I’m writing this after I made some pasta in like 15-20 minutes. I like to cook because it’s a process that gets me in the flow, I forget about all the problems and I’m really involved in the process.
Cooking is a relaxing and therapeutic activity, so if you feel down just give it a shot.
Cooking tasty simple dishes makes me feel very good when I finish, of course eating what I cooked helps a lot because most of the time the result is delicious(at least that’s what I like to think 🙂 ). Cooking a nice meal also makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something good that day, it’s like making your bed in the morning stuff.
I don’t do it every day, maybe 2 times a week and I don’t do complicated recipes, I try to stay in the area of pasta (which I like the most), steaks, salads and sandwiches.
Learning to cook can be an amazing skill, you learn new things every time and you can enjoy it a lot.
Cooking and Business
While I was cooking I was thinking if there is a connection between cooking and business, and there sure is. A lot of skills needed in cooking you use in business, so why not train them by cooking.
You need to be creative
Most of the time I just look in the fridge and see what can I cook with the ingredients I have. You need to combine different ingredients in different ways to make food and when you are hungry, ideas of what to eat come really fast.
One ingredient can make the difference between a great dish or something you will throw away. Adding different spices in the right amount to make it taste better.
Quality ingredients
You need quality ingredients to make good food. Of course, like in business, the ingredients don’t guarantee the success of the dish but they sure help.
Be organized
You need a bit of preparation before starting to cook, and it helps a lot to be organized, you don’t want to use a lot of dishes it will make cleaning up harder. You must add the ingredients in a certain way and also at a certain time.
Design matters
Presentation of the dish is super important, everyone I know that loves food says that if it looks good it tastes even better. Sometimes it may look good but the taste is not so great, sometimes it happens. Always try to make your food look good, this extra little step really does the trick.
Cooking is social
Cooking can be a great way to do things together with your loved one, so it helps collaboration and strengthen relationships. Me and my girlfriend cook for friends once a month, we invite over some people and socialize around a good meal and some nice wine.
Why pasta?
* It’s really easy, you don’t need any special skills or training.
* I can make some pasta with leftovers I have in the fridge.
* It takes little time, you can do a dish in 20 minutes.
* I LOVE PASTA.
I learned a few basic recipes, test them and added my own contribution some times, I experimented. Today for example I added some pine buds to some basic recipe with bacon, garlic, tomatoes.
The Seven Secrets
These are the tricks I use to make sure my pasta dish is good every time.
1. First of all you need good quality pressed olive oil. If the oil is not good it will ruin the dish. I usually use either Greek olive oil or Italian. How to know if the oil is good. Well, taste it. If is pungent or bitter is not a good one, it needs to be soft and nice.
2. Add garlic, it makes everything taste better. Cook the garlic just right, don’t burn it, it will make the dish taste bitter. Actually you need to make sure the core of the garlic doesn’t burn, that’s responsible for the bitter taste.
3. Use a good cast iron pan, I like to use a wok.
4. Use quality pasta, preferably Italian.
5. Make it simple, up to 3-4 ingredients, no more.
6. Boil the pasta al dente, which means to stop the fire just one minute before what’s written on the package, ex. if it says 8 minutes, stop at 7.
7. When you are boiling the pasta right before stopping the fire add 4-5 spoons of the pasta water in the sauce you are making, the starch in the water will make your dish tastier.
And that’s about it, now you can go cook an amazing dish that makes you feel amazing and impresses your loved ones.
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