Not so. The good news is that anybody can cook like a chef. Learning the secrets of cooking like a chef by yourself is actually your fast lane to culinary experience, and perhaps fame. Just follow these short tips and you can get a feel for how chefs do their stuff.

Study The Recipe

One of the most important secrets of cooking like a chef is to study the recipe before you even put on your toque. Preparation is always the key for the best chefs. This will enable you to prepare for everything that needs to be done during the actual cooking time.

Prepare The Ingredients And Equipment Ahead Of Time

After having studied the recipe, the next important step is to prepare the ingredients and equipment to be used. The chefs that you see on the television do this all the time; they prepare everything they need for a particular recipe, that is why they make cooking look so easy. This important part of the secrets of cooking like a chef teaches you that putting together a dish at the quickest possible time maintains freshness of the ingredients and minimizes the clutter in the kitchen.

Accurately Measure The Ingredients

All the secrets of cooking like a chef point to a very important culinary wisdom. And that is being true to the tastes and flavors of the dish. You can only do this by accurately measuring the right amounts of ingredients needed for the dish. Accidental discoveries happen only once in a blue moon; and even so, you need an accurate measurement of the ingredients to come up with the same taste all the time.

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I’m trying to make wheat vermicelli sized noodles. What is the procedure I have to take to make the noodles and where can I find a machine that makes vermicelli sized noodles.

Answer:

Any fresh pasta recipe will work to make vermicelli noodles but this is one of my favorite pasta recipes: Basic Pasta Dough
To make this a wheat pasta just sub half the all-purpose flour with wheat flour.

As for a pasta machine I find hand crank to be the best and the one that I use is:

Roma 7-in. Roma Hand Crank Pasta Maker

It does not come with a vermicelli cutter but you can order one as well:

Roma 1-mm. Roma Professional Noodle Attatchment

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1. First have everything chopped, peeled, and ready cook this dish does not take long to make once you start cooking.

2. Heat a large pot of salted water to a boil and start cooking the pasta.

3. Heat (over medium low) a large saute pan add oil, add garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes, add tomatoes saute for another 1-2 minutes, add the shrimp and saute for about 3-5 minutes till shrimp is almost done, add kalmata olives and remove the pan from the heat, season with salt and pepper.

4. When pasta is done drain and add the shrimp mixture, place back on heat add butter and parsley toss for about 1 minute, then pour into a large serving dish. Sprinkle the feta cheese over pasta and serve.

This recipe is a very basic pasta dish that relies on the strong flavor of the ingredients in stead of a heavy sauce. The butter and oil that are in the recipe should be enough to coat the pasta, but I would bring the good olive oil to the table just in case some one wants a little more coating.

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Well it came out great and over the years I have started to use the meat in many other dishes that I make. The best part is this dish makes a lot of food. Most of the time I am able to use this one dish to make three different meals one that I eat that night and the other two tend to be dishes that can be frozen and easily cooked in the oven at a later date. (The last time I made the dish I had it that night, made a pan of enchiladas, a pan of stuffed bell peppers and there was still enough for 8 burritos)

A quick note before I begin the recipe: You can use either chicken or beef if you don’t like pork just if using chicken use legs and thighs with beef a rump roast works great.

10-12 pound pork shoulder I have the store de-bone, take the skin off and cut into large cubes about 2-3 inches (any store that sells meat should do this for you)
1 red bell pepper
2 medium yellow onions
1 poblano pepper
2 jalapenos
6 garlic cloves crushed
28 oz can of diced tomatoes
6 oz can of tomato paste
2 tablespoons cumin
2 tablespoons cayenne
2 cups beef stock
As needed canola oil
Kosher Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste

1.First preheat your over to 350 degrees. Then we need to cut the onions, red pepper, poblano pepper, and jalapenos into strips.

2.We are going to braise the pork so we need either a large braising pan that has a lid, you can use a large stock pot that has a lid if you don’t have a braising pan. Which ever pan you are using need to be able to go in the over and fit all the ingredients.

3.Heat pan on the stove over medium high heat. Once the pan is hot, add a little oil to the pan just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Now we need to start browning off the pork. It takes about 2-3 to minutes per side just until you get a nice light brown color on the pork. Once you have browned that pork remove from the pan and set aside for now. Depending on the size of your pan this may have to be done in batches. The pork should have a little space between pieces and should not be stacked on each other. There is no reason to rush this stage.

