| - chopping (onions): - - Cut with a big, sharp knife, use your knuckles for alignment so you don't cut yourself. - - Cut one direction, but don't worry about retaining the shape for the next cross-cut. Roughly align the stick-shapes after the first cut (spread out in to a longer line if too much to handle) and do the 2nd cut. It's not so bothersome if some onion pieces are not perfectly square, for things to cook evenly only the thinnest dimension matters and this is way faster than doing things carefully. - cut tomatoes slightly off-center and you only have to remove 1 green spot (actually just not through the "poles", still through the center) - sharpening a knife without a tool: use the underside edge of a cup or plate, it is usually not coated and works fine for sharpening. - rather than cutting everything beforehand, I'm not afraid to take e.g. the onions out of the pan to fry the next vegetable and than mix it back to together at the end. (if you need to clean the pan, de-glaze it with a sup of water) - don't be afraid to add water when things get to dry! - use enough fat, makes everything taste better (especially important for vegan stuff) - rescue boring improvised sauces by adding: ginger, chili, cilantro, soy-sauce - make pasta sauce less thin by pouring in a bit of the pasta-water - tomato sauce: cheat with tomato paste if you don't want to boil/simmer it down for very long. - avocados: Take out the kernel by hitting it with the knife (like laying an axe to rest in a block of wood) and twisting (but don't hit too hard or it will become hard to get it off the knife). Use the biggest, roundest spoon you can find for peeling. |
See here: https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniq...