Kitchen hints and tips

[jodal]

Also, wear hard contact lenses, then you'll never give a fuck about chopping onions again.

I wear soft ones and onions never affect me. Does that mean I'm special?

 

[Pie 1]

"Paulie was doing a year for contempt.
He had a wonderful system for garlic.
Used a razor and sliced it so thin it would liquify in the pan with a little oil.

It was a very good system."

 

[Trufflepig]

Use your garlic crusher to mash olives into almost any recipie with olive oil in it to make it taste extra olivy.

Add olive oil at the end to something that is generaly cooked with lots of oil to keep the flavour.

Keep a little of an ingedient back for the sake of favour in another meal. A single rasher of bacon chopped over mashed potato, a fresh tomato added at the end to a sause made with tinned tomatos, a single anchovy instead of a pinch of salt.

Use tuna to clean the majonaise out of the jar.

Fry cubed toast for quick croutons.

 

[The Groke]

"Paulie was doing a year for contempt.
He had a wonderful system for garlic.
Used a razor and sliced it so thin it would liquify in the pan with a little oil.

It was a very good system."

 

[Spion]

I have a kitchen tip.

Bin your garlic crusher. I don't know what it's about, but those things murder the flavour and loveliness of garlic.

Absolute cobblers

Use a proper sharp knife and mince your garlic to molecule-sized pieces. It'll take you 2 mins longer, but you've saved 10 mins trying to poke pulpy bits of mangled garlic out of the thing when you're washing up, not to mention the whole business of making anything you put into the water afterwards smell of garlic.

Use a dishwasher. If you place the crusher with its 'arms' held open in the cutlery holder it gets washed easily.

 

[tarannau]

This is a myth perpetuated by Oliver/Ramsey wannabes and cookery snobs...

I would be willing to bet a signiificant sum that none of you would be able to tell from taste alone whether garlic added as an igredient in a cooked meal had been pressed, crushed, sliced, beaten, squashed or indeed squeezed lovingly between the thighs of a Burmese Maiden.

Nah, you definitely should be able to, particularly if it's new season garlic. Older garlic's more bitter anyway. It's only the fantical it makes a real difference to, but there is a slight difference there.

I'm more in agreement with Pembrokesteven though - cleaning a garlic press is so much more hassle than just rapidly chopping the garlic.

Still, I want to learn that 'Yan Can Cook' trick - not fit with being able to use a cleaver in the place of every knife, he manages to effectively crush the garlic with a single well placed smash with the flat of the cleaver. Impressive and ever so speedy.

50% of the time when I try it and the garlic goes spinning across the room. Not so impressive...

 

[ChrisFilter]

I wholeheartedly agree with this man. (except the sliced bit, cos you'd be able to taste/feel the bits of garlic sliced)

I agree as well, I use a wicked garlic crusher from Ikea and it doesn't make any difference at all to the flavour!

 

[Xanadu]

50% of the time when I try it and the garlic goes spinning across the room. Not so impressive...

tiny bit of salt on the board first. Gives it something to grip to.

I really can't imagine you guys eating a meal and thinking to yourself, "They've used a garlic crusher here! Yuck!"

Washing it up isn't really a problem. So long as you don't leave the thing out for the garlic residue to dry, it cleans really easily.

 

[fortyplus]

The times I use garlic as a puree are few and far between, but even so it's not worth using the press. imho they are a leftover from the days when garlic was something that terrified most middle-class british cooks who worried that their fingers might smell forever if they touched a clove of the funny foreign stuff.

Mostly I use the flat of a big knife to crush the cloves so the skin pops away, then nick the root end of the clove off with the blade, pulling all the skin away with it, and put the whole bruised cloves to simmer in oil until translucent but not coloured. I don't much like using old garlic raw or undercooked (fresh is a different matter), although I will rub the salad bowl with a raw clove.

 

[ChrisFilter]

Washing it up isn't really a problem. So long as you don't leave the thing out for the garlic residue to dry, it cleans really easily.

Yeah, I'm a little confused as to the crusha haters woes. Put in garlic, squeeze, mmmm, frying garlic! Pull out skin, put in bin, rinse under tap for a couple of seconds - clean.

Maybe I'm just lucky and have a really good crusher?

 

[Spion]

For a recipe that calls for raw red onions, if you run them under water for a few minutes, it gets out the pungence so they still taste nice but you'll be able to maintain a social life after.

