An organised kitchen is the Holy Grail of every aspiring Domestic God(dess). But with all the planning and the shopping, the cooking and the cleaning, you may be forgiven for not being on top of everything all the time.
To streamline your kitchen routine with a touch of professional panache, we’ve got 10 insider tips that you’ll wonder how you ever managed without.
1 – Get more juice from your lemons
To make citrus fruits juicier, roll the fruit on a hard kitchen worktop surface or, alternatively, pop it in the microwave for 20 seconds. It also helps to cut the fruit lengthwise – yes, really!
2 – Revive your wooden spoons
Wooden spoons that are showing signs of wear and tear can be rejuvenated by putting into boiling water and drying in sunlight. Hey presto, good as new.
3 – Measuring sticky liquids
Trying to measure honey, syrup or peanut butter by the spoonful can be a messy business. However, if you run the spoon under hot water first, or spray some cooking oil on it, the sticky stuff will slide off easily.
4 – Hurry up your peaches or bananas
Want to speed up the ripening process? Put the fruit in a paper bag and let the ethylene gas do its job to jolly your peaches/bananas along.
5 – Embrace batch cooking
When you’re cooking for 4, why not cook for 8 and freeze the rest? You don’t necessarily need Rangemaster appliances to cook big batches of chicken, meat, soups or pasta sauces can be frozen for dinner, or reinvented into different meals, for another day.
6 – The perfect poached egg
To avoid straggly looking poached eggs, use a metal strainer to carefully place the egg into the boiling water, and to remove it. And don’t forget a few drops of vinegar in the poaching water.
7 – Freeze unused ingredients
If you have leftover tomato sauce, herbs or even some wine left in a bottle – don’t throw them away. Put into ice cubes and freeze, either as ingredients for the next meal or a ready sauce to go.
8 – Keep tomatoes for longer
To prevent tomatoes from ripening too quickly, don’t put them in the fridge. Even better, store them with the stem pointing down.
9 – Quick breakfast waffles
When you’re making waffles, why not make double and freeze the leftovers in a plastic bag, separated by parchment. Then, on a busy morning, take one out of the freezer and just pop it into the toaster.
10 – Reheating pizza in the microwave
If you want to warm up pizza, bread and other baked goods in the microwave without everything drying out, just put a cup of water alongside in the microwave. Job done!
