Top 10 Kitchen Hacks That Actually Work

We’ve scoured the cooking world to bring you the top ten kitchen hacks & up your creative cooking game!

We know how much you love spending time in the kitchen & whizzing up recipes like no one’s business. We share the sentiment and are here to help you out & speed you up so you can spend more time enjoying your delectable meals!

1. Cooking poached eggs can be a bit tricky. But what if you had a way to do away with worrying about whether your egg will look like a pearly pouch or a mini-explosion? We do! Grab some cling film, line it in a small bowl & break the egg into it. Tie up the remaining film in a knot or with a rubber band. Pop the egg into a pan of simmering water & cook till runny, medium or well-done.

2.  Grilling season is here! Here’s a tip for the BBQ breed. Vegetables & meat are a cinch to make, but fish is a whole other deal. If you’re cooking a kind which is crumbly, pop it on top of thick lemon slices which will hold it together all while adding a zesty flavour to your fish. Before getting your grill on or in-between meats, you can run a sliced onion to clean & polish up your grill while giving your food a subtle edge.

3. Talking of grills & BBQs, while taking meals outdoors is fun & we adore nature, we don’t adore it just as much in our drinks! Being in the open invariably means getting tiny insects, grass blades, specks of things-no-one-knows-the-name-of, etc. in our glasses. But say goodbye to wasp woes with our quirky fix, top your glass with a cupcake liner- invert the liner on the rim and pierce a straw through it- and you have a braveheart to protect your beverage.

4. Does it ever bother you as much as it bothers us – the leftover sauces in the measuring cup or little bowls you’ve used while cooking & now you have to rinse out your measuring cup or grab another few bowls? Fix this with a bit of cooking spray or olive oil. Just spray or rub a bit on the bowl or cup & even the spoon you’re using. Sauces like peanut butter, honey, mayo, ketchup or mustard will slide right out. No more sticky fingers, bowls or spoons!

5. If thinking of perfectly boiled eggs is what wakes you up every morning, we have a hack for you. Poke a tiny hole in the raw egg with a tack or a pin & put in a pinch of baking soda in the water. This will help you peel the little white babies with ease. If you want an easier egg-eating time, grab a spoon and slide it between the egg & the shell to easily glide your meal out of its casing.

6. Classic dilemma: you want to make veggie koftas. That means you can’t use eggs. But they keep falling apart! How do you solve this problem? Easy! Grind up some cashews into the kofta mix. When the koftas get hot during cooking, the fat in the ground up cashews will melt and act as a binding agent to keep the shape of the kofta together.

7. Short of time yet the meat mania keeps knocking? Marinating carnivorous treats is often a stress factor, but what if you could speed up the process and enjoy a steak the same evening you daydream of it? We have just the hack for you! Marinate your chosen piece of meat in some pineapple juice- the enzymes in the juice help breakdown the protein in the meat, making it tender faster- and voila! A minimum of 30 minutes of marinating is enough to have your dish ready to be cooked,

8. Us DSSC peeps love ourselves some eggs, be it morning, noon, or night. Taking that love forward, we have yet another eggetarian trick for you. To check if an egg has boiled all the way through, spin it on the counter and stop it abruptly before letting go of it again. If the egg continues to spin after you let go of it, it isn’t done yet because the liquid inside is still spinning- hard or soft, now you know what you’re in for.

9. Bright smiles need a flossing & now so do our kitchen projects! Keep a little dental floss on call & fight away baby kitchen grievances before they become bigger. Use the floss to slice through soft cheese, cakes & in-between cake layers. You can use it to tie up food instead of kitchen twine & it’s also a simple way to release cakes, brownies, cookies & biscuits that have gotten stuck to baking trays.

10. Cooking in the kitchen is like conducting an orchestra: cutting & chopping vegetables here, boiling the pasta there, sautéing garlic on a non-stick while roasting nuts in the oven, blending tomatoes in the processor for sauce & chilling the wine for the meal all at once. Things can get distracting, so here’s a cool trick to make sure pasta, rice or noodles don’t overspill when you’re boiling them – just grab a wooden spoon & put it across the pan. The bubbles that would have spilled through actually stick to the wood. Try it if you don’t believe us & save yourself some toil & trouble.

Now that we’re done making your kitchen life a bit easier & a whole lot more fun, you don’t get to make any excuses for not stepping into the kitchen. Take your eating regime in your own hands, use these cheats & have a ball. You don’t even have to say you got them from us (it can be our little secret). Just go be kitchen-amazing!

Feature Image Courtesy: dunelm.com