4.We now need to sauté the onions and peppers. Using the same braising pan add a little more oil then add the onions and sauté for about 5 minutes, then add the red bell peppers, poblano peppers, and jalapenos and sauté for another 5 minutes. Then we need to add the garlic and sauté for 3 minutes more. At this point we need to take about ½ of the onions and peppers out of the pan and reserve for later use.

5.Ok at this point I season with salt and pepper I normally add about 2 tablespoons salt and 1 tablespoon of pepper. Take about ½ cup beef stock to the pan to deglaze, add the can of diced tomatoes with the juice to the pan. Add all the pork back to the pan and the remaining beef stock. Bring up to a simmer cover with a lid then place in the preheated oven.

6. This is going to cook anywhere from 1 ½ to 2 ½ hours. While the pork is cooking we need to stir it around about ever 15 minutes. After it has cooked for about 1 ½ we start checking to see if it is done when we go to stir the dish. The easiest way to do this is take a pair of tongs and grab a piece of pork and squeeze with the tongs. If the pork easily falls about then it is done if not continue cooking, until it falls apart with easily.

7.Once the pork falls apart with little or no effort remove the pan from the over. Now we need to take the pork out of the sauce and shred it. I have a large baking dish and as I take the pork out squeeze the pieces with tongs that causes the pork to fall apart. Set the pork aside for a minute.

8.Now we need to make the sauce. Strain what is left in the braising pan into a sauce pan (make sure to lightly press the juice out of the ingredients in the strainer). Throw what is left in the strainer away all the flavor is already in the sauce. Bring the sauce pan to the stove and bring to a simmer, add the tomato paste, cumin, and cayenne pepper. Taste and season with salt and pepper. You should end up with about 6-8 cups of sauce. (We won’t use all the sauce in this recipe but save it for other recipes, it can be frozen if needed)

9.Remember the onions and peppers we saved, well now we need to reheat those I just microwave them for a couple a minute of two. When there hot add them to the shredded pork along with 2 cups of the sauce and toss together.

10.Just before the pork is done I will make a little Spanish style rice and heat up some black beans and keep them hot while I finish off the pork. I also set the table with a few condiments lime wedges, sour cream, guacamole, shredded pepper jack cheese, a roasted poblano salsa and flour tortillas. Bring the pork, rice and beans to the table and dig in.

Everyone tends to eat this a little different, at the same table I have see one person make them like tacos having the rice and beans on the side, the person next to them was made a burrito with the rice an beans inside and condiments on top, while another person just mixed it all together and used the tortillas to scoop it up. I couldn’t tell you the right way to eat this dish so I won’t try just enjoy.

Normally the day after I make this dish I use what is left to make a few other dishes:
Enchiladas with a Roasted Poblano Pepper Salsa, Stuffed Bell Peppers and if there is any thing left after that I make a few burritos. This is a few ideas that I came up with what ideas do you have?

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First preheat a large sauté pan. Next add the oil then the onions, poblano pepper, and the garlic season with a little salt and pepper and sauté for about 5 minutes. Next add the diced shrimp; chili powder and the cumin sauté for about 3 minutes then add the rest of the ingredients tomatoes, cilantro, and lime juice. Cook for another 3-5 minutes just until the shrimp is done.

Serve this like you would any other tacos. I like to use a little pepper jack cheese, shredded lettuce, and sour cream all in a crispy taco shell. This also makes a great taco salad.

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Spicy Shrimp Skewers

The First step is to make a spicy rub. This is just a combination of spices so I tend to make a good bit of the blend a save what is left for any dish that I am looking to add a little spice to.

Spicy Rub Blend:

3 Tablespoons Cayenne Pepper
3 Tablespoons Spicy Paprika
1 Tablespoon Black Pepper
1 Tablespoon Kosher Salt
2 Teaspoons Granulated Garlic
1 Tablespoon Sugar

In a zip lock bag, mix all the ingredients together. You can then label the bag and store with the rest of your spices.

Now that we have our spice rub lets make the first spicy shrimp recipe.

