Kitchen tips

Tenderize tough meat with tea

If you are loking for a new way to tenderize a rough cut of meat. You will find that it will soften up nicely if you braise it in black tea. Place four table­spoons of black tea leaves in warm - not boiling - water and allow to steep for about five minutes. Strain the leaves from the water and stir in a half cup of brown sugar until dissolved.

Season 2 to 3 pounds of meat with salt, pepper, onion, and garlic powder, and place it in a Dutch oven. Pour the mixture over the meat and cook in a preheated, 325-degree oven until tender. Because the meat cooks slowly, it will take about an hour and a half, but it will turn out so tender you'll be able to cut it with a fork.

Make a one pot roast dinner

When you are making a roast dinner why waste time, extra pots, and energy cooking vegetables separately from your roast? Here is a tip to save energy and make a one pot roast dinner.

Use a roasting pan with a good lid, and place the vegetables around the roast. Cut potatoes and onions into small pieces and throw in some baby carrots. Add half a cup of water and about 10 minutes to the roasts cooking time.

Your entire meal will be done at once.

Prevent roast meats from sticking with celery

Do you often find that your roast meats or chicken are regularly sticking to the roasting tin. Here is a tip that will prevent roast meats from sticking.

Prop your meat or poultry up with a few stalks of fresh celery before cooking. The celery will lend a bit of fla­vor and make cleaning up a breeze

Chicken with apple or lemon

If you are looking for some new ideas for roasting chicken then here is a tip that suggests using apple or lemon when roasting.

Apple
If your roasted chicken is always turning out dry, try juicing it up with an apple. just place a whole apple inside the chicken and roast as usual. Throw the apple away and serve your moist and tender chicken.

Lemon
Start with a large roasting chicken, and season it with salt and pep­per inside and out. Cut a lemon in half and squeeze the juice over the chicken, then pour a quarter cup of water on it. Toss the lemon halves inside the chicken for extra juiciness and place the bird in a greased baking dish. Bake in a 300-degree oven for about three hours, basting it with water as needed.

Hygiene tip when cooking grilled food

It is sometimes easy to forget basic hygiene rules when you are cooking outdoors. You take out the raw food and then serve or bring it back indoors. It is here that you need to STOP!

Never use the same plate to carry cooked food back from the griddle If you do, your wonderful burgers could become con­taminated with bacteria from the raw meat. The same goes for your utensils. Use clean plates and utensils to remove cooked foods from the grill, and wash your hands often.

You and your loved ones will be glad you did.

Protect meat when using pineapple

When you're fol­lowing a recipe that calls for pineapple on any meat, you need to be careful. Here is a tip to assist when using a meat recipe that uses pinapple.

When a recipe calls for the use of pinapple wait until just before serving to add the fruit. An enzyme in pineapple will make the meat fall apart if it's on too long.

Warm hot dog buns while saving energy

Don't waste energy warming hot dog buns in the oven while you boil the wieners. Here is a tip for warming hot dog buns and saving energy at the same time.

Just use a double boiler and put the buns in the top. The buns will warm slowly and be ready at the same as the wieners.

For the benefit of UK visitors wieners are the sausage that goes in the bun.

Put marinating meat in your fridge

If you are marinating meat that you are due to cook in a couple of hours, do you tend to leave the meat left on the counter? This is not good. You must always put marinating meat in the refrigerator to keep bac­teria from multiplying.

Warning never reuse marinade after it's been on raw meat or fish. You are risking the cross contamination of your food.

Tenderize tough meat with vinegar or Kiwi fruit

Does your inex­pensive stew meat or stewing steak become tough after cooking? Try one of these tips tenderize tough meat with vinegar or kiwi fruit.

Using vinegar
Add a tablespoon of vinegar to the water while boiling. The vinegar will tenderize even the toughest meat so you can cut it with a fork.

With Kiwi fruit
That little green fruit called kiwi fruit actually contains an enzyme called actinidin. Actinidin breaks down the tough meat and gives an interesting flavor to your recipe.

Mix or cream cold butter quickly

Have you ever gone to make your favorite recipe only to realise that you have forgotten to take the butter out of the refrigerator in time to soften up?

You probably know that is is important to have the butter soft, but not melted when blending the butter and sugar, so putting it in the microwave is really not the best solution. Here is a tip that will help you mix or cream cold butter quickly, try heating the sugar instead.

The sugar should warm the butter enough to get things moving.

