What is a hack? A hack is a strategy or technique for managing one's time or activities more efficiently. And as we all lead quite busy lives to my mind, anything that helps us manage our time more efficiently is a good thing,
Don't get me wrong I love cooking, and the kitchen is my happy place, but I also like to spend my time effectively so I'm sharing with you some of my favourite kitchen hacks.
Shopping Hacks.
Invest a little time in writing a shopping list, check your fridge store cupboards vegetables fruit levels.
If you shop online for home delivery you can store a regular shopping list with whatever supermarket you choose. My preferred online grocery store is 0cado, because I can always get an early morning delivery slot they have a good selection of kosher goods, and always have very good offers especially on fruits and vegetables.
If you shop in a supermarket, try and write your list going from the entrance to the supermarket to the end in order that way you won't miss out things, a shopping list prevents us from picking up things that or impulse buys and therefore save money. I'm a big fan of the self-scan self-checkout That way I couldn't shop and put things in the bags as I go round also see how much I'm spending as I go along.
Unpacking the shopping
When I get my meat or chicken, I immediately place it into portion sizes in freezer bags, I often add fresh herbs and garlic seasoning and even olive oil to each portion before freezing it, that way my chicken marinades in the freezer then when it defrosts it's just ready to stick in the air fryer or oven.
I decant, rice, sugar gluten free flour basics into storage jars, and recycle the packaging,
vegetables I put the new ones underneath and the old ones on top
Avocado’s tomatoes lemons onions potatoes do not need to be stored in a fridge in the UK.
Eggs in the UK eggs do not need to be stored in the fridge, whereas in the USA they must be stored in the fridge.
How can you tell your egg is fresh, take a medium sized bowl and fill it 3/4 with tap water place your egg in it the egg stays at the bottom it is really fresh if it rises slightly you can eat it safely but if it stands up totally that it's better to not eat that egg.
The perfect hardboiled egg place your egg in cold water, bring it to the boil after three minutes turn it off and leave it in the hot water on the stove for at least 7:00 to 8:00 minutes. Then you can either peel it or place it in the fridge to use another day.
Shelling a hardboiled egg.
Roll the egg on the kitchen countertop quite heavily till the shell cracks, run it under cold tap and the shell will come off all in one go.
Meal Prep-
When in Israel I was catering for 30 students every day, we only could receive the vegetables once a week, so I planned my menus carefully, I prepared things like chopped onions, peeled and chopped carrots, peeled chopped courgettes and beans, or soaked pulses, labelled them and kept them in the fridge in add kind of airtight containers because they are pre chopped, it saved a lot of time when preparing meals.
I use the FIFO translates to “first in, first out” and means that your oldest foods should be stored in front, so they get used first. This ensures that nothing goes to waste or is forgotten about. I also label and date everything in my fridge and freezer. I know that at the time when you're rushing to put things in a freezer it's it is easy to think oh I'll remember, but it's much easier and safer to have a stash of adhesive labels and a pen in your kitchen and label as you go along, then you don't spend time thinking about what something is when you take it out the freezer.
Once a fortnight in Israel I would make a really popular with the students Granddaddy Soup! So called, because it used any vegetables that were getting very wrinkly, and any old, vegetables into massive soup.
Vegetable Stock -making vegetable stock is very easy and cheap, it's also even cheaper if you save your vegetable peelings and put them in a muslin bag in your fridge or freezer, just remember to wash the vegetables before you peel them, then when you want to make vegetable stock place the muslin bag into a pot with garlic, bay leaves, some vegetables that are getting tired, water salt and pepper, and cook them for two hours and you will have a good quality vegetable stock. You can always store this in ice in an ice cube tray in the freezer and take out amounts you need.
Herbs
I love fresh herbs, I have a small amount that I grow myself, and I'm lucky enough to have mint in the back garden, but I do buy herbs. So, I don't waste herbs, if I have too many I will blend them in small blender, add a pinch of salt and some oil preferably extra virgin, and put them in ice cube trays, freeze them, and then you just have to pop them out to add to any recipe.
Soft fruit.
I love strawberries, as soon as I get them I wash them pat them dry with kitchen towel cut off the green part and put them in a storage box in the fridge, with one teaspoon full of tap water and half a teaspoon full of sugar, they will then stay perfectly fresh for up to five days.
Lemons
I always have lemons in my kitchen, I use them for dressings or for seasonings, to add an extra Zing to soups ETC, but I don't throw away the lemon once they've been squeezed,
put your lemon halves in your kettle bring it to the boil remove the 11 halves and you will see they would descale. Your kettle
put them in a bowl of water in your microwave put it on full power for four minutes, you will have a wonderful smelling microwave and you can wipe it clean extremely quickly.
