FOOD NEWS
13 Great Cooking Tips For Home Chefs Courtesy Of Geoffrey Zakarian
BY SARAH BISACCA
Flavor Your Rice
Rice is a blank canvas for flavor. "When you flavor rice, it's really interesting," Zakarian said in an interview with Tasting Table.
Take a page from Zakarian's book and infuse your cooking liquid with herbs. Just add dried herbs to boiling water or the rice cooker before adding the rice and allow them to steep.
Don't Be Afraid Of Salt
Home cooks often underestimate how much seasoning it actually takes to produce a restaurant-worthy dish, especially with dishes like steak.
Zakarian's top tip when cooking steak is to make sure to adequately salt all four sides.
A generous dose of salt brings out a prime cut's beefy goodness and gets a nice sear.
Mayo For Grilled Cheese
Zakarian advocates for coating the outside of your grilled cheese bread with soft and spreadable mayo instead of butter.
A protective coating of mayo helps the bread to get brown and crispy without burning before the cheese has reached gooey perfection, an especially important factor.
Double-Cook Your Potatoes
Geoffrey Zakarian’s secret to the optimal blend of crispy meets creamy texture in
his potatoes is to make
twice-cooked potatoes.
First, boil large-diced potatoes in heavily salted water. Once they're fork-tender and cooled, toss them in olive oil, garlic, rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper and roast them.
Add Pickles To Charcuterie
Per Zakarian, the ingredient missing from most charcuterie boards is acid, which can be remedied with pickles. They also add texture and color.