Tips & Tricks

catspring

when stir-frying vegetables (and not going to put stir-fry sause on them) it really brings out the flavour if you sprinkle a little (about quarter to half a teaspoon) of icing sugar on them when they are nearly finished cooking, and then stir it in. i thought my mum had gone crazy when i first saw her do this but it is good.

NeoSlicerZ

Continuing the egg theme; I cook my eggs with the smallest amount of oil, i just brush the oil around the pan. I preheat, drop in egg, burst the yolk and spread it over the area the egg's covering when the egg sort of settles, cook one side, flip and cook the other side, lovely

casper-

Originally posted by Sparks

Lots of things aren't meant to be kept in the fridge - eggs, for instance. Store them in the larder, pointy end downwards so the air sac doesn't float up and disrupt the innards of the egg.

Ok I have got to ask this because in Canada all eggs are both (a) sold in supermarkets in the refrigerated section and (b) kept in houses inside the fridge. Yet, here in Ireland, they are sold on store shelves like bread (for lack of a better example), and here is someone suggesting that you don't even need to keep them in the fridge after you buy them.

So what's the difference --- are we completely crazy at home? Or is there something whereby you just get really really fresh eggs directly from the farmers and so it's not as necessary to have them refridgerated? I really am quite curious about this

Sparks

Originally posted by casper-
So what's the difference --- are we completely crazy at home? Or is there something whereby you just get really really fresh eggs directly from the farmers and so it's not as necessary to have them refridgerated? I really am quite curious about this

Half-and-half I think. The eggs we get here, even in Tescos, are fresher because there's a smaller physical distance from the hen to the shelf since we're a smaller country. But it's also to do with turnover - you don't need to store eggs in the fridge if you're going to use them within a week or so. (Obviously, if you leave them sitting there for three months, they will go off, but that's true of all food - except for pure honey). Perhaps we just consume more eggs than canadians and so the turnover in the shops is higher?

Gordon

Originally posted by Sparks

Never eat chilled tomatos, they must be room temperature at least. Especially when raw.

Never eat sashimi in a noodle bar.

Great tips, but can you explain the tomato and sashimi comments please? Are chilled tomatoes more prone to ... bad stuff...? And sashimi is the rolls of seaweed with rice and fish or is it the fish on top of the loaf of rice? Why is it not good to eat sashimi in a noodle bar - something to do with the rice?

Badbonez

Originally posted by Gordon
Great tips, but can you explain the tomato and sashimi comments please? Are chilled tomatoes more prone to ... bad stuff...?

I think that they mean don't refridgerate the tomato before eating it. When you refrigerate a tomato it loses a lot of flavor. So keep them room temperature until cut. Unfortunately, in the States a lot of tomatoes are refrigerated before sending to the stores, so they all kinda suck.

And the reasons an onion makes you cry is a gas in the onion, mixed with its oils combines with liquid in your tear duct and creates a mild sulfiric acid. I read that here. So, to me that means if you wear goggles when cutting an onion you should be fine. But I've never tried that. The best luck I've had is always use a sharp knife. Less tissue trauma to the onion, less oil/gas released so you get fewer tears.

Sparks

Originally posted by Gordon
Great tips, but can you explain the tomato and sashimi comments please?

Bugger, I missed that question
But not to worry, Badbonez gave the right answer re the tomatoes.
The Sashimi thing is because it's raw fish. And noodle bars are Japan's traditional version of MacDonalds. And while it might be fine in Japan, over here, you really are asking for a bad meal when you ask for raw fish in a fast food place...

(BTW, it's not quite gas in the onion, it's the evaporated liquid in the onion tissue that combines with the water on the surface of your eye to form the mild acid - which is why once it starts, it just gets worse as your eye makes more water to compensate, leading to more acid, leading to a vicious circle. It's also why cutting the onion underwater works (the liquid doesn't evaporate, it gets diluted). But the best solution really is to use a very sharp knife and do it quickly and cleanly.)

cormie

When opening a tin with a tin opener (I've only used non electric ones so I don't know if it will work with electric) keep going until your about 1cm from the end, if you keep going, the lid should pop up, once it pops up stop so you don't cut it off altogether.

