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ViciDraco · 41-45, M
Two cardinal rules I tend to follow.
1) When in doubt, low and slow. Cooking things for longer at lower heats gives you more time to check things, react, and not burn anything.
2) Different people have different tastes. Your favorite flavor profiles aren't necessarily going to match up with others. This means that improving your cooking is subjective. It actually becomes an exercise in learning about the person or people you are cooking for.
If you are just cooking for yourself, experiment a little. Take a steady base item you are comfortable making and try changing our adjusting various spices and seasonings to learn how they impact flavor and aroma. Once you get comfortable with that, try making things with different consistencies and textures to get a feel for how they react to heat and how they go together. Then after a while, you can really test yourself by trying to 'make up a dish'. This is commonly done when you have leftover items from making other dishes but not exactly what you need to make something you know and are familiar with. When you can sort through a variety of items and concoct something that tastes halfway decent on the fly, then you are going to be just fine cooking.
1) When in doubt, low and slow. Cooking things for longer at lower heats gives you more time to check things, react, and not burn anything.
2) Different people have different tastes. Your favorite flavor profiles aren't necessarily going to match up with others. This means that improving your cooking is subjective. It actually becomes an exercise in learning about the person or people you are cooking for.
If you are just cooking for yourself, experiment a little. Take a steady base item you are comfortable making and try changing our adjusting various spices and seasonings to learn how they impact flavor and aroma. Once you get comfortable with that, try making things with different consistencies and textures to get a feel for how they react to heat and how they go together. Then after a while, you can really test yourself by trying to 'make up a dish'. This is commonly done when you have leftover items from making other dishes but not exactly what you need to make something you know and are familiar with. When you can sort through a variety of items and concoct something that tastes halfway decent on the fly, then you are going to be just fine cooking.