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• Keep fishy smells at bay

Before preparing fresh fish, halve a lemon and rub both hands with the cut ends to help to keep your hands from absorbing the fishy odour. (If you didn’t know you had a tiny scratch or cut on your hand, you will now!) If frying is your cooking method of choice, wash the pan you used and pour in 1 cm white vinegar; the acetic acid should banish any lingering fish smell.

• Make scaling easier with vinegar

When scaling a fish, rub white vinegar onto the scales and let it sit for about 10 minutes. The scales will come off so easily that they may make more of a mess than usual, so put the fish in a plastic bag before you do this. Just scale the fish in the bag with one hand while holding it by the tail with your other hand.

• Keep poached fish firm

When poaching fish, squeeze fresh lemon juice into the poaching liquid to help the fish to cook evenly. For each 500g of fish, use the juice of half a lemon.

• Lock in moisture when baking

Low-fat fish such as whiting, snapper and flat-head can easily dry out as they bake. To seal in the moisture, wrap each fillet or whole fish in aluminium foil before putting it in the oven.

• Freezing fresh-caught fish

When you bring home more fish from a fishing trip than you can eat, here’s the best way to freeze them. Take an empty milk carton large enough to hold each fish, place the fish inside and fill the carton with water. Seal the opening with tape and place the carton in the freezer. When you thaw the fish, you won’t have to worry about scraping off ice crystals or pulling off some of the flesh with the wrapping.

• Cool down prawns

To ensure tender, well-textured meat, place prawns in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before you cook them. Just be sure not to overcook them because you think they need time to warm up in the boiling water — they don’t.

• Make shucking oysters easier

Soaking oysters in soda water for 5-10 minutes will make it easier for you to open the shells.

• Stop lobster squirting

When cracking and twisting the legs and claws off a whole lobster or crab, guard against the occasional squirt by putting a serviette between the crustacean and your hand. Any squirts will hit the serviette, not your clothes.

• Improve the taste of canned seafood

If you detect a slight metallic flavour to canned seafood, soak it as directed below, drain and then pat the seafood dry with paper towels.

1. Water-packed tuna Soak in a mixture of cold water and lemon juice for 15 minutes (2 parts water, 1 part juice).
2. Canned crab Soak the crabmeat in iced water for 5-10 minutes.
3. Canned prawns Soak the prawns in a mixture of 2 tablespoons vinegar and 1 teaspoon dry sherry for 15 minutes.

• Cut the salt in anchovies

If you like the taste of anchovies but wish they weren’t quite so salty, soak them in iced water for 10-15 minutes and then drain them well before tossing them in a Caesar salad or arranging them on top of a pizza.

• Balance salt with sugar

If you’ve over-salted a stew or soup, save it with a teaspoon of granulated sugar. It will absorb excess salt and help to balance the taste. Or stir in a teaspoon of honey instead.

• De-grease gravy with bicarb

Sometimes the cooking juices used for gravy are so greasy that they look like an oil slick. Counteract the problem with a pinch or two of bicarbonate of soda: stir just enough into the juices to absorb the grease. (Be careful, though; if you overdo it you could taint the flavour and make it taste metallic.)

• Over-heated curry

Tone it down with pureed apple. Add 30 ml of pureed apple for each 90 ml curry sauce, then taste. If necessary, continue stirring in a little pureed apple until the curry is to your liking.

• Two extra for dinner

It can be a total disaster when you cook the perfect size roast for a small dinner party. Meat shrinks when cooked, so it’s a third smaller than you started out with and then the doorbell rings — with two extra guests to feed. Carve the entire roast into thin strips, toss a large salad, top it with the meat and you should have substantially increased the size of your main course.

• Rescue a cracked egg

If you’re boiling an egg and the shell cracks, simply add a teaspoon of vinegar to the cooking water. It will help to coagulate the egg white and stop it from seeping out.

• Salsa too hot?

Stir in a drop or two of vanilla extract and a hot salsa should cool down. Whether it’s the vanillin, sugars or amino acids in vanilla that take the heat down a notch or two, vanilla extract is the best condiment for the job.

• Too much garlic in the soup

Pack a mesh pouch, gauze bag or metal tea ball with dried parsley flakes or fresh parsley sprigs and drop it into the pan. After 5 minutes or so, the flakes will absorb some of the taste of the offending ingredient. Once the garlic taste has been adequately toned down, simply remove the parsley and discard it.

Credit : Reader’s Digest

Picture Credit : Google

• Simple skinning

Skin a piece of poultry, or even a whole bird, with ease. Put it in the freezer until partially frozen (generally 1-2 hours). You will be able to pull the skin off with no trouble.

• Chicken money-saver

Buy whole chickens and cut them up with poultry shears, rather than buying breasts or legs. Freeze in portion-sized freezer bags. If you eat chicken often, you’ll make up the cost of the shears in just a few weeks.

• Butter (milk) up chicken pieces

To tenderize chicken pieces and pack them with flavour, rinse the meat, pat dry and marinate them in buttermilk (or add a tablespoon of lemon or vinegar to regular milk) for 2-3 hours, in the fridge, before cooking.

• Stuffing stopper

When cooking a stuffed turkey, chicken or duck, simply place a raw potato in the entrance to the cavity and the stuffing will stay put.

• Tea-riffic flavour

To give chicken or turkey breasts or thighs a light smokey flavour and help them to retain moisture as they cook, brew 2 strong cups of spice-flavoured tea. Once the tea cools, add seasonings such as black pepper, salt, paprika and garlic to taste, pour into a large self-sealing plastic bag and add the chicken or turkey pieces. Put in a shallow dish and marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours before cooking.

• Carrot and celery rack

Instead of using a roasting rack, crisscross whole carrots and celery stalks on the bottom of a roasting dish, then top with your chicken or turkey. Once it’s done, the bird will easily lift out of the dish and the flavour of the gravy will be enhanced by the vegetables.

• Simple roux starters for gravy

Combine excess fat from a roasting pan with sufficient flour until you can roll it into small balls about half the size of a walnut and freeze on a baking sheet covered with a paper towel. When frozen, transfer the balls to a plastic bag and store in the freezer for future use. The next time you need to make gravy, take out a roux starter-ball from the bag and melt it in the saucepan before stirring in the other ingredients. Or, if your cooked gravy is too thin, drop in a roux starter, whisk well, season to taste and serve.