At the end of the day, there’s one truth – anyone can learn how to cook. But what sets one apart from the other is their ingenuity with ingredients, sheer creativity, and a wide array of experience. In this article, we will give you the edge in the kitchen with hacks akin to cauliflower in milk and salt in coffee. Here are master chef hacks that will elevate your skills in the kitchen.
Balance Out Your Pastries
If you love to bake pastries or other sweet desserts, you may notice that some of the ingredients that went into them become a little muted through the baking process.
If you can relate to this issue, consider using about half a teaspoon of salt in your sweet dough to help balance out the flavors and brighten the recipe up.
Keep Boiled Veggies Bright
Although this might not affect the taste of your food as much, it’s nice for presentation if all your boiled veggies stay bright in the final mix.
To accomplish this, make sure that after you boil, fry, or stew your vegetables you shock them in ice water right after they’re done cooking to preserve their brightness!
Ice water has always been one of the most important kitchen tips and hacks from cooking noodles to maintaining food integrity and consistency.
Keep Cauliflower Fresh
Cooking with cauliflower is a nice low-carb alternative to using noodles in certain dishes. Still, keeping your cauliflower around too long can make it turn gray and lose its color—especially when you cook it.
To prevent that, throw in a couple drops of milk and a little bit of salt when you’re cooking cauliflower to preserve its color.
Use Grapes As Ice Cubes
Many of us enjoy a nice glass of wine—and some of us even like to add ice to wine to cool it down. Still, ice cubes are not the best for this because they melt and end up diluting the flavor of the drink.
Instead, throw some grapes in the freezer and plop those in your glass instead to keep the flavor intact.
Use Your Hand For Measurements
If we want to cook more on the fly without using all the measuring cups and spoons, we need some kind of shorthand way to do it which is still reasonably accurate. As it turns out, our hand is actually very helpful for that very purpose.
A cup is about the size of your closed fist, an ounce is about the size of your thumb from tip to bottom knuckle (a tablespoon is half that) and one teaspoon is from the tip of your index to the first knuckle.
A cupped hand is one or two ounces for nuts or pretzels and the palm of your hand without the fingers is about three ounces of meat.
Fresh Lemon Juice
Fresh lemon juice is often a staple in many of our recipes. To make sure your lemon juice is as fresh as it can be, you don’t need to cut the lemon up and take it out.
Instead, use your palm to roll the fruit around and then stab a toothpick in the bottom of it to get the juice out. This way, the air won’t get to the juice before you use it!
Cook Perfect Rice
Cooking rice can be a delicate balance. We want it to absorb the perfect amount of moisture without becoming too soft or mushy.
Fortunately, there are ways to prevent this. If you’re cooking rice in a saucepan with boiling water, throw a kitchen towel over the pan after you’ve turned the heat off.
The towel will absorb the extra moisture and your rice will crumble apart perfectly when it’s done. If you want to know how to fluff rice, simply take a ladle and toss your rice after it cooks. Put on the lid again and let it sit before serving.
Make Juicier Salads
When we typically make a salad, we chop everything up and throw it in a bowl together without giving the specific ingredients much mind. Still, this sometimes results in salads that have already lost some of their flavor.
To avoid this, cut up your juicier veggies and fruits and separate them from the other ingredients in a bowl.
After that, sprinkle them with salt. After a few minutes, add them to the salad—they should retain their moisture much better.
Salt in Coffee Hack
Coffee is what fuels many of us throughout the day, but we don’t always buy the nicest or most expensive kinds.
Regardless, you can still step up your coffee game by adding a pinch of salt and cinnamon to the coffee grounds before brewing. Both ingredients together will help punch up the coffee’s aroma and taste!
You’ll be amazed by the difference a little pinch of salt in coffee makes.
Takeaway
Want to make broccoli and carrots steamed? Use ice water. Flavor a bit flat? Salt. Keep these clever kitchen hacks handy, and watch your friends and family be amazed by what you whip up. Try out these hacks for yourself and tell us what you think!
Source: Brightside