Welcome to North Carolina!
The home of good times, great fun and fabulous food.
In Friday’s February news & updates post, I told you we’d be introducing a new food & recipes contributor. Well Shelia King has arrived on the scene. She dropped by to kick off LiWBF’s new southern cooking series.
Shelia is going to start by offering 7 basic tips to getting that uniquely seasoned taste found in all down home cooking just right. I cannot wait to try the recipes she has in store for us. But first, we need to understand a few simple things so we can create these goodies right in our own kitchens. Don’t let the pics make you too hungry now. 😀
I now pass the keyboard over to Shelia King, cook extraordinaire.
7 Basic Tips for Flavorful Southern Cooking
1) When it comes to choosing veggies such as squash, always buy the smallest since they tend be tender and have more flavor.
2. I recommend baking a sweet potato instead of boiling it. Baking will result in zero loss of nutrient and firmer potatoes. When making recipes that use mashed sweet potatoes such as a pies or casseroles, always use a handheld mixture to remove the strings. Repeat the string removal process several times after cleaning the beaters by running cold water over them.
3. Take advantage of the sweet seasonal Vidalia onion to enhance the flavor of stir fries and other vegetables such as collard greens.
4. Always sift flour before measuring. This will result in a light baked good and not a dense one.
5. For homemade soup, never start with a pre-mixed pack of veggies in the frozen section since these are usually the worst quality. However, if you’re in the off-season then it’s okay to buy individual bags of frozen vegetables.
6. Since taste is important, double the seasonings for most recipes with the exception of salt. Everyone’s taste buds are not the same, so it is okay to omit one of the spices from a recipe.
7. I almost forgot the most important tip… when making sweet tea, always add sugar to hot tea for a sharper taste. If you cannot handle the caffeine, you can use half caf and de-caf tea bags to get the same flavor as caffeine tea.
