Tips & Techniques

Here are some simple tips to make cooking easy and fun.

1. Marinate! Marinate! Marinate!
It's no secret that dressing your meats ahead of time enhances the flavor tremendously. So rather than pulling your poultry, pork, beef or fish from the wrapper and plopping it into the oven, season it and let it sit. My personal favorite is overnight. Otherwise, four to six hours will do.

2. Always have a kettle on the stove while you cook for when you need to add water. The worst thing you can do is to add cold water to an already boiling pot. Ok, maybe not the worst thing but it definitely sets you back. Adding cold water can harden meat for example. Plus, it saves you time.

3. If you need to use canned tomatoes for sauces and/or gravy, use tomato sauce instead of the paste. I find it works much better.

4. Yellow plantains. Yellow plantains are best when the skin starts to blacken. They riper they get the sweeter they get.

The same goes for pineapple. Give fruits time to ripen properly. Pineapples are quite delicious when ripened fully.

5. Everything that’s made on top of the stove can be done in the oven. No kidding. And the best part is you don’t have to tend to it as much. And as a bonus, you typically have less mess. Less mess equals less fuss.