38 kitchen tips every cook should know.

Most times, people encounter some challenges in the kitchen which they don’t know how to get out of it.

Below are some of the remedies a friend shared with me which can be of a tremendous help. They are:

1. When peeling banana or plantain apply oil in your hands so as to avoid the sticking.
2. You can store your moi-moi leaves in freezer for months by putting in a big nylon. You only bring out the quantity you need per time.
3. Don’t cover your ogbono or okro soup when cooking it because it will make it not to draw well again. Also, after cooking it, allow it to cool down before covering it.
4. If you don’t want to cry while cutting onion. Before you use the onion, peel the back put in the fridge for 10mins. Bring it out and use it.
5. Preserve your dry fish and crayfish inside freezer with a tight closed container.
6. Add salt to your coco yam when it starts boiling to soften it quickly.
7. Soak your garlic in cold water for like a minute, and use your hand to remove the back. It will come off easily.
8. To cut pepper with your hand apply vegetable oil on your hand and cut the pepper. You will not feel the effect.
9. To preserve your beans from weevils and likes, remove dirt’s from beans and store in a Jerry can with cover or put the beans in a nylon and get a bucket with cover. The beans will last and remain cool till the seed finishes.
10. If you’re boiling your rice and it’s too soft due to too much water just put a slice of bread on it and it will absorb the water and normalize the rice.
11. Tie the head of your plantain to avoid air. Then keep it in the fridge to avoid it from getting ripe.
12. Wrap your unused fresh vegetables inside a paper. It could be newspaper, then keep in the fridge
13. If hot water or hot oil mistakenly pour on any part of your body, just pour flour on it immediately. And your skin won’t peel or swell up.
14. Soak your beans for moi moi in hot water for about 10 mins and wash. It comes off easily.
15. To store your Ogiri, mix it with salt and put in a container. Your ogiri will stay for years without spoiling.
16. To prepare white soup. First cook the meat, keep it aside, then boil stock fish, dry fish, salt, pepper, red oil, crayfish, seasoning cube etc. Put it in the freezer, if none, add little water and warm every morning. Prepared with desired quantity of water. Then take the quantity as you want whenever you want to prepare any kind of soup even unripe plantain etc. For Ede, buy powdered one. Prepare any soup that you can finish a day. Okro, Egwusi, Ogbono, Ede etc. Note, don’t put the meat in the white soup, it would be very very soft before the white soup will finish or you can cook it half done. Then as you warm it everyday, it gets soft .
17. Slice onions near fire to avoid watery eyes or Slice under water.
18. Fry your washed bitter-leaf when cooking Egwusi soup to get a sweet bitter taste.
19. For smooth Garri, blend or grind it before adding the hot water.
20. Add just few garlic in the oil use to fry chin chin or any other thing. The oil will get back fresh to be use for stew in case you don’t have another.
21. Add small lemon juice to your over salted soup, stew and it does magic.
22. After making your Eba cover it for 5 minutes before mixing. It makes it look smooth.
23. Use cold water to melt small of your Semo vita before adding your hot water. This will make the Semo free from lumps.
24. If bone enters your throat when you are eating, cough and pull your ear at the same time. It will come out.
25. If your meat is small in shape, parboil for some seconds without out water. This will help it to rise. Then you can add water and seasoning.
26. Fry your curry leaf together with tomatoes. That stew will be the sweetest.
27. If you want to enjoy ice fish, don’t boil it. Just wash and marinate. When you are ready to fry, slice onions in the oil and fry.
28. To re-use already used oil, grate few ginger and fry for some seconds. It will remove the odour or flavour of what you fried initially and taste fresh.
29. To save gas, blend your tomatoes and drain the water with a sieve before frying it. That way, it takes little time to dry.
30. If you want your beans to cook faster, after the first water drains, add a chopped onions into it and add water.
31. Use egg shell, grounded garlic and salt to get rid of wall Geckos.
32. Use charcoal to resurrect a soured soup.
33. If you want crunchy Irish potato , soak it in water (not salty water) at least for 30 minutes before frying. For yam and sweet potato, soak overnight.
34. Make crayfish the last ingredient you add to every meal. The taste of the meal will be WOW!
35. When frying tomato for stew, to prevent it from burning, add dry pepper.
36. Do you know you can use raw beans to boil hard meat?
37. Always add slice tomatoes to your food. It helps to reduce cholesterol!
38. Use grater to wash your beans for moi moi after soaking for about 3 minutes.