Dave

After you're finished boiling pasta, add in your sauce (while still in the pot you boiled it in) and break in an egg. Stir mad so you don't get egg clumps. To quote colin farrell "fúckin' delish"

Blub2k4

tman wrote:

if you want to peel a tomato, stick it in a bowl of boiling water for a couple of minutes, then take it out & poke it with a knife. the skin should fly off now;)
it's much less hassle to just use a tin of them tho

If you throw them for a minute into boiling hot water then out and into cold is the normal way to do this.

Blub2k4

pickarooney wrote:

Do use butter but do not burn it, as this makes it unhealthy. Brown butter bad. Once it's melted, stir in the flour and remove it from the heat before adding the milk. This will prevent lumps from forming. Add the milk while stirring, then return it to the heat, throw in a pinch of salt, a spoon of pepper and half a spoon of nutmeg. Now make the rest of the lasagne.

The other option is to do this the proper way and use "beurre marié" which is made up of 1:1 mix of flour and butter, for example 1oz butter: 1 oz flour. You melt the mixture in the pan first then add in the milk stirring all the time with a whisk to stop the lumps forming. You can keep the butter once mixed in your fridge for quite a while it is a standard thickener in kitchens and it tastes a lot better than cornflour which can be just all like jelly and yuck.

Bessacadia

Ever made a yummy sauce? Spag bol? Top fly off the Saxa bottle?
Quickly peel a potato,(or two depending on how over salted your dish is) cut in halfand chuck in. Cary on simmering, and the raw potato will absorb the saltiness.
I know this works, and it has saved me many a meal!

seamus

Boiled rice can be made much more interesting, and can be cooked much quicker;
Boil the kettle. Put the rice in the pot, and throw a stock cube (any flavour, though veg is the best) on top. Pour in boiling hot water about 4 times the height of the rice. Bring to the boil. Cover and simmer. Keep an eye on the water level, don't let it all boil off until the rice is cooked. Remember to keep the kettle boiled so that when you top it up, it doesn't have to heat itself up again.
Allow most of the water to boil off (i.e. so the rice isn't sticking to the pot, but also so you don't need to drain it). It's a kind of sticky, juicy rice, but it's delicious.

The same can be done for any kind of dish really. Fry up onions, peppers and mushrooms, along with any meat pieces you may want, in a wide, deep frying pan. Throw in some other veg (courgettes, carrots) fairly thinly sliced. Then throw in a stock cube, and pour in boiling water so all the food is covered. As above, continue to simmer and top up until all the water is gone and the veg is cooked.

Nyom.

Bessacadia

Talking of rice - the best (I think) is basmati rice, and the trick is to rinse it in a bowl two or three times before cooking.
Then when you throw it into BOILING salted water, stir only a couple of times until water comes back to the boil, simmer for 5 mins only and drain. Divine, non sticky rice.

utopian

Making real bread will improve your life.

Walnuts in sausage rolls are fantastic.

Liquorice and red wine taste great together.

Barkeeper

Check out http://www.barkeeper.ie as there are lots of hints and tips for the kitchen, and lots of other food & beverage related items to keep you busy for hours.... Check it out....

Blub2k4

To add a really nice flavour to your tomato based pasta sauces, pop some sugar and some white wine vinegar in a pot and reduce it to a syrup. Once cooled pop this in a container with a lid into your fridge to keep for ages.
When it comes to making a pasta sauce then you pop in a spoonful or two of this syrup and it rocks.

crazy_dude6662

dont use margerine, use butter its healthy, margerine is gray when its done (cause its processed to hell) thats why its yellower at the top, the dye rises

Cork Boy

Mince...do not buy in tesco!!!
In a saucepan, gently cook the mince with garlic (chopped or crushed), no oil is needed. When its all brown, drain it off well.
No here's the part that makes my mammy's lasagne the best ever!
Get 1 packet of shwartz packet lasagne mix per pound and a half of mince,
throw over the mince and throw a cup of cold water in and stir. This is full of yummy spices, especially garlic but most importantly, it keeps the lasagne really sloppy and gooey!
Add your sauce, peppers, courgettes and mushrooms (all uncooked except the courgettes).
Carry on as normal, be generous with the cheese and pre boil the pasta sheets, even if the packet says there's no need.

