Here are 11 cooking hacks that I am totally
hacked off with!
1. Halve little grape or cherry tomatoes by
placing them between two plastic lids.
Press down the top lid and gently slice
through the tomatoes. A yogurt lid is suggested for this.
How many tomatoes
can you do at a time with a yogurt lid (or, more accurately, two)? Ten-ish? How
long does it take? I think it would be quicker, easier and safer to cut 10 or so little
tomatoes in half with a knife than try to hold them in place between two lids
and slide a knife between. Is it really beyond people to do this 10 times?
2. Use
a Panini Maker to Make Omelettes
Well really!
A panini maker will just result in some cooked egg which is nothing like
the light moist dish deserving of the name “omelette”.
This is how to make an omelette, it is
nowhere near as difficult as you might think, in fact it’s quite easy.
~ Break
2 or 3 fresh eggs into a bowl (you’d have to do this with a panini maker too).
~ Season
and lightly beat together just to break the whites into the yolks, there is no
need to whisk till fully amalgamated (same for a panini maker but I think it would need to
be fully whisked).
~ Melt
a knob of butter in a non frying stick pan (or grease your panini maker).
~ When
the butter has melted and starts to foam swirl it about the pan and pour in the
eggs.
~ Allow
to sit over the heat for a few seconds and when you see the edges start to
solidify gently lift them with a spatula, tilt the pan and encourage the runny
egg on top to flow to the side of the pan and under the cooked egg.
~ Keep
doing this till the top of the omelette is merely moist.
~ Add
any fillings and fold one half of the omelette over the other.
~ Slide
onto a warm plate.
3. Squeeze
lemons with tongs – why?
Hands are free, very rarely need replacing and are great tools for squeezing lemons
(useful hack – wiggle your clean fingers in the cavity of the fruit to squeeze
out every drop) and you can use your other hand to catch the pips.
Purpose made lemon juicers work perfectly, of course, they get all the juice and they catch the pips.
Tongs - I’ve just tried doing this and found
it tricky, uncontrollable, squirty and they don’t catch the pips.
4. I recently read
two suggestions for “coping” with butternut squash ...
i) Use a mallet to tap your knife into the squash
This sounds dangerous to me.
ii)
To avoid “hours of terror” before preparing a squash and “many
excruciating minutes” cutting it ...
"prick it with a fork and put in the microwave
for a few minutes first. That might help
and is certainly preferable to bashing a knife with a mallet!"
Alternatively just a large sharp knife for
cutting and a smaller sharp knife or potato peeler for peeling will do the job
nicely.
~
Lay the squash on its side and cut off the very end with the stalk – cut
1.
~ Now cut it just at the end of the
long straight bit before it swells out – cut 2.
~ Stand this piece on one end and using
the small sharp knife cut off strips of peel in a downward direction or use a
potato peeler.
~ Cut off the end of the rounded half
of squash – cut 3.
~ Stand it on a cut end and cut off the
peel as above or use a potato peeler.
~ Cut it in half – cut 4.
~ Using a sharp edges teaspoon remove
the seeds and membrane in the middle.
And here is a
“hack” of my very own ...
With large round solid things like butternut
squash instead of moving the knife back and forth to cut it I wedge the blade
where I want to make the cut then hold it still and move the squash back and
forth. I find this much safer and easier.
5. Shred
chicken breasts using the K-beater and your mixer
Isn’t this a bit strange
and a lot of faff for nothing? How about 2 forks or even a sharp knife (again)?
WTF?
6. Use
an egg slicer to slice garlic, mushrooms or strawberries
And there was me thinking it was
daft using an egg slicer to slice eggs! Daft,
daft, daft. Yet again a sharp knife, only a smaller one this time, is the
answer and so much easier!
7. Chop
Herbs with a Pizza Cutter Instead of a Knife
The same site went on to say
“even better cut everything with a pizza cutter” which is seriously misguided. Chop herbs with a long sharp knife and a rocking motion, sprinkle the board with a little salt before you start
to stop the herbs sliding around too much.
8. Quickly
Sear Meat in the Broiler Rather Than on the Stove
NO, don’t do that because
doing it in the pan (which should NOT be non-stick) leaves a delicious meaty
residue which can then be quickly made into a sauce.
~ Once your meat is browned set it aside in a warm place (here’s yet
another “hack” – meat is so, so, so much juicer and more tender if you let it
rest for a say 10 minutes before serving).
~ Add a little liquid (water, wine
or stock) to the pan.
~ Bring it to a boil scraping up the cooked-on meat juices
and letting them dissolve in the liquid.
~ If it is a bit runny simmer till
reduced a little then add a knob of butter or a splash of cream et voila a delicious
sauce.
9. For Richer
Scrambled Eggs, Use Sour Cream Instead of Milk
I
have never, ever whisked milk or cream into eggs for scrambling, there is no need or even any point, for richer scrambled
eggs this is the thing to do ...
~ Melt a knob of butter (not margarine or
anything else) in a small non-stick pan (easier for washing up hack).
~ When
partly melted break 2 or 3 eggs into the butter and immediately stir all
together, season and continue stirring over low-ish heat.
~ As
it cooks fold the solidifying egg into the uncooked and continue till you
have a pan of soft perfectly scrambled eggs and then immediately do this neat
trick (or “hack”) from Julia Child ...
~ Whisk
in a knob of cold butter. This will stop the eggs cooking any further, retain
them at optimal creaminess and make them more delicious than ever. You could
use cream or sour cream at this stage instead of butter or even milk if you don’t
want them to be too delicious!
10. Cook vegetables (and other things) in the
dishwasher together with a load of dishes.
I was surprised to read this. It is suggested that the vegetables are seasoned
and then sealed in a jar with a tight screw on lid so that the soapy water can’t
get in, it should be placed upright in the dishwasher.
I don’t have a dishwasher but research
has shown that they take between 30 minutes and two hours per cycle, 80 minutes
being optimum. Also that you should
probably not open the dishwasher mid-cycle. How well cooked do you like your
veggies?
Jack Monroe, and others, make the very
valid point that some people don’t have adequate cooking equipment and I
sympathise but if you don’t cook why would you have a dishwasher?
To cook vegetables cut them into slices
or florets or whatever shape is appropriate, put them in a small pan, just cover with boiling water,
add a little salt, bring to the boil, turn down the heat, put on the lid and
simmer for about 3 minutes for green vegetables, cauliflower and carrots and 25 minutes or so for potatoes - NOT 80!
This cooking hack is a little different ...
11. Grate your own cheese!!!
This one, of course, isn’t daft it is absolutely the thing to do. I saw this in a list of “17 F*cking Brilliant Food Hacks That Will Save You A Lot Of Money” but I think it is more F*cking Blatantly Obvious than brilliant!
“This changes EVERYTHING”
Articles on these “hacks” often say “This
changes EVERYTHING” or something similar and I agree – you could hurt your eyes
with out-of-control lemon juice, stab yourself whilst bashing a knife with a mallet
or cut your finger off sliding a knife between two plastic lids separated by
rolly- about tomatoes.
Please pin this so that other people
can have some free tips too!
