Using Scissors to cut chilies, herbs is easy and effective compared to using a knife.
Grow herbs in your house, it is easy
Ask HN: What kitchen/cooking hacks that have been really effective for you?
31–40 of 65 posts
Re: Ask HN: What kitchen/cooking hacks that have been really effective for you?
#32Have a meal plan and make a list before you go shopping. Don't go shopping when you are hungry. It's OK to regularly cook and eat the same meals. Dried pasta is as good as fresh pasta. You don't need much in the way of equipment, one sharp knife, one pairing knife and one serrated knife will cover most things. Dried herbs don't last long, especially if you leave them exposed to light. Don't put bread in the fridge, i…
for me it is "Don't go shopping when you are not hungry" I'm so uninspired when I'm not in the mood for food :)
LOL for me it is "Don't go shopping when your hungry"!
Buying what looks good leads to waste for me, and I really don't like to waste.
Re: Ask HN: What kitchen/cooking hacks that have been really effective for you?
#33Freeze herbs - most herbs will retain flavor. I've used rosemary, thyme and lemongrass as old as 6 months. Ginger becomes really easy to grate if its frozen. So stick it in the freezer. Add freshly crushed Cardamom, saffron and pistachios to vanilla ice-cream. Orgasmic. Whack a garlic clove with the back of the knife. It will peel instantly. Put a lid on to boil faster (~10-15% faster in my experience) Add butter to…
Not just butter but a bit of the pasta cooking liquid in there too - the salty/starchy water is a lovely addition.
Re: Ask HN: What kitchen/cooking hacks that have been really effective for you?
#34Good quality equipment especially a good stand mixer, food processor and stainless steel everything helps a lot. Shop at Sam's club or costco and potion large items ahead of time. Plan menu items that can be prepared in individual servings like a restaurant so everyone can have what they want for dinner with little hassle. The above tips let me run a family of 5 for about $300 per month food budget while serving deli…
I have to say that a decent blender is ALMOST a requirement as well.
Off the top of my head things you can do with a blender that don't go well in the other devices you listed:
Broccoli soup, vegetable stock and hollandaise have all come out of my blender recently. The blender makes all of these items rather trivial to make compared to their classical preparations.
Re: Ask HN: What kitchen/cooking hacks that have been really effective for you?
#35Add taco seasoning to your scrambled eggs. It will make a delicious breakfast burrito that way.
Re: Ask HN: What kitchen/cooking hacks that have been really effective for you?
#36You can get a lot done with a good stir fry pan, knife, and cutting board. I'd invest in quality versions of those 3 before anything else.
I just got an InstantPot - so far it lives up to the hype. I've made chili, Thai curry 2x, rice, and hardboiled eggs so far, and they've all turned out fantastically, and all in under 30 minutes.
Find your favorite flavor combinations and work them into your meals. I love the combination of lime and salt, so I'll use that in rice, salads, stir fries, etc.
Sriracha/Cholula/insert your favorite hot sauce can save an otherwise bland dish.
On lazy weeks, I buy one of those big boxes of fresh mixed greens, a rotisserie chicken, and some guacamole. Then I make a big salad for each day of the week with just those ingredients. It's cheap, tastes good, and is on point nutritionally.
I just switched from cooking with olive oil to avocado oil. It has a higher smoke point and maintains its fat profile in high temps, and I haven't noticed a difference in taste/quality.
Re: Ask HN: What kitchen/cooking hacks that have been really effective for you?
#37I'm starting doing this today https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/tip-eat-rice-without-... Already cooked the first batch And yes I know that reducing the calories of a staple food is the very definition of a First World Problem...
Here's the tl;dr for anyone else interested:
> It's remarkably simple. By boiling the rice in water mixed with coconut oil, you change the architecture of the rice, turning it into a "resistant starch," where two polysaccharides, amylose and amylopectin, connect to form indigestible bridges. Chilling the rice for 12 hours leads to further conversion of starches. The result is a food with far fewer calories.
How did your first batch turn out? I've heard the same about potatoes - they are a resistant starch and with each subsequent cooling off/re-heating cycle you increase the resistant starch levels.
The implication that white rice makes you fat, however, is ridiculous. Singling out one staple food (besides sugar) isn't helpful. Anything will make you fat in high enough qualities. Not a jab at you OP, but more our culture of maligning single food groups. (again, besides sugar :) )
Re: Ask HN: What kitchen/cooking hacks that have been really effective for you?
#38A few of my own: 1. Keep a stick of butter at room temperature in a closed container. It doesn't seem to go bad (at least not if you use it within a couple of months) and it's so much more spreadable. 2. Use the broiler in your oven. It makes food taste similar to if you'd grilled it. (This might not be a "hack," since it's just working as intended.) 3. Make buttered (or olive oiled) toast in the broiler. Put on the…
Re: #6, the translation of French toast in French is pain perdu, literally meaning "lost bread", because it was a recipe to recover bread that was "lost" due to going stale.
Re: Ask HN: What kitchen/cooking hacks that have been really effective for you?
#39Use plastic bags or containers to keep vegetables fresh in the fridge. Things like carrots dry out in no time in a fridge but stay usable for weeks if you simply keep them in a plastic bag. I've thrown away vegetables for years before figuring this out.
Similarly you can put most vegetables in a glass of water and they'll last a whole lot longer. Where I live vegetables aren't always very fresh and by doing this I can take wilty kale, for example, and make it full and crisp
Re: Ask HN: What kitchen/cooking hacks that have been really effective for you?
#40- chopping (onions): - - Cut with a big, sharp knife, use your knuckles for alignment so you don't cut yourself. - - Cut one direction, but don't worry about retaining the shape for the next cross-cut. Roughly align the stick-shapes after the first cut (spread out in to a longer line if too much to handle) and do the 2nd cut. It's not so bothersome if some onion pieces are not perfectly square, for things to cook eve…
IMO the key to chopping an onion is to leave the root end intact, that way the bits are held together for the second cut. Then there is no holding together or spreading out of the bits required. Try it and you'll never go back! See here: https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniq...
I think my messy method is easier, at least for me. It takes a lot of my momentum out, when I have to aim not to cut through the root.