Put lemon juice or white vinegar with baking powder in a paste round the bottoms of your taps leave for 15 minutes wash it off and the lime scale will disappear.
White vinegar is a marvellous anti-bacterial, and cheaper most of the domestic sprays, decant it into a spray bottle, add a few drops of lavender essential oil, use it to clean your sink or cooker tops.
You can also use white vinegar to descale your shower head just remove the shower head and put it in a bowl of white vinegar leave it for 15 to 20 minutes then wash it off, it also removes limescale from toilet bowls a mix taps sparkle.
White vinegar is a natural cure for weeds, if you can spray it on the weeds, it's not harmful to children or pets.
Salad options,
I like salads but don't always have the energy to make them from scratch, so when I do have the energy I wash and dry lettuce, peel and chop cucumbers, peppers, grate carrots, cabbage, spring onions steam asparagus, and put them all in separate airtight containers in the fridge. Then when I want a salad, all I have to do is wash a couple of tomatoes, or chop an avocado, add it to the ready prepared vegetables that I fancy that day, With whatever protein I'm having, put it in a bowl use pre prepared salad dressing, or just lemon juice garlic salt and pepper and within seconds I have a meal. You can mix and match this way all the salad vegetables will stay fresh up to five days it's in airtight containers in the fridge.
Make 2 Freeze 1
When you cook for a family or in my case for 30 girls most days cooking for one doesn't come easy and often it's cheaper to cook for two.
When cooking, I will enough for two meals, and freeze one portion labelled and dated so I can have it at another date, this is particularly useful when I have to go backwards and forwards to hospital appointments in the morning I just pulled something out the freezer and it's ready to heat that night.
Chicken soup hacks
I never make chicken soup and serve it on the same day, I prepare my vegetables then I'm going to use up to 24 hours in advance wash them dry them and put them in the fridge tell my boiling chicken is ready defrosted, I always put the boiler or soup pack with necks or wings into a big pot add the onions carrot celery Bay leaves ginger garlic, bring to the boil then simmer with the lid slightly open for at least four hours, I top up with water as needed, then turn it off and remove the chicken from the soup into a separate bowl with a slotted spoon, when it is cool I take the chicken off the bone and add it back into the soup, if there's too much chicken because I've used the whole boiler, I would take it off the bone put it in a freezer bag and label it so I can use it to make curries or rissoles, risotto's, all coronation chicken in the future. And I freeze it
I put the chicken soup once it's cooled down a bit into the fridge and leave it overnight if you do that in the morning all of the fat will have risen to the top of the soup and you can easily remove it with a spoon or place some kitchen paper towel over the top and brush it that was on force and that will remove the oil.
Because I make chicken soup for my family who seemed to know when I've made it, I always bag it up into two or three portions and freeze it flat saving space in my freezer.
Rice- (and pasta) health warning.
Uncooked rice can contain spores of Bacillus cereus, a bacterium that can cause two different types of food poisoning both are really nasty – to avoid this If storing leftovers for later, they should be rapidly cooled in the fridge as fast as possible (according to the NHS, within 1 hour is best).
You should avoid storing hot leftovers in deep dishes or stacking containers together, as it will cause the food to cool slower.
When reheating leftovers make sure they reach an internal temperature of at least 74˚C and don’t keep them for more than seven days, even in the fridge.
Never reheat rice or pasta more than once. Unless you want to be really ill.
Investing in a food thermometer is really worthwhile.
Garlic -again when cooking in bulk it's quite tedious to peel garlic for every dish one of the easiest ways to peel garlic is to put the amount you need in a small Tupperware with a lid and shake it up and down for a minute or two, and when you take off the lid all the loose outer part of the garlic will be removed. Every month I peel a lot of garlic and put it in a clean jam jar and fill the jar with vegetable oil and store it in the fridge, that way whenever I need garlic it's freshly peeled and ready the oil also is really useful because it's infused with garlic and you can use it in your cooking.
Ripening avocados -if you put avocados in a dish with bananas on top the avocados will ripen quickly, alternatively put the avocado in a brown paper bag inside a cupboard never in a fridge and it will ripen within 48 hours
Pealing tomatoes- have two bowls of water one boiling hot from a kettle, one icy cold,
place the tomato in the boiling hot water for about a minute then put it in the icy cold water you will find the tomato skin will come off very easily, you can also use this method to remove skin and pith from oranges and lemons or limes.
I hope that these hacks help you a little because even the most experienced cook needs a little help from time to time, and personally as I've got older and have less energy I find it useful to pre prepare, have hacks and cook at the time of day when I have most energy. I love being in the kitchen it's my relaxing place but I also enjoy some little shortcuts or hacks