21 kitchen tips and tricks that will change your life

Some tried and tested, others just smart thinking, these simple cooking hacks will make life in the kitchen so much easier…

1. Grate cold butter: This makes the butter melt much faster, so if your butter is too cold to spread, consider grating it first and then topping toast, veggies, or a baked potato.

2. Peel ginger with a spoon: Ginger can be tricky to peel with all its bumps and irregularities. Rather than using a paring knife or vegetable peeler, reach for the spoon. Scrape it against the skin and it’ll come right off.

3. Use unscented floss to cut through soft things like cheeses or cakes.

4.  Instead of fishing around a piece of broken eggshell from your morning scrambled egg mix with your finger, use one of the egg shell halves to scoop it out – works like a charm.

5. Rip lettuce apart instead of cutting it to prevent it from bruising on the edges.

6. Store greens and herbs with a damp paper towel: Don’t you hate it when you open up the vegetable drawer and spot that plastic produce bag at the bottom that’s filled with green slime that used to be herbs? You can extend the lifespan of washed herbs and greens by several days by rolling them up in damp paper towels and placing them in zipper-lock bags with the seals left slightly open.

7. Freeze leftover sauce: Essentially you could do this with homemade sauces as well as anything canned that you don’t use up. Simply freeze leftovers in an ice cube tray, and then once it’s frozen, transfer the cubes into a freezer safe bag. 

8. Pop frozen grapes into your wine glass to keep is chilled and undiluted.

9. Defrost meat on aluminum trays: The fastest way to defrost meat is under a cold running tap. But if you want to save water and speed things up a bit, place your meat on an aluminum sheet tray or skillet. Aluminum is a great conductor of heat and will draw energy from the surrounding environment into your frozen meat much faster than a wooden cutting board or wood or stone countertop.

10. Keep your cutting board from sliding all over the counter by using a wet paper towel or damp hand towel under your board to keep it in its place.

11. Partially freeze meat before cutting: Slicing meat to grind or cook in a stir-fry can be tricky even with a sharp knife. To make it easier, place the meat in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes to stiffen it up.

12. Eggs peel easiest if you add some bicarb to the water and then pop it in cold water afterward.

13. The easy way to pit a cherry: Use an empty glass cooldrink bottle, with an opening small enough to rest a cherry on, using a chopstick, poke the cherry pits out and all of the pits go into the bottle, making clean up easy. 

14. Before chopping chillies, rub your hands with veg oil to prevent them from absorbing the chilli oils.

15. Rolling citrus fruit first before squeezing: If you roll while applying a bit of pressure to your citrus fruits (lemons, limes, oranges, etc.), you will get so much more of that yummy juice.

16. Tired of sticky pasta? Take your pasta off the stove just a tinge before al dente. When you pour it into the colander, quickly pop the pot back below to catch the water. The steam will keep the noodles hot and stop them from sticking.

17. The easy way to shred chicken: Put your cooked chicken breasts in your KitchenAid while they are still hot and it will shred it in less than a minute.

18. Over salted your soup or stew? Plop in a peeled potato and the little guy will absorb all the salt. (It takes about 10 minutes.)

19. Separate your bananas (and store them away from other fruit) to prevent them from going off quicker.

20. Wooden spoon trick: Place a wooden spoon over boiling water to keep it from boiling over. There is a lot of science behind this, but the easiest way to explain why this works is because the spoon pops a lot of the bubbles once they come into contact with it, and it also absorbs some of the moisture. Apparently, metal spoons don’t work because they heat up too fast. It’s worth a try!

21.Freeze herbs in oil: If you freeze your herbs in olive oil it will prevent them from browning and getting freezer burnt. Not to mention they will always be handy, whether in season or not. 

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