FOOD PREPARATION HINTS

Ooh good tip! Thanks!

youre "it"

I'll try it!

dont nuke too long, cause the garlic will start cooking and the aroma gets all over the nuke.

FRYING ONIONS. Dont ever use olive oil to pre soften and fry onions for cooking. The olive oil imparts a slight bitterness to the sulfur compounds responsible for the onion flavor. Instead slowly saute them in butter , they will remain sweet and the sweetness along with the sulfur compounds imparts a good oniony flavor.

Speaking of onions, they're much easier to peel if you stick them in the refrigerator for an hour or two before peeling. The papery skin just falls right off. They also don't cause your eyes to water as much when they have been chilled before slicing.

Don't store them there, just chill the quantity you need for what you are preparing.

Speaking of nuking, you'll get more juice out of lemons and limes if you roll them on the counter and nuking them briefly before cutting them open.

And when I'm using lemons, I always zest it first and freeze the zest for later use.

I do the same with perishables once they're open, like minced ginger and tomato paste - just measure out 1 tsp for the ginger (and 1 T for the tomato paste) onto a piece of saran wrap and wrap it up and freeze. Lasts forever and no more waste.

And if I have leftover chicken or beef broth, I freeze them in ice cubes then put them in a baggie.

I'm still too much of an amateur. While there are things that I've figured out for myself that I'm happy about, I'm pretty sure that they're common knowledge.

Reading with interest though.

Hell, I read these AMish cook articles in the Farm News and today I took a short course on how to make the "PERFECT CRAB CAKE" and I learned about the garlic trick when they were teaching us how to make the tartar sauce with a little zip.

I learned one from my dad years ago . If you are going to separate egg whites and yolks from fresh eggs, break the eggs into a funnel.(of course dont drop the egg schmutz from three feet high). When the egg empties into the funnel, the whites will spill out and the yolk will remain in the funnel..Also, dont break the egg on the edge of a pan or the dfunnel. break it on a hard counter surface, it cracks cleaner and you can break it cleanly with one hand (This is especially handy for me).
Come to think of it, I have a few one handed tricks that Ive picked up over the years

Now to go out and buy some razors..
(I do the fat knife maneuver)

I saw that in "Goodfellas" and it works. SLicing garlic paper thin really imparts its flavor when you add it in.

This is educational already..

They also make excellent garlic chips.

really tiny ones eh?

Uh, oh. That looks like a great idea.

That's one way that I make broccoli. Steam the broccoli and while that's going slice garlic really thin and add to hot olive oil in a wok or skillet. Let the garlic chips get crisp and brown, then scoop them out onto a paper towel to drain. Add the cooked broccoli to the garlic flavored oil and toss. Top with the crispy garlic chips and serve. Yum.

put yer crabcakes in the freezer for about 3/4 hr and then when you broil em they wont splinter up and drop hunks of lump meat. (The best crabcakes have almost no filler only a slight amount of mustard and egg whup

You can use ice cube trays to freeze small portions of potent stuff. I buy pesto and never use it all before it starts to get tinny tasting. One ice cube section of pesto is about one serving. If you buy a bunch of any herb and don't use it all you can use the same method. Puree the herb with olive oil and freeze it in trays. Once frozen, you can slip the green cubes into freezer bags.