Oyster mushrooms are excellent but a bit
pricy. As mushrooms are about 90% water, when
they are in the supermarket for a long time
the water content is greatly reduced. Stock
up on the oysters when they are in a somewhat
desiccated condition, slice them and allow to
dry. Reconstitute by soaking in a beef or bouillon
liquid and use them in any way you desire. But,
my preference is to go into the forest and collect
them wild. Caution....Have a field guide or
someone who can identify the mushrooms you've
collected. ~ Frank Hoffman, Toronto
Marinate carrot strips, drained, sliced beets
(plus onions, if desired), cauliflower florets,
or broccoli florets in the liquid from a jar
of sweet pickles. Put the lid back on and refrigerate
for two or three days to allow the flavor to
develop.
To keep boiled vegetables bright-colored,
add a few drops of olive oil to the water.
To keep vegetables from discoloring after
they are peeled, cut the pieces into a bowl
of salted water (about 1 tablespoon to a quart
of water). This works well with potatoes and
other produce.
To wash greens, fill sink with water. Cut
off and discard stem ends. Add trimmed greens
to water, gently submerging them once or twice.
Let stand in water a few minutes. With your
hands, lift out washed greens; do not disturb
sand that has accumulated on bottom. Place washed
greens in a large colander to drain. Before
cooking, rinse drained greens under running
water two or three times.
Add a pinch of sugar when cooking vegetables.
Sugar acts as a marvelous flavor enhancer. There
is never enough sugar to make the vegetables
taste sweet.
Use leftover vegetables to make into patties.
Mash vegetables together, add parsley, butter
and your favorite seasonings, then fry.
To restore fresh flavor to frozen vegetables,
pour boiling water over them, rinsing away all
traces of the frozen water.
Cook vegetables in the bottom of a double
boiler while you make the cream sauce for them
in the upper pan. This saves fuel and energy.
Onions, broccoli and Brussels sprouts will
cook faster if you make an X-shaped cut at the
base of the vegetable.
By lining the crisper section of your refrigerator
with newspaper and wrapping vegetables with
it, moisture will be absorbed and your vegetables
will stay fresh longer.
Lettuce and celery will keep longer if stored
in the refrigerator in paper bags instead of
cellophane. Don't remove the outside leaves
until ready to use.
To prepare frozen vegetables for a casserole,
cook them right in the box. Remove outer wrapping
first, then pierce box with a fork. Place in
the microwave and cook, following microwave
directions on package. Let stand a few minutes.
Gently squeeze package to get rid of excess
steam before opening.
If fresh vegetables are wilted or blemished,
pick off the brown edges. Sprinkle with cool
water, wrap in a towel, and refrigerate for
an hour or so.
Cook in vegetable, beef, or chicken broth
for a nice flavor.
Put vegetables in water after the water boils
— not before — to be sure to preserve the vegetables'
vitamins.
Line the bottom of the vegetable compartment
with paper toweling. This absorbs the excess
moisture and keeps all vegetables and fruits
fresher for a longer period of time.
Use nylon net to scrub vegetables at the
kitchen sink. It cleans them without rubbing
off the skin, where the good nutrients are.
Artichokes
Don't cook them in aluminum or iron pots as
they will turn the pots gray.
To store, don't wash them when you get them
home. Just drizzle with a few drops of water,
then seal in airtight plastic bags. Refrigerate
for up to two weeks.
Before cooking, let them stand for 1 hour
in a large pot of cold water to which you've
added 1 tablespoon vinegar for every quart of
water. This helps prevent discoloration, and
the flesh will be more succulent after cooking.
To prevent discoloring, stand artichokes
in cold water with a tablespoon of vinegar for
an hour before cooking.
Asparagus
To make thick asparagus stalks tender, peel
the lower parts up to the tender part with a
potato peeler.
Tie fresh asparagus with string before cooking.
This way you can remove the spears easily, without
breaking them, after they're cooked.
Open a can of asparagus from the bottom so
you can pull out the spears without breaking
the tips.
If you bend an asparagus stalk, it will snap
at the point where it becomes tender.
If you peel stalks with a vegetable peeler
before you snap them, you'll have less waste
and more of the asparagus spear to eat.
If asparagus becomes wilted, stand it vertically
in a pan or jar in about 2 inches of ice water.
Cover with a plastic bag and fasten to the jar
with a rubber band. Put in the refrigerator
for 1 to 2 hours before cooking.
Bean Sprouts
Keep them white and crisp by storing them in
a bowl of water in the refrigerator.
