Ah, sieves ― they’d be such a handy tool if they weren’t nigh-on impossible to clean.
As someone who tends to be much kinder to “current me” than I am for “future me,” – I still end up using mine about once a day.
It’s perfect for draining pasta (except for the washing). It’s a great way to ensure no lemon seeds end up in the juice (except for the washing). It’s useful for sifting flour, too, except… well, you get the message.
Advertisement
So you can only imagine how relieved I was to find that taking one simple step immediately after using the tool can prevent an awful lot of stuck-on food.
Which is?
Food magazine Bon Appétit wrote that whacking the utensil against your sink as soon after using it as possible is really, really helpful.
“As soon as you finish using your sieve, bang it against the sink,” they shared.
“This helps dislodge some of those smaller pieces that haven’t had time to mush up and settle in.”
They add that you should also soak your sieve in very hot, soapy water for 15 minutes “right away.”
A dash of distilled white vinegar added to the mix can make cleaning it even more effective, the publication says.
However, for both methods, speed is key.
Is that the only hack?
Far from it. In a Reddit thread about the cooking conundrum, site users were full of recommendations.
Advertisement
“I turn it upside down in the sink, and use the sprayer to blast the back side. This usually cleans it pretty well,” one Redditor wrote.
Many advised against letting your sieve rest after use, even for a minute ― more people than I’d expected knew about the “banging it against the sink” trick too (am I the only one this is news to?).
Yet another person suggested using a toothbrush if the debris gets really dire (Bon Appétit reccomends this too).
With all the resentment I’ve built up to that accursed mesh, hitting it against the sink should be easy…
We’ve already shared at HuffPost UK how restaurants make everything from salads to burgers and garlic bread taste so much better than many of us can make at home.
We’ve even revealed that the pros add an extra step when prepping broccoli.
But if (like) me you’ve always wanted to know how restaurants get fresh, perfectly cooked risotto on the table so quickly, it turns out they’ve got a secret trick up their sleeve for that, too.
Advertisement
How do restaurants cook fresh risotto so fast?
“The secret is that the rice is pre-cooked,” James Beard award-winning chef Alan Bergo shared on his site Forager Chef.
He added, “If you’ve ever wondered how fancy Italian restaurants serve risotto so quickly, it’s because the restaurant is pre-cooking and cooling their risotto before service.”
Aside from speeding the cooking process along, pre-cooking rice can improve the flavour and texture of the notoriously tricky dish, too.
“Pre-cooking the rice gives more control to the chef, helping them make sure the rice is done perfectly, and neither over or undercooked,” the chef wrote.
Advertisement
It’s not simply parboiled in water, either: the cookbook author and industry expert shared that the rice gets its first bath in onion, wine, water, and salt.
That way, he explains, you go from sweating over a hot stove while prepping dinner to an “effortless” meal you can knock up in no time.
Woah. So how do you pre-cook rice for risotto?
Bergo shared that he begins by gently frying off some onion until it’s translucent. Once that’s done, he adds the rice to the pan and coats it in the oil and onions, allowing it to cook for two minutes.
After that, he deglazes the pan with a splash of wine ― you can skip this step if you like.
Then comes the stock. He adds this in “ladles,” about 170ml at a time, ensuring each spoonful of stock has been absorbed by the rice before adding the next one.
“When the rice has absorbed about half of the total cooking liquid it will be roughly half cooked,” he advised ― at that point, you can remove the rice from the heat, place it on a baking tray, and create grooves in it with a spatula or knife to help it cool.
Advertisement
Another sign it’s done is if the rice is “soft on the outside, but still raw and very chewy in the middle, about ten minutes.”
That’s your pre-cooked rice, which you can simply store in the fridge and re-introduce more stick to later.
Sometimes, eating the same thing every day, especially if it’s nutritious, seems like a good idea.Having something like egg whites, yogurt and toast for breakfast, and chicken, broccoli and rice for dinner helps with meal preparation and simplifies one’s life.
It can also aid in maintaining energy levels. For example, an athlete friend of mine eats the same thing every day at the exact same time (3:30 p.m.) to “secure his energy levels.” Two hours before his workout, he eats chicken, rice and rice cakes. Eating the same thing guarantees his energy, and eating two hours before working out allows him to digest the food. He also typically eats the same food for breakfast every day.
Advertisement
But getting stuck in a steadfast routine can have some drawbacks. Is this type of eating regimen healthy enough?
There’s a fine line to be aware of.
While it can be common to eat the same foods every day, there can be a point when it turns into something of moreconcern. Katherine Metzelaar, a Seattle-based dietitian and certified intuitive eating counsellor,explained if someone’s eating the same foods every day, they might have an eating disorder called avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, or ARFID.
