What Cooking Good Looking?

We are starting a new section on the community site that is headed by Ursula called What Cookin Good Lookin? An area to share you best recipes and kitchen secrets. I know a few of you have expressed interest in sharing kitchen magic so here is the place. I will start a new drop down page on the weekend and until then, here is the first post. Thanks Ursula!!

What are some of your kitchen secrets? What are your cooking tips?
Today’s Challenge: Share at least one with the community to make us all savvier good-looking cooks!
By Ursula Llabres

For me, becoming a better cook has as much to do about loving to eat good food as it is learning about making it easier to do so. It’s all about TIPS or little secret gems of information that add an “ahh” factor to the process. It is these gems of wisdom that you gather from personal experience, from your family’s treasure chest of advice, from others that really enhance any recipe, saves you time in prep work or make us reconsider the way we do things and improve. It’s these “secrets” that are almost non-existent in any recipe or cookbook guide.

Today I want to share a few of my secrets that have helped me along my cooking experiences.

1) The fastest and simplest way to slicing an Avocado. Take a sharp knife and slice the avocado in half. To help separate the halves, just twist it in separate directions slightly and then pull apart. You’ll notice the pit is on one side and not the other. If you are only going to use 1 halve (store the halve with the pit in a Ziploc sandwich bag and squeeze a bit of lime juice on top to help avoid browning). If you are going to use both sides, you can take your knife and give one quick gentle hack at the middle of the pit (so that the knife is half buried) and the pull the pit easily. Tap the knife in the sink sideways and the pit will fall out quickly. Now you have two halves ready for slicing. Take one halve on the palm of your hands (skin touching your hand) and then use the knife to slice the avocado vertically (don’t slice through the skin of the avocado). If you want to make squares then slice again horizontally. Grab a tablespoon and scoop out – from the top edge in – you’ll see how easily the avocado pieces (or slices) come out and you don’t even need to but one of those “gadgets”. Repeat with the other halve. To prevent the avocado from browning – squeeze lime juice on top.

This process was actually shared by my husband when we first met; Julio, who was born and raised in Mexico City, was able to share his TIP around handling a delicious Mexican meal staple. Before this method, I either used to scoop it first and then slice, or peel the skin and then halve the avocado and then slice – very messy!

2) Take the bite/bitter out of a red onion. Red onions are usually great additions to salads but often times they have a strong bitter taste if you just eat them raw. Also the same happens when grilling – they roast nicely but still maintain a certain bite you can do without. There are several ways you can take the bite out of an onion: 1) For salads (after you finish chopping/slicing the onion place it in a small bowl with 1 cup of water and 1/4 cup of white vinegar) the water should just cover the onion (so make adjustments as you see fit – vinegar is only ¼ part of the water). After 5-10 minutes drain and they’re ready to eat – you have basically pickled the onion slightly without taking the crunchiness of it. 2) For grilling – you can blanche the onion. Blanching just means to soak in boiling water. Take the whole onion (peeled) and place it in a small saucepan with boiling water for 5 minutes. Make sure it does not come apart, take the onion from the water (using tongs) and place on a plate (or your cutting board) let dry and cool (10 minutes) before slicing. This makes for very juicy grilled onions!

3) Peeling garlic: My sister taught me this little trick. To easily peel garlic cloves just take a chef’s knife place it on top of the garlic clove and with the blade facing horizontally away from you give it a hit with your hand (you can use an open palm – hit with the bottom bony part of the palm or a side fist). Don’t hit so hard that you mash the garlic clove – but hard enough that you have changed its shape a bit – now the sticky peel will come off so easily! Just start by pulling from one end with your knife.

4) To take the onion or garlic smell of your hands: just wash your hands with soapy water and a metal object (any metal object will do) just rub the metal object often as your wash your hands. It helps! Also you can just use those surgeon gloves (latex) for prep work – I use that and you don’t get your hands smelly at all.

I hope you like these tips – let me know if you need pictures (I can take pictures as I do these next time and post them) Look forward to learning about yours.