Beans
Do not add salt when cooking dried beans. The
salt toughens beans and prolongs cooking.
Beets
To prevent the beets from bleeding while cooking,
do not cut the stems of beets too close. Leave
about one to two inches of stem and keep the
root intact. Put about 2 tablespoons of vinegar
in the cooking water, and peel the beets after
they are cooked.
Instead of boiling beets, bake them like
potatoes. They have a lovely flavor.
To keep the color in your beets when boiling
them, add a little lemon juice.
Bell Peppers
To keep stuffed green peppers from collapsing,
bake them in greased muffin tins.
To peel peppers, put them under a preheated
broiler for just a few minutes. Then drop them
immediately into a paper bag. Close the bag
tightly. The steam from the hot peppers will
loosen the skins so they can be slipped off.
Green peppers don't last long in the refrigerator.
A good way to get them to last as long as possible
is to wash them and hollow out their insides.
Then cut them into whatever sizes you want.
Dry them with paper toweling before putting
them into a dry plastic bag, then freeze them.
When you need green peppers, you'll have them
still fresh.
Broccoli
Stems can be cooked in the same length of time
as the florets if you make "X" incisions from
top to bottom through stems.
Cabbage
To keep red cabbage red, cook the cabbage uncovered
and add a little lemon juice, vinegar or 1/4
cup wine to the water.
Insert wooden picks through cabbage wedges
to hold leaves together while cooking.
To absorb odors while cooking, place a small
cup of vinegar on the stove.
To soften cabbage leaves before making stuffed
cabbage rolls, remove the core from a large
head of cabbage and place it in a pan of hot
water. Heat the water to not-quite-boiling.
Remove the cabbage and carefully peel off the
outer leaves that have softened. Put the head
back in the water, bring the water back to a
simmer and repeat until you have enough cabbage
leaves.
Carrots
To make perfect carrot curls, use a vegetable
peeler to cut long strips of carrot. Roll them
up, and fit each strip into an ice cube tray
compartment. Fill the tray with cold water,
and store it in the refrigerator until ready
to use, then drain.
Do not store unwrapped carrots in the same
storage container as ripe fresh apples. The
apples give off ethylene gas that causes a "ripening"
process in all fruits and some vegetables. This
can result in the carrots acquiring a bitter
taste.
Be sure to remove carrot tops before storing
them in the refrigerator. The tops drain the
carrots of moisture and cause them to become
dry and limp.
Cauliflower
To keep it bright white, add a little milk during
boiling.
To keep it snowy white, soak for 30 minutes
in cold salt water before cooking it.
Cauliflower will stay white if you cook it
with a strip of lemon peel.
Place a piece of stale bread on top of cooking
cauliflower, and the house will stay odor-free.
Cauliflower cooked in an aluminum pot will
darken. Use a different kind of pot and add
a little sugar, lemon peel or vinegar to the
cooking water to keep cauliflower white.
Celery
To make celery curls, cut the stalk into 3-
or 4-inch pieces. Slice each piece into narrow
strips leaving the end uncut to hold them together.
Place them in ice water for 30 minutes until
they curl.
To give stew great color and flavor, add
a few teaspoons of soy sauce.
Store in the refrigerator in paper bags instead
of plastic ones. It will keep longer.
Celery will crisp up fast if you place it
in a pan of cold water and add a few raw sliced
potatoes.
Strip the leaves from celery, wash them and
dehydrate them on a cookie sheet in a slow oven.
The dried leaves are then crumbled and stored
in airtight jars. These flakes make a nutritious
addition to soups, stews, and broths of all
kinds.
Celery leaves should be dried and saved for
soup, stew or salad dressing. Rub the dried
leaves through a sieve to powder them.
Cucumbers
Put attractive scalloped edges on cucumber slices,
by running the tines of a fork lengthwise over
the peeled or unpeeled cucumber, then slice.
Eggplant
Drop eggplant into salted water as you peel
it to remove any bitterness. Dry it with a paper
towel before cooking.
The fewer seeds in an eggplant, the less
bitter it tastes. Check the bottom (the end
opposite the stem). There will be a grayish
"scar" about the size of a dime. If the "scar"
is oval or oblong, the eggplant will be loaded
with seeds. If the "scar" is round, it will
have far fewer seeds.
Garlic
Chop garlic in a small amount of salt to keep
pieces from sticking to the knife or chopping
board.
Before chopping garlic, sprinkle the cloves
with salt. The salt will pick up the juice that
would otherwise be left on the chopping board.
