Delicious recipes

Very important cooking secrets

The International Cuisine has many secrets to be discovered, and they all lead to a better progress and accomplishment of culinary art. One of the secrets of success is using quality ingredients, which will help you cook only as to value them.

• Freshly cleaned and finely cut salad vegetables shouldn’t be kept unused for a long time because they will lose their vitamins and freshness.
• Withered potherb will revert if kept for a couple of hours in a mix of cold water with a tablespoon of vinegar.
• Green salad if washed leaf by leaf with cold water, put in a plastic bag and kept in the fridge can stay fresh for 2-3 days.
• In order to serve white celery root, keep it for 2-3 hours in a mix of water and vinegar before preparing.
• When steam-boiling vegetables their cellulose will soften while vitamin C loss will be reduced.
• Vegetables will longer keep their nutritional value if boiled in salty water.
• In order to keep their green color, haricots and green peas are to be boiled in covered pots, adding a pinch of aerated salt in the water.
• Spaghetti will be more delicious if adding a laurel leaf in the boiling water.
• Layer cake is to be baked in the first 5-10 minutes at a high temperature and afterwards at a lower temperature, which will allow it to get a nice volume.
• Fruit, Turkish delight and nuts used in cakes are to be rolled through flour so they won’t sink through the composition reaching the pan’s base.
• Tart pastry will be finer and more delicious if you add a grated apple in the composition.
• Strawberries used in decorating must be sprinkled with alcohol or cognac, so they’ll maintain their flavor and color.
• Home made ice-cream won’t have ice crystals if you just add some lemon drops in the composition.
• Spices will be fresh if wrapped in foil and kept in the fridge.
• Don’t use cold milk when making mashed potatoes for it will make its color darken, use hot milk.
• Too dry layer cake is to be kept in a damp kitchen towel before pouring syrup over it.
• When dough/pastry has overgrown and you can’t put it in the oven immediately, place a clean, damp sheet of paper over it.
• Nuts used in cake filling are to be mixed with egg whites and sugar.
• Roast is only to be softened with white wine.
• After cutting the eggplants, and before adding the oil, add a raw yolk. They’ll taste better.
• Salad vegetables are to be cooled, otherwise the salad will change its taste easily, turning sour.
• Vegetables are to be boiled in hot water, in covered glazed pots, boiling only as to soften, so they won’t lose their vitamin content.
• For cauliflower not to darken while boiling, add some sugar in the beginning.
• To serve a better fresh or canned salad, just add some mayonnaise.
• Mayonnaise can be best kept in lid covered jars, in the fridge or on ice.
• New potatoes can be easily cleaned or skinned by rubbing them with coarse salt in a napkin.
• Add a pinch of salt so hot oil, grease or butter won’t spring out of the pan while frying.
• For fish to taste better and not mash when preparing, it should be rubbed with lemon juice, then salted and left for 20-30 minutes, and only after boiled, fried or grilled.
• Fried fish will taste much better if before rolling it through flour and frying it, we just keep it for 5-10 minutes in milk.
• Fish that has an unpleasant smell is to be boiled for a minute or two in a big amount of water with some tablespoons of vinegar and a pinch of salt, taken out after and then prepared.
• The most adequate spices for fish are: laurel, thyme, coriander, tarragon, rosemary, sage, pepper, allspice, nutmeg and fresh cilantro.
• Vegetables and potherb that can be served with fish are: onion, potatoes, carrots, peppers, tomatoes and parsley.
• For removing fish smell from hands, dishes and pots, rinse them first with cold water and then wash them with warm water and detergents or with warm water that has a tablespoon of vinegar added (lemon salt). Cutlery is to be rubbed with coffee dregs.
• Onion used in salads will lose its hotness/spice if it’s washed before, sliced and mixed with some salt. Besides, when preparing a salad, it’s indicated you put the salt before the oil for it will not dissolve in oil.
• Potatoes are to be boiled at a low temperature, because high temperature will only make them mash on the surface and stay hard in the middle.
• For potatoes to taste better, add 3-4 garlic cloves while boiling.
• The unpleasant taste of frozen potatoes can be removed by keeping them in cold water before preparing and boiling them in hot water with a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of vinegar.
• For cooked cabbage, use the same recipe; only make sure to rub some salt into the shredded cabbage so it’ll be tenderer.
• Cauliflower will keep its nice white color if a teaspoon of salt is added in the boiling water. In order to remove insects from the cauliflower, just keep it for about an hour in cold water before boiling.
• Pasta won’t stick to the bottom of the pot if you add some salt while boiling.
• When boiling fresh vegetables, salt is always to be added in the beginning, and when boiling dried/dehydrated vegetables salt is to be added only a few minutes before they’re done so they won’t harden.
• Roast is not to be salted before grilling because its nutrients influenced by the salt will be eliminated.
• Sauerkraut liquid when used in soups is to first be boiled separately with an onion, the foam being thrown away and only after can it be added to the soup.
• Green vegetables are to be boiled in uncovered pots, thus them keeping their color.
• When boiling green vegetables, salt is always to be added in the beginning so vitamins and mineral salts won’t be lost.
• When vegetables are sautéed, salt is to be added in the end, in order to avoid them losing their juice and moistness, allowing them brown faster.
• After the first water in which the beans have boiled is drained out, 2-3 garlic cloves are to be added and let to boil.
• For peppers to keep their color even after cooking, just add some lemon juice.
• Garlic isn’t to be kept in the fridge because it gets a bitter taste.
• When preparing jams, use only enamel pots; when preparing the syrup, let the sugar dissolve in cold water and only after that put to boil.
• Mixed into salads, horseradish will give them a nice flavor.
• Any type of dough/pastry will be fluffier if let to cool down for an hour.
• Fresh or dry bean soup will taste better if a teaspoon of sugar is added.
• Polenta will stop pelleting if before adding the corn flour to boil, you first sprinkle it with some cold water.
• Eggplant salad will have a special flavor if adding some garlic instead of finely chopped onion.
• Egg whites whisk better and faster if kept in the fridge before and if carefully separated from the yolks.
• Pudding, rich potato/egg plant stew and pilaf are to always be heated using steam (the bain-marie technique).
• Aerated salt or ammonium bicarbonate is always mixed with a little bit of lemon juice or vinegar, thus making its unpleasant smell disappear.
• When making jam, choose fresh, really ripe, and unhit fruit.
• Sugared jams can be avoided by adding a bit of lemon salt dissolved in warm water when boiling, or by adding a slice of lemon at the end of the process, over the jam in the jar.
• When preparing polenta, let the water boil, add salt, then sprinkle the corn flour a little at a time, lower the flame/heat and stir well with a whisk. The corn flour will increase its volume 3-4 times.
• Frozen vegetables should be defrosted at room temperature and then put to boil in a covered pot with some hot water and a bit of margarine or butter so that they boil faster and don’t lose the flavor.
• Frozen meat should be defrosted only at room temperature or in the microwave oven.