COOKING TIPS AND TRICKS
- Ignore cooking time, check your dishes by using your own senses (smell, taste, touch) to decide when they are done.
- Always taste your food before seasoning it.
- When sauteing garlic, always use sliced garlic instead of minced one to prevent burning.
- When sauteing, it is important to first heat the pan, then heat the oil, then add the ingredients.
- It is good to make meat stock in large quantities and freeze in plastic bags for later use.
- Never over season seafood. You want to still be able to taste the flavour of them/fish. Simply use lemon juice, salt and pepper to season it.
- To preserve flavour and prevent burning, it is important to cook slow and keep your heat low.
- Always test the hotness of your oil in the pan before adding all of your ingredients. Throw a small piece in and make sure it sizzles before adding the rest.
- Overcooking of your vegetables lose important enzymes and nutrients.
- When next you are cooking beans and you want it to done quickly, get an iron spoon or fork and put it inside the boiling beans. This will help the beans get done sooner than you expected it. Potash also helps in doing this, but it does not go well some people, due to its acidic content.
- When poaching an egg, add a teaspoon of white vinegar to simmering water to help keep the yolk from breaking.
- Putting chewing gum/bubble gum into the boiling meat and in the next minutes, it will soften. Please don't put the chewing gum you have already chew and remove its sugary content. Put the fresh chewing gum and let it do the magic.
- If you don't want your water to boil over the pot, put a long wooden spoon or wooden spatula over the pot.
- If after making your stew and you find out it is too greasy or contains much fat, put an ice cube in it. The ice cube works like a magnet on the stew. When the ice cube magnets the fat to itself, easily scoop out without spoon. You should repeat this with another ice cube.
- A piece of fresh ginger helps to remove previous flavour in the oil used before.
- Marinate meat in lemon juice for 30 minutes, before cooking is enough to make it much softer. You can also use vinegar.
