Cooking With Brilliance!
Try These Brilliance Cookware Recipes First
They’re both quick, basic recipes made even better on the Brilliance nonstick cookware.
Basic Omelet
Oven-Roasted Chicken & Veggies
Cooking Techniques to Try in Brilliance Cookware
If you’ve spent much time trying to cook with discount store pans or the hand-me-downs you got for your first apartment, you already know how much easier cooking becomes when you use quality kitchen products. Now, start matching great techniques with the right pans and you have—Brilliance!
Here are a few basic techniques you’ll use all the time with the pans from the Brilliance 5-Piece Nonstick Cookware Set.
Simmering
Use With: 4-qt. (3.8-L) Sauce Pan and 5-qt. (4.7-L) Saute Pan
Simmering is cooking food slowly and gently in a liquid that’s just below the boiling point to infuse flavor.
Keep a close eye on the temperature and look for a shimmering surface and small bubbles coming up every few seconds. You can bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer.
Want more? Get all the details in our How to Simmer post. You’ll use the technique in the Meat Sauce With Crushed Tomatoes recipe—and almost every other soup, stew, chili, and sauce recipe you make!
Meat Sauce With Crushed Tomatoes
This staple sauce is extra easy because of the 4-qt. (3.8-L) Nonstick Sauce Pan’s draining lid.
Reduction
Use With: 5-qt. (4.7-L) Saute Pan
All sorts of shapes and sizes of pans will work for reducing liquid in your cooking, but the 5-qt. (4.7-L) Saute Pan is especially great for quick reductions.
The wider base helps the liquid evaporate faster, so you end up with a rich, delicious sauce in not a lot of time. And, the nonstick surface will help prevent stuck-on messes in the event your sauce reduces a little more quickly and thoroughly than you anticipated.
Sweating
Use With: 4-qt. (3.8-L) Sauce Pan and 5-qt. (4.7-L) Saute Pan
Sweating is gently heating aromatic vegetables like onions, carrots, celery, and/or garlic to soften and remove moisture without browning. Often done as the base of a recipe, it lets flavors start to build and mingle.
This is called a mirepoix in French cooking and many other cultural cooking traditions use variations of this base as well. You can learn more about making and using mirepoix in this How to Make Mirepoix post.
Sauteing
Use With: 4-qt. (3.8-L) Sauce Pan, 5-qt. (4.7-L) Saute Pan and 8.5″ (21-cm) Fry Pan
Sauteing is cooking food in a very hot pan with a small amount of fat (usually oil) to soften and remove excess moisture and brown or caramelize food.
Nonstick cookware wins the saute game! The nonstick surface reduces the amount of fat needed to saute your food while still allowing it to slip easily out of your pan. Less oil, no scrubbing, more time to do the fun things—like eating delicious meals with family and friends.
Quick tips from our culinary experts for sauteing success are:
- Keeping the food moving as you cook helps everything cook evenly and helps keep the pan hot.
- When you’re sauteing veggies, add a little salt to draw out moisture.
Unrolled Cabbage Rolls
This recipe uses a few simple techiques and will reward you with a whole bunch of flavor in a short amount of time. Any leftovers can easily be made into a quick soup the next day.
What's for Dinner?
