Cooking Hints and Tips
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When preparing a grocery list, use one recipe at a time. Sit down with your recipe, a sheet of paper, and a pen or pencil. Read through the recipe and write down ingredients that you do not have on the list. Pay attention to amounts; if you are going to need 10 cups of flour making the recipes, you should buy a bag of flour. To peel fresh gingerroot, rather than using a knife and cutting away much of the usable ginger with the peel, try a spoon. Place the edge of a metal spoon against the tip of the chunk of gingerroot. Exert firm pressure and move the spoon downward along the root. The edge of the spoon will remove the peel but none of the underlying ginger flesh. Cut up those canned tomatoes quickly by snipping them right in the can with kitchen shears. If you cut bagels in half before freezing they will defrost a lot faster, and you can toast them without waiting! Thaw turkey, in the refrigerator, for at least 1 day for each 4 pounds of weight. An egg slicer works great for slicing fresh mushrooms. Before party guests arrive, scoop ice cream into muffin tins lined with cupcake liners and refreeze. You won't have to fuss later when serving cake. Blanching is a way to preserve your vegetables' color, texture, and flavor before serving. Prolonged exposure to heat deteriorates vegetables and blanching lightly cooks only the outer layer of their flesh. To blanch vegetables plunge them into boiling salted water for a short period of time, just a few minutes until they are bright and tender-crisp. Then immediately stop the cooking process by placing the vegetables into an ice water bath until they cool. Green beans and other fibrous vegetables retain their crispiness and color. Do not overload the pot because this will increase the cooking time, blanch in batches if necessary. The vegetables can be used immediately in salads and other cold dishes, or they can be stored or frozen for later use. A quick saute or stir fry is all that is needed to finish cooking the vegetables. For asparagus boil for 2-3 minutes, depending on thickness of the stalks. When “breading” something, if the instructions say something like “coat with flour, dip in eggs, dip in whatever else—use cornstarch instead to avoid that whole “floury,” “breaded” taste. Chill chicken for 1 hour after coating it. The coating will stick better when cooking. When pureeing solid food, like chicken livers, in the blender it is important to puree in small batches. Use enough of the liquid from the recipe to get the food down into the blades of the blender so it can do its job. To make sugared grapes for garnish: Brush clusters of grapes with slightly beaten egg white. Dip in granulated sugar, turning to coat all sides. Dry on cake rack. When a recipe calls for a small amount of grated or minced onion, cut a slice off the top of the onion, then cross-hatch the onion with a paring knife in very thin straight-down cuts, first one way, then the other, cutting about 1/8-inch deep. Slice off this part of the onion to use, and wrap the rest to use another time. Secret to perfectly sliced onions: Slice the onion in half lengthwise. Lay the onion half on its flat side and slice through it the long way, parallel to the cutting board. Then chop across it and you will have a perfectly diced onion. Repeat with the other half... To peel garlic easily, microwave a clove on high power about 12 seconds or so which makes the skin sleep off easily. For giant ice cubes, freeze fruit punch/gingerale in muffin tins. These large ice cubes are good in big punch bowls. A quick way to make garlic butter: Simply take the butter out of the fridge, cut and 1 cm cubes, then peal a few garlic cloves. Take 1 butter cube and 1 garlic clove and put them into your garlic press. It only takes a squeeze to make a perfectly manageable, soft garlic butter in seconds. Dental floss cuts perfect rolls. Place a long piece of dental floss under rolled dough and cross the ends of the floss. Pull through and you have a perfect roll without it becoming crushed. Cover work surface with flattened grocery bags or old newspaper. Trim and peel produce or shellfish directly over paper. When you're done, gather up paper and trimmings and discard. Instead of using waxed paper or plastic wrap to pound meat between, use the clear, thin, flexible cutting boards. You won't have to pick off bits and pieces of paper from the meat. To break lumpy brown sugar and make it easier to cream into butter, run it in a food processor or blender