The kitchen is a ‘factory’ everyone expects tasty delicacies to come out from but the truth remains that it’s not everyone that can stand the heat that emanates from there in the process of preparing meals. However, for those who take delight in cooking, entering the kitchen on a daily basis is not optional. While this article is not about the level of your culinary expertise, I must confess that cooking- and being in the kitchen- can be a really fun thing to do. It’s just about learning ways of doing things better and faster- and maybe uniquely; that’s why you should read on to get some tips on how you can ensure this.
Dealing with eggs
Egg test: If you are unsure about the state of the eggs you stock at home; simply fill a cup with water and drop the egg in the water. Stale eggs will stay afloat while good ones will sink to the bottom. The more it sinks, the fresher the egg is.
‘Yolk out’: To separate the yolk [of raw egg] from the egg white, just use a plastic bottle to suck it out. Gently press the bottle with your hand, letting air out, and point it at the yolk as you release your grip on the bottle.
Make hard-boiled egg peel easily: Add baking soda to the water used in boiling the egg, and you can be sure of having a smoothly peeled egg thereafter.
Hard-boiled with a different colour: Have you become so fond- or tired- of boiling eggs the same old way? Maybe it’s high time you did it differently: place the raw egg in a sleeve- shirt sleeve probably; close up both ends of the sleeve and vigorously swirl the egg over and again. After that, you can go ahead and boil the egg and see how it turns out- still healthy for consumption, though.
The perfect way to boil whole chicken
The sight of having unevenly cooked chicken can make for an ‘ugly’ sight at times; this usually happens because some parts of the chicken [like the drumstick and thigh] take longer period to get cooked while others like the breast cook faster. So, to ensure evenly cooked chicken, you should ice the breast before boiling.
Slice onions without tears
Place the onions in the freezer before slicing them should you want to avoid teary eyes. Or better still, chew gum while at it.
Get rid of excess fat
Sometimes, your instinct may fail you and add more than needed but thank goodness, there are corrective measures that can be taken. So, to remove excess fat from your food, drop lettuce leaf in it; the leaf attracts the fat and you can then take it out. Again, you can get rid of excess fat by using ice cube wrapped in a clean recyclable sandwich paper. The fat congeals upon the introduction of the ice pack and you can move to scoop it with the aid of a spoon.
De-salt your food
Still on making things right again; to extract excess salt from food, add peeled potato and about 2 cups of water and allow to seethe for about 3 minutes. Then, remove the potato and taste the food to ascertain the degree of saltiness.
Keep water from boiling over
To curtail the event of boiling water spilling onto the stove- or cooker- top, you should place a wooden spoon across the pot. The spoon absorbs the heat and also weakens the bubbles that come about as a result of boiling.
Keep things organized
As with any other room within the home; a cluttered or disorganized kitchen can be quite frustrating to work in. Therefore, it is important to keep utensils and other things used in the kitchen in their rightful place.
Multitask
If you can multitask in the office, you can do so in the kitchen too. In this wise, it is advisable that you do not leave cleaning until meal is ready; you can begin doing the cleanup [and setting things in order] while the food is being cooked.
Cook meals ahead
This requires that you plan out your meals before getting into the kitchen on one of those free weekends. Cooking your meals ahead will help you save valuable time in the course of the week and also ensure that you have healthy food available all week long. After cooking, the food can be stored in meal prep containers and then stored in the refrigerator.