Being a better, faster cook sometimes means having a few kitchen tricks up your sleeves. Here are a few tricks that I go to almost everday, some I researched and others that you might need to know on that rainy day when driving to the grocery store is out of the question! Cooking can also be all about substitution. Check out what to do when you don’t know what to do and how to freeze and store those precious goods when your done.
Have some tricks of your own up your sleeve. By all means SHARE! Email me at bellecooking@gmail.com and I would love to share it with everyone.
1. Store sour cream and cottage cheese upside down in their containers and they stay fresh much longer. I don’t know why, but it works.
2. I have 2 different chopping boards. One for meats and one for vegetables and fruits. This way I feel completely at ease when using either not having to worry about harmful bacteria.
3. When cooking any kind of strawberry dessert, add a splash of aged balsamic vinegar to the recipe to enhance the flavor of the strawberries.
5. Whirl almost any kind of LEFTOVER SOUP in blender to get a sauce or gravy for vegetables or meat.
6. Add a little sugar (a little at a time) to beaten eggs whites near the end and it will give the egg whites more thickness.
7. Use unwaxed, flavorless dental floss to cut the dough for cinnamon rolls or to split a cake layer. It can also be used to sew up stuffed chicken breasts and pork tenderloin. Once the meat is cooked the dental floss just slides right out with a gentle pull.
8. My FAV: Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon baking powder to a frying batter for an especially Belleicious outer coating or crust.
9. Never Never pierce a piece of meat with a fork or knife. If you don’t have a good meat thermometer then go get yourself one. They are not that expensive and you will thank me when that piece of chicken comes out nice and juicy instead of hard and dry!
10. Got Buttermilk? Nope? Then use plain milk with vinegar or plain milk with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Both work well and you won’t even know the difference.
11. A typical bottle screw cap on your olive/vegetable oil, sauces, marinades or cooking wine is considered a teaspoon. So the next time a recipe calls for a tsp of oil just use the bottle cap it comes with no need to dirty up a measuring spoon!
12. When making chocolate cake, dust the pan with cocoa instead of flour
13 . Butter is ALWAYS best at room temperature. If you are like me I try and multitask everything I do but sticking that butter in the microwave to “soften” it up really won’t do your chocolate cookies any favors! Just leave it out on the counter for 30 minutes or so before your ready to use it. It helps to have a butter dish so you can measure out exactly how much you need instead of wasting the whole stick.
14. Microwave sliced onions before making caramelized onions. This cuts cooking time in half.
15. Be sure to measure your ingredients carefully. Use individual nesting cups for your dry ingredients like sugar, flour, breadcrumbs and liquid measuring cups for none other than your liquid! for dry ingredients like flour and sugar, and graduated glass or plastic cups with spouts for liquids. If you need to use a liquid measuring cup for a dry ingredient just make sure to add an extra tablespoon of the dry ingredient to the cup.
16. To get easy tablespoons of tomato paste whenever you need it without wasting the whoel can, just open both ends, push out the paste, and cut the cylinder of paste into little disks. re-freeze those disks and you’ve got a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste handy whenever.
17. Not a huge garlic lover are you? If a recipe calls for you to add minced garlic to your saute pan just use a whole garlic clove. It is less poignant but still delivers enough flavor. Plus, if you need minced garlic it is SOO much easier to chop it if you stick it in the oven (No need to peel!yeah!) on 400 for about 5 minutes. It softens the cloves up, makes them easier to chop and brings out more flavor.
18. Fresh or Dry Herbs? That is the question. I can honestly tell you that before I started my little herb garden I almost always used dried herbs. They are easy to buy, quick and last forever. Since then I have been using more fresh herbs and the different can be huge or minimal depending on what you are making. If the recipe calls for herbs in a soup, dip or topping then by all means use your dried stuff. However, fresh herbs really make a difference when making a sauce, marinade or dealing with chicken, seafood or pasta.
19. Hate to remove skin from garlic. Go ahead and squish the clove with the back of your knife OR make your life easier and buy the cloves with skin already removed from the grocery store!
20. When using fresh lemon or limes for a recipe, make sure to roll the fruit agaisnt the counter to release the juices before you start squeezing.
21. Save your butter wrapper in the fridge for greasing baking pans later.
22. Cooking with olive oil is like cooking with wine. Never use a wine or olive oil that does not taste good to you. When cooking with olive oil, save your extra-virgin oils for salads, dressings, and vinaigrettes. You can also drizzle it over slices of crusty bread or onto open-face sandwiches. Use it on a baked potato or add it to mashed potatoes instead of butter. Extra virgin olive oil tastes great on cooked vegetables or brushed onto fish or meat before serving. When sautéing or frying, use either a combination olive oil (one that is simply a blend of extra virgin and regular olive oil) or a straight olive oil.