until it becomes soft. Quickly use that frozen juice concentrate by mashing it with a potato masher while frozen, or place can with the lid removed in microwave for 1 minute. Shrinkless sausages: boil for 8 minutes and then fry or roll lightly in flour before frying. Crumble stale, hard cookies and save them in a jar. Use them for toppings on coffee cakes or for pie crust instead of graham crackers. When a recipe calls for browning eggplant or other foods in oil, let your broiler save you time and calories. Brush the pieces lightly with oil and let brown in the broiler. You'll use less than half the fat than if you pan-browned. Pour cooled broth from meat or poultry into a glass jar with a secure lid and refrigerate upside down. The fat will harden and remain in the bottom of the jar when you pour out the liquid for use in your recipes. Lightly rinse and drain canned beans to remove excess salt before using. To make your own croutons cut day-old white bread into small cubes. Saute' in a little olive oil and butter in a skillet over medium heat, tossing frequently until crisp and golden, about 5 minutes. For extra flavor, add a little finely chopped garlic or chopped fresh herbs. To quick-cut green beans, bunch together a handful; cut crosswise or diagonally into inch-long pieces. Shred cheese right out of the refrigerator when it is nice and cold. When it softens it is harder to shred. Soften cream cheese by removing foil wrapper from cheese and microwave, uncovered, on medium (50%) until softened. (Cheese will hold it's shape while it softens.) Softening will take approximately 35 seconds for 3 oz and 70 seconds for 8 oz of cream cheese. To soften butter in a hurry slice it into a bowl, then beat it with an electric mixer, slowly at first, then increase speed until butter is soft and creamy. When a recipe calls for softened butter but you've forgotten to take it out of the refrigerator in advance, measure the correct amount and shred or grate it as you would a carrot. The small pieces will be soft enough to work with immediately. When creaming butter and sugar together for a recipe, beat sugar gradually into softened butter to be sure it's absorbed. then beat on high speed until mixture is light and fluffy. Use two flatware knives or a pastry blender to cut in shortening, butter, margarine, or lard into dry ingredients. The recipe will state how small the particles should be in the end. To make your own bread crumbs, bake bread slices at 200F degrees until dry (about 10 minutes), then process in a food processor with a metal blade. To cut dried fruits, marshmallows, or gumdrops, dip kitchen scissors frequently into hot water so they don't get too sticky. To chop dry fruits, place them in freeze for half an hour before cutting. Take the fruits out and cut them with a hot knife (dip it in hot water before cutting). To make soft bread crumbs for a recipe, tear soft bread with fingers into small pieces. To make graham cracker crumbs, place graham crackers in zipper-style plastic bag. Close. Crush by going back and forth across crackers with a rolling pin. To toast coconut, thinly spread the coconut in a shallow baking pan and place in a 350°F oven. Stir coconut often to toast evenly. Bake 7 to 12 minutes until coconut is lightly browned. To tint coconut, mix 1/2 teaspoon water with a few drops of food coloring. Add colored water to 1 1/3 cups coconut in a zipper-style plastic bag. Close bag and shake coconut back and forth until coconut is evenly tinted. To crush nuts quickly and easily without the muss or fuss, place in a self-sealing plastic bag and roll with a rolling pin. To unstick dried dates, figs, cranberries, or raisins, place them in a low-temperature oven for a few minutes. If a recipe calls for sifting dry ingredients, you can stir them together with a wire whisk instead. An easy way to chop nuts is to put them in a cloth bag and roll with a rolling pin. When cutting vegetables for soups or stews (or whatever) cut all the STINKY ones first (onions, leeks, shallots, scallions, garlic, whatever). Cut the COLORED ones next (carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, etc). Always chop the celery LAST, and that will deodorize your hands, cutting board, food processor, and knife handles, and will also remove most of the color that would otherwise leave a stain. Placing an onion in the freezer 15 minutes before slicing will reduce the spray of onion oils when you cut the onion so your eyes won't tear up. Thanksgiving Preparations:
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