Essential Cooking Skills

Learn how to correctly chop an onion. If you need regular dices or fine slices for different dishes, this video will help you learn how to properly obtain them. Even pieces means same time of cooking for all of them. Learn how to make the few essential and simple cuts in order to get great results without hurting yourselves. Ciseller is the correct name for dicing. Emincer is the correct term for slicing. 

Most of the aromatic herbs need to be finely chopped in order to release their flavors into your dishes. Flat leaves can be easily cut using the hacher technique of chopping. This video will show you how you can easily do it. When herbs have a more decorative mission on your plate, your herbs can be cut into chiffonade. LEaves are rolled tightly and finely cut into thin and long strips.

Green vegetables need to be blanched in boiling salted water in order to keep their crunchiness and color. The salt will stick the clorophile to the vegetables so that they mentain their natural and apetising color. After cooking them in simmering water, the green vegetables need to be plunged in ice cold water, so that they stop cooking immediately and mentain their appealling texture. This video will guide you through the entire process, step by step, so that you can easily learn how to blanch green vegetables.

Root vegetables need to be blanched from cold water, otherwise their outer layers would be cooked before the core. By the time the core cooks, the outer areas would be way overcooked. THis video will show you how to correctly blanch root vegetables in order to use them further, in more complicated dishes and formulas.

Making stocks is one of the most important part of knowing how to cook. A basic vegetable stock is made of a definite range of vegetables, an aromatic bouquet and water. This video will show you how to make a correct vegetable stock respecting a few golden rules. Make clear and tasty vegetable stock without using cubes or other conentrates.

Blanching vegetables leads straight to one of the most simple and traditional ways to eat them. This video will show you how to make your vegetable cream soup out of your favorite vegetables. Never boil, just simmer! You'll taste the differrence. 

Dry pasta is quite a quick ingredient to tranform into a meal, but boiling dry pasta needs attention and little technique in order to fully enjoy them. You need salted boiling water and a certain amount of time. Aglio olio is also a quick, yet marvellous pasta dish that you need to master because it is one of the most common pasta dishes. Long pasta with oil and garlic can be a masterpiece if you really know how to cook them.

Learn how to cook rice in a very relaxed and safe method. Knowing how to cook rice is no longer reserved only for professionals, but it always depends on your own choice, wether you want it lose or sticky. Fried rice is also a quick way to cover a meal and it can literally involve whatever you have in your fridge. Learn these quick methods of boiling and cooking rice in order to improve your cooking skills.

Learn how to make an omelette just the way it is cooked by skilled chefs. Eggs and omelettes are a staple of world cuisine, they are part of many good diets and all the planet enjoyes them. Make a rolled omelette with just two eggs in a cast iron pan, no sticking, no burning, just plain technique.

Poached eggs are very healthy and many people prefer them to omelettes or scramble. Poaching eggs needs technique, but the melting yolk over a piece of brioche and a slice of good ham is an absolutely wonderful picture for a great weekend morning. This video shows you what you need and how to properly poach eggs.

Learn to cut and portion a whole chicken on your own. Home butchering is quite a lot of fun and it allows you to take decisions about how to cut chicken into pieces you need to cook. Separate the carcass and the wings for stocks, use the premium parts, chicken thighs and chicken breast, for roasts and many other great dishes.

Learn how to make chicken stock. Chicken stock is an ingredient you always need for soups and sauces, it's great to make it yourself with chicken bones, vegetables and herbs and keep it in the fridge for later use. Chicken stock is great as itself and used in many other dishes. Simmering and skimming the stock is crucial for the quality of the final result.

Learn to make mayonnaise in seconds. Make mayonnaise with whole eggs, mustard and oil without separating the white from the yolk, in shortest time possible. Quick homemade mayo is what you need instead of ready made, bought from the supermarket.

Learn to make hollandaise sauce at home and to clarify butter or make gee. Hollandaise sauce is a warm emulsion that goes great with poached eggs, vegetables or fish. You just need eggs and clarified butter cooked over a steamming pot of water. Homemade hollandaise is a lot better than the ready made one from the supermarket. Hollandaise is a mother sauce.

Bechamel is a mother sauce. Learn how to make bechamel with butter, flour and milk. Bechamel is a thick sauce that can be used for lasagna or many other layered dishes. You first cook your roux and then silute it with infused milk. Bechamel sauce is ready in minutes. Roux is one of the most commonly used thickenning methods in world cuisine. Homemade bachamel is really easy to cook.

Learn to make beef stock in your own kitchen, at home. Make beef stock without chemical concentrated cubes or powders. No salt or MSG beef stock can be cooked at home with beef or veal bones and vegetables. Beef stock is used in soups and sauces, making your own beef stock helps you enjoy rich flavor and high quaity ingredients in your own dishes. Homemade beef stock is a lot better than the product that you can buy ready made at the supermarket.