tips in the kitchen

a reply to: arzoochaudhary

The sponge cake recipe I use requires mixing the batter for 7 minutes as one step. It always comes out really good.

Whenever I am about to cut onion, I take a big gulp of warm water into my mouth and then I start cutting. - No tears.

I weave bacon into a big girdle and then I slow cook it in the oven, directly on the cleaned metal pan. This way the bacon can be timed perfect with other warm food.

When I cook rice or noodles and I know that I will have both oil and water in the sauce for the main dish, that won't bind together, I supplement the tap water with the starch water. The starch emulgates (binds) the oil and liquid, no artificial sauce emulgators needed.

One traditional German base sauce (dark/beef/intense/not fatty or greasy):
best after roasting meat...
half a teaspoon yellow middle hot mustard
half a teaspoon concentrated tomato, you can use dried tomato too but the concentrate is just that, lot's of dried tomato, be careful to pick one without any flavors, artificial stuff. There should be one ingredient: Tomato.
a shot or two of red wine, preferably Trollinger or Rieslinger, maybe Burgunder or Bardolino but I also use the heavy ones like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon..

roast the mustard and tomato in the pan, you can add diced onions if you like.
extinguish the roasting process with two shots of the red wine. Just use the bottle and feeling, don't pour it over, you want the red wine to bubble inside the pan in a thin layer and then scrap the pan so all the good roast material from the meat before is collected. Then add water and if you have starch water or plain starch, you can adjust the thickness.

You now have a basic, dark ground sauce that you also can turn into cream sauces. It takes five minutes on a gas stove.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

I'll have to try some of those.

a reply to: Zaphod58

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: arzoochaudhary

The sponge cake recipe I use requires mixing the batter for 7 minutes as one step. It always comes out really good.

I would like to have that one, too, if you don't mind.

If you need a German cake recipe, just ask.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

If I can't find it, I'll have my mother email it to me and I'll pass it along to you.

Another kitchen tip:

I keep a small lemon tree inside my kitchen, on the window board. On top of the pot, there's herbs in a seperate, flatt and square "pot".

The lemon tree is two feet high and I tend it at that level. Branching it out ... it's fruits are not only great for cooking, drinks and other edible... use it for cleaning of chalk from the water boiler, just few squirts from a half is enough, a little bit water and then turn it on until it foams up. It will clean the inside mirror blank without any poison chemicals or scratching. Just rinse it out with cold water.

Use lemon juice, without the bits, for floor cleaning with a bit vinegar and your floor is always shining with a velvet touch.

add: of course hot water is needed too



a reply to: Zaphod58