Tip to cube bread when making croutons or stuffing

Do you love to make bread stuffing and croutons fresh using your own bread? However you hate cutting up all those little bits of bread. The next time you make either of the above, try using a pizza cutter.

It cuts bread quickly and neatly.

Stop soggy bread when freezing bread

Do you freeze your bread to make it last longer? Do you find that you are fed up with soggy bread when freezing bread. Well here is a tip to stop soggy bread when freezing bread

All you need to do is simply tuck a paper towel into each bag before you pop them in the freezer. When you defrost a loaf, the towel will absorb the moisture, and your bread will be free of dampness.

Keep bread fresh longer with celery

Do you get frustrated when your bread goes stale before you can enjoy it all? Well here is a tip that will keep your bread fresh longer.

All you need to do is try storing your bread in a plastic bag with a piece of fresh celery. You will be amazed at how your bread will stay fresh much longer.

Save time when baking potatoes in an oven

Do you love baked potatoes that have been cooked in the oven instead of the microwave, but find that it just takes too long to prepare them. Here is a tip that will save you time when baking potatoes in an oven.

First of all you need to chose medium-size potatoes and then you need to place them  on their end in a muffin pan. Bake as usual, only check back in half the nor­mal time.

You'll be amazed by how fast and well they cook.

Secret to slicing a cake perfectly

Do you always end up in a mess when it comes to slicing a cake that you have spent hours making. Here is a tip that will help you to slice a cake perfectly. 

The main reason for problems when you are slicing a cake is that the cake sticks to your knife and falls apart when you try to cut it? You will be able to serve perfect pieces for your friends and family by dipping your knife in a glass of cold water between slices.

Simple yet effective!

Tip for decorating your cakes or brownies with chocolate

Do you like to decorate your cakes or brownies with chocolate but hate all the mess that is involved. Well here is a simple idea to make the whole process a lot easier and very much cleaner.

Place half a bar of plain chocolate in a small, microwavable plastic bag. Heat in the microwave until the chocolate melts. Then snip a tiny bit off a corner of the bag and squeeze as you drizzle a design on your creation.

Beware! Only heat the chocolate enough for it to melt, microwaves can super heat substances such as chocolate and this could result in a nasty burn.

Protect yourself from batter splatter

Do you find that when you are mixing a cake with the an electric mixer,  the cake batter sprays everywhere? Well you can stop this from happening by simply spraying the beaters with vegetable oil before powering up, and the batter will stay in the bowl.

Test your cake with spaghetti

Here is a clever little tip for testing your cakes whist cooking to see if they are done. Normally you would use a wire cake tester. However you can test the doneness of your cake with a piece of uncooked spaghetti. Gently poke the center of the cake. If the batter sticks to the pasta, it needs to bake a little longer. But if it comes out clean, your cake is done.

Plus you can just throw the piece of spaghetti away instead of washing a wire cake tester.

Tips for preparing and pouring batter easily

The next time you're using batter to make waffles or pancakes, transfer the batter into an empty milk jug before hitting the griddle. You'll pour just enough batter each time, and if you have leftovers, just put the jug in your refrigerator.

If you like to get the children involved in making batter you will find there will be a lot less mess if you make the mixture in a large measuring pitcher. That way, little ones will have a handle and pouring spout when it comes time to fill the cake or muffin pan.

Here is a general purpose batter recipe

Measure your milk into a jug, then add the egg and whisk together. Add the salt, then gradually sift the flour into the mixture, whisking after each has been added. When all the flour is added, whisk until you have a smooth batter.

Tip for recipes with frozen blueberries

Freeze leftover wine for cooking.

If you're not much of a drinker, you might be tempted to throw out wine left over from a dinner parry. Don't throw it away, just freeze it in an ice cube tray instead. You can use it later for casseroles and sauces that call for a little wine.

Sometimes it can be a fiddle filling ice cube trays so you can also slip a freezer bag inside a large plastic cup. Fill with wine and pop in the freezer. When the wine has frozen (overnight) you can reclaim your cup.

Store corked beverages lying down

Have you ever wondered why wine racks are built so the bottles can be laid on their sides? There's a good reason. If you don't store corked beverages such as wine lying down, the cork will dry up and won't fit properly when you try to re-cork the bottle.

As well as that, if wine is to be stored for a long time it must be stored on it's side as this will prevent the cork from drying out. If the cork dries out air will get to the wine and it to be 'corked', (foul tasting).

Alcoholic beverages without a cork can be stored standing at attention.

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