Do you find yourself relying on the same cooking methods night after night? Here are some easy techniques to expand your repertoire — and your dinner menus.
Let's Get Wet
Cooking methods fall into two categories — dry heat and moist heat. Cooking with moist heat (such as braising, poaching and steaming) has two advantages: Food doesn't get dried out as quickly, and it can be less work for the cook.
Take braising. It's a simple technique of cooking in a covered pot with a small amount of liquid at a low temperature, says Molly Stevens in her cookbook "All About Braising." "It's a technique that demands very little from the cook but yields wonderful results," she says.
Braising is especially good for tough, muscular cuts of meat like chuck roast, short ribs and pork shoulder. It's also a more healthful way to cook fatty cuts of meat, Stevens says. The fat melts out of the meat during braising. If you refrigerate the dish overnight, most of the fat can be skimmed off the next day.
To braise: Add the meat, some chopped onions and carrots, seasoning and a little broth to a pot with a tight-fitting lid. Let it simmer gently over low heat for a couple of hours (while you do other things on your to-do list). When it's done, the meat has turned tender, bathed in a fragrant, rich sauce. The reheated leftovers taste even better.
Veteran cooking teacher Judy Harris encourages her students to try poaching — especially for seafood and fish — because food is rarely overcooked that way.
"During poaching, the food cooks very gently, totally immersed in liquid that's slightly bubbling," says Harris, owner of Judy Harris Cooking School in Alexandria, Virginia. "I teach people to cook shrimp this way because the shrimp stay succulent and don't get dried out. It's also great for salmon and skinless chicken breasts." To maximize flavor, serve poached foods topped with a light sauce.
To poach: Cover fish, chicken breasts or seafood with well-seasoned liquid (broth with herbs, water plus wine, etc.). Cook uncovered over medium-low heat. Liquid should be very gently bubbling. Fish that's an inch thick will take 8 to 10 minutes; thinner fillets and seafood will take half that time. For boneless, skinless chicken breasts, figure on 15 minutes, then let the chicken rest in the hot liquid for another 5 minutes.
Steaming, like poaching, also preserves flavor, moistness, color and nutrients of food — and without adding fat. Most of us know about steamed vegetables, but the method also works well with lean fish, like halibut.
To steam: Place food in a steamer basket or on a rack above an inch or so of briskly bubbling seasoned water or broth. Liquid should not touch food. Cover and cook. An inch-thick piece of halibut will take about 8 minutes. As with poached fish, serve topped with a sauce for maximum flavor.