Oh, for god's sake. You should just buy some ready meals or something if you're frightened of real food

 

[tarannau]

I really can't imagine you guys eating a meal and thinking to yourself, "They've used a garlic crusher here! Yuck!"

Don't worry, that never happens. On the other hand, the little things can make a real difference when added up. A simple tomato sauce can be elevated into something wonderful when the sauce is gently simmered with a hint of sweet garlic for hours. It's a genuinely different beast from a sauce that has the tomato seeds left in and cooked too quickly, getting watery, the pulpy older garlic slightly overprocessed/overcooked, leaving a more bitter afternote.

Nope, I'm not going to lose sleep over it, but garlic does tend to taste marginally better when chopped and slightly, particularly in certain dishes. And, for me at least, it's quicker to chop a couple of cloves than it is to fuck around finding and cleaning a garlic press.

 

[Spion]

Yeah, I'm a little confused as to the crusha haters woes. Put in garlic, squeeze, mmmm, frying garlic! Pull out skin, put in bin, rinse under tap for a couple of seconds - clean.

I think it's just poncery myself. 'Ooh, look at me. I'm unorthodox!'

 

[fortyplus]

Yeah, I'm a little confused as to the crusha haters woes. Put in garlic, squeeze, mmmm, frying garlic! Pull out skin, put in bin, rinse under tap for a couple of seconds - clean.

Maybe I'm just lucky and have a really good crusher?

Maybe. Or maybe you just don't use enough garlic. For a clove or two, that might work, but for half a bulb (which, imho, is a reasonable starting point for a 2-3 serving savoury dish), the knife and board has got to be quicker.

 

[tarannau]

Yeah, I'm a little confused as to the crusha haters woes. Put in garlic, squeeze, mmmm, frying garlic! Pull out skin, put in bin, rinse under tap for a couple of seconds - clean.

Maybe I'm just lucky and have a really good crusher?

I'm a little confused to what the 'crusha needa' brigade really gain myself. I've got a chopping board out now for the rest of the food - a quick push and a few slices and each clove of garlic is chopped within say 30 seconds. Knife wiped. Job's a good un.

Meanwhile some bod's still faffing about in a draw for the Poncocrushamatic 5000, then fiddling to pull skin out into the bin. And he's left with this unappetising garlic sludge that doesn't cook as well. What's that all about then - I suspect they've got a gadget addiction to compensate for their clumsy sausage fingers...

 

[ChrisFilter]

Hourses for courses then it seems.. bulb in, crush, done. For me that's easier than chopping end off, fiddling with skin, then chopping which gives me fingers that stink!

To each their own.

 

[tarannau]

Hourses for courses then it seems.. bulb in, crush, done. For me that's easier than chopping end off, fiddling with skin, then chopping which gives me fingers that stink!

To each their own.

Don't you have to fish the skin out of the crusher when you've finished, or the next clove won't be pushed through the holes? Or do you only do a weenie bit of garlic at a time.

There's this stuff called soap for your hands too...

 

[Spion]

I've got a chopping board out now for the rest of the food - a quick push and a few slices and each clove of garlic is chopped within say 30 seconds. Knife wiped. Job's a good un.

Traditionally, the farmers wives of the Provence used an extra long thumbnail with holes made in it. Holding a clove against this they'd crush the garlic through with the forefinger. This is where the garlic crusher originates - they'd laugh at your 'knife' and 'chopping board' as modern fads

 

[tarannau]

Traditionally, the farmers wives of the Provence used an extra long thumbnail with holes made in it. Holding a clove against this they'd crush the garlic through with the forefinger. This is where the garlic crusher originates - they'd laugh at your 'knife' and 'chopping board' as modern fads

Just call it a hunch, but I strongly suspect that the knife and garlic was around before there were farmers, or their strangely nailed womenfolk, in Provence.

Provence: the birthplace of the nail bar

 

[emwilk]

I wear soft ones and onions never affect me. Does that mean I'm special?

snap. i thought it was any lenses

 

[Spion]

Just call it a hunch, but I strongly suspect that the knife and garlic was around before there were farmers, or their strangely nailed womenfolk, in Provence.

Provence: the birthplace of the nail bar

So cynical!

 

[Mogden]

Thick blade of a knife thumped over a clove. That's the way to go. Trouble is with garlic crusher is that you need twice the amount. So where a recipe calls for 1 clove, you have to crush 2 cos half of 1 gets trapped in the itty bitty holes. And then there's always a small amount of garlic that gets trapped in the crusher no matter how carefully you wash it. Then it goes stale and adds odd flavours to the fresh garlic.

