http://articles.finegourmetgiftbaskets.com/rss.xml A blog about finegourmetgiftbaskets.com daily 365 1901-01-01T00:00+00:00 http://articles.finegourmetgiftbaskets.com/?a=36130 <p>by Gregg Hall</p><p>Gourmet cooking may seem inaccessible, something only wealthy people can enjoy, or even intimidating. There's no reason to feel this way about it. If you're interesting in gourmet cooking, that's the most important part. If you've never tried gourmet cooking before, don't be afraid. With a little trial and error and a sense of adventure, you can get into gourmet cooking. You know the difference between what you like to eat and what you don't, right? And you can tell what quality tastes like, right? Then you have the necessary tools to be an amateur gourmet. <br /><br />To begin with, what makes a certain style of cooking &quot;gourmet&quot;? Gourmet cooking utilizes fresh, high quality ingredients. Take something common like garlic, for example. You can buy dry powdered garlic in the spice aisle at any grocery store. The gourmet will avoid this, though. They'll even walk by the jars of chopped garlic. Only freshly chopped garlic will do for the gourmet cook. Another example is basil. Let's say you have a recipe calling for basil. Again, you could get a jar of dried basil flakes from the spice aisle, or you can find fresh bagged basil leaves in the produce section. Gourmet recipes will prefer the fresh stuff. Better yet, grow your own! Whenever possible, if you can use ingredients you grew yourself, you'll find that they make a world of difference in the taste of your gourmet experiments. <br /><br />Another word for gourmets is &quot;epicurean&quot;. An epicurean is someone who likes only the finest food and drink. Or you can describe a gourmet as a &quot;connoisseur&quot;. Like an epicurean, connoisseurs are people who know what's good and what isn't. <br /><br />To get into gourmet cooking, there are a few ways you can go about learning how. Most obvious are books. Your local bookstore will have plenty of selections on cooking for novices. Don't be intimidated. There's tons of help out there for the newbie. Often grocery stores will have books which are meant to introduce you to gourmet cooking. They'll cover all the basics starting with describing all the different knives you can use to how to clarify butter and make stock. <br /><br />Another resource for the budding gourmet chef is local restaurants. Nobody's going to give away their secrets but just by going out to eat in nice restaurants every so often and trying things you've never had before, you'll develop a broader range in taste and expand your knowledge of food. Don't be afraid to ask your server to describe an item to you which you don't know about. Ask what goes into the sauce. Ask what's sprinkled on top. Take mental notes and give it a try at home. <br /><br />Of course you can always finds tons of information on the internet. The internet is chock full of information of all sorts and gourmet cooking is no exception. Innumerable sites provide recipes and cooking advice. Countless forums have been set up to aid the novice and give the experts a place to trade tips and recipes. Don't be afraid to go online and ask questions. Make sure you read what you can before posting questions, but rest assured that there are lots of people out there who are willing to provide advice. <br /><br />Once you've decided to give a gourmet recipe a try, you may find that your local supermarkets don't have all the ingredients you need. Whenever possible, shop locally but if you can't find what you need there are a number of online food stores which will ship fresh food to your doorstop at a reasonable rate. Yes, gourmet ingredients tend to cost more but their quality and great taste will make it all worth it when your friends and family are being blown away by your latest excursion into gourmet deliciousness!</p><h3 class="popup">About the Author </h3><p>Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as gourmet gift baskets at <a href="http://www.finegourmetgiftbaskets.com/">http://www.finegourmetgiftbaskets.com</a></p> 2006-10-21T13:38-04:00 http://articles.finegourmetgiftbaskets.com/?a=36129 <p>by Gregg Hall</p><p>Most coffee drinkers don't give much though to the coffee they drink. They drink whatever coffee is cheap and nearby. When shopping for coffee most people buy whatever is cheapest. The coffee most people drink is weak and tastes alarmingly like cardboard. <br /><br />There are those out there who have finer taste in that lovely dark elixir made from what are, in fact, berries. These gourmet coffee lovers don't just drink their coffee to give them a jolt in the morning (or afternoon, or evening); these coffee connoisseurs drink coffee because they savor the rich flavor and subtle tones of this increasingly popular drink. <br /><br />It used to be difficult to for people who enjoyed good coffee to find the quality they were searching for. Some popular coffee shop chains have changed all that. Now, all but the most backwoods of towns, has at least one coffee shop, whether a chain or local business, which serves up high quality brew. This kind of coffee often costs more than convenience store brown water sold as coffee, but to the coffee drink with class, the extra money spent is well worth it. <br /><br />In addition to coffee shops, which offer already brewed gourmet coffee and bags of gourmet coffee to bring home, more and more grocery stores and supermarkets are carrying it as well. You can get gourmet coffee already ground or you can buy whole beans and grind them at home. You can also get whole beans and grind them with the in-store grinder which accompanies almost all decent gourmet coffee displays. Don't be afraid of the machine. It won't chop your fingers off. They're easy to use. You just select the coarseness of the grind, dump your coffee in the machine, load a bag below, and push the button. In seconds you have fresh-ground coffee. If you want to grind gourmet coffee at home, there are a variety of home coffee grinders on the market. Most are pretty cheap and will last a long time. The grind of the coffee is important and needs to selected based on what method you'll be using to brew your coffee. Standard drip coffeemakers work best with a medium grind. If you're making espresso, which is very strong-tasting condensed coffee, you use a fine grind. If you're going to use a french press, you'll want a fairly coarse grind. <br /><br />You can also get good coffee from specialty shops which are springing up even in the smallest of markets. The proprietors of these establishments are always happy to give helpful advice and they love to share their knowledge with others. These kinds of shops are probably the best place to go to learn about coffee. They're run by people who truly love what they're doing and who have a ton of information about gourmet coffee. If you have any questions about what kind of coffee to get or which roast is best or what grind you should use, the people at gourmet coffee shops will provide all the advice you need. <br /><br />The darkness of the roast is probably more important to the taste than the grind. If you don't know if you prefer light, medium, or dark roast, experiment! Try all sorts of coffee. Try coffee from different places around the world. Even if roasted and ground the same, coffee from Colombia will taste different than coffee from Sumatra. Half the fun of gourmet coffee is trying new types. Some you won't like, but you'll find most gourmet coffee, no matter where it's from, is infinitely superior to the shoddy stuff found in most kitchens and doughnut shops.</p><h3 class="popup">About the Author </h3><p>Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as gourmet giftbaskets at <a href="http://www.finegourmetgiftbaskets.com/">http://www.finegourmetgiftbaskets.com</a></p> 2006-10-21T13:36-04:00