Eggplant, Fry after dipping in salted water before frying for the au natural taste
Taste of a fried eggplant is usually too oily because eggplants absorb oil so well. Therefore, one tends to keep adding oil while frying eggplants and as a result, the taste becomes too oily.
To bring out the natural flavor with ample amount of oil, dip eggplants in salted water before frying. This not only prevents excess oil absorption but also removes puckery taste eggplants.
Potato storage
Potato spouts need to be removed because they are toxic. To prevent potatoes from sprouting up during storage, wrap in newspaper, put in a vinyl bag, and store them in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator. You can enjoy fresh potatoes for an extended period time.
Cooking potatoes without crushing
Well-cooked potatoes tend to get crushed easily. Crushed potatoes are difficult to eat and may ruin the presentation of the dish. To prevent this, dip sliced/diced potatoes in cold water for 5 minutes and remove dampness before cooking.
How to boil potatoes deliciously
You can preserve the characteristic taste of potatoes by boiling. Boiled potatoes are great dietary food because they are quite nutritious and low in calories.
There is a little trick with which you can enjoy even more delicious boiled potatoes. Submerge peeled potatoes in salted water up to 2/3 of the height.
Salt brings out the distinct color of potatoes, removes the toxin (solanin) from potatoes, and seasons the potatoes.
To check whether a potato is cooked well, poke it with a chopstick. When it is done, drain water and add a little bit of oil and cook thoroughly for five minutes.
Sprinkle garlic powder on freshly roasted fish for an exquisite flavor
Fish tastes better when it is freshly roasted. It tastes even better with garlic powder. Garlic powder is usually available in supermarkets and it gives a different flavor from fresh garlic.
Deodorizing eggs
Egg dish is highly nutritious and adds splendor to your dinner table with its lovely color. However, it may cause some trouble due to its characteristic odor. By sprinkling small amount of minced parsley on top, you can garnish and deodorize your egg dish.
Easy way to make meatball
If you make meatballs with your hands, meat tends to stick on your hands. You will end up with irregular shapes and experience inconvenience. There is a sleek and clean way to make meatballs using two teaspoons.
Coat one of the spoons with vegetable oil and scoop up necessary amount of mixed ingredients and form meatballs simply by pressing with the other teaspoon.
How to wash fruits cleanly
Washing out agrochemicals from fruits can be challenging, especially for fruits such as grapes and strawberries. These chemicals can be easily removed by soaking the fruits in water with a few drops of vinegar and then washing it with running water.
How to prevent cookies from gathering moisture
Add a sugar cube to the cookie jar or bag for storage. Sugar cubes absorb moisture and prevent cookies from gathering moisture.
How to soften food items which have hardened
When raisins have been stored for a long period of time, they tend to harden and taste is ruined. To recover tenderness, sprinkle water or wine, cover with wrap, then microwave for 30 seconds.
You will be surprised by the tenderness. When a leftover sponge cake is stored in a refrigerator, it easily hardens.
Warm up a cup of water with sugar and add two spoons of whiskey. Sprinkle this mixture over sponge cake. Sponge cake absorbs moisture and softens. It is also tastier with scent of whiskey.
To soften bread, add moisture by wrapping it with damp kitchen towel and toast it. Bread tastes like as if it were fresh out of the oven. Dried up cheese slices can be softened either by dipping in milk or gently boiling in milk.
How to clean oysters
To make more delicious oyster dishes, wash oysters in a bowl 1/3 filled with radish juice.
How to prevent oil from splashing when frying
When frying vegetable or fish, oil tends to splash and leaves a mess around the kitchen and it may cause light burn. To prevent this, add handful of salt to oil.
When frying fish, cover both sides with flour. This helps preventing oil splashing. You may panic when oil starts to splash, you can prevent this by adding bread crumb.
When the frying pan catches fire, cover the pan with large leaf vegetable to put out fire. Never pour water. If vegetable is not available, turn off the gas oven first and cover the pan with nearby kitchen towel.
Maintain the color of peeled apple
You might have experienced some embarrassing moments by the color change of apples that you peeled off for guests in advance. You can’t just peel off apples in front of your guests all the time.
This can be avoided by soaking peeled apples in lightly salted water. Salted water prevents apples from oxidizing. If the apples are sliced thin for salads or sandwiches, sprinkle them with lemon water.