The difference in olive oils can be somewhat misleading, at least to myself so here is a breakdown of the different type of oils, all of which WHEN NEED BE can be used in place of the other.
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil: All olive oils that are less than 1% acidity and produced by the first pressing of the olive fruit through the cold pressing process is called extra-virgin olive oil.
According to Paul Armas Lepisto, Director of The Olive University, most olive oils today are extra virgin in name only, meeting only the minimum requirement. Extra virgin is a chemical requirement that does not indicate quality and taste.
Virgin Olive Oil: It is made from olives that are slightly riper than those used in the production of extra-virgin oil. Virgin olive oil is produced in the same way, but it is essentially defective or low-grade extra virgin oil.
Refined Olive Oil: Olive oil known as “refined olice oil” is made by refining the virgin olive oil. The final product is basically a tasteless olive oil.
Pure Olive Oil: Pure olive oil is much lighter in color and blander in taste than virgin olive oil. It is a general-purpose (all-purpose) olive oil.
22. Oh- this is COOL. Add a few teaspoons of lemon juice to your rice before it boils and it will be whiter! Weird I know but Cool.
23. Too much Salt? If this happens and your dish is still cooking then just add some sliced potato wedges in your pan. Potatoes need salt when cooking and it will soak up the excess salt from whatever your cooking.
24. A lemon freshly squeezed will give you about 2-3 Tablespoons of lemon juice depending on the size of the lemon.
25. When using green onions save the white ends(with roots) and put in a glass jar with little water. The onions will grow back and you will always have green onions handy.
26. After stewing a chicken for diced meat for casseroles, etc., let cool in broth before cutting into chunks. It will have twice the flavor.
27. Last but not least, when you are using a sticky ingredient like honey or molasses or corn syrup- rub in inside of your measuring cup with butter and the substance will just easily pour out of the cup.
Freezing/Storage
Mushrooms freeze well. Wash quickly, dry, then put them, sliced or un-sliced, in a plastic bag and freeze. Use them without defrosting. In any cooked dish, they will taste exactly like fresh mushrooms.
Freezing ice cubes of herbs, garlic, or stock has been really helpful for me.
When you get home from the store. Cut up your onions, celery and peppers and place them on a baking sheet in the freezer for 15 minutes. Then place each into a seperate ziploc bag and you will have fresh/frozen veggies for your dishes.
Divide chicken breasts into ziploc bags and place a marinade in with the chicken and freeze. So next time you need to make a quick chicken dish your chicken will already be marinated and belleicious.
When you freeze bacon, there is no waiting for thawing if you arrange the strips flat, slice by slice, on waxed paper, then roll them up. Put them in a plastic bag in the freeze. To use, unroll and peel off the necessary number of slices.
To keep celery crisp, stand it up in a pitcher of cold, salted water and refrigerate
Here’s a convenient way to freeze casseroles:Line the casserole dish with foil, leaving 2″ collar all around. Add casserole ingredients and bake. Cool and freeze in uncovered casserole. When frozen, lift casserole and foil out in one piece
Cover with foil or place in a freezer bag. Seal tightly, label, date and freeze.To thaw, take frozen casserole out of bag and foil, and place in the casserole dish it was originally baked in.
Subsitutions:
Baking Powder: 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar plus 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch
Chocolate, Bittersweet or Semi-Sweet: 1/2 ounce unsweetened chocolate plus 1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
Cornstarch: 2 tablespoonsall purpose flour
Cream of tartar: 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar or lemon juice
Half & Half: 1 cup whole milk plus 2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
Sour Cream: 1 cup plain yogurt
Butter 1/2 cup: 1/2 cup Vegetable Shortening
1 cup AP Flour: 1 cup Self Rising and omit salt and baking powder from the recipe
1 cup Self Rising Flour: 1 cup AP Flour plus 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup Honey: 3/4 cup maple syrup plus 1/2 cup white sugar
Mascarpone Cheese: 3/4 cup cream cheese beaten with 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup evaporated milk: 1 cup half & half
Omg, I just learned so much from this. I’m dying to get home to flip over my sour cream now, lol.
Great tips Jessica. I’m going to try the green onion tip tonight!
I love this! Keeping this cheat sheet dog eared for sure