Storing Herbs out of Season
A lot of herbs are seasonal and won't last year long'
If you cut them while they are in season, you can have fresh herbs all year long for your favorite recipes by puting them in an ice cube tray with olive oil or butter
Then when you need basil in the middle of winter, just pop out a herbed oil/butter cube which is roughly around 1 Tbsp and add it to your sauce or whatever you are making
How to know if your Avocado is Ripe
When you are buying Avocado's there are a couple of ways
to see if they are ripe, over-ripe or ok to eat
The first test is to remove the outside pip
If the hole is dark in the middle it is over-ripe
If it is a nice light color, it's ripe and ready to eat
SECOND METHOD:
The second way to tell is by it's color
You don't want it firm and light green, you will have to wait 5 days for it to ripen
You also don't want it dark green and mushy, it's over-ripe and may be brown inside
An avocado that is ready to be sliced should be darker in color, soft to touch but not mushy
If you want to mash it straight away to make guacamole for example the darker soft avocados are best
If Avocado's are on sale, but you aren't ready to use them yet, you can buy harder lighter avocado's & place them in a sunny kitchen windowsill to ripen up over the next few days, then when you are ready to use them, you have them on hand
Cutting Cherry Tomatoes in Bulk
If you have a lot of tomatoes to cut, the easiest way is to line them up on a round takeout container lid and place another one on top of them
Then get a serrated bread knife
and slice right through the middle of them all at once
REGROW YOUR VEGETABLES
Don't throw away your Vegetable ends
Place Green onion ends, celery, lettuce in a dish or jar with tall sides and fill with an inch or two of water, within a week they will start to regrow
You will have Green Onions again in a week
You can repeat this process several times over
Just make sure the water is clean
every couple of days, top up if you need to
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Keep Fresh Herbs year round
A lot of herbs don't survive the winter
I place my store bought herbs in a shallow dish in my kitchen window with water and they regrow year round
They are protected from the elements (and the neighbors dog/cat), are organic and tasty in your favorite dishes
You can move them around in winter or summer if they
need more sun or shade
Remember to water from the bottom, ie. put water in the dish they are sitting in, not on the top of the plant
Making Chocolate curls
The easiest way to make chocolate curls for your desserts
is to use a potato peeler down the edge of a block of
chocolate
It also helps if you refrigerate the chocolate first so it doesn't melt in hot weather while
you are working
FIX BROKEN MAYO
If you are like me, you like to think there's nothing you can't do
When it comes to cooking, not everything always goes
according to plan
The best intentions of making your own home made condiments
can go astray, fast
I had a recipe for Home Made Mayo, I thought I'd be smart
throwing it all in the nutribullet and in seconds I'd have instant mayo
If it works for sauces, why not for mayo?
Anything to save me time, right ?
How very wrong I was....the nutribullet blends at such a
turbo rate that it doesn't emulsify, it 'broke' my mayo and instead of a thick creamy homemade spread, I ended up with runny, soupy revolting egg and oil mixture the consistency of water
I was going to throw it all out with the garbage & start over
But I was sure there had to be some way to fix it
I scoured the internet for 1/2 hour
Tried one trick, okay, two tricks
neither worked
I don't give up easy
If someone says you can't do something, I usually find a way to prove them wrong
I came up as a very last resort,
with my own brilliant HACK
that WORKED !
I now have thick, creamy mayo, out of slush :)
What to do:
Get a glass mixing bowl
Add 1 tbsp of Yellow Mustard
(Which after all is just seasoned vinegar and water)
Start whisking the mustard and add a drop or two at a time of
the soupy slushy runny mayo mixture whisking the whole time with the other hand keep dropping a drop or two at a time
and constantly whisking until you have used up the whole mixture
It will be thicker than you had it before, but still not thick enough to be called mayo or to spread
Do not fret
Place the whole lot of this thicker mixture into a tall wide mouthed (mason) jar
Get out your old trusty hand stick blender that you thought you'd never use again and start blending up and down
Within 2-3 mins, you will have a thick, creamy, spreadable homemade mayo
No one will know you ever blew it the first time
It works, it really works !
Fresh Egg or Not?
Something a lot of people don't know
is that there is a tried and tested way
to see if your eggs are fresh
Place a whole egg with shell on
in a glass of water
If it floats to the top
it is old and no good
If it sinks to the bottom
of the glass
It is fresh and
ready for you to cook with
If it stays halfway
it's probably best to use it first
before your fresh ones
TESTING MEAT TEMPERATURE
Testing Meat Temp / Done-ness can be easy when you
know what to look for
Everyone likes their steak a different temperature
Raw:
"Blue" uncooked
Rare:
Red, cool center
Medium Rare:
Warm and pink in the middle
and seared on the outside
Medium:
Light brown middle, no pink left
Seared on the outside
Well Done:
Cooked right through, brown inside
and out with clear juices
You don't always have access to a meat thermometer, but you always have access to your hand
By doing the "finger test" you can see straight away
if the meat is done to your liking
The palm of your hand will be soft or hard depending which finger you flex against it
This method has been used many times to check the temperature of meat
or it's 'done-ness'
You simply use each finger up against your palm
to check how firm it is
Hold your hand out, palm up
Poke the base of your hand by the base of the thumb
It's soft like raw meat
Touching your forefinger and thumb together - Feel the same part of your hand. It’s a little firmer - This is how meat feels when it’s rare
The pad of your hand will get progressively firmer with each finger
Touch your middle finger to the tip of your thumb - Medium rare
Next, touch the tip of your ring finger to your thumb - This is what a medium-well will feel like
When you touch your pinky to your thumb - is the equivalent of a well-done steak
So you can do the finger test
and gently poke the meat
to feel it's done-ness while it is cooking