This also helps maintaining the color. Lemon water also prevents peeled bananas from changing color.
Long storage of honey
The purer the honey is, the more difficult it is to store in refrigerator since it whitens and hardens. Whitening of honey is due to crystallization of glucose. Whitening does not degrade the quality of honey but it becomes difficult to dissolve in water and it does not look appealing.
Therefore, you need to store honey in the freezer. Low temperature prevents glucose crystallization facilitates easier storage due to high viscosity.
Recipe for leftover sandwiches
When leftover sandwiches harden, do not throw them away. Toast leftover sandwiches on a frying pan with salad oil or frying oil.
Using frozen bread as starch powder
Freeze leftover bread for variety of dishes. You can make fine bread powder using a grater. You can use it for variety of batter-fried food and soup.
Maintain taste of meat with starch
Leftover bul-go-gi will lump up together by hardening fat as it cools down. To prevent this, dissolve one tablespoon of starch in water and add this to bul-go-gi right after cooking. You can enjoy gloss and taste of the meat even if it is cold.
Fresh squids have clear eyes
When buying a fresh squid, inspect skin and eyes. Fresh squids have glossy dark brown skins. Examine whether suction disks are missing and skins are scarred.
The most important thing to do is to judge the freshness of squids with clearness of eyes. White portions of the eyes should be large and transparent.
How to store minced garlic
Garlic is used in a variety of dishes. It is convenient to mince large amount of garlic for later use. However, minced garlic changes its color if it is stored in a refrigerator. This cannot be discolored by adding a little sugar.
How to store eggs
There is a proper way of storing eggs in a refrigerator. Make sure pointy ends of eggs are facing down since eggs breath through the round ends. Also if the pointy ends are facing down, the contents tend to be more static facilitating longer storage.
Boiling eggs
It is not that easy to boil eggs without losing the shapes. Sometimes egg shells break and egg whites ooze out. This happens because eggs bump each other while boiling and egg shells suddenly expand when dropped into boiling water right out of a refrigerator.
To prevent this, you can add small amount of salt or a few drops of vinegar to boiling water. To remove egg shells cleanly, cool the boiled eggs with cold water right away. Nutrition values are in the order of hard-boiled, half-boiled, and raw. When boiling eggs, usually eggs are hard boiled.
The most ideal way to make half-boiled eggs is when water starts boiling, put out the fire and keep the eggs for 6 minutes.
Another way to prepare boiled eggs is to add eggs to electric rice cooker while preparing steamed rice. Make sure to wrap the eggs with aluminum foil to prevent shells from breaking or eggs from mixing with rice even when egg shells break.
In this case, eggs are hard-boiled due to long cooking time for rice. You can use these hard boiled eggs for salad or sandwiches. Similarly, you can also prepare steamed potatoes and yams for children’s snacks.
How to batter with eggs
Preparing batter-fried or grilled food with egg coating is such a time consuming task since you need to coat it with eggs one by one.
Wrap a bowl with plastic, beat eggs in it, put in ingredients, and shake the bowl holding the both ends of the plastic wrap. You don’t even have to wash the bowl afterwards.
How to remove chicken odor
Chicken meat has its characteristic odor. You can deodorize chicken meat by keeping the meat in a bowl with some alcohol. If this doesn’t work, you can add radish juice to alcohol.
How to deodorize carrots
If you hesitate to add a carrot to your dish due to its odor, you can use the following remedy. Soak carrots in water for two days or store it in a refrigerator. You will be surprised to see that carrot odor is gone.
How to remove pork fat
If pork meat has too much fat, it ruins the flavor. If you want to remove fat from pork meat to a proper level, add salt to raw meat and rub with hands.
For pot stews, you can remove excess fat by boiling in water before cooking. Suitable amount of remaining fat in pork meat harmonizes with protein, which softens the meat considerably.
After removing excess fat this way, you can finish to boil with fresh water. Pork prepared this way doesn’t give you greasy flavor.
How to roast pork
Pork is not only delicious but also readily available. However, unlike at restaurants, it is not easy to bring out its natural flavor at home.
To bring out the natural flavor of pork, slice the meat thin and preheat the grill with high flame for roasting. Roast the meat thoroughly and quickly.
