Cooking Gadgets + Kitchen Tricks
Chefs Share Cooking Techniques, Tips, Trucs - What are Yours?
An "a-ha" moment in the kitchen can save time, money. Secrets from chefs, friends, cooks help ease stress for the home cook. Truc: a cheffie term for tricks of the trade.
No More Uni-taskers
Common refrain of Good Eats host Alton Brown (that's him in the kelp forest at the Monterey Bay Aquarium below). Rather than one perfect tool for each single job, challenge yourself to simplify. Three good knives. A cherry pitter for cherries and olives. These are just two examples. Here are more tools with more than one use.
- Use a cherry pitter for olives and cherries.
- A melon baller helps remove olives or capers from brine. Makes coring an apple a snap, too.
- Use V-shaped roasting rack, inverted, to store pot lids conveniently.
- Ball up heavy duty or regular foil to scrub a grill or cast iron pan.
- Dental floss works well to cut cakes without tearing them. (No flavored floss, please!)
- A tea-ball can be used to sprinkle powdered sugar or cocoa over desserts.
- Squeeze bottles and speed pour tips (like bartenders use) make cooking a breeze. Keep cooking oil in bottles with speed pours and you can easily drizzle a healthful small amount into a hot pan. Another use is simple syrups for iced teas. Try a lavender or mint simple syrup for iced tea. Basil, lime simple syrup for gimlets.
- Use your coffee grinder to grind spices. One piece of soft bread buzzed in between should eliminate cross-contamination of flavors.
Techniques - New ways to do everyday things.
Asparagus - Plentiful in spring. Fresh asparagus should not have odor of ammonia. Bright and crisp appearance is best. To prepare, bend till woody end snaps off. No need to guess. (Save ends for broth.) Steam lightly, shock in cold water and freeze, while the supply is plentiful and seasonally fresh. Berries can also be frozen easily by separating washed berries on a half sheet pan. Then, store in zip bag or container.
Parmigiano-Reggiano - Best bought in a wedge. Grate as you go, and save rinds in freezer to add to soups, sauces calling for that flavor. Packed with umami, this will enhance the sauce or soup. If the sauce or soup is long cooked, it may disintegrate into the dish completely, or simply remove the undissolved portion when you choose. Watch salt.
Slicing or dicing - To slice a round object (such as an apple or onion) first take off a small piece to create a flat edge. Turn on its side on that edge and you have a non-rolling thing to slice safely. Half an onion can be cut into dice quickly by keeping your knive parallel to the cutting board, onion on flat cut side. Run knife through end to end stopping just before slicing all the way through. Then slice through with knife perpendicular to board. Finally, cut across the slices you've just made and your onion with fall away in perfect dice.
De-Boning - Regular tweezers or needle-nose pliers (clean ones only!) can be used to remove pin bones from fish. To make them easy to find, invert a mixing bowl and lay fish on top.
Ice cubes - freeze ice tea or lemon juice or other fruit juices in ice cube trays. Rather than diluting your next iced tea, your flavored ice will enhance it. Mini ice cube trays can be used to freeze pomegranate seeds for beautiful and delicious cocktails.
Pomegranate - this delicious healthy fruit can be a little daunting for someone unfamiliar with how to peel it. The juice also stains anything it contacts pretty quickly. To open it safely and enjoy the seeds and juice:
- Score the pomegranate on the blossom or calyx end.
- Hold under a bowl of water.
- Break apart into quarters.
- Gently push off seeds from membrane.
- The seeds will fall to the bottom. Drain the water and enjoy.
Don't Waste That! How to get the most out of everday foods
Show respect for your food, your planet, and your budget by using every little bit of whatever you've brought home. It's part of the philosophy behind Nose-to-Tail Eating and it's a familiar value to anyone who is budget-conscious.
- Save shrimp shells for making stock. Many recipes will call for bottled clam juice - don't believe them! Boil shrimp shells with some white peppercorns (or black), a bay leaf, and freeze for use later. A bit of kombu will add umami and minerals to your healthy homemade stock.
- Onion peels, parsley stems, mushroom stems. All can be frozen for making vegetable stock. Keep a bag in the freezer until you have enough to make a vegetable stock and freeze in cubes.
- If your organic eggs come in those plastic cartons, use these to freeze extra stock. This saves your ice cube trays and gives you a smaller portion of stock to use at any time.
- Freeze bananas whole. The skins will brown but the banana will be perfect for smoothies adding nutrition and heft to a shake or smoothie requiring less yogurt or ice cream.
