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One thing that my mother suggested to me when I first started getting interested in learning to cook beyond blindly following a recipe was that I try making scrambled eggs with one single spice in them to see how that flavor affects the taste of something I know well. It's actually a pretty good way to train your tastebuds to understand what flavor a ...

This is a really difficult topic to approach, and I think the only reliable way to identify flavours is through years and years of practice using those flavours in your cooking. To start with, I think the easiest thing to do would be to understand the different types of flavours. Those are: Sweet Everybody knows this one. Sweet is the taste of sugar, ...

In future, if you're using a jar that you'll be emptying (like pasta sauce), the quickest way to open them is take a sharp, sturdy, pointed knife (or even a screwdriver), brace the jar well in a cloth, then carefully make a hole in the top of the lid (just place the point on it and give it a tap or two on the end of the handle). This breaks the seal of the ...

The best way I've found is to turn the oven to a very, very low setting (175 or under) and put the meat on a ceramic dish or in a pan in there, if it's going to be more than a few minutes. If it's going to be a short amount of time, just cover the meat with aluminum foil and let it rest on the counter, this especially works well with steaks and the like ...

Cover your meat with aluminum foil. This will help it keep up to temperature. Put the meat back in to the pan with the sauce to bring it back up to temperature (but not cook further) just before serving. You could also set the oven at a very low temperature (mine will do 170F) and place the item in there. This usually seems to be more trouble than it's ...

Toss in oil and do not salt. This should help keep the pasta from drying out. Refrigerate until you are ready to use it. Before use, quickly reheat the pasta in boiling water or in a hot pan, which will give the starch a fresher, "just cooked" texture (this is the same reason that you toast old bread)

I don't think there are any shortcuts to trying the individual spices. If you only want to figure out that Indian dish, you could practice with just the typical range of Indian spices. It is often helpful to close your eyes while tasting and try to really imprint the flavor in your mind, and associate with the name and appearance of the food you are tasting. ...

To continue with smell: much of the flavor of food is the combination of tastebud sensation (sweet/sour/etc mentioned previously) and the fragrance of the ingredients. Many herbs have tiny bit of bitter or sweet, or even a little sour perhaps, but they have radically different fragrances. Something you can do is close your eyes and sniff herbs and spices ...

I highly recommend the book, "Taste What You're Missing" by Barb Stuckey. She's a 'supertaster' and a professional taster, and her book includes suggestions for testing and improving taste bud tastes (salt, bitter, umami, etc.) at the end of each chapter. She also covers how we taste and why some of us taste things differently than others. Lots of great ...

My favorite jar opener: The Brix JarKey You just need a gentle lift to let a little air in and then you can remove the top bare-handed. The lid is not damaged (unless you use more force than necessary). In a pinch, you can use channel-lock pliers to do the same thing. Hold the pliers "upside-down" so the longer jaw is under the edge of the jar lid and ...

I've found two good things to do with this fish (I dislike it broiled/baked): fish curry or soup, and fish tacos. I find the fish too bland to really do much on its own, but it serves as a decent base to the different pepper sauces that i put on tacos. For curries, the Indian state of Goa has some good ideas on what to do with fish, as do the Thais. You can ...

It may be overkill, but I'll cover something with foil and keep it in the oven (without turning it on) for shorter wait times. You could also use a microwave in the same way. It may not make a difference, but I've always thought it would help keep the heat better than sitting on the counter. Added bonus: more counter space!

I tend to treat tilapia similar to chicken in that it's kind of a blank canvas onto which you project other flavors. It doesn't work everywhere chicken does, but one of my favorite uses is to chop it into little bits, and "stir fry" it. I season those browned bits and use them as the base of actual stir fry or with Mexican seasonings in tacos, etc.

If it's a steak-like meat, you're actually doing your dining experience good by covering it in foil and letting it sit for a bit. It being too cold in 2 minutes is a bit fast, though, so perhaps it's something else? The low-heat oven is a fine approach - don't really see why it would be considered a hassle. There's also keeping it warm in a sous vide cooker ...

You need to depressurize it. It is very easy to do to simply take the pointed edge of a fork and jab the top of the container (the tin lid). Any small puncture made will work, once done the lid will open normally without any strenuous force. This method will work in the case where traction cannot force the lid open.

For a few years I have used a Culinare One Touch Jar Opener. I bought one for my grandmother who was too weak to open jars herself and she loved it, and as I have a touch of RSI, thought I would get one for myself, it can open pretty much any straight sided jar - tad noisy, but very effective! (Amazon)

Identifying a spice mix is hard, but you can get familiar enough with individual spices to narrow down the likely components, particularly the dominant spices in the mix. Since the dish in question is an Indian dish, good candidates would be cardamom, turmeric, cinnamon, garlic, black peppers, coriander, ginger, asafoetida (aka hing), and cayenne. If I'm ...

I wish I could offer more, as I'd like to get better myself ... The only thing I can think to suggest other than what's already been said is to make sure to smell the food -- and as Michael said, it can help to close your eyes. Although the basic flavors are carried through taste, a large component of flavor comes from scent (which is why everything tastes ...

You can also freeze individual portions in sandwich bags, then heat back up in boiling water. A lot of resturants (of the lower end) do this with their spaghetti. Since it doesn't require any additions it won't change your flavor profile. Stays good for about 2 weeks, after that you will start to notice texture change.

I know fish and cheese is supposed to be a sin. Luckily, I'm not one to play by the rules most of the time, I go by what I enjoy :) My wife is very picky, especially about fish, so if I want her to eat it, I have to mask it sometimes...at least at first to warm her up to the idea of something new. When I first wanted her to try tilapia I made this: ...