{"id":14575,"date":"2015-04-09T06:26:01","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T04:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.radioislam.org.za\/wordpress\/2015\/04\/09\/useful-kitchen-tips-and-tricks-09-04-15\/"},"modified":"2015-04-09T06:26:01","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T04:26:01","slug":"useful-kitchen-tips-and-tricks-09-04-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/useful-kitchen-tips-and-tricks-09-04-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Useful kitchen tips and tricks (09.04.15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How to Prevent Food From Sticking<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Love the sear of a stainless skillet but not the way peppers can start to meld to the bottom midway through cooking? <\/p>\n

A little more oil should help. But don\u2019t just pour it over the top of the food or you\u2019ll end up with a greasy, soggy mess. Instead, use a metal spatula to loosen the vegetables or meat and push them to one side of the skillet. Then tilt the pan so the empty area is over the heat. Add the oil to the empty area (1 or 2 tablespoons should do it) and let it get hot before moving the food back. The heated oil on the hot pan will create a slick, nonstick surface, guaranteeing a surefire saut\u00e9.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cutting Roly-Poly Vegetables Safely<\/span><\/strong>
To keep your fingers safe from nicks, use the following technique on wobbly vegetables (such as potatoes, squash, and beets).<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 1: With a sharp knife, cut a thin slice along the length of the potato (or another vegetable) to create a flat side.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 2: Turn the potato cut-side down on the cutting board. This will ensure that the potato is stable and won\u2019t roll away. Slice as desired, stopping when the potato becomes unsteady and difficult to grip.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 3: Turn the potato so that the broad, flat side from which you made the last cut is facedown on the cutting board. Continue to slice as desired.<\/span><\/p>\n

How to Grill Corn<\/span><\/strong>
It\u2019s hard to beat the smoky-sweet flavor of fresh corn cooked on a grill. Here\u2019s how to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 1. Pull the husks back from the corn, but leave them attached at the stem. Remove and discard the silks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 2. Pull the husks back up around the corn. Soak the ears in a roasting pan or large bowl full of water for 15 minutes. (The water will prevent the husks from burning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 3: Grill the corn over medium heat, turning often, until the kernels are tender and the husks are lightly charred, 8 to 10 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trimming Green Beans in a Snap<\/span><\/strong>
Sitting with a bushel of beans and carefully pinching the ends off each one can be quite relaxing\u2014if you\u2019re sitting on a porch swing on a lazy afternoon. But if you have a cluttered countertop and 15 minutes until dinner, try this technique instead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 1. Line up the stems. The beans\u2019 tough, knobby ends need to go, but the other ends (the skinny, tapered tips) are tender and perfectly fine to eat. Sort the beans so that the stems all face one direction. Scoot a handful against your palm so that they\u2019re even.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step 2. Using a chef\u2019s knife, cut off the knobby ends with one slice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mastering Whipped Cream<\/span><\/strong>
Getting soft peaks\u2014and not going too far (oops, butter!)\u2014is easy if you use these three tips.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Start with the right ingredients. For fluffy, stable whipped cream, use cartons labeled \u201cheavy cream,\u201d \u201cwhipping cream,\u201d or \u201cheavy whipping cream.\u201d (Save the light cream for coffee.) For sweetness, add 2 tablespoons granulated sugar per cup of cream before beating.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Watch carefeully. In a chilled bowl, with an electric mixer on high, beat chilled cream and sugar until the beaters leave visible lines when drawn across the cream. Reduce mixer speed to medium-low and continue to beat until soft peaks form. (When you hold up the beaters, the cream should stand up, then flop over.)<\/span><\/p>\n

3. If you do overwhip, don\u2019t panic. Add a splash of fresh, unwhipped cream to the curdled lumps and fold it in with a rubber spatula. Repeat as needed until the mixture smooths out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Protect Cookbooks & Recipes:<\/strong> Recipe cards and cookbooks getting a little grungy and marked with goop? To prevent this from happening or the damage from getting worse, place the cards and cookbooks in a clear plastic bag first before using them to prepare a dish. This will keep them from getting smudged up with gooey fingers, yet still be perfectly readable when doing a quick check on a measurement or instruction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baking Soda Meat Tenderizer:<\/strong> You can use baking soda as a meat tenderizer.<\/p>\n

Two different ways to do this:<\/strong> Sprinkle baking soda all over the meat, rub it in a bit and then let sit (refrigerated) for several hours. You could also make a baking soda\/water paste and slather it over the meat. Let it marinate for several hours. Rinse meat before cooking to remove all the baking soda.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keep pouches of dry soup mixes, seasonings, etc., in small bins (empty margarine tubs work great) or baskets\u2026now they\u2019re neat & tidy in one place.<\/span><\/p>\n

A pizza cutter will slice everything from pizzas, fudge, pancakes, french toast, chicken strips and more. If you have small kids, this is a big time saver!<\/span><\/p>\n

Melon ballers are great for shaping balls of melon, but also for coring fruits like pears and apples, hulling strawberries, seeding tomatoes, shaping mini-meatballs and balls of herbed butter. They\u2019re also ideal for hollowing out cherry tomatoes. Another suggestion: form perfect thumbprint cookies by pressing the melon baller in each before baking.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 How to Prevent Food From Sticking Love the sear of a stainless skillet but not the way peppers can start to meld to the bottom midway through cooking? A little more oil should help. But don\u2019t just pour it over the top of the food or you\u2019ll end up with a greasy, soggy mess. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kitchen-tips"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hints-and-tips.png?fit=400%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-3N5","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 01:26:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}