Pro Tips

Never boil eggs again

Want super smooth, perfectly cooked boiled eggs? Stop boiling them. Bring the water to the boil, then turn off the heat and cover the pan. Leave them for 6-12 minutes depending on how soft or hard you like them – there are several good apps that will help you time this, based on how large your eggs are and how well you like them cooked.

Upscale your cheese sauce

Use packet mix (gasp!) mix with half water/half milk and then add a good dollop of ricotta cheese. Pour over broccoli and cauliflower and bake for about 20 minutes. You can thank us later.

Grate your butter

Use a cheese grater to grate butter for making pie dough if you don’t have a food processor and have to rub the butter in by hand.

Keep staples on hand

Who needs 5 different types of flour, 4 different sugars and 3 different types of rice in the house? E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E.

Experiment!

Always ask yourself, ‘What if …’
‘What if I added pomegranate molasses to spaghetti sauce?’
‘What if I use sweet potato instead of pasta in lasagne?’
‘What if I sprinkle dried chilli flakes on my choc chip cookies before baking them?’
The worst that happens is a funny story, the best is a new divine taste.

Play ‘Surprise Chef’ every couple of weeks

We’ve all got dregs of different ingredients that we bought for a particular recipe haunting the back of the pantry. Every couple of weeks, make a deal with yourself to cook something with ONLY the ingredients you have on hand – you’ll need to get creative and improvise, but it means you can reduce food waste and that’s always a good thing!

Get salty

Don’t. Be. Afraid. Of. Salt.

Sharpen up

A sharp knife is a safer knife as there’s less chance it’ll slip off the food and cut you. And everything is easier with a sharp knife. Get a good knife sharpener and learn how to use it properly.

Butter ’em up

Want your sauces to really shine? Add a little butter (just a teaspoon or so) at the end of the cooking process and watch that restaurant-like gloss shine through.

Sugar and salt

In tomato based dishes, always add a dash of sugar with the salt. Tomato bleeds the flavour out of food so you need to boost it back up.

Peel gingerly

Peel ginger with a spoon to get the thinnest peel possible and reduce waste.

Hulling strawberries doesn’t have to suck

Well, it kind of does … especially if you use a straw. Put the end of the straw over the end of the strawberry and push and twust gently to force it through the strawberry and push the stalk out. Grab one of those wide straws from the bubble tea places or pick up a pack of them from your local variety store. You can reuse the straws several times, just make sure you wash them thoroughly. Plus, you can reduce wastage here by freezing the hulls to add to ice cream, make coulis or add to baking.

Make mega-fast wedges

Use an apple slicer to cut spuds into fast wedges. Depending on the size of your potato, you may need to halve the wedges again after you’ve cut them, but it does make producing a load of wedges faster. And you get the round middle bits, which make the most amazing fluffy fries.

Cook corn in the husk

Trust us on this one – it’s amazing. Cut the silks off the top of the ear of corn and loosen the top of the husks gently, but don’t peel them back. Soak the corn in water for a few minutes and then put directly in a moderate oven or on the BBQ for about 20 minutes. The outside husks will char and blacken and the corn inside will be steamed to a sweet, juicy perfection. You won’t even need butter, it’s that good.

Take it up a notch by sprinkling some liquid smoke into the husks before you cook them. Life. Changing.

Get your timing right

As a general rule, the harder a vegetable is the sooner you add it into the cooking process.

Reduce waste by freezing your veg

Freeze veggies that are on the edge of turning soft and soggy (like carrots, onions, zucchini) in a big bag labelled ‘stock veg’. Once the bag is full, use it to make a pot full of beautiful veggie stock, which you can then freeze in containers to use later. Or make stock ice cubes with one of these huge ice cube trays.

Up your herb game

Dry herbs and spices are added at the beginning of cooking as they need time to release their flavours. Fresh herbs are added at the end so that you don’t overcook them and lose their flavour. Unless you’re talking fresh ginger and lemongrass, which will sometimes need to be added at the start.

Airtight containers FTW

Get rid of all your open packets. Invest in some containers – you can get fancy ones that stack, glass jars from all of the coffee your family drink (thanks Dad) or even cheap 10 for $2 Chinese food containers from the supermarket. Whatever it is, get your ingredients into airtight storage once you open the packets.

Keep veg fresh for longer

If you’ve stocked up on some lovely veg, you want to make sure you can use it all. Store veggies in the crisper section of your fridge stacked between layers of absorbent paper towel. Ive had market fresh zucchinis in the fridge like this for 5 weeks now and counting and they’re still perfectly fine.

Freeze veggies for soups, stocks and stews

Freeze veggies that are on the edge of turning soft and soggy (like carrots, onions, zucchini) in a big bag labelled ‘stock veg’. Once the bag is full, use it to make a pot full of beautiful veggie stock, which you can then freeze in containers to use later. Or make stock ice cubes with one of these huge ice cube trays.