Culinary Inspiration by Otao Kitchen

Whether you are new to cooking or experienced in your kitchen, mastering knife skills is not only important for keeping you safe but will make your recipes that much better.

Are you struggling to manage a busy lifestyle and eat right? Menu planning may be the answer. You’ll find it easier to eat nutritious meals, save money and become more efficient in the kitchen. Here are some steps to help you plan meals and menus throughout the week.

A well-stocked pantry is the best way to ensure you have everything necessary to make a delicious, filling dinner any day of the week. Classic pantry staples such as tinned tomatoes, canned beans, sugar salt, pasta, varieties of flours, noodles and rice can provide the foundations to make something tasty, when there isn’t much left in the vegetable crisper! Flavour boosting convenience items like spices, dried herbs, sauces, pickles, oils, vinegars and stock are paramount to keeping your home kitchen ready to whip up a yummy meal at short notice. 

As you might already know, we can waste a lot of food if we don't plan well. Groceries are one of our biggest expenses and you want to make sure you never short on food. Also, cooking your own food is much less expensive than eating out however you don't want to lose time and energy for unnecessary steps. 

Getting organised is the first step towards making cooking an enjoyable experience. Just like in a professional kitchen, all the elements of a home kitchen must work in an orchestrated flow to make staying organised and cleaning easier, which will give you more time to focus on the fun stuff. 

What Is Blanching?

Blanching is a cooking process in which food is immersed in boiling water (or sometimes oil) and removed after a brief time. It is then plunged into an iced water bath or positioned under cold running water. This term is known as ‘shocking’ or ‘refreshing’, which immediately stops the cooking process. Reasons to blanch vegetables might be to soften them, loosen the skin to make peeling easier, or simply to brighten the colour. 

The term ‘noodles’ was manufactured in the west, describing foods that are long and stringy. However, in China, a noodle is not called a ‘noodle’, it is called ‘miàn’ or ‘mein’. Miàn is not related to the shape of the food, but the fact it is made from flour in a liquid. Funnily enough in this sense, dumplings and tortellini are both are miàn! The Malaysian word ‘mee’ is derived from the Chinese name.

To know how to best store your herbs, fist you have to determine if they are classed as tender or hard. Tender (or soft) herbs have soft stems and leaves found in herbs like coriander, parsley, basil, mint and tarragon. Hard (aka firm, hardy or woody) herbs have a woody stem such as rosemary, sage, thyme and oregano.

Pressure cooking is the process of cooking food at high pressure, by using a liquid (usually water, stock, wine or a combination) in a specialty cooking pot called a pressure cooker. Just about any ingredient that can be steamed or has the ability to be cooked with liquids, can be pressure cooked.