Bachelor's Cooking Hacks!

Joburg Admin / March 24, 2016

  Non-Greasy Chips When most people think of good chips they think of fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside without any excess oil. But when it comes to homemade chips, not everyone knows how to get rid of the oil. All you need is a clean sheet of paper or two placed in the bowl or plate you'll be putting the chips in. The paper absorbs all the excess oil leaving you with just the delicious chips, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Tip: To make sure your chips are well-done, wait for them to start floating in the oil then let them brown a little. Try adding grated cheese and fried bacon on top of the fries while they're still hot and you're in for a great taste experience! Non-Greasy Boerewors If you're in the mood for boerewors or a boerewors roll, fry yourself one without any hassle. Naturally, boerewors has a lot of oil contained in it already but this is not always evident when it is still raw. So, instead of adding more oil to fry your boerewors, add a little water in your pot or pan, make multiple pricks on the boerewors with a fork and place on the stove at an intermediate temperate. The more the boerewors boils/simmers, the more oil oozes out of it. That's the oil you use to fry your boerewors. Tip: To make sure your boerewors is well-done, fry it at an intermediate temperate and wait for it to brown. If you're making a boerewors roll, add a little butter on a warm roll or bun before you add the boerewors and desired sauces. This enhances the taste and freshness. Perfect Plate Of Noodles You wouldn't really be a bachelor/bachelorette if you didn't have that one night when you're too lazy to cook or too broke to buy take-out, so you settle for two-minute noodles. Don't worry, we all go through it. Now because two-minute noodles are seemingly easy to make, not many people really think of how to make a perfect plate that makes the eating experience more worthwhile. First, you boil water, place noodles in a bowl, add the flavour, add the boiled water then mix. Leave the noodles to simmer for one to two minutes and only then microwave them for two minutes. Once done, mix the noodles again and leave to simmer for 30 seconds to a minute. Tip: Make your noodles more exciting by adding chopped olives and peppadews or add some steamed sweet-corn kernels, peas and chopped carrots - try McCains mixed veggies. Place on a plate with a green salad, and you have yourself a decent looking dinner! Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs Boiling eggs is supposed to be easy right? Well, sometimes they crack and make a mess, or they aren't actually hard so the yolk and white still breathes, eek! To avoid this, use a tack to poke a very small hole in the egg before boiling, add 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda for every three cups of water then place eggs to boil at a fairly high temperature. After the eggs have boiled, let them simmer for 30 seconds to a minute, then soak them in ice water. The shell should peel off easily. And once cut open, the eggs shouldn't have the greenish-grey sulphur ring around the yolk. Tip: Make sure your eggs are boiled enough by measuring the level of the water. If your eggs are completely submerged in the water, let them boil until the water level is half-way the width of the eggs or until the water level is a 1/4 to just under a 1/3 of the original water level. Cook Days In Advance As a bachelor/bachelorette cooking every single night can be annoying or tasking if cooking isn't exactly your favourite thing. Or maybe you simply don't have the time to cook every single night. Take some time out on Sunday afternoon or evening to cook food in bulk for days or a week ahead. You can make a large portion of the same meal and store it in smaller portions then just heat it up when desired. Tip: Cooking requires patience in general if you care about how good the food tastes. Though cooking days ahead is time efficient, you might get bored eating the same meal all week long. Try cooking two to three days ahead, then reserve your Sundays and perhaps Thursdays to do the actual cooking. For more tips and tricks on cooking hacks, click here! By Cleopatra Shava

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