You may be the Gandalf of the family kitchen, shouting “You shall not pass!” as people attempt to enter your culinary domain, and everyone knows a magician never reveals their secrets… but what if they did? Luckily, for you, we have magical secrets of our own to share with you. We put together 10 of our favourite tricks for you to try. Yes, you read that right, this is 10 of our favourites, not just a “top ten” (so you can see how amazing and different we are).
But wait, there’s more! If you order now, we’ll throw in an extra tip and a beautiful gold ring, forged in the fires of Mt. Doom.
OK, OK, wait… first, we won’t actually give you a gold ring, so please don’t get too excited. Second, saying it in the manner we did was way was more fun than just proclaiming 11 tips (really, it is OK to admit it… it’s more fun this way!).Fourth, if you don’t get the LOTR references, we’d like to suggest the series as some light reading so you can understand the references and enjoy some great literature!. Fifth, and last, if you’ve been paying attention, you will have noticed that we entirely skipped the third point. Don’t worry, we were just keeping you on your toes (or we’re just really bad at counting).
- The wrap of life
Wrapping the top/stem of your bananas with plastic wrap blocks gases from escaping out of the stem, which ripens the fruit faster.
- Bottoms up banana
Have you ever mashed up the top of your banana trying to open the peel from the top, with the stem. We sure have. Rather than mushing up the succulent goodness inside, flip that banana around and try prying it apart from the bottom. You might flip head over heels with this fruitful success.
- Save cut fruit from browning
Use lemon juice to keep your fruits from browning. The natural acidic property of the lemon juice slows the process that causes discolouring.
- Keep your potatoes white
Cover shredded or diced potatoes with cold water to prevent the spuds from turning into that odd grayish/brown.
- Twist the stones
First, cut your stone fruit into halves, then twist the halves in opposing directions. Then, you can use your thumb or a butter knife to pry the pit/stone out. To make things even easier, you can also cut your fruit into quarters and twist again. This works on all sorts of fruits like nectarines, bananas, and plums – actually, this doesn’t really work on bananas, we just wanted to see if you were paying attention.
- No more rotten tomatoes (well they cannot keep forever, but this will help)
Store tomatoes at room temperature and place them with the stem end down. This prevents moisture escaping through the opening where the tomato was attached to the vine and also prevents air from entering through the same. This should easily prolong the life of your tomatoes.
- Prevent brown sugar from hardening
Keep that sugar from turning in a sweetened rock by adding an orange peel, piece of fresh bread, or an apple slice with it in an air tight container.
- Get the scoop on seeds
Using an ice cream scoop to remove seeds from your veggies makes things much easier. The handle is a lot thicker than a regular spoon so it can handle a lot more torque (if force is required) while the scoop is often a little sharp, which helps carve those seeds out from the gooey fibers that hold them in place within pumpkins and squash.
- The bottle pit
Use an empty bottle (a standard glass soda or beer bottle works best) and place your cherries on top one at a time. Then, simply use a chopstick, or something similar, to push the pit down into the bottle. Not only are you speeding up the time it takes to pit the cherries, but you’re also reducing clean-up time, win-win!
- Removing Garlic skins
Tired of trying to peel back those tough skins from your cloves of garlic? Stop trying to peel them with a knife or peeler, just squeeze them between your cutting block (or bare counter if you’re daring like that) and a wide knife blade and you’ll find that the skin usually falls right off. Alternatively, if you’re a little more safety-minded, you can use other, non-sharpened, flat kitchen utensils to get the job done with less risk (finally a use for that old recipe book that’s been collecting dust for years now).
- Peel an orange like a champ (or other citrus fruits)
Avoid the frustrations of peeling these tasty fruits by rolling them on a flat surface for a few seconds with a little bit of pressure before you start.
