10 kitchen hacks I use (almost) every day.
Little tricks and tips to make my life easier in the kitchen.
As a professional recipe developer, I spend a lot more time in a domestic kitchen than the average person. I also spend a lot more time reading recipes, and figuring out the best ways to do things. Some of the ‘tips’, ‘hacks’ I use every day may seem obvious, but might also stand out as utterly genius. Usually I thread these into my recipes to teach them to others, but sometimes I think they might get missed if you’re skimming a recipe for the basics such as the ingredient list and cooking times. So here I’m going to spell them out!
Here are 10 of my favourite kitchen hacks once I learnt, I’ve been using automatically ever since:
Warm garlic and onions from cold to prevent burning and infuse flavour.
We’re starting with a controversial one here, but please stick with me. I rarely warm oil before I add the onions or garlic if I’m simply just making dinner or cooking my own recipes (though I follow the ‘rules’ when working for clients) - put simply, it is so much harder to accidentally burn garlic or onions if you put them into a cold pan with cold oil, then warm them up gradually. And when it comes to garlic, you’ve got the added bonus that you’ll be infusing the oil a little more with garlic flavour too.
Soak raw red onions to remove the bite.
Raw - not pickled - red onions are sometimes exactly what a burger or flatbread needs, but even the greatest lovers of astringency find raw ones a bit much. Once they’re finely sliced, soak them in cold water for 20 minutes before patting them dry with kitchen paper and most of that unpleasant ‘bite’ will have been removed without loosing that deliciously sharp red onion flavour.