Tips for Cooking Foreign Dishes

Let's face it; cooking exotic recipes typically bumps up our blood pressure a couple points. But take heart! Following a few simple tips can make the experience a little easier and quite a bit more enjoyable.

• Try not to let the long ingredient list overwhelm you. Foreign dishes can call for several spices and sauces (often combined for an overall sauce), as well as vegetables, but that doesn't mean they take longer to make. If you can have the ingredients out and prepared beforehand, the active cooking time will go faster and much more smoothly.
  
  
• If the dish requires frying (like egg rolls or tempura dishes), use a deep-fry or candy thermometer and make sure it measures between 350 and 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure the food is at room temperature - this prevents the drop-in temperature from severely reducing and lessens splattering.
  
  
• Use the internet! Find out if those exotic ingredients are in fact foods you know by a different name (for example, the same plant is called cilantro in the U.S. and coriander leaves in parts of Europe and Asia); you can also find which ingredients you can fudge on and substitutes for hard-to-find ingredients. Furthermore, depending on where the recipe comes from, you could have some converting of measurements and temperatures to do.

Source: LDS Living Staff