If the grill is hot enough, meat surface is quickly cooked and prevent juice from oozing out. Caution needs to be taken when roasting marinated meat for it burns quickly.
To fully utilize nutrition of pork
Pork meat has plenty of vitamin B1 compared to other meat. However, vitamin B1 is easily destroyed by heat and also easily dissolved in water.
Therefore, to fully benefit from pork meat, either roast it or try pot stew to minimize liquid. If boiling cannot be avoided, try to use the minimum amount of water and try consuming the soup to fully benefit from pork’s nutrition.
How to store tofu and apple
To maintain freshness of tofu for long period of time, store it in slightly salted water. Tofu will change color and rot. Parboil tofu in boiling water and store it in a refrigerator.
This prevents tofu from rotting and it is easier to use later. Apples are usually stored in vegetable compartment of a refrigerator but if lots of apples are to be stored, Cover the bottom of a box with sand and store apples in it.
Sprinkle some water on sand. This helps maintaining freshness and flavor of apples.
How to drain tofu
When stored tofu is cooked right away, absorbed water from tofu oozes out and makes it difficult to maintain adequate seasoning.
To drain water from tofu, layout kitchen towel and put tofu on top 4 hours before cooking. You can also use folded newspaper covered with a sheet of clean cooking paper. Tofu drains in 30 minutes.
The order of mixing ingredients for salad dressing
Salad is a very simple source of a variety of vegetables. You can buy salad dressing from grocery stores, but it is better to prepare at home. Selecting ingredients, such as salad oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, is important, but to order of mixing the ingredients is more important.
Add salad oil after salt because it does not dissolve in oil. Add the dressing just before serving because water from vegetables oozes out and ruins salad.
Coffee machine is important for tasty coffee. How to prepare coffee is also important. Salt adds to the flavor of coffee. When using a siphon, add salt when water is siphoned up. When using a drip machine, add hint of salt right after coffee is made.
Removing extra moisture of salad with peanuts
When making salads with apples, persimmons, pears, and pineapples, extra moisture from fruits tends to ruin the taste of salad.
Adding ground peanuts not only help reducing the extra moisture from salad but also adds fragrant flavor which goes really well with fruits. Slice fruits thin so that dressing smears into vegetables thoroughly.
To remove fish scales using plastic wrap box
One easy way to remove scales from a fish is to use jagged teeth of plastic wrap box. You don’t have to worry about fish smell on your kitchen knives.
How to squeeze a lemon
When squeezing a lemon at home, you end up wasting quite a bit. To squeeze a lemon to the last drop, soak a lemon in hot water for a few minutes. Squeeze the lemon when it cools down. Or you can try pressing down and rolling on a chopping board.
Or you can microwave a lemon slightly before squeezing. If you need only a few drops, try inserting a straw and squeeze slightly.
How to prevent garlic breath
Garlic breath can be really embarrassing. To prevent this, drink milk before eating garlic. Calcium in milk removes the characteristic smell of garlic. Chewing parsley after eating garlic can also remove garlic breath.
How to remove spiciness of garlic
Sometimes garlic can have so strong a taste and scent that it could ruin the taste of a dish. If garlic is too strong, soak it in water with a bit of sugar, salt, and vinegar.
After a week, drain water and soak it in soda. Take out the necessary amount from the soda bath whenever needed.
Dried mushrooms are more nutritious
When you are choosing mushrooms, try well-dried ones. Mushrooms well-dried under the sun have much more nutrients such as vitamin D, etc than damp ones.
How to store mayonnaise
Mayonnaise may rot or become layered during storage. Mayonnaise is quite sensitive to temperature. Therefore, it is not a good idea to store it at temperatures either too high or too low. During summer, store mayonnaise in door shelf of a refrigerator. During other seasons, store it at room temperature.
How to prepare delicious chicken
Before cooking chicken, poke the skin with fork. This prevents shrinkage of skin and helps conducting heat thoroughly so that you can enjoy well cooked chicken dishes.
How to store leftover hams
Hams or sausages with large serving sizes are cheaper than those with small serving sizes. However, once the package is opened, you need to be careful in storage since hams and sausages will rot from the surface and eventually get ruined.
