Moving a Whole Roast Chicken

 
 

Thanks to a neat little Cook's Illustrated Book, Kitchen Hacks, I can share with you a hack for transferring a roasted chicken onto a board, without dropping it.

 

Put a long wooden spoon up into the middle of the bird.  Grab the handle and tilt the spoon down towards the handle.  Then lift the chicken over to the board.

Keeping avocados green

 
 

I came across this idea for keeping cut avocados green.  Just put them cut side down in a bowl of water with a few drops of lemon juice added.  Then keep them in the fridge.  Great idea – much better than trying to cover them with lemon juice – which is too strong.

Foodie Friday – Reviving Limp Celery & Carrots

 

Thanks to a neat little Cook's Illustrated Book, Kitchen Hacks, I can share with you a hack for reviving limp celery and carrots.

 

Chop off the bottom of the celery stalks and peel the carrots.  Then put them into a tall container with water.  After a night they should have perked back up nicely.

Foodie Friday – Making quick and cold tuna sandwiches

 

Thanks to a neat little Cook's Illustrated Book, Kitchen Hacks, I can share with you a hack for making quick, cold tuna sandwiches – I can't believe I've never thought of this myself!

 

Just store a few cans of tuna (the spring water kind) in your fridge!

Yes - that's a bit of my fridge - needs a sort out!

Foodie Friday – Double Decker Egg Storage

 
 

Thanks to a neat little Cook's Illustrated Book, Kitchen Hacks, I can share with you a hack for doubling your egg storage without taking up more fridge space.

 

When you get a new carton of eggs and still have some left from before, just put the new carton into the fridge upside down and then store the older eggs in the holes then on top.  You'll always use up the older eggs first.

A Bacon Experiment – Microwave and Pan Fry compared

I recently skimmed through a book called The Bacon Book – and found that you can microwave bacon.

So I did 3 rashers in the microwave (at full whack for 3 minutes).  You just put them in a single layer on kitchen paper on a plate.

At the same time I fried the rest of the rashers and they, too, got 3 minutes.

The results?  The microwave bacon was a bit more cooked but the difference wasn't really huge.  The microwaved bacon is on the blue plate.

So the microwave does work – but is better for smaller amounts of bacon.

Steamed Boiled Eggs – Redux Tuesday

Thanks to Sunny Simple Life for this idea of steaming eggs in their shell.

So this experiment was very simple.  Just put about an inch of water into the bottom of a pot.  Pop a sieve or strainer on top.  Bring the water to a boil.  As you can see the sieve I used had a plastic surround and I was a little anxious about whether the plastic would be damaged by being heated for so long.  But it seemed ok.  A fully metal sieve would be preferable.

Then pop the eggs into the sieve (not touching the water) and cover the pot.  6 minutes for soft boiled and 13 minutes for hard boiled eggs.  Add 2 minutes to each time if your eggs are fridge cold.

If you are not going to eat the eggs immediately, cool them down with cold water so they stop cooking.

Because I'm not into runny yolks, I finished the soft one off with a quick moderate blast in the microwave – worked a treat!

A New Way to Scramble Eggs – Successful but a test of patience

I was watching Everyday Gourmet with Justine Schofield and she advocated for a particular way of scrambling eggs.  I have never heard of it before (and I've tried lots of ways).  So here it is:

Crack your eggs directly into a cold pot. No whisking or forking please!  Add a couple of knobs of cold butter.

Put onto a cold element and start on low. Stir the eggs/butter with a rubber spatula.  They will gradually break up as the cooking process begins.

It took ages (say 15 minutes) for the eggs to start firming at all – next time I'll turn the heat up a tad – it took too long for me.

But I persevered and finally the eggs were just set.  Take it off the heat and then season to taste with salt and pepper and add a spoonful of crème fraiche or cream.

So these eggs were soft and tasty.  I'll use the same method again but will put the heat up to medium after say 5 minutes to hurry things along just a bit.

Scrambled Eggs – Another Experiment

Eggs seem to be the gift that keeps on giving.  This experiment was with another technique for scrambled eggs.

It worked just fine but I felt it took a long time.  The upside was the soft texture of the eggs and no sticking to the dish they were in.

So the eggs were whisked together with a little splash of water for each one plus lots of ground white pepper and a little salt.

Put the eggs in their buttered glass bowl into a pan of water and then stir them.  You have to be patient – it seems to take forever for them to start coagulating – but once they start you have to keep a close eye on them.

Because I didn't know how long they would take I had difficulty timing the toast.

Would I do it again?  Maybe if I was serving a large crowd but not just for the two of us.

Smoked Salmon with Poached Eggs (Using Silicone Pockets)

I have experimented with poaching eggs in a number of ways.  See my posts here, here, here and here.  This time I bought some silicone pockets to try out.  It’s the first time I've used silicone and I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

The result was perfectly cooked poached eggs and good taste – but a strange shape.

I just oiled each pocket lightly and then slid the egg as gently as I could into it.  Then lower it into water just coming to the boil.  The pocket will float.

You do need to put a lid on the pot because otherwise the egg will take forever to poach.  Luckily I had a glass pot lid so I could see what was going on.

The eggs turned out reasonably easily.  I'll be doing this again.

Do you use silicone molds in your cooking?