Hello friends! I have an assortment of kitchen tips to share with you all, the formatting may be wierd but this is me trying to keep it organized. Discuss, share your own tips, and keep poasting to help make Hexbear healthy and strong.
- Coconut Oil Cubes
Most ice cube trays have slots that measure around one tablespoon in volume. Since coconut oil is profoundly annoying to measure I will melt it down and pour into an ice cube tray and store the cubes in a container in the fridge. You can do half tablespoon or teaspoon sized portions too but that calls for actually measuring.
- Keep Frozen Bottles of Water Around
I keep about a dozen bottles of water in my freezer since it makes the appliance more efficient and helps keep things colder, longer when the power goes out. They used to be refilled 1 or 2 liter sized soda bottles but Ive since switched to those half liter bottles of drinking water for utilities sake. They make decent impromptu ice packs too.
- Frozen Water Bottle Iced Coffee Trick
When I want iced coffee I'll pour it hot into a very large cup (I use a protein shaker bottle thing) and then place one of my many frozen water bottles inside of that and place it in the freezer. This cools previously hot coffee down to at least room temperature in 3-5 minutes without watering it down.
- Soy Curl Laundry Bag Trick
Soy Curls have a wierd aftertaste if you don't squeeze them out after hydrating but I don't like doing that barehanded or wasting cheese cloth so I rehydrate them in a small mesh laundry bag after sifting out the dust in a colander. This way I can just pull the bag out and squeeze when its done. I wash the bag after every use with the rest of the laundry but will give it a rinse before using in order to take care of any lint. Pic related, its the kind of bag I'm talking about.
- Buy Big Size, Use From Little Container
Buying seasonings in bulk and then decanting into spice bottles saves a lot of money and reduces waste. Use a wide-mouth funnel for this. Same goes for soy sauce, I have one of those resturant-style pour bottles and I refill it from half-gallon jugs, the difference in price by volume is astronomical.
- Miscellaneous Other Tips
I keep a hot sauce bottle filled with water next to my stove. Its really good for dispensing a splash of water when doing that in-pan steaming thing or deglazing.
Having multiple sets of measuring spoons is really useful, helps avoid "cross contaminating" spices or measuring powders after liquids. Its also nice if youre being lazy about doing the dishes.
Baking powder expires and it expires for real.
A+ to all this!! I'll add a few of mine.
Get some MSG and citric acid (or tajin). When you're making a dish and there's just something missing, it's usually umami or acid. The title of the book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat tells you four basic elements that you can fiddle with to find what makes your dish suddenly pop!
Learn how to hone your knives and do it every time you use them. You'll almost never have to sharpen them. Pay a pro to sharpen them if you don't have the means, your knife should glide with a little gentle suggestion.
Sunny side up eggs. As the eggs sizzle on some oil, put a splash of water in the pan and move the water area over the heat and put a lid on it. This steams the egg on top and eliminate runny white.
Pickled onions, takes five minutes to make and keep in a jar in your fridge. Throw them on things, you'll wonder how you got along without them.
Sauces. Make your own for wildly cheaper than the store. Many of them keep well for weeks in a repurposed squeeze bottle.
Do you know how to make a thickened sugar sauce like supermarket plum sauce or similar? Anything of that consistency if I could get 1 basic recipie can change the flavors. Tried for a while to concoct a tamarind sauce using cornstarch to thicken but it always turned out gross.
I do not. Sorry!