Dear Reader,
I’m of the opinion that westerners, as a culture, are becoming poor cooks. How’s that? I said it. If your feelings are hurt then it’s probably because you too are a lousy cook. Sorry about that…sorry to whomever you’re feeding, that is. I mean, we gotta eat, right? Okay, that’s the last time I’ll poke fun. I get really excited when people master cooking techniques or food cost and my aim here to provide a great deal of information on cooking techniques, so that many people can practice and Master them! I promise, from here on in, to provide only extremely useful information in a clear and simple manner that you may use to prepare healthy (or unhealthy) foods in a wide variety of ways. I’ve been a cook and then a chef for about 17 years. I’ve had the very good fortune of being taught from a young age, how to prepare exquisite, tasty meals. Largely everyone in my family is a good cook; some very, very good, and some better than others. Following those early teachers – my family – were a series of foreign and domestic, highly trained and extremely talented, world class chefs. No one you have seen on the Food Network, and no one widely known to the masses like Gordon Ramsay or Jamie Oliver, but most certainly extraordinary cooks by any measure. I think I’m qualified to teach you many skills and cooking techniques which can be put into action immediately. You will have to take my word for it, for now.
There’s one thing that’s really holding households back in terms of cooking and it’s ‘the recipe.’ It’s really a crutch, or an anchor. People are stuck without a recipe and can really only resort back to cooking methods and dishes which they have been exposed to by their past – things they have eaten and old recipes which they have mastered, stuff their grandmother taught their mother and which was then taught to them…it gets tired and weak after a while. In these “cooking classes”, I’ll only use recipes as examples for cooking techniques in action. That’s it. And when I do present recipes, they will be alongside, or in conjunction with, other recipes that utilize the same cooking techniques but not necessarily the same ingredients: braising short ribs, braising pork ribs, braising lamb shoulder, braising turnips, braising spinach, or braising cod, is all braising. So, my purpose is to expose you to the information necessary to mastering cooking techniques, which you can apply to a HUGE variety of meats, poultry, fish, shellfish, vegetables, sea vegetables, herbs, spices, fruits, nuts, grains, beans, dirt, water, air….just kidding about the last three. Anyway…Get away from the recipe books and learn to really cook, utilizing whatever is in the kitchen right now – make your own frugal recipes day after day! You get home from work, look in the cupboards and in the fridge to see what’s there, and just bang out a beautiful meal for you and your loved ones. No recipe book. That’s what you’re going to do.
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TCN Cooking Classes: Frugal Recipes – How to Braise Lamb Shoulder |
In keeping with our mission of presenting you with the best solutions we can find for cutting food cost and living a thrifty life (building wealth!), I will outline why this information will dramatically lower your grocery bills, saving money as your learn and apply it. In a nutshell, if you’re constantly using recipes then you’re constantly buying ingredients that you don’t already have in your kitchen. If you’re making these extra trips to the grocery store you’re not only wasting productive time, but you’re also wasting gasoline and risking getting sucked into unnecessary impulse buys while in the grocery store. You want to avoid over shopping. Being able to cook using a variety of fundamental cooking techniques will allow you to cook whatever is in your kitchen. You will steer clear of fast food and dining out excessively, and you will avoid buying processed food from the freezer isle in the centre of the grocery store (no man’s land), because it will be a snap for you to whip up tasty and healthy dishes using whatever you have – frugal recipes
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TCN Cooking Classes: Cooking technique – How to make mayonnaise |
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TCN Cooking Classes: Frugal Recipes – How to make mayonnaise or salad dressings |
Secondly, in terms of thrift and Thrift Culture Now, being able to learning how to cook anything and turn it into an exquisite meal can turn you into a master buyer of all foods. It’s pretty stupid to buy ingredients that you don’t know how to prepare. You run the risk of destroying the ingredients and thus flushing your hard earned money down the drain. So that’s all about to come to an end. Before we begin to show you how to perform a wide variety of techniques, we want you to become highly skilled in ‘costing’ your dishes. What is food cost? Food Cost is taking the exact measurements of ingredients, as used in a dish or recipe, and calculating the dish or recipe’s cost. By taking a list of ingredients and their weights or volumes, you may calculate how much you have to pay in order to make the dish. This is the type of budget control that’s going to save you money and saving money will help you and your family thrive in the future. Frugal Living means Mastering Food Cost.
Most recipes are written so that the units of measurement are completely out of touch with the units of measure in the grocery store and on the packages of food. This is confusing! I have priced out (calculated food cost) hundreds of my own recipes for restaurants over the years, and I’m telling you that common recipe books are financially treacherous and confusing. In these cooking classes, I will show you that many of your recipes are costing you much more than is necessary, and that there are simple and thrifty ways to create tasty and healthy meals for your family.
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TCN Cooking Classes: Cooking technique – How to Make Hamburgers |
How do you use these “classes”? Each cooking technique will feature an explanation of the tools involved, the basic actions, and examples of each of the food groups to which this technique can apply. From there, you will be able to take the descriptions of the techniques and the sample recipes and cross relate them to other similar ingredients. Braising short ribs has a lot in common with braising chicken thighs and blanching asparagus has a lot in common with blanching green beans. The techniques are loosely ordered, starting with the cooking techniques that form the foundation of cooking from scratch, to the cooking techniques that require a little more practice. This will make for a more dynamic learning experience. Even a basic understanding of the techniques will allow you to turn whatever is in the kitchen into beautiful meals – without recipes and extra trips to the grocery store. You now have the knowledge, here in front of you, to cook any type of food. Just apply the cooking techniques.
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