It might seem impossible, and if you try to just take it off the vine and let a knife do the work, then you’re right - pretty much impossible. But when your recipe calls for a peeled tomato and you’re thinking, “How Do I Peel a Tomato,” Chef Club comes to the rescue again.
It’s as easy as a simple slice, quick boil and peeling away. Don’t believe us? See for yourself:
Alright, even the best of Chef’s likely have a guilty indulgence or time saving food purchase at some point every so often. Well, that’s all fine and dandy, but no matter what you do - DO NOT EAT McDONALD’S FRIES!
After seeing this video from the movie “Super Size Me”, which shows how all of the McDonald’s various menu items including the burgers and fries naturally “break down” over a 10 week period, I will NEVER eat McDonald’s food again.
You can make a mean and delicious meal, but the presentation is a little bit lacking. Have you ever heard of chiffonade? It’s a great way to thinly slice a garnish, like basil, into beautiful ribbons that can make any dish look a piece of art. So whether you’ve just made pasta or steak, put the Chiffonade to good use.
Here’s how to do it, courtesy of Jenny Slafkosky:
Here’s an ingredient you may not have used before but you definitely should consider. It’s spanish smoked paprika, otherwise known as Pimenton de la Vera. It comes in both sweet and hot varieties and both have an excellent smoky sensation that can be used to spice up a variety of dishes, such as home fries, steak rubs or homemade hummus!
Take a look at it here:
Here’s a product the average cook doesn’t have - an electric water smoker. What exactly is it? It’s a smoker that heats flavored woodchips with water to steam ingredients like meat, fish and vegetables without drying out the food and without over powering the natural flavors. You can get all types of wood chips, the most common being hickory, cherry and maple but you can also find wood chips that have been soaked in liquids such as bourbon or Tabasco sauce. Yum!
Here is a short selection of some of the top Electric Water Smoker Tips that we found in a book called Plugged In by Laura Brody:
Now all you’ve got to do is find that perfect electric water smoker recipe! Oh, and let us know when you do.
I usually like my asparagus blanched - just a personal preference. But here is a quick way to make Roasted Asparagus that is equally delicious!
At the beginning, see the technique of “snapping” asparagus at it’s natural breaking point in order to use the best part for cooking. Then, all you really have to do is put the asparagus on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, give the asparagus plenty of “room” on the sheet and bake it for 20 minutes at 400 degrees!
And there you have it - roasted asparagus:
There you go again… for the last time, just because it’s a corkscrew doesn’t mean you’re supposed to screw it up! So you’ve got cork pieces floating in your bottle of wine and you want to get them out. No problem.
Remember when you were a kid and you would suck up a drink with a straw, put your finger over the top and you’d have a straw full of liquid to do something goofy with? Same concept. Put the straw into the wine bottle and cover the floating cork pieces with the end of the straw. Put your finger on the top of the straw. This creates a vacuum and the cork will stay inside the straw while you lift it safely up and out of the bottle.
You might look like a little kid getting it out but hey… you’re the one who got us into this dilemma to begin with!
If you live in a hot climate you probably have been frustrated with rice clumping together in the salt shaker. You’ve also probably used this next solution but we figured it will help SOMEBODY. You never know, perhaps one of our readers is moving from Iceland to Arizona!
Put uncooked rice in your salt shaker if this happens. The heat and humidity create moisture which is responsible for the clumping. The rice will absorb this extra moisture instead, allowing your salt to be freely shaken.
Portobello mushrooms are full of flavor, but there is a simple way to combine a small carnival of spices and ingredients to make eating a portobello a full flavored experience. It’s simple… in fact, you’ve probably used the same method to flavor meats!
Cut about 10 narrow slits in the cap of the portobello with a small knife. Insert slivers of your favorite ingredients such as garlic, sage, rosemary, thyme or other herbs. Cook it. Watch as the portobello soaks up all of those delicious spices. Eat and enjoy (and share with us)!
Slow cookers are great product that I tend to believe not enough people in the kitchen use. They reduce the amount of time you need to act as “food guardian” because of their long cooking times in a low temperature, moist, closed environment. Because of the low temperatures, you don’t have to worry about your food burning. Essentially, you can “set it and forget it”.
You might find it interesting that slow cookers are often called Crock-Pots. Just as soda is called Coke, copies of paper are called Xerox, tissues are called Kleenex and searching the internet is called Googling it. Crock-Pot is actually a registered trademark of a company named Rival.
Slow cookers are usually a round, ceramic container and most have a minimum temperature of 200 degrees because of safety precautions. The cooking pot inside of the slow cooker is usually removeable, making cleaning easy. You can adapt a regular recipe to work with a slow cooker by cutting all liquid ingredients in half. Or you can join us at the Chef Club Forums to talk and share slow cooking recipes.
Here are a few tips for you when using your slow cooker: