5 Tips to Make life Easier in Kitchen

Kitchen should be a fun place in the house because it is here where the foods are created for the joy of the entire family, or simply your beloved one. So we all deserve a better life working in the kitchen and Im going to show you my 5 tips to make life easier when you are cooking.

Before that, why cook in the first place when you can easily dine out to save all the troubles? For me, cooking is an expression of how much you care about those who going to eat your food. From the moment you select the ingredients in the market, you want only the best available to be eaten and in the kitchen, you watch and stir every defined interval to ensure the food don't get burn and lastly you taste the food to ensure the seasoning is correctly added.  So having an loving heart, that right, is the first ever ingredient for a perfect cooking. And for those eat the food, will sure feel the warmth. So after the first ingredients, lets see below the 5 tips for a easy peasy cooking session:

1) Plan the flow before cook

Regardless you are serving a 3 course meal or a simple stir fry noodle, it is always good to plan for the sequences, i.e. if you going to serve a blanched vegetable and stir fry pork fillet, it is always good to blanch the veg first because you just need to drain away the water and can immediately start the stir fry (share pot/wok means 1 less to wash later one).  Also if you want 2 separate components to be cooked in about the same time, i.e. white butter sauce and searing a fish fillet, start the one need longer time first on 1 stove, and when you are about to finish the 2nd, the first will be read and both will be serving hot together. So by proper planning, you already prevented half of the possible mess :P

2) 1 in 1 out air flow 

If you are cooking in totally open space, ignore this. Im talking about the vapour, smell of cooking, airborne oil particles. The most common misperception of preventing the spread of these gases are to open all doors/windows while cooking. This is not right. By opening doors and windows, you are actually creating a multiple air flow and that means NO direction will the gases goes and worse, it will just go anywhere it can goes. The correct way is to have ONLY 1 IN and 1 OUT whenever possible. the 1 out, if available, is always the suction fan above the stove and then open 1 door/window only while cooking.   This way, the air will always be extracted OUT by the fan and the only one opening will be the IN flow of fresh air to the kitchen. That means no smell/oil particles will be escape to other part of the house.

3) Sharp Knife

I cannot stress more how important to have a sharp knife at all time when cooking. Not only it will make life easier but also its a safety pre-caution must be made. When cutting, especially rounded and smooth surface like halfed onion, the possibility of the knife getting slipped over and maybe cut your finger is extremely high if your knife is blunt.  Time needed will be longer and the food after cut will not be neat too if it is a blunt knife. The best way to ensure the knife is sharp always is just to grind it for 30 seconds everytime before you start cutting. See below for how to sharpen a knife

4) Knife Skill

Having a sharp knife now is time to have a correct knife skill. I never cut myself after cooking for so many years because i use certain techniques to ensure my fingers/nails are safe while cutting. The key is to curl all your fingers towards your palm while holding the object on 1 hand while the other, of cause holding a knife, get the knife touching the curled fingers while cutting. So you always have a feeling about the knife touching your fingers and this way you will build a feeling eventually for perfecting the cutting skills. See from below for my all time idol Mr. Jamie Olive how he teaches the knife skill

5) Preparing all ingredients before turn on the stove

When in the TV programs, we often see chefs doing the cutting and cooking at the same time and it look so easy watching them doing so. Please do not follow them because they are professional and everything are well prepared for them to perform in the show. In reality, it is always best to get all ingredients ready. Final check with the recipe or run through a mock cook in your mind looking at all ingredients if necessary. This way will ensure you won't end up in messy situation while in cooking.

As mentioned earlier, cooking should be fun and can be as easy as 1 2 3, at least for me, if following the above tips. Looking forward to writing more tips in the coming days, meanwhile, enjoy cooking :)