Food

Cooking 101: Tips For Beginners

James Devil October 29, 2021

1,477 4 minutes read

So you decided to begin a new path in cooking. Not everyone can be a chef, but if you put the right amount of passion and eagerness to be one, you can explore this kind of profession.

It might be discouraging to begin as you go along your cooking journey, especially if your first few dishes are not what you expect. It can be frustrating and intimidating to waste all your ingredients. How do you mix them? What is the right temperature? What kind of sauces in Singapore do you need?

All the instructions you need to read can be frightening to follow with all kinds of measurements you need to do and all kinds of ingredients you need to cut. However, you should know that cuisines and unique dishes are born and made through various cooking tips.

Nobody is a professional on their first try. Here are some cooking tips to help you begin your cooking journey.

Cooking Tips For Beginners

Read your cooking recipe.

Prepping means getting ready. If you’re a beginner, consider buying some cookbooks to help guide you in every cuisine you wish to make. There are different cuisines books available that you can try to remake and learn.

Before you start cooking, read all you need to do and imagine how you will do it. It will help you to save time when you follow this technique. Instead of cramming here and there, you will be able to avoid making mistakes.

Check the instructions thoroughly before you begin, and make sure you already have most of the ingredients and cooking utensils you’ll need to complete the dish from beginning to end. You will prevent panicking when your mala sauce in Singapore is boiling.

Check the size of your pans.

As you become a chef, you may not know it, but the pots and pans you use significantly impact the kind of foods you will prepare. You don’t have to be a professional cook to make use of a large variety of pots and pans in your kitchen. Whether you are a casual cook or you make meals daily, having an extensive collection of pots and pans is a wise investment in your kitchen.

Even though each pot and pan set is different, choose the one that is the closest match to your cooking style. If you’re boiling food with broth, choose a pan with space for any additional water you might add. On the other hand, if you’re frying, avoid adding too many pieces of meat or vegetables that you will have difficulty turning over since this can result in the meat or vegetables not cooking evenly.

Taste what you cook

When a cook keeps on tasting their meal, they become convinced that it is good. However it may be, you must taste your food at every stage of the cooking process if you are trying a meal that you have never prepared or made.

Over and under seasoning are possible occurrences, especially if you put too many sauces in Singapore. If you notice that you’ve overseasoned your cuisine, consider neutralising it with a bit of lime juice or vinegar to bring the flavours back into balance.

Know the art of Mise en Place

This term is a kitchen language you should know. It’s all about putting things in their proper places. Before cooking, make sure that you washed, peeled, checked, and diced your ingredients that you should store in different containers afterwards.

When it comes to professional kitchens, the art of putting materials and equipment together before beginning to prepare is typical operating practice. This advice is just as applicable at home as they are at a restaurant.

Singapore Sauces You Should Try

Similarly culturally varied as its people, Singaporean cuisine incorporates elements from Malay and Chinese cuisines and Indonesian, Indian, and western cuisines.

Soy Sauce

It is a condiment that many people in Singapore are familiar with as it is becoming increasingly popular. Cooks use this sauce to add flavour and replace salt in soups, stir-fried noodles, congees and many more cuisines.

Most Singaporean families use it because of the aroma and flavour it imparts. Sauces in Singapore are the backbone of every meal prepared by fermenting moulds and beans in vats for extended periods.

Soy sauce comes in a variety of flavours and colours. Cantonese-style dark soy sauce is dark in colour and sweet in taste, while they describe light soy sauce as soft and salty.

Mala sauce

The numbing effect, spice, and savoury flavour of mala sauce in Singapore have made it a popular dish for many years. It is made from various herbs and spices, including chilli pepper, cooked in oil before preparing. Meat, seafood, and vegetables are all typical elements in Mala hotpot recipes, but you may customise them to suit your tastes. You may also want to experiment with the amount of spice you wish to add.

Foods produced with dried chiles, peppercorns and other spices are known as Mala, but you can also make a delicious bowl of Mala Xiang Guo at home with mala sauce. After many hours of simmering, the sauce is then packed and sold to mala enthusiasts.

XO Sauce

An XO sauce in Singapore, on the other hand, is a pricey and premium sauce that is created with multiple expensive components and combined with several spices to create a thick jam-like consistency. It has a lot of flavour because of the dried fish, which adds a little kick to the deep umami, smoky, sweet, and salty flavours.

Chili Oil

Traditional in western Chinese cuisines, red chilli oil enhances the flavour of foods by adding a fragrant and spicy note that complements the dish’s flavour profile. Cooking is the most popular application, but it can also be used as a garnish on foods or added into sauces or dips. It is simply a concentrated spicy oil, similar to chilli sauce in Singapore in flavour but liquid form.