Food hacks are an easy way to optimise your kitchen. These hacks are not lengthy or hard to do. You can add these little ingredients and processes to your daily kitchen life to make it more seamless and efficient. Today I am going to show you a few easy recipes with leftover food and some scrappy cooking recipes. scrappy cooking is nothing but using scraps/leftovers from ingredients we use to make our food and turning them into delicious dishes. These food hacks are something that I use in my kitchen day in and day out. Trust me when I say this, these hacks have helped me maintain my kitchen better and reduce waste as well.
Popular food hacks that you wish you knew sooner
- Do you live in a tropical place with a lot of humidity? if you do, you might notice that when you cut your potatoes and eggplants, they turn brown very quickly. This food hack can help you with it! They turn brown due to a phenomenon called oxidisation. One amazing hack to prevent this from happening is to take a large bowl and fill it with cold water. To the bowl, add some salt (just a pinch) and place the potatoes and eggplants in the bowl after cutting. This will slow down the oxidisation process and prevent them from turning brown.
- Have you ever made a huge batch of chutney or a condiment and do not know how to store it? you can store your leftover condiments for over a month using this simple food hack. Firstly, Take an ice cube tray and fill it with your chutney or condiment and freeze it. Then, you can defrost and use the chutney as required without defrosting the whole batch for a little amount. If you do not know how to make chutney, Click here!
Chef’s Secrets
- Do you ever wonder how restaurants get the perfect crunchy lettuce or cabbage on their burger? They use this simple food hack and a secret ingredient to make the lettuce more crispy. They use ice! Chefs add ice and some salt to a bowl full of water and place their lettuce/cabbage in it. not to mention, this helps us to get a perfectly crunchy and fresh lettuce/cabbage every single time.
- Have you ever wanted to make a fluffy cake but did not know how to? I got you. Bakers use something called cake flour to make their cakes. you can buy cake flour at any retail shop. However, if you want to make it at home, you can use this food hack. This can be made using 2 common household ingredients only! Take a bowl of all-purpose flour, then, scoop out 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and replace it with 2 tablespoons of corn starch. Mix it well. This will give you cake flour.
- Want in on how chefs manage to get cleanly cut cheesecakes and well-plated dishes? Before cutting your cake dip the knife in hot water to warm it up. Then, dry it with a paper towel and use that to cut your cheesecake. This food hack will give you a cleanly cut slice of cheesecake every single time.
- Do not want to invest in piping bags? You can make a DIY piping bag using 2 simple tools. Take a plastic zip-lock bag and fill the frosting mixture, and seal it with a rubber band. Cut the tip of the bag using scissors according to the design of your choice. Enjoy your very own DIY piping bag!
Leftover/ scrappy cooking hacks
- Have you ever eaten an orange and thrown out the peels? Did you know that the orange peels have more vitamin C in them than the actual fruit? Next time do not throw away the scraps instead, do this scrappy hack. Take the orange peels, and dehydrate them using the microwave. Then blend the peels using a grinder into a fine powder. You can use this powder as a tasty ice cream topping or to flavour cakes!
- To get more juice out of a lemon, first microwave the lemon and roll it on the kitchen counter for a minute and then try squeezing the lemon. This way, you can get more juice from the lemon. You can always use the skin of the lemon as lemon zest. Lemon zest is a popular ingredient used by chefs around the world to flavour desserts. Click here for lemon recipes!
- Have you ever cut ginger because could not use the whole root? I bet everyone has! until and unless you are making gingerbread, you do not need to use the whole root! You can notice that ginger starts to wither when you keep it outside. You can prevent this from happening by following this simple hack! Put the leftover ginger in the freezer. This will prevent the ginger from withering and degenerating and help it stay fresh. Click here for Ginger recipes!
- Have Chicken scraps left and do not know what to do with them? You can preserve the flavour of chicken and use it to make other dishes. Take the leftover chicken bones or pieces and other vegetable scraps and add them to a pot with water. boil it for 3-4 hours to make a dense concoction. This is called chicken broth. You can use it to make soups and many more dishes. Do not throw away vegetable scraps as well. If you do not have chicken, Just boil the vegetable scraps and make a vegetable broth. Here are some
Conclusion
Follow these amazing food hacks to make your kitchen seamless and more efficient. By producing less waste and making use of the leftovers and scraps, you are not only making more use of the flavour but also being eco-friendly. Scrappy cooking has been a norm in many households these days due to growing environmental issues and sustainability movements. You can try and incorporate these hacks into your day-to-day life to start cooking like a pro chef. It might not be easy to remember them and do it often but as they say, practice makes a man perfect.
Enjoy these hacks and click here for recipes you can incorporate them in!
