Even if you’re in the kitchen often, it’s possible that you still feel like you don’t have any experience or control over what you’re doing. It’s common to feel that way if you only stick to what you know and prepare the recipes you’re used to. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it can take the fun out of cooking and prevent you from gaining the confidence to try out new recipes occasionally.
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Trying out new recipes is a must, as it allows you to experience new things you wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. Typically, for people who don’t cook, the only way to try new things is from restaurants – and those aren’t available to provide every recipe under the sun. When you’ve got the experience, you can try any recipe you’d like to.
Upgrading your kitchen tools
Beginner cooks are often limited to what they can prepare by the cookware that they’ve got. If you don’t make much anyways, what’s the point in buying expensive and fancy kitchen gadgets? Well, even something like an air fryer can be a great addition to your kitchen because it allows you to try recipes you wouldn’t have been able to recreate otherwise easily. Take something like these airfryer Brussels sprouts – they’re simple and easy to make, and you would be missing out on those if you didn’t have the air fryer to make them.
Start with simple concepts
Knowing how to pace yourself is a big part of getting out of your comfort zone. Challenging yourself and trying new things is essential, but going overboard can overwhelm you and turn an exciting cooking experience into a nightmare. Instead, try taking smaller steps. Don’t prepare a meal that would be an entirely new experience for you, but rather – do something that has a few further steps in it. If you’ve never tried sauteing before, now’s the time. If you’ve never poached an egg, start with that. These cooking techniques are widely used in other recipes, so it wouldn’t hurt to learn them early on.
Change your techniques
Something that might prevent you from trying to become a better cook is the time you already spend in the kitchen. If it already takes you some time to prepare the food you know – how long will it take to learn something new? Much of it depends on how much time you spend training your ingredients. You might be doing it inefficiently, and if you’ve never done it any differently, how would you know any better? Try different chopping techniques, prepare ingredients beforehand, and keep a clean kitchen.
It might sound like a simple idea, but these things can save you so much time in the kitchen. Instead of only chopping half an onion today, chop the whole onion and preserve the rest for next time.
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