Category Cooking & Serving Shortcuts

• No lemon?

If a recipe calls for lemon juice, a lime is the best bet as a substitute. If not, you can use the same amount of white wine.

• Cut the salt — not the taste

A chef’s trick for reducing the amount of salt in a recipe is to replace it with half as much lemon juice. If a recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of salt, substitute 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice and there’s no need to use the salt.

• Vanilla imitators

If you run out of vanilla just as a recipe for batter calls for it, you can substitute an equal amount of maple syrup or a sweet liqueur such as Bailey’s Irish Cream.

• Powder for powder

Cake recipes often call for baking powder, but if you’ve run out, try this: for each teaspoon called for, substitute a mix of 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar and 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda. The mixture won’t store well, so make it fresh in case you ever need it again.

• Instead of breadcrumbs

If you’re making meatballs or hamburgers, but are running short of breadcrumbs, substitute porridge oats, crushed unsweetened cereal such as cornflakes, and crumbled crackers or instant mashed potato flakes instead.

• A surprising non-stick solution

You’ve chopped the vegetables, got the meat ready and you’re about to fire up the barbecue when you find you’re out of oil. Rub the grill with half a potato and your food won’t stick.

• Sour cream stand-in

Make an easy substitute for sour cream by blending 225g cottage cheese, 40ml buttermilk and 1 tablespoon lemon juice until smooth. The lemon juice will sour its creamy partners.

Credit : Reader’s Digest

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• Hair dryer as salad drier

If you have rinsed and spun your salad, but the leaves are still wet, set your hair dryer on a cool setting and wave it gently over the leaves.

• A teaspoon as a ginger peeler

When you find it impossible to peel ginger without losing some of the flesh, try this. If you’re right-handed, hold the ginger in your left hand and, using a teaspoon, firmly scrape the edge of the spoon along the knob with your right. The papery skin will peel straight off.

• Dental floss as slicer

Held taut, fine floss can slice layer cakes, soft breads, soft cheeses, butter and plenty of other soft foods more effectively than a sharp knife.

• Plastic drink bottle as a funnel

Cut off the top third of the bottle and turn it upside down. Now you can easily funnel left-over sauces, gravies, kidney beans or even grease into containers for storage or disposal.

• A handsaw as a rib separator

A sharp (clean) handsaw works wonders when you’re serving a juicy rack of ribs. Slip the blade between the bones, give it one or two saws and the ribs will separate cleanly and perfectly.

• A coffee filter as a gravy strainer

Beef and poultry drippings from a roast make the most delicious, flavour some base for gravy, but are often packed with grease. Save the flavour and lose the fat by straining the cooking juices through a paper coffee filter.

• Scissors as herb chopper

Use clean household scissors to snip fresh herbs and spring onions into salads or mixing bowls. Scissors are also perfect for cutting steam vents in the crust of a pie before it goes in the oven.

• Flowerpots as kitchen tool caddy

Store serving spoons, whisks, tongs and other kitchen tools in flowerpots on the benchtop. To make the pots more decorative, you could paint each one in a different pastel or bright colour.

• Wood rasp as lemon zester

A clean, fine metal rasp from a toolbox works perfectly as a zester for lemons, limes, oranges and other citrus fruit. Its tiny raised nubs scrape the fruit’s skin to create perfect zest.

Credit : Reader’s Digest

Picture Credit : Google

• Marinate in plastic bags

Eliminate washing up bowls, spoons and even pots by marinating meat and poultry in large self-sealing plastic bags. Open the bag and pour in the liquids and seasonings — soy sauce, tomato sauce, ground ginger, black pepper, crushed garlic, herbs and so on. Zip the bag shut and shake it to blend. Now add the meat, zip the bag and shake. Refrigerate 6-8 hours or overnight. Occasionally take the bag out of the fridge and shake it to redistribute the marinade.

• Butter stops the dribbles

Dab a bit of butter onto the spout of your milk jug and you will put an end to the drips and dribbles.

• Oil your measuring cup

Sticky liquids like honey and syrup are difficult to measure and pour and a little always remain behind. Oiling the measuring cup will make it harder for viscous liquids to stick and will give you a more accurate serving.

