Welcome to
Zesty Tasty Fusion Recipes

When it comes to cooking, it is important to keep in mind that everyone started somewhere. I do not know of a single person who was born with a wooden cooking spoon and ready to go. There is a lot of learning that must be done in order to become a prolific cook and then there is always room for improvement. Not only do you need to begin with the basics when it comes to cooking but you almost need to begin again when learning to cook a new cuisine such as Asian, Caribbean or Mediterranean food. 

This means that at any given time in your cooking learning cycles there is quite probably someone somewhere that is better and/or worse at cooking than you. Take heart from this because even the best have bad days when it comes to cooking. There are many people who cook for different reasons. Some cook in order to eat and survive while others cook because they actually enjoy the process of cooking. Some cook during times of emotional upheaval and others cook out of sheer boredom. Whatever your reason for cooking or learning to cook you should always begin with the basics. 

The first thing that you need to learn is what the different terminology you will find in recipes actually means. There are many new and sometimes foreign sounding terms that you will find in common recipes. These terms can mean the difference in recipe success or failure. You should be able to find a good section in any inclusive cookbook that explains the different definitions for unfamiliar terminology. If you aren’t absolutely certain what is meant by “folding in the eggs” it is in your best interests to look it up.

Another great bit of advice when it comes to cooking basics is to try simpler recipes for a while and then expand your horizons to the more complex recipes that abound. Most recipes will have a little note about their degree of difficulty and you can read through the recipe to see whether or not it is something you are interested in preparing or confident that you can prepare. Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day and it will take quite some time to build a reliable ‘repertoire’ of recipes to work into your meal planning rotation.

The good news is that once you’ve learned the basics of cooking it is unlikely that you will ever need to relearn them. This means that you can constantly build up and expand your cooking skills. As you learn new recipes and improve your culinary skills and talents you will discover that preparing your own meals from scratch is much more rewarding than preparing prepackaged meals that are purchased from the shelves of your local supermarkets. 

You will also discover as your experience and confidence grows that you will find yourself more and more often improvising as you go and adjusting recipes to meet your personal preferences. If you prefer more or less of ingredients or want to make a recipe a little more or less spicy in flavor you can make simple adjustments along the way in order to achieve this goal. In other words you will begin in time to create recipes of your very own. And that is something you won’t necessarily learn when it comes to basic cooking skills for beginners but you would never learn if you didn’t master those basic cooking skills. 

This is the first tool I grab when I prepare any meal. Not many people have used a Chef's Knife before. When I was in the culinary school, believe it or not, I had some classmates who have zero experience holding a Chef's Knife or any other kind of knife.

Choosing the right knife for you is not that complicated. You may go for something your comfortable with, the right weight, balance. They also differ from countries and materials that they're made from like from Japan or from Germany and the United States.

There are those knives that have been in the market for a long time and they really do the job well. But of course, some of them comes with a heavy price tag.

Check out the different available knives in the market:

This is the next kitchen essential on my list. Whatever ingredient that you want to slice and dice, you will need a Cutting Board. Without it, you can easily dull or damage your knifes. Also you may get hurt in not using a proper cutting board.

Great cutting boards are designed and made to last a lifetime if you use it properly. Many cutting boards are made with different types of materials like the most basic is Wood,  Polypropylene (Plastic) and Slate. The different types of wood cutting boards are mostly Bamboo, Maple, Teak.

I have at least 3 different cutting board.

• The first is  for cutting meats, poultry.
• The second is for cutting fruits and vegetables for salads or desserts.
• The third is for cutting fish or any type of seafood.

Its best to have at least two cutting boards for reason of sanitation and contamination. 

TIP: Place a Kitchen towel or a dishcloth under your cutting board to prevent it from sliding off when cutting

Here are some of the cutting boards available:

The essential kitchenware for mise en place, the preparation of premeasured ingredients for fast and flawless execution of any recipe. We also love them for serving sauces, dips, olives and more.

This essential kitchenware is available in different type of materials. Choose between Glass, Stainless Steel, Ceramic, and Plastic. Each mixing bowl set contains a variety of different sizes, pre-measured so you can always have the capability to get the job done with pre-measured ingredients. 