“My first thought is, ‘Why is someone doing that?’” Austin-based dietitian, nutrition therapist, and body image healer Emily Van Eck told HuffPost. “If someone is doing that, I would wonder why, because they could be overly fixating on something.”
Even if someone is neurodivergent and needs to eat the same foods all the time, Metzelaar encourages variety. Plus, consuming the same foods every day could lead to nutrient deficiencies and poor gut health. Metzelaar said that could include bloating and constipation.
Advertisement
“Humans don’t benefit from having the same exact thing every single day,” she said. “Human bodies really benefit from having a variety of different kinds of foods throughout the day, throughout the week, over time.”
Variety is generally best.
Van Eck also said choosing an assortment of foods works best. “I think a variety is best, as in trying to eat different types of grains, different types of vegetables, and different types of protein over the course of a month,” Van Eck said. “I don’t think we need to micromanage the variety of our diet but generally change it up. That also helps with enjoyment and satisfaction. You will get bored eating the same thing every day. It’s beneficial to practice variety because that way when you get sick of something, you have other things you know you like.”
She suggests eating vegetables because they contain valuable fibre, vitamins, phytonutrients and antioxidants, which lower cholesterol and blood pressure and help in disease prevention.
“If your everyday meal includes a lot of variety, just in that one day you’re going to be getting a lot more nutrients than if you’re just eating egg and toast for breakfast, a turkey sandwich, and beef and rice for dinner,” Van Eck said. “You’re not going to be getting lots of vitamins and minerals, so it really depends on what you’re eating.”
Westend61 via Getty Images
Meal prepping something healthy for a week is fine, just as long as it’s not the same exact food every week.
Advertisement
However, according to Van Eck, it’s OK to meal prep a batch of chicken and rice and broccoli for a week as long as you switch it up the following week or so. “That’s a good way to streamline,” she said.
Long term, not eating a well-balanced diet can affect a person’s mental wellness and social life.
Limiting one’s food options “can increase anxiety around food,” Metzelaar said. “Food is such a pleasurable, joyful part of life, so it can impact people’s mental health as well. We gather with food. We celebrate with food.”
Another concern about eating the same thing is that it can result in intense cravings, or a fixation on the foods you aren’t eating. Metzelaar cited fitness competitors who go on strict diets, saying, “They start to notice cravings for other foods and that can show up in all kinds of ways like in sweets or certain dishes, and a lot of food taking up a lot of headspace for them, dreaming about food, waking up in the middle of the night craving food.”
The bottom line is, eating a mixture of foods and obtaining enough nutrients every day is ideal for a healthy lifestyle.
“Not overthinking our food choices is important, and over-stressing about food doesn’t necessarily do any good,” Van Eck said. “We don’t need to be perfect eaters. If you want to improve your diet, if you’re looking at the things you’re eating and you’re like, ‘Man, I’m not really getting any vegetables,’ or ‘I am not getting enough protein,’ or ‘My blood sugar is kind of out of whack’ or whatever, you can take small steps to improve that. But overhauling everything in your diet is never the answer.”
If you’ve ever tried to fry an egg in a nonstick pan, you’ll know how tricky the supposedly easy protein can be to cook.
It’s not just ensuring the whites don’t rip off in a jagged, uneven strip, or preventing the yolk from splitting; there’s also the struggle of getting that lacy, crunchy base and runny yolk without keeping any slimy, uncooked whites.
Advertisement
There’s lots of advice for those looking. For instance, “hot pan, cold oil” has proven a consistent way for me to achieve unstuck eggs every time; I’ve found that using room-temperature eggs is also a helpful tidbit.
But there’s only one egg trick I use every time I fry one; you should be using water as well as oil in the process.
Why should I use water as well as oil when frying an egg?
Once you’ve got the bottom of your egg cooked, water is essential to steam its top. This keeps the egg runny and the whites firm.
As Food & Wine’s culinary director, Justin Chapple, explained, “You start by adding a small amount of oil to the skillet and cracking in the eggs, just like you normally would.”
Advertisement
“Then, about 30 seconds in, you add hot water to the pan, basting the eggs until the whites are set and the yolks are still runny. It creates tender, soft fried eggs with no overdone edges in sight.”
Not only does this prevent rubbery or runny eggs, but it also cooks them more evenly than just oil ― so you won’t have to flip them (just be careful to keep everything on a medium heat to prevent evaporation).
In case you thought we were alone, none other than Best Recipes Australia swears by the hack for “that perfect, gooey yolk” (I’m drooling).
Of course, basting the egg with hot oil can have a similar result ― but even when chefs like Gordon Ramsay use fats only, they ensure it’s not just oil.