You can avoid this simply by applying margarine or alcohol on the surface to prevent oxidation, degradation, or decomposition.
How to deodorize old rice
If you steam the rice that has been stored for an extended period time, it tends to have unpleasant odor.
For breakfast, try washing rice with vinegar(1~2 drops) water on the night before. Drain the water and wash the rice again with lukewarm water just before cooking.
Making dish with flour
Taste of dishes with flour comes from the quality of dough. Using a vinyl bag can make kneading less painful and easy. Add water to flour bed and knead roughly to a lump.
Put it into a vinyl bag and keep it there for 20 minutes. The lump softens significantly facilitating easy kneading and cooking.
To prevent bananas from blackening
Cut bananas blackens since the cut surface oxidizes. To prevent this, wipe the cut surface with lemon juice.
To make crispy batter-fried dishes
Batter is the key point in preparing fritters. Try adding beer when making batter, alcohol and hops in beer adds characteristic flavor to the fritters. When beer is used, beat the batter until it whips. For extra crispy fritters, use iced water to make batter.
How to store chestnuts for a long period of time
It’s cumbersome to poach chestnuts every time before serving. If you poach them all and store them to serve later, they tend to go rotten easily. To prevent this, wash the poached chestnuts with cold water and store them in a freezer.
Defrost them whenever necessary. Uncooked chestnuts can be preserved for up to one year. First peel the chestnuts, soak them in water overnight. After drying, store them in a vinyl bag in a freezer.
How to prevent bread from softening up using butter
Sandwiches are quite simple meals for picnics. However, sandwiches become too soft to eat after some time. This is because water from vegetables in sandwiches is absorbed by breads.
Try buttering the inner surface of the breads filling in the pores. This prevents water from getting absorbed by bread and you can enjoy your sandwich at its best.
Cutting breads and butters neatly
Bread and milk are most popular choice for a simple breakfast. However, this simple bread and butter may turn out to be not that simple after all. When cutting a lump of butter, the knife tends to slip and butter gets squashed and smears the knife.
Soft breads are much difficult to cut neatly compared to hard. Try covering a thin sheet of paper on butter and using a kitchen knife to cut it. To cut soft breads neatly, first heat up the bread knife on fire and try cutting the bread.
Cutting breads-poached eggs neatly
Small slices of bread, rice cake, and boiled eggs are not only good snacks but also they look really nice. However, slicing them could be a challenge for they are quite soft in nature.
To cut soft food neatly, try heating up a knife with hot water or direct fire. You can have clean cross sections and avoid crushing them.
Slice slowly maintaining the knife at a tilted angle. Hold the loaf of bread upright, and slice it from inside towards outside. Hardened rice cakes are very difficult to cut. Fresh -out-of-steam-pot rice cakes are not easy either for they tend to stick to the knife.
In this case, rub the knife on a slice of radish before cutting rice cakes. When cutting a loaf of butter, try covering a thin sheet of paper on butter and cutting it with a kitchen knife at a tilted angle. Butter cuts neatly and doesn’t get smeared on the knife.
How to deodorize shrimps
Shrimp is a favorite dish for many people thanks to its characteristic flavor and taste. However, it gives fish smell when cooked improperly at home. You can remove fish smell by adding a few drops of lemon or vinegar before cooking.
Vinegar for salads
Try adding vinegar for salads. Vinegar protects vitamin C in vegetables and fruits. You can enjoy nutritious and tasty salad.
How to roast fish neatly
Typically, fish is roasted on a grill and fish skin tends to stick on the grill, which ruins the presentation.
To prevent this, wipe the grill with vinegar and heat it up before putting fish on it. It is a good practice to wait one side is well done before turning it over.
Be careful not to turn it over too frequently. Squids, shrimps, and clams shrink while being cooked. You can reduce shrinkage by sprinkling some salt before cooking.
How to remove fish scales and peel potatoes and carrots
It is rather convenient to use spoons than knifes for removing scales from fish. Simply scrape fish scales with a spoon. Potatoes and carrots are not easy to peel. Typically, you end up wasting significant portion of flesh.
You can soften up the skin to facilitate peeling by parboiling potatoes and carrots.
How to remove fish smell before cooking
When fish is not fresh, it discharges trimethylamine, which is the source of fish smell. Smelly fish is not only less tasty but also unbearable while cooking.