These are some of the prep/mixing bowls available:

Sear, fry, bake, repeat.

A Cast-iron cookware is valued for its heat retention properties and can be produced and formed with a relatively low level of technology. Seasoning is used to protect bare cast iron from rust and to create a non-stick surface .

The 12" FINEX cast iron skillet is polished smooth for perfect eggs every time. It’s a searing machine for hearty steaks, chops and salmon. It’s brilliant for baking perfect cornbread, pies, cakes and muffins. Introduce a lid and it’s great for steaming, braising and simmering. From stovetop, to oven, to grill—even over the coals—the FINEX cast iron skillet is a trusted essential you’ll pass down for generations.

A stock pot is used for making stock. What is stock? A stock is the base for all soups and sauces. Broth is “without bones” and stock includes bones. A good stock pot is designed to heat rapidly, to simmer longer and evenly. It should be large enough to cover a whole chicken and lots of veggies with room to spare, for example. Boiling crabs or a large batch of corn are two purposes for a stock pot.

Stock pots may, or may not, serve as pot for making soups or stews. The difference is the material the pot is made of, and especially the base of the pot.

A soup pot must have a heavier and thicker base that heats evenly so a thicker soup or stews won’t burn easily. Since your stock pot is typically designed for a higher liquid content the base can be thinner and the lighter material. 

A sauté pan, from the French verb meaning "to jump" (sauter), has a wide, flat bottom and relatively tall, vertical sides.  

A kitchen without a sauté pan may as well be empty. There are wide selection of copper and stainless steel sauté pans will make cooking a treat. 

My non-stick sauté pan is perfect for sautéing, searing and braising meats and vegetables.  

i use this essential tool almost everytime I'm cooking something.

A ladle is a type of spoon used for soup, stew, or other foods. A typical ladle has a long handle terminating in a deep bowl, frequently with the bowl oriented at an angle to the handle to facilitate lifting liquid out of a stock or soup pot and conveying it to a bowl. 

A slotted spoon is used in food preparation. The term can be used to describe any spoon with slots, holes or other openings in the bowl of the spoon which let liquid pass through so you can get the ingredients without the liquid. For example a piece of meat without the soup.

These are great kitchen tools. It's used to flip burgers, eggs, pancakes, chicken breasts,  so the other side can cook and then lifting or removing food from a pan. It's also good for serving food. 

Tongs are used for cooking, grilling and not only to prepare foods, but also for serving. I normally use the metal tongs for grilling. I use a silicone coated tongs when I'm cooking fish or meat on a pan to turn them and avoid being splashed by the hot oil. I also use tongs when serving pasta or salad. Great tool! Its like an extension of your hand.

A chefs favorite, designed for comfort and efficiency. Named for its shape, the Y-Peeler features a sharp, stainless steel blade, sometimes its made of ceramic material that glides through even the toughest fruit and vegetable skins with ease. The soft, comfortable handle cushions your hand as you peel, and is non-slip, even when your hands are wet.

Unlike a lot of swivel peelers, which often have the blade on only one side, the shape of a  y-peeler makes it work in either hand.  The wider handle, as compared to most narrow-handled straight peelers, means you can hold and use the peeler with less of a death grip, which is more comfortable.  

I use this regularly to open the canned goods and when I have those pre made sauces like tomato or chiken broths.

A can opener  is a device used to open tin cans (metal cans). The development of new can opener types continues with the recent addition of a side-cutting model. 

Mandoline slicers are great tools for making evenly thin slices of fruits and vegetables.

Other blades perpendicular to the main blade are often mounted so that the slice is cut into strips. The mandoline juliennes in several widths and thicknesses. It also makes slices, waffle cuts and crinkle cuts, and dices firm vegetables and fruits. 

I love using this everytime I have to make home made fries or those perfect julliened carrots.  I save a lot of money by buying fresh potatoes instead of those ready to cook ones.

A word of caution when cleaning them. Mandoline blades are very sharp. Use a safety guard and take precautions when using and cleaning a mandoline slicer.