Clever Cooking Tips and Food Handling

Have you ever wonder how to make fragrant rice ? If you overestimate and add too much salt into the soup, do you know the tips to recover salty soup without adding more water and losing its taste ? If you would like to consume the vitamin rich apple skin without its wax, do you want to know the easy method to remove the wax ? If you just had really hot and spicy food and tears are coming out from your eyes, what should you do without gobbling up glasses of water? Have you ever wonder whether there is a way to slow down potato germination? Do you want to know how to make avocado and kiwi fruit ripe faster ? Read on, for the healthy and natural tips to these common cooking and food handling questions.

How to make fragrant rice?

To make fragrant rice, after washing the rice in water, add one of the following for preferred fragrant taste before cooking the rice in the steamer or rice cooker :

1) a few drops of lemon juice

2) a few drops of cooking oil

3) a few drops of butter or margarine

4) a few tablespoon of coconut milk

5) a few washed or de-skinned sweet potatoes

6) a few pieces of pandan leaves

7) a few teaspoons of black sesame seeds or powder

How to recover salty soup without losing its taste ?

If you overestimate and add too much salt into the soup, adding water will make the soup tasteless. The trick to overcome this problem is to add cooked potato pieces into the soup for a few minutes. The potato will serve to absorb the salt. Before serving the soup, if potato is not desired, remove the potato.

How to remove the wax on the apple skin?

We often peel the apple skin before we consume them due to the wax on the apple skin.  However, apple skin is rich with vitamins.  If you prefer to consume the apple with its skin, to remove the wax:  
1) place the apple into hot water or
2) apply toothpaste on the apple and rinse with water

How to make soft tofu firmer?

Unless you want to make tofu stew like Mapo Taufu, cooking soft tofu could easily break it into pieces. To hold the shape of tofu while cooking it, soak it in salt water for about 30 minutes before cooking.

I just had really hot and spicy food and tears are coming out my eyes, what should I do?

If you accidentally ate hot and spicy food that made you shed tears and led to constipation, your first thought would probably be to gobble up as much water as you can. However, hot water will not help; the spicy taste will get worse. The best solutions are to drink a glass of milk or eat some fresh fruit. Milk and fruits will neutralize the spicy taste. Fibre rich fruits will also help to overcome the burning sensation during passing motion and reduce constipation.

How to Reduce the Itchiness When Cutting Taro or Yam ?

Taro is great for cooking. However, cutting taro often causes hand itchiness. To solve this problem, soak your hands in vinegar before cutting taro.

How to slow down potato germination?

Green potato, potato buds or potato eyes contain naturally occurring toxic alkaloids (alkaloid solanine) when it germinates. Consuming these tender buds will bring about gastrointestinal, hepatic and heart damages. High dosage of alkaloid solanine can lead to death. The initial symptoms are abdominal pain and dizziness. To delay the germination of potato, place an apple in potatoes. This will significantly delay the potato germination time. Apple emits ethylene gas that can hamper the potato development.

How to make avocado and kiwi fruit ripe faster ?

To make avocado and kiwi fruit ripe faster, keep them in a closed plastic bag together with an apple, pear or banana. These fruits emit ethylene gas which ripens the avocado and kiwi fruit faster.

How to speed up the removal of astringency from persimmon or ripen the persimmon faster ?

Depending on the types of persimmons, the ripening technique varies. A hard Fuyu persimmon only needs to be put aside for just a day or two to ripen naturally. Some other persimmons will ripen faster at room temperature when place in a paper bag along with an apple. Since apple produces additional ethylene gas, it speeds up the ripening process. Turn the fruit occasionally for even ripening.

Unripe Hachiya persimmons may take a number of weeks to soften and lose its astringency. Place the fruits in a plastic food storage container, drop a few drops of spirits (brandy or rum, for instance) on each of the leaf-like sepals, then cover the container tightly. In less than a week, the fruit treated in this manner will lose its astringency and ripen. When persimmons are exposed to alcohol, it encourages the fruits to produce their own ethylene gas and this hastens the ripening process.

How to keep biscuits crispy?

Storing biscuit in an air-tight container is the common practice to keep the biscuit crispy. There is another way. Place some sugar cubes or salt together with the biscuits in the same container will also work magic. The sugar or salt will absorb the moisture in the container, keeping the biscuits or cookies crispy and delicious.

How to remove stains from tea cups?

To clean up the stained tea cups with scrub will leave scratches on the cup wall. An ideal solution to this problem is : spread a little toothpaste on the cup, then hand-wash the cups, stain can be removed easily. If the stain has thickened, after applying the toothpaste, wait a few minutes before washing it off.