Garlic peel will slip off easily if you place
the clove on a cutting board, and press down
on it hard with the flat edge of a wide-blade
knife. The skin will almost fall off by itself.
Garlic cloves can be kept in the freezer.
When ready to use, peel and chop before thawing.
Garlic cloves will never dry out if you store
them in a bottle of cooking oil. After the garlic
is used up, you can use the garlic-flavored
oil for salad dressing or stir-fry.
Green Beans
Sauté green beans in a small amount of oil before
you add liquid to them. The flavor is improved
enormously, and you'll cut down cooking time.
Potatoes
Before microwaving potatoes, wrap each potato
in a paper towel instead of simply placing a
towel on the oven floor. Moisture is absorbed
from all around the potato, so the skin will
be crisper.
Lettuce
It will keep longer if you store it in the refrigerator
in a paper bag instead of plastic.
Perk up soggy lettuce by adding lemon juice
to a bowl of ice cold water, and soak the lettuce
for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
Soggy lettuce can be fixed by dousing it
quickly into hot, then ice water with a little
apple cider vinegar added.
Lettuce will crisp up fast if you place it
in a pan of cold water and add a few raw sliced
potatoes.
A fresh head of lettuce won't brown as quickly
if you remove the care before storing. Just
hit the core sharply against the counter top
and twist it out.
Lettuce will not "rust" as quickly if you
place a paper towel or napkin in the storage
container.
Mushrooms
Never store mushrooms in a plastic bag because
they quickly become slick and unpleasant. They
keep best either in a brown paper bag (with
the top folded down) because the brown paper
absorbs the moisture that the mushrooms produce.
You can tell if mushrooms are fresh because
their caps are completely closed, with no gills
showing.
To keep mushrooms white while you sauté them,
either add a half teaspoon of lemon juice to
each half cup of melted butter or, if you are
sautéing whole caps, sauté the tops of the caps
first and fill the cap with lemon juice while
the top is sautéing.
Onions
Slice while partially frozen, and there will
be no tears.
If you have many onions to peel, cover them
with very hot water a few minutes and the skins
will slip off easily.
Peel and quarter onions. Place one layer
deep in a pan and freeze. Quickly pack in bags
or containers while frozen. Use as needed, chopping
onions while frozen, with a sharp knife.
To get the onion smell off your hands, rub
a stainless steel spoon over your hands or rub
your hands on a stainless steel sink. It works
every time!
If an onion seems too strong to use raw on
a sandwich or in a salad, place the slices in
a bowl of water to which you have added about
1 teaspoon of sugar per cup of water. Let the
slices soak for about one hour.
Rub your hands with parsley after cutting
up onion, and the onion smell will disappear.
When cooking onions and garlic together,
always cook onions first then add the garlic.
The flavor of each will be kept separate and
the garlic will not become bitter.
Fix a stockpile of chopped onions for your
freezer. Peel off the skin and cut the onions
into sections. Place in a blender filled with
cold water. Grate for two or three seconds,
then drain in a colander or between paper towels.
Spread the chopped onions on a cookie sheet
and freeze them quickly. Put the chilled onions
into freezer bags and store in the freezer to
use as needed.
After an onion has been cut in half, rub
the leftover side with butter, and it will stay
fresh longer.
Store them, wrapped individually in foil,
to keep them from becoming soft or sprouting.
Parsley
Store fresh parsley by rinsing it and shaking
off the excess water. Wrap it in several thicknesses
of damp paper towels. Store the wrapped parsley
in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator.
Freeze parsley by rolling the sprigs into
a tight ball, then wrapping in foil. Freeze.
Unwrap when needed and shave off the quantity
you require. Re-wrap the remainder and return
to the freezer. It will retain its flavor and
freshness.
Keep parsley fresh in your refrigerator by
putting the bunch in a plastic bag with a quarter
of an apple.
Keep parsley fresh and crisp by storing in
a wide-mouth jar with a tight lid. Parsley may
also be frozen.
To keep parsley fresh for up to two weeks,
trim 1/2 inch from the bottom of the stems and
place the entire bunch in a covered jar that
contains enough water to keep the stems wet.
Every few days, cut off another 1/2 inch or
so because the stems will tend to seal and stop
taking up water if you don't.
Potatoes
Salting potatoes before cooking perfects their
texture. It removes a lot of their starch and
built-in moisture.
If making potato pancakes, salt the shredded
potatoes and leave them in a colander to drain
for 15 to 20 minutes.