Top tip: put a tea towel under your chopping board so it doesn't slide about when you're chopping stuff.

 

[Spion]

Thick blade of a knife thumped over a clove. That's the way to go. Trouble is with garlic crusher is that you need twice the amount. So where a recipe calls for 1 clove, you have to crush 2 cos half of 1 gets trapped in the itty bitty holes. And then there's always a small amount of garlic that gets trapped in the crusher no matter how carefully you wash it. Then it goes stale and adds odd flavours to the fresh garlic.

Top tip: put a tea towel under your chopping board so it doesn't slide about when you're chopping stuff.

I don't like losing juice and bits of garlic pulp onto the chopping board, so I think holding the garlic crusher over the pan is the way to ensure you get most of what you want into the pan.

If it's a dish that's going to be cooked for quite a while I bung the skin and all from the crusher.

Whingeing about cleaning a garlic crusher is just plain silly, unless you're partially sighted or something

 

[ChrisFilter]

Don't you have to fish the skin out of the crusher when you've finished, or the next clove won't be pushed through the holes? Or do you only do a weenie bit of garlic at a time.

There's this stuff called soap for your hands too...

The skin comes out in one go, and due to the wickedness of my KRUSHA once rinse sorts it

It handles two cloves at a time.

Put in, crush, skin out, put in, crush. - 4 cloves of garlic, probably less than 10 seconds.

Bring it

 

[pembrokestephen]

I'm a little confused to what the 'crusha needa' brigade really gain myself. I've got a chopping board out now for the rest of the food - a quick push and a few slices and each clove of garlic is chopped within say 30 seconds. Knife wiped. Job's a good un.

Meanwhile some bod's still faffing about in a draw for the Poncocrushamatic 5000, then fiddling to pull skin out into the bin. And he's left with this unappetising garlic sludge that doesn't cook as well. What's that all about then - I suspect they've got a gadget addiction to compensate for their clumsy sausage fingers...

Yeah, actually this reminds me of another beef I have with the whole crusher thing: Single-Use Appliances. IME, kitchens are cluttered enough with tools, appliances, etc. that having anything that, ultimately, is only usable for one thing, seems pointless. I'll agree that this is perhaps a bit of a hobbyhorse of mine, but when you open a drawer to find 3 different kinds of peeler, plus garlic crushers, herb choppers, 47 different knives, melon ballers, etc., etc., it all seems a bit pointless to me.

I blame the tendency of people, near Xmas/birthdays to think "Hmm, what shall we get him? Oh, he makes omelettes, so he must like cooking, so let's give him one of these HuFlungDung 9000 electric grapefruit carvers". Which promptly gets abandoned at the back of a drawer, gathering dust.

 

[Idaho]

I use a knife for garlic simply because it is easier for those with basic knife skills. Still if the garlic press allows more muddle-fingered folk a chance to try out cookery then it can't be all bad

 

[pembrokestephen]

Hourses for courses then it seems.. bulb in, crush, done. For me that's easier than chopping end off, fiddling with skin, then chopping which gives me fingers that stink!

To each their own.

Good point. I have a tip.

Peeling garlic.

Chop root end off clove. Hit sharply with flat of knife (this will, naturally, be that nice balanced heavy cook's knife, not your waffer-thin "never-needs-sharpening-because-it'll-never-be-sharp" plastic-handled jobbie that came in a knife block with 9 other equally useless bits of cheap stainless steel). Grasp other end of clove with finger and thumb, use tip of knife to tease now-loose skin off garlic. Retrieve clove from floor and place in garlic crusher...er, oops, what happened there?

 

[pembrokestephen]

I use a knife for garlic simply because it is easier for those with basic knife skills. Still if the garlic press allows more muddle-fingered folk a chance to try out cookery then it can't be all bad

Oooh, mean!

true, though

 

[ChrisFilter]

Ooh, those comments on knife-blocks are suggesting that this could be a snobbery thing

I'm a self-proclaimed really good cook and see no problem with garlic crushers OR knife-blocks. Our knife-block cost £60 and the knives are a joy to use (metal handled no less )

Power to the thrifty

 

[Xanadu]

Chop root end off clove. Hit sharply with flat of knife (this will, naturally, be that nice balanced heavy cook's knife). Grasp other end of clove with finger and thumb, use tip of knife to tease now-loose skin off garlic.

That's the way I do it. Personally, I use a big fat knife/meat cleaver to crush garlic. But I support everyone's right to use a garlic crusher to crush their cloves.