Everyone has some sort of passion for cooking, but cooking isn’t easy. A watcher might say it is easy, but it is a lot harder than it looks. People who are just starting out face various difficulties while cooking, which is why many prefer using appliances like dosa making machine, blenders, noodles maker etc. If you are just starting out and looking for ways to make your work easy, these six smart kitchen hacks would definitely come in handy for you:
- Don’t Put Your Knives in the Wooden Blocks:
This is the easiest way in which you can ruin your knives. The wooden butcher blocks or drawers would make your blade dull. Instead of doing so, you should either use some sort of hanger for your knives or a much better way is to use a heavy duty magnetic strip. A magnetic strip will keep your knife’s blade safe from any kind of problematic bluntness. But you need to be careful while pulling it down for use. Grab the knife by the handle and rotate it so that the blade slides away from the magnet. This will prevent dullness when it rubs against the magnetic strip.
- Always Purchase Individual Knives Instead of Sets:
The cutlery sets that are always on sale are the worst ones. These knife sets are dangerous and really flimsy. The best ones in these sets are not even of mediocre quality. You should learn what various knives are used for and what kind of knives you actually need. The key to buying knives is to buy the best quality that can be afforded by you, keeping them clean, honed and regularly sharpened professionally.
- Use Kitchen Appliances:
Various kitchen appliances make a chef’s life easy. These appliances could be a simple blender/grinder or a steamer. It could be a curry cooker, fryer or an omelette maker. All these appliances would make it easy for a new chef to cook food. Many of them have pre-programmed menus due to which you don’t have to worry about the time required to cook food. Some even have delay start function, which allows the chef to prepare the ingredient well before the actual cooking begins. These appliances really help save time and extra efforts.
- Spices Should Be Bought in Small Amounts Only:
Spices have oils, which can make them rancid if stored for really long periods of time. Sometimes, becoming rancid is also not the case; the spices start to lose their flavour and slowly become stale after a while. If you want really good tasting spice, you should always buy in small amounts. Decide how much you need according to the recipe and get the spice you need. It is a good habit to go and purchase open spices from local stores rather than going to big grocery stores. You get fresh spices, save money and incredible taste as well.
- Add Seasoning While Cooking:
Salt over already cooked food has a really bad effect on the diner. You should always add all the salts and spices while cooking the dish so that it has time to carefully blend in the flavour. This allows for a tastier dish and the seasoning is properly blended as well.
- Go to the Farmer’s Market:
Farmer’s market has the freshest fruits and vegetables. Obviously, fresh vegetables taste way better than the ones that have been brought from cold storage. Therefore, you should always go for fresh fruits and vegetables from the farmer’s market.
Use these smart kitchen hacks and get the most out of cooking.