2 Pounds medium size shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 Tablespoons spicy rub blend
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Lemon wedges

First we need to heat up the grill making sure it is very hot before we began cooking. Next skewer the shrimp on your skewers.

Next take the spice rub and mix with the oil and lemon juice to make a paste. Rub the shrimp on both sides with the paste. Then grill the shrimp for 2-3 minutes on each side only turning the shrimp once.

I normally serve this dish as an appetizer with a few lemon wedges on the side.

Shrimp in a Spicy Butter Sauce

This spicy shrimp recipe is very easy to make. The main thing about this recipe is you have to use real butter it will not come out the same if you use margarine or a butter substitute.

1 Pound medium shrimp peeled and deveined
3 Red chili peppers (for less spicy, use less peppers or leave them out all together)
1 Medium yellow onion
½ Yellow bell pepper
1 small tomato
8 Ounces butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
Salt
Pepper

I like this dish very hot so I slice the pepper into small rings leaving the seeds in. If you want to cut the spicy down a little take the seeds out of the peppers then just dice them. Next we need to cut the bell pepper and onion into bite size pieces, we are going to do the same with the tomato but you take the seeds out first.

Now that we have everything cut up we can start cooking. First in a small sauce pan melt the butter over a low heat. Once the butter starts to melt add the chili peppers to the butter and allow to simmer on low heat.

While the butter is simmering pre-heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the oil to the pan then add the onion, sauté for about 3 minutes then add the bell pepper and sauté for another 3 minutes. Next add the shrimp, season with salt and pepper and sauté till they are done about 6 minutes.

Once the shrimp are done remove the pan from the heat add the tomatoes and the butter mixture. The dish is ready to serve. When you serve the shrimp you want to serve with plenty of the sauce and some rice on the side.

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10 Roma Tomatoes
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
Pinch of Salt
Pinch Fresh Cracked Pepper

1.Preheat oven to 250 Degrees

2.Cut the tomatoes into quarters (remove seeds if preferred) I use Roma tomatoes but any tomato will work in this recipe.

3.In a Large bowl toss tomatoes with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper and allow to rest for about 5 minutes

4.Take a wire rack and place on a baking sheet. Place tomatoes on wire rack in a single layer.

5.Place in oven and roast for about 6-8 hours in the oven. How long you roast will depend on how large the tomatoes where. They are ready when they start to look like sundried tomatoes, just not as dry.

I normally start making this recipe when I make breakfast and let them cook all day taking them out when I get ready to make diner. If I leave the house I just turn the oven off and until I get back. They keep about 4-7 days in the fridge. Oven Roasted tomatoes can be used in many different ways; I use them in pastas, in salads, on pizzas, sandwiches, just about anything that you put tomatoes in. They also make a great snack.

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Ingredients

2 Poblano Peppers
1 Yellow Bell Pepper
1 Jalapeno
½ Medium Yellow Onion
4 Garlic Cloves
1 Cup Roasted Tomatoes
½ Cup Fresh Cilantro (whole)
Juice of 2 Limes
1 Teaspoon Cumin
1 Teaspoon Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt

First step is to roast the poblano, yellow bell, and jalapeno peppers. If you have a gas grill or a gas stove place the peppers right on the flame and char the skin all the way around the pepper about a minute or two per side. (You can do this in the broiler just get the peppers as close as you can to the heat) Put the peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap for about fifteen minutes, then take a knife scrape the skin off. Once you have all the skin off cut the peppers in half and remove the stems and seeds. Set the pepper aside for now.

Next roughly dice the onion and garlic. Heat up a sauté pan, add a little oil and sauté the onions and garlic for about a five minutes just to bring out there flavor.

I really like roasted tomatoes so I always have some around. Here is a recipe for Roasted Tomatoes if you need it.

Ok now in a food processor add the peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro, lime juice, cumin, salt and pepper and pulse a couple of times. How long you pulse really depends on how chunky you like you salsa. If you like a chunky salsa only pulse for a second or two, for a smooth salsa pulse five to ten seconds.

The salsa is ready at this point but you want to let it rest for about thirty minute to allow the flavors to come together. Make sure to taste and see if you need more salt or pepper.

