My Top Three Food Hacks
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I am always looking for easy tips and tricks to make meal preparation quicker, faster and more enjoyable. These are my ultimate top three food hacks which I use continuously in my kitchen. It is probably no coincidence that two of my top three food hacks involve the potato. Just saying …
How To Keep Celery Fresh For Weeks
This food hack is wonderful to keep your celery fresh and crispy for weeks. As soon as the celery is purchased wrap the celery in aluminum foil and tightly close. This works with stalks of celery or celery hearts. The aluminum foil will literally keep your celery crispy for weeks.
Tip: To make the celery last even longer purchase organic celery and the celery will stay fresh and crispy for over a few weeks easy. The key is to keep the celery sealed in the foil between uses and actually I double up on the aluminum foil sheets.
How To Make A Fluffy Baked Potato
When I first heard of this food hack years ago my first thought was, “Where have I been? How could I not of heard this before?” My second thought was , “Dah, how could I not have thought of this food hack myself?” But I did not and it was news to me and my baked potatoes have been fluffy ever since the discovery.
Now onto the great reveal for fluffy baked potatoes. Drop the potato on the counter. End of story and the beginning of fluffy.
Gently drop the potato from about 12 inches in the air onto the counter with medium force. This breaks up the inside of the baked potato just as you will find in a restaurant. No dropping equals a firm densely packed interior of the potato whereas dropping equals well you know the rest!
The only wiggle room is finding the balance of force needed per baked potato. It’s not rocket science and the worst consequence of aggressive dropping is the skin of the potato may break. Gravity does the job.
A Potatoes Best Friend To Make The Best Mashed Potatoes
The ricer is a kitchen tool I have used for many years and will guarantee smooth mashed potatoes! Okay if you are a lumpy mashed potato fan this may not be for you, but if you love smooth and creamy mashed potatoes then the ricer is definitely the tool of choice. Mashed Cauliflower has become a go to substitute for mashed potatoes and you cannot go wrong with a ricer for mashing cauliflower.
It does take an extra step to rice the boiled or baked potatoes, but the result is worth it. The ricer is very versatile for vegetables and the perfect tool to try mashed cauliflower or sweet potatoes. Any vegetable that is soft once prepared can be riced. I highly recommend the ricer as a must have tool for the kitchen.
Ricer Recipes
Mince & Tatties – Traditional Scottish Recipe
I knew that about celery. It really works too.
It’s amazing how well the aluminum foil works, isn’t it!
Some great hacks. I have never used a potato ricer and my mash is pretty smooth and creamy..no lumps it’s all about how you boil them and once drained put a cloth over the saucepan instead of a lid just to absorb all the steam and then mash 🙂 But have never heard of dropping the baked potato so will have to try that one 🙂
Will definitely try your cloth vs lid tip~ !
Love the title of this article! I know about the celery hack and yes, it does work. The potato hacks, I’ve never tried. Might just have to look into purchasing a ricer. And I will drop my next baked potato to smash it up a bit. Great idea!
Amazing how long celery keeps when wrapped in foil! I highly recommend the drop and smash for your next baked tater 🙂 !