• Keep salt on popcorn

If you want salt to stick to popcorn, give it something to cling to by lightly coating just-popped corn with a vegetable-based cooking spray. Avoid olive oil cooking spray because the flavour can overwhelm the taste of popcorn.

• Add tang to sauce with ginger ale

A little ginger ale will perk up tomato sauces, but be careful not to overdo it. About 80ml ginger ale added to a medium-sized saucepan of tomato and garlic sauce or a tomato juice-based beef stew will help to enhance the flavour.

• Brighten the taste of juice

For fresher tasting orange juice, add the juice of 1 lemon to every 4 litres. By the glass, squeeze in the juice of a quarter of a lemon, and then place the peel on the rim for a bit of visual flair.

• Add flavour to plain chips

It’s so easy to make your own garlic-flavoured potato chips. Just place a peeled garlic clove in a bag of plain chips, fasten the bag shut with a clamp or clothes peg and let it sit for 6-8 hours, shaking the bag occasionally to even out the flavour. Then open the bag, discard the garlic clove and crunch away.

• Dress up a syrup dressing

Adding chopped strawberries and a little lemon zest to the syrup you top pancakes with will make it a lot more interesting. Combine 120ml golden syrup, 100g strawberries and 1/2 tea-spoon grated orange peel in a microwaveable bowl and heat on High for 30-60 seconds. Top pancakes, waffles or French toast with the syrup and then tuck into what is now a much tastier and healthier dish. (Strawberries are packed with vitamin C and manganese.)

Credit : Reader’s Digest

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• Easy creaming

This important step in many a cake recipe —creaming the butter and sugar — can be a tedious and lengthy task. If the butter is cold, you can speed up the creaming process by warming the sugar a little on the stovetop. Or soften the butter by warming it briefly in the microwave oven on a very low setting.

• One-egg replacement

If you are baking a cake that calls for one more egg than you have available, you can substitute 1 teaspoon cornflour.

• Or go fruity

Replace one egg in a cake or sweet bread recipe with one small mashed banana or 120ml pureed apple. For lovely moist chocolate cake, try substituting mashed prunes.

• Spaghetti cake tester

If you don’t have a wire cake tester, use an uncooked strand of spaghetti instead. Gently push the spaghetti into the centre of the cake and pull it out. If your spaghetti comes out clean, the cake is done.

• Improvised cake decorator

Use a washed plastic mustard or tomato sauce squirt bottle as a cake decorating tool. Fill it with icing, then simply pipe scallops, flowers and other designs onto cakes with ease. Or use it to make squiggles of pesto or cream on top of soups or chocolate on desserts.

• Pie bubbling over?

If a pie starts bubbling over as it is baking, cover the spills with salt. You’ll prevent the spill from burning and avoid the terrible scorched smell. Best of all, the treated overflow will bake into a dry, light crust that you can wipe off easily when the oven has cooled.

• Make piecrust flakier

Flaky piecrusts are the talented baker’s hallmark. You can improve the flakiness by replacing 1 tablespoon iced water in a crust recipe with 1 tablespoon chilled lemon juice or white vinegar.

• Fruit piecrusts too soggy?

To keep the juice in fruit from seeping into the crust of a baking pie, crumble up something to absorb it. A layer of plain, crisp flatbread will absorb the juice and introduce a savoury note to the pie, while biscotti or amaretti cookies will keep it tasting sweet.

• Slice meringue with ease

Your knife will glide through a meringue-topped pie if you butter it on both sides before slicing. It’s a 10-second solution, if that.

• Thrifty chocolates

If you’re a chocoholic, have extra freezer space and love saving money, buy chocolate Easter bunnies and Santas after the holidays when prices are low. Store them in the freezer and shave off chocolate curls to use in cooking. Or melt to create new chocolate shapes. Or, if you prefer, just thaw a Santa or bunny and gobble it up whenever you need a chocolate fix.

