Gourmet Cooking: Basic Preparations and Techniques

Gourmet cooking involves precise techniques that can be as varied as gourmet cooking styles and cuisines. Mastering gourmet cooking techniques will only come with practice. But, first, you need to learn basic techniques and methods in gourmet cooking.

Gourmet cooking can make use of any cooking style. If you will be stir-frying meat, you need to cut the meat into uniform pieces. To do this, cut the trimmed meat at right angles across the grain and then cut the meat crosswise into strips of about 5 mm thick each. If you will be roasting a whole chicken, rinse and dry it first and then remove the fat pockets and giblets from the cavity. Place the chicken breast down on the grill. This will keep the chicken's meat moist. Do not forget to turn the chicken halfway through cooking.

Salmon and prawns are popular ingredients in gourmet cooking so you should learn how to handle them. To bone a salmon fillet, use large tweezers to pull out the pin bones. Needle-nose pliers will also do the trick. To shell and de-vein green prawns, hold the prawn and with your other hand, twist off the head. You can now easily remove the shell of the body and the legs. You can take off the tail shell or leave it on. You can remove the back vein using your fingers or you can use a small paring to knife to make the task easier.

When preparing vegetables for your gourmet cooking, there are certain ways to cut and peel certain vegetables. For example, if the recipe calls for carrots or any vegetable cut into julienne, here is what you should do: first, cut the carrot into 5 centimeter long pieces and then cut these pieces lengthwise into 5 millimeter slices and then cut these slices into julienne strips also about 5 millimeter wide. If you need to peel tomatoes, drop them first into a pot of boiling water and blanch for about 30 seconds or until you see the tomato skin splitting. Take the tomatoes out of the boiling water and let stand for about a minute to cool them off. The skin should be loosened and would be easy for you to peel off with your fingers.

Proper preparation of ingredients is crucial to gourmet cooking that is why you need to learn how to properly prepare meats, vegetables, herbs and other ingredients. You should also learn how to shop for the freshest ingredients because freshness is one of the vital aspects of gourmet cooking. Gourmet cooking may be overwhelming at first but if this is your true passion, be patient in learning and you will soon find yourself preparing, cooking and serving fantastic gourmet meals.
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Corrie Duana writes for ArticleMash.com, a site full of helpful insight about Cooking Tips and Wine Spirits.