Gordon revealed in a video on the topic that he only uses a “tiny drop” of oil followed by a heartier “knob” of butter, which has a lower smoke point and can be used to banish that “raw egg white” that “can be uncomfortable.”
Advertisement
Any other fried egg hacks?
If you’re really willing to go out of the box, food blogger and cookbook author Lisa Steelewrote for her account Fresh Eggs Daily that you can fry your eggs in cream.
When you think about it, it’s kind of the same philosophy as using butter (which none other than Gordon Ramsay swears by for the job).
She places a thin layer of heavy cream at the base of a cold pan, heats it on medium until it’s bubbling, then adds the eggs.
“The cream will continue to bubble and eventually begin to separate and then caramelize as the eggs cook,” the caption of her Instagram post reads.
Having seen the results in her video, I’m tempted to give it a go (for journalism, of course).
It is a battle none of us can fully prepare for: getting children to eat foods that they absolutely don’t want to.
Of course, most of us have tried the usual tactics. Hiding vegetables in sauces, shaping them into stars or dinosaurs, getting on our knees and begging. However, kids are smart and there’s only so much that will work on their growing little minds.
Advertisement
That being said, one dietician and mother of two thinks she may have found the answer and it doesn’t involve sorcery somehow.
The trick to getting children to eat new foods
Writing in Allrecipes, Sally Kuzemchak said that while she was on a road trip with her children, her son, who would never usually touch a dish with onions, suddenly asked for a side of onion rings.
Just as Kuzemchak was about to tell him not to get them as he usually hated onions, she realised that this might actually be a breakthrough moment.
So, her advice for getting kids to try new foods? Change the scenery and see how you get on.
She said: “Being in a new environment feels like an adventure, and kids might be more game for trying new things—including foods.
Advertisement
“Whether it’s a dish you don’t typically serve at home or a familiar ingredient spun in a new direction, foods can take on an air of mystique when we’re away from home. (Removing the pressure of the usual dinner table can help children feel freer to experiment, too.)”
It turns out that the dietitian was right to let her child try onion rings, as it really was a breakthrough for him and his sibling.
Kuzemchak said: “My kids have tried poutine in Canada, fried alligator in Florida, and plantains in Costa Rica.
“But even if they’re just trying a new ice cream flavour, I know they’re learning they can be brave—and the unknown can be good! As parents, trying new foods and praising our kids’ courage can help model an adventurous spirit.”
We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about how forecasters know where to point on green screens when announcing the weather.
We’ve even shared how actors manage to look so, well, dead while playing corpses; so you’d think we’d be pretty familiar with Hollywood magic by now.
Advertisement
But it never even occurred to me ― until now, at least ― to ask how lemons on TV look so darn juicy.
It took a TikTok from director and filmmaker David Ma, who shoots commercials and movies alike, to realise that what I’d been seeing on-screen had been a scam all along.
“This is the trick to getting the perfect squeeze,” he captioned his video, revealing a slow-mo shot of the artificially juiced-up citrus splashing its droplets of lies over some broccoli.
I knew stars tended to use more injectables than we think, but I wasn’t aware the procedure extended to their dinner.
Advertisement
Other sneaky food-filming tricks include placing a water-soaked, microwaved tampon behind a bowl of food to create the illusion of a steaming meal and using acrylic ice cubes (which don’t melt) for cold drink campaigns.
Meanwhile, most on-screen “ice cream” is basically a form of buttercream made from vegetable shortening, corn syrup, and icing sugar.
Oh, and that “frost” on the glass of beer in adverts? Yeah, that’s more than likely aerosol deodorant sprayed onto the container to give the illusion of cold condensation.
Don’t even get me started on poultry in adverts, which is usually so raw it’s bloody on the inside (!!) and brushed with dish soap to get that perfect glisten.
People had *thoughts* in the comments
“Here I’ve been thinking I had all dry lemons for the last 10 years,” one commenter wrote.
Have you found that no matter how well you seal plastic food bags, cheese always tends to go off inside of them very quickly?
Yes, me too. I find myself reaching for the cheese a couple of days later, only to see that it’s suddenly inedible.
Advertisement
Well, it’s not because we haven’t sealed them effectively, according to one medical expert. It’s much more simple than that and in part comes down to the types of cheese we’re having.
Dr Karan Rajan explained in a recent TikTok video that if you’ve been wrapping your cheese in food bags, you’ve been setting yourself up for failure.
How to properly store cheese
So if, like me, you thought that most foods could be refrigerated in the same way, this will be a cold awakening. (Sorry.)
Dr Rajan explained: “Once you finish gobbling your cheese like a hungry little rat, try and avoid putting your cheese in a plastic bag. Especially softer cheeses which have a higher water content.”
Advertisement
These include Havati, Mozzarella, and Gouda.
