Did you just overcook or over salt your dish or had a baking predicament? And now all you can do is toss away your painstaking hard work in the bin. Wait, this can still be salvaged. Use handy tricks to mask those screw-ups and balance the flavours. Whether you are a newbie in the kitchen or your version of Gordon Ramsay; here are some tips to either cover up the kitchen mishaps to make life easier. Read on to take your cooking skills to the next level. (Also, we did not include eggs because of the gazillion egg tips and recipes available in every possible corner!)
Long-live herbs
Pick up your ice-cube tray or muffin tin and fill it up with freshly chopped herbs either in water or olive oil, this way their vitamin content is preserved and you can stock these seasoning agents for later use.
Warm it up
When you are warming up pizza or any other baked items in the microwave, put a cup of water in alongside it as this will add moisture to will stop the pastry from drying out too much and preserve the crunchy crusts.
Roasting the bird
When you’re roasting an entire chicken or turkey, lay it on its breast after icing them. This is because the breast contains most of the meat; the closest it is to the source of heat, the quicker it will cook through. Also the dark thigh meat needs more time to cook than the white breast meat, chilling the breasts with ice cubes will promote even cooking.
No dry cake
If you have dug into a cake and realized halfway through that you cannot finish it, then before sliding it into your fridge, secure the exposed portion of your cake with a slice of bread with a toothpick, the bread will hold on the cake’s moisture.
Cheesy cheese
Sticky cheese? Dump your big slice in the freezer for half an hour before grating, so when it gets hard it doesn’t stick to the grater and is easier to sprinkle it too. For your extra soft cheese like brie or goat cheese, slice it up with unflavored dental floss and avoid squishing them. You can also use this floss trick on cake and cookie dough logs.
Tantalising Lemon
To squeeze the last drops out of a lemon, first cool the fruit in the fridge, and then zap it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds. Not just lemon roll, but before squeezing any citrus, cut them lengthwise, and use a pair of tongs for squeezing instead of using your hands. Lemon is also used to remove the stubborn odour of garlic or onion by rubbing the juice into your hands before you rinse them with water.
Fat free food
If your dish turns out to be unexpectedly rich with fat, then don’t get disheartened. All you need is a couple of ice cubes wrapped in a paper towel which you need to wipe over the top of the food. The ice will act as a magnet, drawing floating fat towards it to congeal on the tissue. If your broth has too much fat in it then put it in the refrigerator and cool it until the fat hardens on the top to easily remove it.
Smooth Butter, hard butter
If you want to soften your butter quickly without melting it, then put boiling hot water in a glass to heat it and remove the water, now flip it over your stick of butter which will soften it in minutes. If you wish to harden the melted butter then place the butter in a small bowl, and place the small bowl in a larger one filled with a few handfuls of ice and some cold water.
Tender soft meat
Coke acts as a perfect meat tenderizer. Before frying, soak the meat in Coca-Cola for just 10 minutes and remove it. Another method is peel the fruit (apple, pineapple, mango or pear) if necessary, then cut it into thin slices. Cook the meat covered with slices of fruit, the juices are great at tenderizing tough cuts of meat. Also, marinating meat in lemon juice for 30 minutes before cooking is enough to make it much softer.
Over salting accidents
Your over salted vegetable dish will become less salty if you add a few finely chopped tomatoes to it and cook. Or you can remove the excess salt from them by pouring unsalted boiling water and cook for a few minutes. Foods like potatoes, noodles, or pasta are of a great help to absorb salt so you can add more of them to the dish. If none of these products are included in the recipe, throw in a few peeled potatoes for the rescue and let them cook for about 10-15 minutes before you pull them out. Some chefs also use refined sugar to fix the taste.
Go nuts
Freeze your shelled nuts by packing them up in jar or a bag and place them in your freezer. This method will preserve their natural oils and the taste which may go bad and rancid at room temperature.
Chop-chop tomatoes
Grab two plates or lids and place your cherry or grape tomatoes in between, take a big knife put a little pressure on the plate and slice it horizontally through the tomatoes and you get your finely sliced results with no hustle.
Serve right
Keeping the hot food hot and cold food cold until it is served is a big challenge. The trick is to warm the plates for hot food in microwave and chill them in the refrigerator for the cold food just 5 minutes prior to serving.