There are a few effective ways to remove fish smell. Try soaking fish in soy bean paste or milk. Proteins in soybean paste and milk absorb the smell. You can also add ginger or green onion to remove fish smell.
Lemon juice, vinegar, wine, and rice wine can neutralize fish fat which contains trimethylamine. When cooking fresh water fish such as a crucian carp, try soaking it in vinegar water. Fish spits out trimethylamine.
For tasty pot roast or roast with fish
When water is not boiled prior to pot roasting or fire is low, the amount of water tends to be too excessive to bring out natural flavor of fish. Sprinkle some salt before cooking.
Salt dehydrates fish, removes fish smell, and brings out flavor from flesh. Be careful not to add too much salt since it changes fish proteins and may cause indigestion.
Or instead of sprinkling salt, soak fish in 10 times diluted salt water. Salt penetrates uniformly into and hardens the flesh.
Therefore, if you are roasting fish with flesh which tends to crumble easily, try soaking it in slat water for 30 minutes. Wipe out any excess water with kitchen towel before roasting.
Seasoning is the key point to roast fish. Without seasoning, you cannot enjoy fish roast at its best. Apply plenty of seasoning paste and roast fish slightly at high heat.
Apply seasoning paste again and roast it again and you can enjoy glossy, delicious roast fish. Adding some starch powder to seasoning paste enhances the effect. Fish with high fat content tends to burn and blacken. Prevent smoke from penetrating into fish using a fan.
How to wash too salty food
When salted food such as kimchi or dried fish is too salty, instead of washing it with plain water, try washing it with or soaking it in with 1.5% salt water. Osmosis effect gives you much better effect.
How to store salt
Salt tends to lump up stored in damp place or during rainy season, which makes it difficult to use. The only way to keep salt dry at all times is to store near fire. Normally, keep the lid closed.
Open the when you are cooking at high heat and keep it well-ventilated. Add some roasted rice grains to enhance the effect.
Adding roasted rice grains or 7~8 tooth picks works well for the salt shaker on a dinner table when the holes are clogged by moisture. Roasted grains and tooth picks absorb moisture and prevent clogging.
Salt enhances sweetness of strawberries?
At a glance, sweet strawberries and salt don’t go together. Surprisingly enough, salt is to best additive for enhancing sweetness of strawberries. Since salt gives added benefit of sterilization, try washing strawberries with salt water.
Do not remove calyxes from strawberries while washing them. Water penetrates into strawberries through the holes and reduces sweetness.
You can also enjoy slightly stale strawberries. Sprinkle sugar on top of strawberries and add hint of whiskey. Whiskey adds a different flavor to strawberries.
How to prevent sausages from bursting
Sausages tend to burst while frying and ruins the presentation. There are a few ways to prevent this.
First, soak sausages in hot water for a few seconds. Sprinkle some milk on the surface and fry them. You can maintain sausage shapes.
Second, fry after dipping in cold milk.
Third, the easiest way is to poke a few holes on a sausage itself. This secures path for vapors to escape and prevents surface from deforming.
How to keep a watermelon cool
To enjoy cool watermelon on a summer picnic day, dip it in cold brook water. However, if the water is too shallow, only a part of the watermelon is in contact with water. You can’t halve the watermelon and dip it in water.
In this case, lay a towel on top of watermelon in water. This helps cooling the watermelon thoroughly. In case when you bought a less sweet watermelon, scoop up melon flesh and store it cold. Add some sugar and white wine to enjoy cool exquisite flavor.
Enjoy watermelon with salt
Try mixing two flavors which don’t go together. Sometimes, one flavor brings out the other due to synergy effect. Adding hint of salt to sugar water enhances sweetness. Watermelon and red bean paste become sweeter with salt.
How to dilute salty soup
You need to season vegetable soup slightly flat. When you season it just right in the beginning, it ends up too salty to eat at the end. If the soup is too salty, add sliced tomato and boil slightly. Tomato’s flavor lessens salty taste.
How to select spinaches
Spinaches grown on a good soil have densely packed stems from a root. Spinaches with long stems and small leaves are grown with chemical fertilizers and to be avoided. Good spinaches have thin leaves, glossy, dark green, soft stems, and light purple roots.