He said: “This is because moisture can get trapped in the plastic bag and cover the cheese surface. This provides a breeding ground for bacteria and mould — and not the tasty kind.”
Instead, Dr Rajan recommends using cheese paper, which actually is a thing, yes. Alternatively, parchment paper is a good choice, too.
If you are still keen to use plastic bags, Dr Rajan recommends first wrapping the cheese in wax, parchment or cheese paper before placing it inside of the bag.
Fortunately, harder cheeses like Parmigiano can withstand plastic bags no problem.
He did also point out that you could just eat the food very quickly, ‘for science, of course’ and to reduce food waste.
As somebody that puts lemon juice in tea, rice, and every chicken dish I ever cobble together, let me tell you: there is never enough lemon juice to satiate my zesty needs.
With all of that being said, I don’t own a juicer. It’s not necessary, it’s not essential, but it does make the whole juicing process a little faster. I just keep forgetting to pick one up when I’m at the shops.
Advertisement
However, one genius, one utter SAINT, has shared his hack to thoroughly juicing a lemon without a juicer and let me tell you, lives were changed.
How to properly juice a lemon without a juicer
TikTok user Michael Hayes, who has over a million followers, shared his tip for juicing a lemon without a juicer.
For his method, he simply slices a lemon in half and then puts it between tongs, and then squeezing.
How. Did. I. Not. Think. Of. This.
I did immediately run to the kitchen to try this and honestly, it worked a treat. Pretty ideal for doing directly over a pan or even just a cup of ginger tea. Obsessed.
The chef also urged people not to throw out broccoli stalks and instead, sauté them in soy sauce for a side dish that tastes “just like sautéed onions.”
Advertisement
Health benefits of lemons
Thinking of becoming a fiend like I am and adding lemons to everything? Well, as well as being delicious and adding a tonne of flavour to dishes, lemons are also great for your health.
These days, I’m a great cook, but until maybe around 5-10 years ago, I was a bad cook who could throw together a pasta dish no problem. If there’s one thing I’ve always been able to do, it’s fire up a pasta dinner.
It’s simple, right? Bit of water, boil it, put some olive oil in, put some pasta in and cook for around 12 minutes until it’s soft, done. Right?!
Advertisement
Well, the fact that I’ve never been to Italy has never been quite as evident as when I recently learned that actually, no, my process is all wrong and I’ve been serving up what I can only describe as an offence to Italians and food-lovers alike.
For starters, did you know there’s a real science to how much water you should use to boil pasta and it isn’t just measured on vibes alone?
How to cook pasta the Italian way
According to the Italian cuisine experts at Eataly, you should use about 4 pints of water for every 450g of pasta. They added: “In general, the more pasta you are cooking, the more water you should use to prevent the pasta from clumping up too much in the pot.”
Additionally, you shouldn’t boil water before adding it to the pasta. Which I definitely wasn’t doing. Ahem.
Advertisement
The experts said: “While warm or hot water will boil faster, it may contain more dissolved minerals from your pipes, giving the water – and anything boiled in it–- a slightly metallic taste.”
As for the hotly-debated subject of adding salt or oil to the water, the experts recommend adding 1-2 teaspoons to the water once it’s boiled. As for adding oil? That’s a big no-no.
Eataly said: “You should never add olive oil to the water or to the pasta after draining. While it might help the pasta strands from sticking to each other, olive oil will also block other sauces from sticking to the pasta.”
Bacon is one of the most popular breakfasts in the UK, and with good reason. A few rashers placed in a sarnie with lashings of butter or a sauce of your choice? An unreal combination, tbh.
However, according to one chef, we’ve been getting something wrong when it comes to cooking bacon and it all comes down to how we cook it.
Advertisement
Posting on the /r/Cooking subreddit, user CleopatrasBungus asked: “What are some kitchen hacks that chefs use in the industry that home cooks would benefit from?”, and one chef really stepped up with their bacon hack.
The best way to cook bacon, according to a chef
User thePHTucker said: “Bake your bacon. It’s much more consistent, and there’s less chance of splatter burns. Any restaurant that cooks bacon in large amounts is going to cook it this way.”
To do this, line your baking pan with parchment paper, set the oven between 190-200°C for around 15-18 minutes, making sure to turn the bacon halfway through and cook until your desired level of crispiness is reached.
Advertisement
Oven cooked bacon can be stored in a sealed container and refrigerator for up to two days.
The best type of bacon to cook with
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably spent time in the supermarket looking at all the different types of bacon, wondering which one is best for your dish.
Well, thankfully, the folks at BBC Good Food have exactly the answer that we’re looking for. They said: “To achieve super-crispy bacon, opt for the streaky kind. It can be used in salads, crumbled over macaroni cheese or sprinkled on soups.”