If making French fries, add salt to the ice
water they soak in before you drain and dry
them for frying. Adding salt before cooking
also helps give the potatoes a natural saltiness
so that you don't have to overdo it when they
are done. Sea salt works best and is much better
for you than ordinary table salt.
To get a flakier baked potato, prick it with
a fork halfway through baking.
Don't pare small, new potatoes. Rub the skin
off with a metal pot scrubber.
Potatoes will stay white after you peel them
until you are ready to cook them if you cut
the pieces into a bowl to which has been added
either a teaspoon or so of lemon juice or vinegar,
or some salt. Do not let the potatoes soak in
the water too long because they can lose a lot
of their supply of vitamin C.
Bake potatoes by standing them on end in
a muffin tin. That way you can remove them all
at once, and they will bake just a little faster
that way, also.
For the best French fries, let cut potatoes
stand in cold water for one hour before frying.
Dry thoroughly before cooking. Fry them just
a few minutes and blot off the grease. Fry a
second time until golden brown. Put them in
a brown paper sack. Sprinkle with a little salt
and shake. You will drain and salt in one action.
A leftover baked potato can be re-baked if
you dip it in water and bake in a 350 degree
F oven for about 20 minutes.
Always start old boiling potatoes in cold
water. Cook new potatoes in boiling salted water.
To make mashed potatoes fast, cut raw potatoes
with a French fry cutter. They'll cook in just
a few minutes.
Save some of the water in which the potatoes
were boiled. Add to some powdered milk and use
when mashing. This restores some of the nutrients
that were lost in the cooking process.
For beautiful brown and crisp baked potatoes,
wash skins well, then butter the skin before
putting them in the oven.
Try using sour cream instead of milk when
mashing.
Add a small amount of vinegar to grease when
frying potatoes to eliminate the greasiness.
For baked potatoes that are crispy outside
and fluffy inside, cook in a hot oven, about
425 degrees F.
Overcooked potatoes can become soggy when
the milk is added. Sprinkle with dry powdered
milk for the fluffiest mashed potatoes ever.
Make delicious soup with leftover mashed
potatoes. Blend potatoes with a little milk.
Place in a pot and add a little more milk, some
butter and a sprinkling of parsley and chives.
For crisper-skinned baked potatoes in the
microwave, wrap each potato in a paper towel.
Moisture is absorbed from all around the potato,
so the skin is crisper.
For the best French fries, let cut potatoes
stand in cold water for an hour before frying.
Dry thoroughly before cooking. Fry them the
first time for a few minutes and blot off the
grease. Fry the second time until golden brown.
Hurry up baked potatoes by boiling in salted
water for 10 minutes, then place in a very hot
oven.
For fast baked potatoes, cut potatoes in
half and place them face down on a baking sheet
in the oven.
If you've peeled too many potatoes, cover
them with cold water to which a few drops of
vinegar have been added. Keep refrigerated and
they will last for 3 or 4 days.
Spinach
To easily remove moisture from thawed frozen
spinach, place spinach in a pie pan. Set another
pie pan over spinach. Over the sink, holding
pie pans vertically in your hands, press pans
together. Liquid will be pressed from spinach
and drain into the sink.
Sweet Corn
An ordinary shoe horn is excellent for removing
the corn kernels from the cob.
Corn on the cob will be simple to open if
you wash them with cold water, place in a plastic
bag and freeze for an hour or so before shucking.
Grilling corn on the cob — Soak the corn
with husks in a pail of water before placing
them on the grill, with husks on. The husks
will most likely be charred but the corn itself
will not be burnt. The corn will have a pleasing
buttery taste without adding anything to it.
To remove corn silk, run a damp paper towel
or terry cloth over the shucked ear.
If necessary to store fresh corn, buy it
in the husks and store in the refrigerator.
This prevents sugar in the corn from turning
to starch.
To select fresh corn, look for fresh green
husks, dry silks, and even rows of plump kernels.
Place the small end of a cob of corn in the
middle of your angel food cake pan. Cut the
corn off. The kernels fall neatly into the pan.
There is very little spattering of the milk,
and you can easily and neatly cut off all the
kernels.
To keep sweet corn yellow, add 1 teaspoon
lemon juice to the cooking water a minute before
you remove it from the stove.
To test freshness of corn, pop a kernel with
your fingernail. If the milk is watery, then
the corn is immature. If it is thick and starchy,
the corn is old.
When cooking corn on the cob, use the tender
green leaves from the corn to line the bottom
of the pot. It really improves the taste.
Squash
Add some maple syrup to leftover squash before
re-heating.