How to store spinaches
To store spinaches, get rid of wilted leaves, add moisture with sprayer, and wrap it with newspaper, and store it in a vegetable compartment.
To store spinach for easy cooking, slightly parboil, soak it in cold water for a few minutes, squeeze water out, wrap appropriate serving sizes, and store in a freezer.
If spinach gets wilted, mark cross on the root with a knife, soak it in cold water, and keep it in shade until it is revived.
Revive wilted vegetables
Wilted vegetables may lessen flavor and color of food. To freshen wilted vegetables, dissolve small amount of vinegar and two cubes of sugar and soak vegetables in it. Vegetables revive into vivid green color.
Less salt seasoning for cool dishes
If food needs to be cooled before serving, use less salt seasoning. This is because degree of saltiness hot food is different from that of cold food. Therefore, even if seasoning is just right when the food is hot, it tastes too salty when it cools down.
How to maintain freshness of beans
If you store green peas and kidney beans in a refrigerator, they lose freshness and change colors. To prevent this, parboil slightly before storage. You can maintain color and freshness.
How to select fresh and taste meat
Choose thick loaf so that surface area is minimized. Surface gets in contact with air and oxidizes. Oxidized meat easily degrades and gets spoiled. Inspect whether cut surface of beef is dark red. Pork should be bright pink and glossy. Pork fat should be sticky.
How to choose fresh oysters
When peeled oysters are not fresh, they turn whitish and less elastic. Edge of freshly peeled oyster is black.
How to select fresh cabbage
The most difficult vegetable to judge freshness is cabbage. Fresh cabbages are vividly green and heavy. When cut in half, fresh cabbages are white while wilted ones are brown and dry/soft in the core.
How to select fresh crabs
It is ideal to buy live crabs but sometimes you have to settle for dead ones. It is difficult to judge freshness of dead crabs with bear eyes. At a glance, if shell and claws are shiny, it is fresh. Stick with the heavy ones. Also, lift up the shell and put your finger inside to feel the flesh. If the flesh is bouncy and elastic, it is fresh.s
How to select fresh eggs
Eggs go rotten when stored in a warm place for a extended period time. Easiest way to select a fresh egg is to feel the shell. A fresh egg has rough shell, while an old egg has smooth shell.
If this doesn’t work, hold an egg against the sun. A fresh egg is translucent, while an rotten one is dark. If this doesn’t work also, try floating an egg on water.
If it floats sideway, it is fresh. If not, it is rotten. For eggs which have been stored in a refrigerator for a long period time, try these methods to check for the freshness after they reach room temperature.
How to select fresh chicken
Meat tastes better when it is fresh. Especially, chicken meat is easier to get spoiled than meat or pork. To check for the freshness, examine color and shape.
Fresh chicken is straw-color, glossy, plump, and elastic. Most delicious part in chicken is between flesh and skin. This portion contains some fat.
The younger the chicken, this portion is lightly colored and tender. If the cross sections of neck or leg are yellow or dark brown, do not buy that chicken for it is not fresh.
How to select fresh shrimps
To enjoy delicious shrimp dishes, fresh shrimp is a must. Shells should be glossy and elastic. If tentacles and legs are hung down, it is not fresh.
How to peel almonds easily
Almonds are good for snacks but very difficult and cumbersome to peel. To peel almonds easily, put them in a pot, pour water, and bring it to boil. Make sure you start with cold water.
When it boils, rinse almonds with cold water. You can now easily peel almonds.
Stir fry vegetables at high temperature to prevent water oozing out
Fry vegetables quickly at high temperature. If water oozed out already, add starched water or eggs. Mix egg or starch with water, season it with salt and pepper, and stir fry with oil on a pan. You can enjoy exquisite food.
How to boil vegetables
Each vegetable needs different method of boiling.
Green vegetables such as crown daisy, parsley and spinach should be slightly parboiled in boiling color otherwise they will lose vitamins and texture and change colors.
On the contrary, root vegetables such as yams, potatoes, and radish need to be cooked thoroughly. To do this you should start with cold water. If you put vegetables in boiling water, surface gets cooked first and inside remains uncooked.
How to maintain vivid color of vegetables
Add ¨ö teaspoon of salt when boiling green vegetables such as spinach. Color becomes more inviting and texture becomes more tender.
