Kitchen Tips

Hey everyone! Today was and still is a good day. I had reasons to be happy today and I also heard some good news concerning a family member. Everything was fine until I realised we had no electricity unlike other streets. I asked my dad and he said there was a fault in the street's connection and that it was being fixed. It was bad for me because I depended on the electricity to work and with the issue of fuel scarcity that has been going on, we do not have any petrol for the generator.

It wasn't easy relying on my phone. Luckily, I work with a wonderful colleague who took the heavier part of the work to do, I am very grateful to her. So, despite the issue with the light, I still had a good day but I hope it gets fixed soon, like tonight or something.

Today, I was browsing through one of my favourite sites and I saw some kitchen related tips by several chefs on the Internet and I thought to share some of them here.

So, the first one says to salt your pasta water. I have been doing this for years now and it makes me wonder why I wasn't always doing it before. It is a helpful tip that saves you from oversalting or undersalting your sauce. To do this, you have to add a generous amount of the salt into the water. If the pasta is properly salted, you won't have to get how much more to put in the sauce, you just have to add what is right for the sauce alone. Also, you won't also have to add salt to the already cooked and ready meal.

Next one says to have things prepared and in place before hand. I am also a fan of prepping for my meals before I start cooking. Wash what needs to be washed, cut what needs to be cut, thaw what needs to be thawed etc. This is beneficial to make the cooking process go smoothly. It will not be good if halfway through cooking, when it's time to add something, you start cutting and washing while the rest of the food possibly overcooks.

The next one says "Clean as you go". This means that with each step you take in the cooking process, clean up immediately. While cooking, the kitchen can get messy easily especially when a lot of ingredients are used like vegetables. Cleaning immediately helps keep the place tidy, provide you enough space to cook and leaves you less work to do when you're done and possibly tired. So, clear the trash, wipe the counter etc.

Then this to says not do add garlic and onions at the same time. This is because onions take a longer time to saute that garlic. While onions takes about 8 minutes, garlic only needs 30 seconds. Leaving garlic on for too long will make it burnt and produce a bitter taste. I actually didn't know about this and I'm so glad I read it today. To be fair, I don't cool a lot with garlic as my dad doesn't like it much.

The final tip for today is to crack your egg on a flat surface. Now, I've seen a lot of people crack eggs using the edge of a bowl (I've tried it too, disaster! Lol). Cracking using edges or sides messes with the yolk (for those who want the yolk intact and it tends to spill a lot. So, using a flat surface makes it easier to separate the halves. For me though, I break with a fork by hitting the egg firm enough for it to crack but gentle enough for the fork not to break through the shell and spill it. How do you do yours?

And that's all for today friends! I really want to take this time to appreciate my sponsors. They don't know it but they truly keep me going. Thank you all so much!