough time to form a nice crust, which will also keep the meat from sticking to the pan.
Stir-fry vs. Both methods cook food quickly in a small amount of fat. But stir-frying cooks food over intensely high heat, stirring constantly.
By Lorrie Hulston March 20, Pin FB More. Eating healthy should still be delicious. Sign up for our daily newsletter for more great articles and tasty, healthy recipes. The bottom line. Heat the pan and then the fat adequately before adding food.
Fish also bakes well topped with fresh vegetables and herbs like this Mediterranean baked fish. Roasting is usually done in the oven, which allows the dry heat to circulate and evenly cook the food.
Roasting is different than baking because it usually requires a high temperature at the start of cooking so that you get a crisp, brown surface. After a brown surface is formed, lower the temperature until the food cooked reaches a safe internal temperature that you measure with a food thermometer. Roasting is often used for roast beef like prime rib, whole or cut up chicken pieces and pork like this Pork Tenderloin and Glazed Carrots , and vegetables like these Parmesan Carrot Fries.
This results in a crisp food product. Searing is a way to brown meat or fish quickly. To sear, place the food in a hot skillet, under a broiler or in a very hot oven.
The high heat keeps the food moist inside but creates a nice brown crust on the outside. Use a little oil to help create this crust. After searing for a minute or two, lower the temperature so the food can cook all the way through.
The food should be in a single layer covering the surface area of the pan. One thing you want to avoid is overcrowding the pan by putting too much food in it. This can reduce the efficiency of the pan and lead to rapid cooling, which can lead to sticking in stainless steel or unevenly cooked food in either pan.
The flip is the best way to evenly distribute food in your skillet. It's not just a fancy kitchen technique: It's actually the best way to evenly distribute food in the pan. Tilt it slightly away from yourself and flick it upwards quickly. You don't need to get serious air time, just enough to move the food around in the pan.
You don't want to over-stir, since getting a thorough cook on each side is what you're looking for. Browned sides on vegetables like zucchini , bell peppers , cauliflower , or brussels sprouts helps give them their best flavor. So rather than stirring constantly, let your food cook without agitating it before you flip it. You should only need to flip a few times at most.
You'll need to use your eyes, nose, and sense of feel to know when the food is done. Article Summary. Part 1. Chop the ingredients uniformly. Chop your ingredients into manageable, bite-size pieces. Cutting them up makes them easier to eat and to handle, and it also helps them cook faster and more evenly. Different foods will need to be cut differently in order to get the best taste. Greens like spinach, on the other hand, will wilt very quickly and therefore won't need to be cut.
Try to cut the ingredients at an equal size. Ingredients chopped down to the same size will cook evenly. Ingredients that are chopped at wildly different sizes will cook unevenly, producing some food that is over- or undercooked. It sounds simple, but it's incredibly important. Heat the pan over medium to medium-high heat for one minute. This is important for several reasons: A colder pan has hot spots.
This can cause uneven cooking, leaving you with some ingredients that are overcooked and others than are undercooked.
As you continue to heat the pan, the heat distributes itself evenly over the entire pan, producing a better final product. Cold proteins on cold pans will dry out the proteins before they even begin to cook. Put a cold piece of chicken on a cold pan and your chicken will likely be much drier than had you started with the pan piping hot. Needless to say, dry food isn't ideal. Add your fat. The amount will vary by recipe, and the type of fat you want to choose will affect the final dish being served.
This means that butter burns easier than oils. If you're worried about burning your fat while you cook, opt for oils. On the other hand, butter leaves a better "fond" brown crust and richer taste; if you're cooking over less heat, opt for butter. One way to solve the flashpoint dilemma of butter is to use clarified butter or ghee.
Clarified butter is simply butter with the milk solids removed. Because the milk solids are what end up burning, removing them from the butter should allow you to cook it at higher temperatures.
While many chefs prefer the taste of olive oil over other oils, it actually has a lower smoking point than other oils. Add your food, making sure your pan is big enough to hold all of it easily.
Remember: you need space to move the food around in the pan. Try to stagger the introduction of the ingredients into the pan so that the first ingredients to hit the pan are the ones that take the longest to cook. Stir regularly or shake the pan so the food doesn't stick. If the ingredients or the fat starts smoking, simply remove the pan from the burner or element for a short spell and consider turning down the temperature.
Test if the food is done. While the color of the ingredients is incredibly important, the taste is the real factor in determining whether an ingredient is cooked. Most recipes will give you cooking times for how long you should cook the ingredients.
It's important to remember to only use these cooking times as rough guidelines instead of as strict edicts. Your pan, burner, the cut of the ingredients, and even your level of expertise will affect that cooking time.
Try to think of cooking times as suggestions instead of as mandates.
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