Cooking good food is an art. For good cooking results, always use quality ingredients and in-season vegetables and fruits. If you are new to cooking check our posts about Common pantry staples for kitchen and Five Must Have Kitchen Tools For a New Cook. Following are some of the basic cooking tips and techniques I usually follow in my kitchen during cooking:

1. Always add salt in steps to avoid end up over-salted dish. For example first add salt in onions, to give it a head start like a pinch of salt and then follow the rest of the recipe. Vegetables like potatoes needs salt, so you must add salt in potatoes. Salt really helps in developing flavor in the dish so don’t be afraid of it.
2. For crispy potato chips, always rinse your potatoes twice after cutting them. Dry them on a clean paper towel and then fry them. It will give you the crispy potato chips from outside and soft and yummy from inside.
3. When you are frying, fry in batches don’t overcrowd the pot as when things go in the hot oil, the temperature of oil drops and things will take longer time to cook completely. Moreover they will cook unevenly.
4. Keep the lid of the pan closed during most of the cooking. It will help to cook things faster but keep an eye on them.
5. Prepare all the items you need in the cooking food before start cooking.
6. In gravies where you have to golden brown the onions make sure you do it properly as it has a great effect on the dish.
7. Keep your counter clean during cooking.
8. In case you want to cook something frozen like chicken, remove it from freezer a night before in winter season. where as for summers, remove it from freezer for about 2 to 3 hours before cooking. Let it comes to room temperature before cooking it.