Friday, May 12, 2006

Bits of Cooking Tips

As I try to be a good cook like my sister, I learned a few cooking tips that helped me. For one thing, we all hate it when our eyes sting from chopping onions, I learned that if you rinse the onion after peeling it, it doesn't sting your eyes when you chop them.

I learned when cooking tofu or tokwa, its best to soak it in water overnight. Then slice the cakes into 1" cubes before frying them. Afterwards, when you are going to use the tofu in your stir fry vegetables or tokwa't baboy its better to slice the fried cubes again in smaller pcs. then deep fry till crunchy. It tastes really good.

I learned when cooking fried rice, its better to put the cooked rice in the refrigerator first to cool it. Then crush the rice with your hand to separate the grains. I also learned that to keep the rice from sticking to your hands and fingers, is to soak your hand in water each time.

I learned that to remove the bitter taste of ampalaya (or bitter melon) it is best to soak the chopped ampalaya in water with a bit of salt and squeez the ampalaya with your hand. This would actually dispell the bitter taste. Oh and always clean out the insides of the ampalaya well enough. The white inside portion is actually very bitter.

I learned when using calamansi, it is best to slice it at the top to prevent cutting the seeds. The seeds actually makes the juice bitter.

There are more tips there I know. Maybe you have one yourself. Feel free to post it here.