In addition to learning cooking techniques, I suggest spending time getting to know ingredients. For example, high temperatures call for oils with high flash points, such as peanut or grapeseed oils. Olive oil can be used with medium heat. Extra virgin olive oil shouldn't be cooked at all - reserve it for when the raw flavor matters, otherwise use something cheaper.
Another example is that cooking mellows the sharpness of onions and garlic. You can cook onions for a long time, and the flavor keeps getting more interesting. But garlic gets bitter when overcooked, so it should be added later than the onions. In some recipes, you want the bite of the raw onion/shallot/garlic.
One of my local Public TV stations recently showed the old Jacques Pépin series on technique. Check your local listings. He also has a DVD set, as well as the previously mentioned book.
For home-style Chinese cooking, I like "How To Cook and Eat in Chinese", by the woman who invented the term 'stir-fry'. Part 1 covers the materials, tools, preparation, and cooking techniques. Part 2 provides recipes.
This appears to fit in with HarperCollins' Neil Gaiman freebie:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/01/free-download-of-nei.html
I found their approach useless for the way I read electronic books,
and I read quite a few. The text needs to be formatted to fit the
device I have, which means it needs to be formatted at my end, not by
the publisher. Plain text works. HTML works. RTF works. There are other
formats that I can convert to something usable. PDF works but is too
painful to fight with to be worth the bother.
Lee #40: Last three Republican administrations? Have you forgotten Agnew? Impeachment insurance doesn't always work.
That example is worth remembering, because it shows the importance of getting rid of the VP first. It's also worth remembering a time when the Washington Post and NY Times hired and *backed up* real reporters. And a time when Democrats in the Senate had backbones.
I nominate "Democratic Leadership Conference" for the oxymoron of the year.
In the US, you are more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist.
As Homeland Security is tasked with protecting us from terrorists, but not from the police, this counts as a success.
Not one person in the US has been killed by dragons since the formation of the Department of Homeland Security. Another success!
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