On the butter front, real butter doesnt need to be kept in the fridge.

Ok, here's a beautiful sauce for chicken....
In a roasting frying pan with a little bit of oil sprinkle in lots of black pepper and fry up ome chopped mushrooms and left over bacon, drain and put aside.
Boil up a saucepan of milk and add a bit of cornflour and chicken bullion. throw in the ham and mushrooms...mmmmmm!!!!

crazy_dude6662

if you put some water in a pan and scrape the pan with the spatual its called deglazing so you get all the meat juices and the like

noby

Simple 'All-in' White Sauce

Put COLD milk, flour and butter in a pan. Turn on heat, and stir with a whisk until it boils and thickens. Then add in cheese or whatever. No lumps, no hassle

When making mashed spuds, put a peeled clove of garlic in with the spuds at the start of the boil. You can either take it out before you mash, for a hint of garlic, or leave it in for a slightly stronger garlic flavour

gonker

Thanks Noby just made beautiful lumpfree white sauce....

noby

I know, I surprised myself too. I couldn't remember the measurements, but it's hard to go wrong.


One more:
When cooking a tin of peas, put in a large knob of butter to get mushy, chipper-like, peas

flyz

A note for coconut milk users. If you open the tin without shaking it the milk has separated into thick and watery. At least it does with the decent stuff anyway. Less is more when it comes to ingredients for coconuk milk

When cooking a thai curry, spoon out the thick/creamy milk first and fry it with the curry paste until oil separates from the mixture. THEN add the watery milk.
It makes so much difference to the taste, and it looks more like a proper curry too with the oil resting on the top.

olaola

As undisputed Queen of poached eggs..

DO NOT add vinegar to the water, it makes the white go all... ickky!

Boil water, take off boil. Crack the egg into it and then swirl
the pan in a circular fashion. This will stop it sticking to the bottom.
Lash it back on the heat - barely a simmer will keep it ticking. Two minutes.
The egg, especially fresh ones will 'hold' together anyway.

I have to say plopping it on a potato waffle with a slice of plastic cheese
(it HAS to be plastic - calvita or the like) is heaven.
Esp after a feed of pints.

olaola

Oh and I forgot..
Superquinn sauages are the WAY forward.

They are the only sausage to grill successfully.

Oh and their Striploin is the best to be had around.
They hang it for longer, and it is just YUM.

hahm.

cheesy

If you're preparing peeled potatoes or veg in advance, a squirt or lemon juice added to the water stops them going black and will keep them nice and fresh till you drain and use them. This keeps sliced fruit fresh for 4 days as well.

Running your wrists under cold water stops you crying when chopping onions.

Keep any leftover wine in one bottle till it oxidises. It makes lovely vinegar for cooking.

Ripen green bananas by putting them in a brown bag.

Place your roasting meat on a wire tray inside the roasting tin and add your potatoes to the bottom of the tray. They soak up all the juices from the meat and taste delicious.

oh and never eat yellow or any other colour of snow....

daiixi

Cork Boy wrote:

.. best lasagne...

Simple hint : Instead of using white sauce, use a mixture of mozarella and cottage cheese.
Let your lasagne sit for five/ten minuts after removing it from the oven to let the cheese cool and set so that you can cut it up and it will stay in its lovely cut squares.

YUMMY!

Tree

i find teh best lasagne is yesterday's reheated, something about the way it settles

AdrianR

Here's a few tips not mentioned:

Whipping cream:
Allow to come up to room temp before whipping, much easier to whip then.
It's also much easier and faster to whip a small amount at a time.

Storing root ginger: Store in a freezer and grate required amount off while still frozen.

Storing leftover rice: Store in cold water to prevent it from going hard.

Never take a laxative and a sleeping pill on the same night:D