Enjoy

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Braising is a slower cooking method that uses a liquid to cook that product in till it is fork tender. This is easily my favorite cooking method for a couple of reasons; first it is cost effective meaning I don’t have to spend a lot of money to make a gourmet meal, second it is normally done in one large pan so there is less to clean up and with a little planning one dish can be made into many. I do a braised pork shoulder (which you can use beef, turkey or chicken) (recipe will be up soon) that I normally turn into four to five common store bought frozen dishes (Burritos, enchiladas, stuffed bell pepper, ect.) and this is all from one dish talk about saving some money.

Sorry I have gotten a little off track.

The question is how to braise. Like any cooking the first step is always to get all your ingredients ready before you start cooking and with braising you will also be using the oven so that will need to be preheated.

Steps on how to braise:

First: You start by using the sautéing method to brown the meat. So we need a either a large braising pan or stock pan, heat the pan to medium low, add little oil and brown the meat on all side. Once all sides are browned take the meat out of the pan and set aside. (Keep that pan on the heat)

Second: You need to add your flavoring vegetables (onions, carrots, celery) and allow them to sauté for a few minutes until they get a little color and soften. (Not all recipes will use this step)

Third: At this point we need to deglaze the pan. Although this sounds hard all you do is add some of the liquid (if using wine or something with alcohol use that to deglaze with so the alcohol has a chance to cook off) that you are going to cook with to the pan then run your spatula along the bottom of the pan to release any thing that has gotten stuck. These particles have a lot of flavor so you want them in the dish.

Forth: Add that meat back to the pan then add enough of then cooking liquid to cover 2/3 of the meat. Then increase the heat to bring to a simmer. Simmering is not a boil there should only a few bubbles coming through. As soon as this happen you want to cover and put into the oven.

Fifth: During the cooking process about every 15-20 minutes you want to turn the product. Cooking times will vary depending on what type of meat you are cooking. But it is done when you stick a fork in to the meat and the meat flakes apart.

Sixth: This step will not always be used but most will now turn the liquid that the meat was cooked in into some sort of sauce. Take the meat out and strain the liquid into a sauce pan then adjust season and consistency to your liking.

With so many different braising recipes out there learning how to braise can be a little confusing but hopefully these guidelines help you on your way to make great braised dishes.

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Over the last few decades pork have undergone many changes. In the past pork was considered a fatty animal and that it was not very healthy. Well through breeding, proper diets and genetics pork has slowly been changed to have less fat and more protein. Pork is a white meat like chicken and turkey and 1987 was crowned the “the other white meat” by the US National Pork Board a phrase that is still used to market pork to this day.
Another change that has been happening with pork is the how much it has to be cooked. Yes it is a product that does have to be cooked it does not mean that it has to be super well done. The reason pork must be cooked is trichinae (which causes trichinosis) but this is killed at 137 degrees. With that being said I would still recommend cooking pork to at least 150 degrees which leaves it a little pink and has the best flavor. This is your choice though if you don’t feel comfortable with this or you just prefer your meat a little more done cook it to 160 degrees which is well done.

Common Cuts:

When you go to the store you will see many different cuts of pork. Which can be put into couple of main categories:

Shoulder:
The Shoulder has two main cuts the Picnic shoulder and the Boston butt. You can get both cuts with or without bones/shoulder blades in them. They both are fatty cuts of meat and do very well slow roasted, braised, or slow smoked.

Belly:

The belly has to main cuts that come from the first is a cut called the pork belly which is normally either salted to make salt pork or salt and cured to make bacon. The other cut that comes from the belly is pork spareribs.

Ham:
This is the rear legs, and is almost always cured and sold as ham. If you come across a fresh ham (that has not been cured) you can cook it the same way as you would a shoulder.

Loin:

The loin has many cuts that come from it the area. The first is the very lean tenderloin which I find is best grilled or broiled. Then there is the pork loin itself communally this will be broken down into three types of roast or chops; the rib-end, center lion and rump-end. The rib-end is where is prefer to get chops from if I plan on breading and frying. With center lion I like to use this as a marinated roast or sliced to go into stir fry dishes. The rump-end is a little leaner so I tend to get chops form this end that I plan to marinate and grill. The center loin is also used to make Canadian bacon. There are two styles of ribs that come from this area as well the baby back ribs and country style ribs.

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