How to store cabbages
To store cabbages fresh, cut off the bottom. Moisten paper towel and wrap the bottom with the bottom, wrap the whole cabbage with plastic wrap, and store it in a refrigerator.
Or you can use useless leaves to wrap the leftover first and again warp it with newspaper and store it in a refrigerator. You can store it at least for a week.
How to remove agrochemicals from cabbages
Remove the outer leaves from a cabbage where agrochemicals were in direct contact. Slice it or dice it and soak it in cold water for 3 minutes to completely remove agrochemicals. Rinse with cold water and enjoy.
How to prevent ice from melting down
When you serve whiskey with ice cubes, you might have experienced ice melts down and you need to keep replacing it. To prevent this, add honey up to 3 cm height in an ice container and freeze it prior to serving. This prevents ice from melting.
How to make ice transparent
If ice is transparent, it adds to the freshness and appearance to the food. You need to freeze water very slowly to have transparent ice. If you sue tap water, bubbles or gases dissolved in water will be the problem.
Therefore, try using water that has been boiled then cooled. Also, place wooden chopsticks or rubber bands below ice cube tray.
How to remove puckery taste of lotus root
Puckery lotus root is not tasty but you can get rid of puckery taste. Rinse sliced lotus root with one cup of water and two tablespoons of vinegar. For egg plants, dilute salt water works really well (one cup of water and one table spoon of salt).
Use lemon juice to sour up heated food
Vinegar and lemon are used to sour up any food. However, sourness of vinegar disappears when it is heated. Therefore, use lemon juice to add sourness to heated food and use vinegar to bring out hidden flavor of food.
How to select cucumber
Fresh cucumber has fresh tips and vivid color at the tips. Rough and sharp protrusions, vivid colors, and glossiness mean fresh cucumber. Leftover vegetables need to be store in newspaper. Make sure you punch a few holes. Store this in plastic wrap in a refrigerator.
If you have hard time slicing cucumbers neatly
You might experience that cucumbers tend stick on blade when slicing it. This can be prevented by taping a toothpick in the middle of blade side parallel to the blade. You can now slice cumbers neatly.
How to deodorize milk
Although milk is highly nutritious, there are people who wouldn’t drink milk due to it is scent. You can now drink without any problem by adding lemon juice to milk.
How to enjoy coffee beans’ flavor
Most enjoyable part in coffee is it is flavor. When you are adding sugar, try hint of salt with it. This enhances the flavor.
Fat brings out the flavor
Some people remove fat before cooking. However, flavor of fat makes meat dish more delicious. Except for dip-fried dishes such as pork cutlet, fat should not be removed before cooking. Remove fat after cooking.
How to defrost meats and clams
As large volume refrigerators get popular, many prefer freezing food for storage. Each frozen food item requires different defrosting method to preserve its natural flavor.
Meat needs to be defrosted naturally in refrigerator section. Defrost fish and clams by putting them in water. Vegetables do not require separate defrosting, so just put them in boiling water when cooking.
Defrosting meat in refrigerator takes quite some time. However, if you forcefully defrost meat with heat, you are trading with shape, nutrition, and flavor. Try the following method.
Place an aluminum pot bottom up and placed meat on it. Then put another on top. It only takes about 10 minutes or so for defrosting. If you are not pressed for time, try wrapping meat with newspapers with a few layers. This prevents meat juice from escaping.
How to enjoy instant coffee
Same instant coffee tastes different by how you make it. Generally, people tend to pour water at a time. However, it is much better to add small amount of water to make paste first, then pour the rest of water. This gives you better flavor.
How to utilize odd ends of bread
Do not throw away odd ends of bread. Use them to roasting bacons. Put them on fat or place cooked bacons on them.
How to tenderize thin fish bones
Vinegar tenderizes fish bone. Pour vinegar on a small fish and you can dip fry it without boning it. You might have experienced an occasion that small bone gets stuck in your throat.
Typical remedy for this is to swallow spoon full of steamed rice without chewing. If that doesn’t work, goggle your mouth and throat with vinegar.
How to select tofu
Germs easily culture in tofu generating toxins. Therefore, you need to be careful when selecting tofu. First smell it and check for firmness. When preparing raw tofu dishes, make sure you pour hot water before cooking. Try adding green onions and see weeds since they add to the flavor of tofu.
