Food tips, share yours

[johnnie]

I'm not a chef but I like to cook. Here are two things I do that work well for me.

Instead of water or milk for an omelet, use sour cream. it really puffs it up. Instead of sour cream, you can use that onion chip dip stuff.

I also use balsamic vinegar in my coleslaw instead of white. It turns it brown, but it tastes so much better.

That's just two for now, how about your little tricks and tips?

[Gormy Cuss]

1. Bread crumbs are a miracle ingredient.

Homemade or good quality unseasoned commercial bread crumbs can fix sauces that are too watery or pureed pastes that are too thin.

Defrosting food slowly in the fridge is better than using the microwave defrost cycle. The latter should only be used as a last resort.

Have johnnie make all of your omelets.

[Lex]

2. A couple of spoonsful of chunky salsa

in my scrambled eggs while I'm scrambling them are yummy. Particularly with a little cheese sprinkled on top of the eggs once cooked.

[DS1]

3. water or milk?

when does an omelet call for water or milk in the first place? :shrug:

I just beat eggs with some ground pepper, put it in the pan until done. flip once

[johnnie]

10. Many people add a liquid

The steam of the evaporating liquid fluffs the egg.

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. A French cook showed me to squeeze lemon juice into hamburger meat before cooking.

I once had a salmon and pear salad that was amazing. Someone here might want to experiment with that.

[GOPisEvil]

5. Used instant mashed potatoes as a breading instead of bread crumbs.

[EstimatedProphet]

6. Here's one

1 can minestrone soup
1 can water
1 cup rice.

Cover and cook for 45 minutes. Top with 2 T butter.

[Deja Q]

7. Must... resist... temptation... to... copycat!

:rofl:

[Wcross]

8. Discard any food that has green hair growing on it.

Trust me.


Thats all I got.

[Wcross]

9. How to remove the core from a head of Iceberg lettuce.

Smack the core with the palm of your hand, you will easily be able to remove the core.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. Bleu cheese makes things good.

Also, when making a mirepoix for, say, stuffing or whatever, try substituting fennel bulb for the celerey.

[johnnie]

13. Yeah, bleu cheese rocks

I can hardly eat a burger without it these days.

[Lethe]

12. instead of flour and eggs, use crushed cornflakes to coat a piece of chicken

what?

:evilgrin:

[johnnie]

14. .

:popcorn:

[1gobluedem]

15. Good cheese makes all the difference

And pork sausage really livens up meatloaf.

My mother's advice; learn how to brown ground beef well and make a good cream sauce and you've got the basics for any kind of meal.

[idgiehkt]

16. when cooking something in the oven, always remember

to turn the oven on. I discovered recently if you turn it on as soon as the food goes in, rather than an hour later when it's still cold and you can't figure out why, it really cuts down on preparation time.

[johnnie]

17. .

:spray:

[Auggie]

18. Cook popcorn in olive oil

[Kali]

19. Wash your hands before you start anything in the kitchen.

and wash them again frequently while you work.

Real broth is 100 times better than canned. It is easy to do and cheaper too.

[dropkickpa]

20. pureed spinach added to meatloaf

Makes it super moist and YUMMY!!! A trick I started doing to get greens into Dropkid, but it's so yummy my friends have run with it. I also like to add pureed garbanzo beans.