• Have coffee over ice

To make a coffee granita, pour cooled, freshly brewed black coffee into several small containers such as clean yogurt pots, to freeze. When frozen, remove the pots and then put the frozen coffee into a food processor. Process on Low until crystals form. Spoon the crystals into the cups and freeze again for about half an hour before serving.

Or add milk and sugar to your coffee before freezing. Good toppings for granita include whipped cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

• Flour taste test

If you can’t remember whether the flour in a storage jar is plain or self-raising, taste it. If it’s salty, it’s self-raising flour, so called because it contains baking powder and salt to make it rise.

• Is your baking powder fresh?

If you’re not sure how long your baking powder has been in the cupboard, you can easily tell whether it’s still OK to use. Scoop 1/2 teaspoon of the powder into a teacup and pour in 60ml hot water. If it bubbles up, it’s fine to use; if it barely fizzes, it’s time to replace it.

• Make dough rise more quickly

Heat makes dough rise more quickly. But if it rises too quickly the flavour will suffer —something that cooks who have tried microwaving dough for a few minutes on Low could probably tell you. Instead, position the bowl or pan over the pilot light of a gas stove or on a medium—hot heating pad.

• Keep hands clean when kneading

When working with dough, don’t flour your hands to stop the mixture from sticking to your skin. Instead, pour a few drops of olive oil into one palm and work it into your hands as you would hand lotion.

• Easy greasing

Save the waxy wrappers of packs of butter and put their buttery residue to good use. Store them in a plastic bag in the fridge. When a recipe calls for a greased pan, bring one or two of the wrappers into service.

• Set cupcakes free

If cupcakes have stuck to the bottom of a metal tin, while the pan is still hot, set it on a wet towel. The condensation in the bottom of the tin will make the little cakes easier to remove.

• Steam for a better loaf

When you’re baking bread, at the same time as you put the loaf tin into the oven, put a second tin containing 6-8 ice cubes on one of the oven racks. The steam that results will help the bread to bake more evenly and give it a crispier crust.

• Lighten up quick breads

If your banana and walnut bread, cinnamon coffee cake or carrot cakes are tasty but heavy, substitute creme fraiche for the milk in the recipes; it should lighten the texture of any quick bread you bake. Experiment to find what gives you the best results: all creme fraiche, equal parts creme fraiche and milk, and so on.

• Butter replacement

If a baking recipe calls for so much butter that you feel your arteries clogging just reading it, substitute a 50:50 mixture of unsweetened pureed apple and buttermilk. Best used in light-coloured or spiced cakes and breads, this substitute imparts a slightly chewier texture — so you may want to replace plain flour with a lighter, special cake flour.

• A honey of a biscuit

Honey will help home-baked biscuits stay softer and fresher for longer. Replace sugar with honey cup for cup, but decrease other liquids in the recipe by 1/4 cup (60ml) per cup of honey.

• A quick fix for bland soup

Boost the flavour of a so-so soup by dissolving a beef or chicken stock cube in a little hot water and whisking it into the soup.

• Soup stretchers

If you’re heating up leftover soup for two or more people and it’s looking skimpy, stir in cooked rice, pasta or pearled barley, all of which are great soup stretchers.

• In the bag

As you prepare salad ingredients, put them into a small plastic bag. When you’ve finished, hold the bag closed with your hand and shake well. The ingredients will be thoroughly tossed and you will be able to refrigerate them in the bag until it’s time to serve.

• Hold the tomatoes

Even when you need to make a mixed salad ahead of time, add sliced tomatoes only after the salad is on the plate. The greens in your salad bowl will stay crisper in the fridge without tomatoes, which make lettuce wilt.

• ‘Fast Italian’ broccoli salad

For an easy and delicious salad, toss steamed broccoli florets cooled to room temperature in a dressing of 1/2 cup (125ml) plain tomato pasta sauce, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley and salt and black pepper to taste.

• Keep it fresh

Use this chef’s trick to keep lettuce fresh for up to two weeks. Pull the leaves off the core, fill a sink with cold water and submerge them for 20 minutes. Remove, dry thoroughly, wrap in paper towels and store in the crisper section of your fridge.

Credit : Reader’s Digest

Picture Credit : Google