How to remove sands from clams
For large clams, use salt water with 2~3 large nails. For small clams, use water with 2~3 drops of vinegar.
To bring out natural flavor of clams
Some people prefer to buy peeled clams to save time. However, if you really want to enjoy natural flavor of clams, buy clams with shells.
If you really don’t have time and have to use peeled clams, wrap them with fine net and soak them in salt water. This brings out the natural flavor of clams.
To remove sands from clams, try salt water with metal pieces such as brass spoon or iron knife, sands will sink at the bottom. If you cook without removing shells, rub clams with each other so that there are no residues on the shells.
How to tenderize meat
Do not be disappointed if meat you bought is tough in texture. You can always tenderize it. Kiwi fruit is excellent meat tenderizer.
Use 1/8 of kiwi for 600 g of meat. If you add more kiwi, meat becomes even more tender. For the elderly, use more kiwi so that they can enjoy tender meat. However, if you add too much, you may end up ruining the texture.
When kiwi is not available, wash the meat with vinegar two hours prior to cooking for the similar effect. Or place a sheet of cloth on top and beat it with a bottle.
Meat tenderizes because fibrous tendons are broken. Since alcohol also tenderizes meat, you can add alcohol when you cook.
Make sure that you should use beverages with low alcohol content such as rice wine, wine, or beer. Anything stronger such as soju may have reverse effect on meat.
How to relieve salty and pungent flavor
For fatty food, add vinegar to relieve greasiness. Add vinegar when making mustard paste to relieve pungency. When ramyeon noodle soup or slated fish is too salty, vinegar also does the trick.
Seasoning curry to its perfection & Serving leftover curry
Add apple juice or tomato ketchup when curry is too salty. Or add large slices of potatoes. They absorb salt while they are cooked. How can you serve leftover curry more deliciously? Add milk or yogurt while reheating it. This helps prevent curry from becoming gooey and may make your curry even tastier.
Curry is too thin
When curry is too thin, add flour and butter with 1:1 ratio. Ground potato works well also. Thin curry becomes thick and tastes become smoother.
Reuse dip-frying oil with coffee filter
Do not dump used dip-frying oil. This is not good for environment and economy. Use coffee filter to remove residues . Add clove of garlic and ginger to remove odor.
How to expel insect from cauliflower and broccoli
To expel insects from cauliflower, cut it deeply and soak it upside down in salt water. Insects will come out in 15 minutes.
How to ripen kiwis
Put 6~7 kiwis with one apple in a vinyl bag to ripen kiwis. It takes about 1 week to ripen.
When you need to ripen a large number of kiwis (30~40), add 1~2 apples or onions in vinyl bag and store it for 7~10 days.
Or put kiwis in a vinyl bag and place it under a sunny spot but avoid direct sunlight covering with newspapers. When ripen fruits are placed with half-ripe apples, half-ripe ones tend to ripe faster.
How to store carbonated beverages
Leftover carbonated beverages will lose carbon dioxide and lose their real flavors. To prevent this, recap the bottle and store it upside down. Gas phase is well contained and you can prevent it from escaping.
How to boil pastas without overflowing
When boiling pastas such as spaghetti, macaroni, etc., add oil or butter to prevent overflowing and sticking. Unlike boiling thin noodles, do not add cold water while boiling.
How to remove preservatives and colorants from hams
Hams and hamburgers are children’s favorite snacks. If you do not prepare right, your children will digest harmful contents. Hams contain chemical preservatives and colorants which can be removed by soaking in hot water at 80¢ªC for 1 minute.
Over 80% of the additives can be removed. When oil is used to cook, make sure get rid of oil after cooking since additives are dissolved in oil also. Instant hamburgers contain additives such as phosphates. It is a good idea to remove them with hot water.
Cautions to be taken selecting slice-packaged fish
Packaged fish is quite convenient. However, there are some cautions to be taken. Examine whether flesh is transparent, elastic, and bright red in color.
If there is water collected at the bottom, the fish is not fresh. Usually, dates printed on the packages are the ‘PACKAGED’ dates not necessarily the ‘PROCESSED’ dates. Therefore, if there is water, it is safe to say the fish is not fresh.