Boiling is one of the ways you can do to cook your food. However, it is not as simple as heating up the water and put your ingredients inside the pan. If you boil your food improperly, they could turn into an unattractive shade of gray and lose much of the flavour. In fact, your food can lose its shape and become unappetizing mush. Here are things to consider when boiling your ingredients:
- Egg: Boiling your egg may seem like a simple thing to do. Unless you want to make hard boiled eggs, here are things that you should know. Depending on the result you want, you may put your eggs for two, three or five minutes. You may use a timer on your smartphone. Do your experiment and find out the result, if you add or subtract one minute in the cooking time. It’s a good idea to add some into the water. This won’t flavour your egg, but it will increase the boiling temperature of the water. It means that you can cook your eggs faster than usual.
- Green vegetables: Green vegetables include Brussels sprouts, green beans, snow peas and others. It’s not recommended to boil bok choy, spinach and cabbage. Instead, you should only put them inside hot water to kill off germs and soften the texture. Sprouts and beans are best cooked uncovered. You may add some salt into the water to flavour green vegetables and speed up the cooking process.
- Potatoes: Put your potatoes into the cold salted water and use medium fire. Bring to the boil. Your potatoes are properly cooked if wooden skewer can pass through them quite easily without much pressure. Use a colander to drain your potatoes. Because it takes some time to cook your potato, adding salt will help in making the cooking process faster. The salt will also penetrate the thin skin of your potatoes, making them quite tastier.
- Rice: When cooking rice, make sure that it is fully submerged under the water. Put your index finger and make sure that the water depth above the rice is equal to the tip segment of your finger. You may add a little salt to flavour your rice and speed up the cooking process. Your rice should be fully cooked when water has been absorbed or evaporated completely from the pan. You may add some turmeric or saffron to add color to your rice. Adding coconut milk should also improve the taste of your rice.
- Pasta: Use salted water to improve flavour and speed up the cooking process. Before cooking process is about to end; remove half a cup of the water. Use the colander to drain the pasta. Put the pasta back to the pan along with the reserved water. Use low fire and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Your pasta will have creamy and smooth finish and it won’t lump together. You should add sauce and cheese, while the pasta is still hot and moist.