Best kitchen tips? (Also, fat-free salad dressing recipe)
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Hi guys,
I was wondering what your best kitchen tips were? It seems most people who like to hook develop a few interesting non-recipes that nevertheless save time or get a better result than the common wisdom.
A few of mine:
1. You can easily peel lots of garlic at once by removing the outer layers of paper, smashing the whole head with a heavy cutting board, and shaking the heck out of it in between two largeish metal bowls.
2. If you're cutting hot peppers, use vinegar to wash your hands - this works better than soap/water or fat, as the capsaicin (the chemical that gives you the spicy feeling but also will make your eyes feel like they're aflame) is soluble in the acetic acid solution of vinegar. I usually follow up with soap and water to be safe, but vinegar on its own seems to work fine.
3. If you want a good salad dressing but are watching your fat intake, the Punjabi people of India have a salad that I'm quite keen on especially for its fat-free dressing:
The salad is at its simplest cut-up red onion and cucumber, but often consists of lettuce or cabbage, cucumber, red onion, tomato, green chilis, carrot and daikon. This is dressed at its simplest with some lime juice, but nicer restaurants make a dressing consisting of:
-The juice or two or three squash-ball sized limes
-Powdered cumin (as much as you like)
-Black salt (Indian salt - it has the smell of eggs because it has some sulfur in it and adds a weird sort of umami quality to the dish, but any nice salt will do - as much as you like)If you want something a bit more flavoursome toss in some mashed or minced garlic, some mint leaves and a bit of honey or squeezed orange juice.
If you're watching your salt intake, I'd suggest a bit of chili powder in lieu tentatively. Sometimes, if I want a 'pretty' but easy salad, I just lay out the vegetables on the plate in a sort of fan pattern, squeeze the lime juice over each plate, and dust each with the spices - it looks very nice with the colours of the spice, but is really quick to prepare and not too 'wet' on the plate. -
Hey, thanks for the tips…and that salad sounds really good
:thankyou:
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Glad to be of help! And it's one of my favourite salads period - I find it goes really well with any sort of food from the places where rice and beans are a staple - India, Latin America, the Carribean, etc.
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Another one for you: If you buy chicken with the skin on and want to remove it, it's actually really easy - use a tea-towel to grip the slippery, fatty skin and simply tear it off towards the bone or joint. Around here chicken with the skin off costs way more than with it on, so have the best of both worlds.