51 Nigerian/African Kitchen Tips, Tricks and Hacks
There are some special tips, tricks , hacks and hidden secrets used by NIGERIAN/African mothers to the kitchen running without stress… These African kitchen tips are used by our mothers to prevent spoilage of foods, save cost, preserve foods, cook tasty meals and prevent domestic kitchen accidents.
Here are some Nigerian kitchen tips, hacks and tricks you should know of as compiled by www.nimedhealth.com.ng…
Nigerian/African Kitchen Tips….
1. When peeling banana or plaintain apply oil in your hands so as to avoid the sticking.
2. You can store your moi-moi leaves in freezer for months by putting in a big nylon.You only bring out the quantity you need per time.
3. Don’t cover your ogbono,okro soup when cooking it because it will make it not to draw well again and after cooking it allow it to cool down before covering it.
4. If u don’t want to cry while cutting onion. Before you use d onion peel d back put in the fridge for 10mins bring it out and use it.
5. Preserve your dry fish and crayfish inside freezer with a tight closed container.
6. Add salt to your coco yam when it starts boiling to soften quickly.
7. Soak your garlic in cold water for like a min,and use ur hand to remove d back ,it will come off easily.
8. To cut pepper with ur hand apply vegetable oil on your hand and cut the pepper you will not feel d effect.
9. To preserve your beans from weavils ,remove dirt’s from beans and store in a gerrycan with cover or put the beans in a nylon and get a bucket with cover.The beans will last and remain cool till the seed finishes.
10. If you’re boiling your rice and it’s too soft due to too much water just put a slice of bread on it and it will absorb the water and normalize the rice.
11. Tie the head of your plantain to avoid air then keep it in the fridge to avoid it from getting ripe
12. Wrap your unused fresh vegetables inside a paper could be newspaper then keep in the fridge
13. If hot water or hot oil mistakingly pour on any part of your body just pour flour on it immediately …. And your skin won’t peel or swell up
14. Soak ur beans for moi moi in hot water for about 10 mins and wash. It comes off easily.
15. To store ur Ogiri, mix it with salt and put in a container. Ur ogiri will stay for years without getting spoilt.
16. Prepare white soup. Ie cook the meat, keep it aside then boil stock fish, dryfish, salt, papper, red oil, caryfish, seasoning cube etc. Put it in the freezer, if non, add little water and warm every morning. Prepared with desired quantity of water then take the quantity as you want whenever you wanna prepare any kind of soup even unripe plantain etc. For ede, buy powdered one. Prepare any soup that you can finish a day. Ofe okoro, egusi, ogbono, ede etc.
Note, don’t put the meat in the white soup,it would be very very soft before the white soup will finish or you can cook it half done. Then as you warm it everyday, it gets soft .
17. Slice onions near fire to avoid watery eyes or slice under water
18. Fry your washed bitterleaf when cooking egusi soup to get a sweet bitter taste.
19. For smooth garri, blend or grind it before adding the hot water.
20. Just few garlic in the oil use to fry chin chin or any other thing and the oil get back fresh to be use for stew in case you don’t have another. Add small lemon juice to your over salted soup, stew and it does magic.
21.After making ur eba cover it for 5min before mixing , it make it look smooth
22. Use cold water to melt small of your Semo vita before adding your hot water this will make the semo free from lumps.
23. If bone enters ur throat when u re eating, cough and pull ur ear at the same time it will come out.
24. If your meat is small in shape, parboil for some seconds without out water this will help to rise the meat then you can add water and seasoning.
25. Fry your curry leaf together with tomatoes.. That stew will be the sweetest.
26. If you want to enjoy ice fish ,don’t boil it.Just wash and marinate,when you are ready to fry,slice onions in the oil and fry.
27. To reuse already use oil, grate few ginger and fry for some seconds it will remove the odour or flavour of what you fried initially and taste fresh
28. To save gas, blend ur tomatoes and drain the water with a sieve before frying it. That way, it takes little time and gas to cook.
29. If you want your beans to cook fast, after the first water drains, add a chopped onions into it and add water.
30. Use egg shell or grounded garlic and salt to get rid of wall geckos
31. Use charcoal to resurrect a soured soup
32. If you want crunchy irish potato , soak it in water ( not salty water) for at least 30 minutes before frying. For yam and sweet potato, soak overnight.
33. Make crayfish the last ingredient u add to every meal. The taste of the meal is WOW
34. Wen frying tomato for stew…to prevent it from burning add dry pepper…
35. Do you know you can use raw beans to boil hard meat.
36. Always add slice tomatoes to your food it helps to reduce cholesterol.
37. Use grater to wash your beans for moi moi after soaking for about 3 minutes.
38. Never store Onions and Potatoes together because both produce a gas that causes either of them to spoil quickly.
39. Put two or three orange leaves in your hot palm oil on the fire. Let the leaves turn black before removing it. By then your palm oil becomes pure groundnut oil also giving your food a nice taste.
40. To avoid feeling a peppering hotness on your hands after cutting pepper with bare hand scrub your hand with salt and red oil then wash it.
41. If you happen to over salt a pot of soup, just drop in a peeled potato. The potato will absorb the excess salt.
42. If your Soup or Stew goes sour while warming it, add little piece of Charcoal and remove after warming, the taste will come back.
43. Never put citrus fruits (oranges, lemon, lime, etc) or tomatoes in the fridge. The low temperature degrades the aroma and flavor of these fruits.
44. When storing empty airtight containers, throw in a pinch of salt to keep them from getting stinky.
45. If your salt is becoming lumpy, put a few grains of rice in with it to absorb excess moisture.
46. To reuse cooking oil without tasting whatever was cooked in the oil previously, cook a 1/4″ piece of ginger in the oil. It will remove any remaining flavors and odors.
47. Do not use paracetamol to soften meat, it can damage the liver
48. Always clean your kitchen every day
49. Cooking gas cylinders should be kept outside the kitchen to avoid fire accidents.
50. Potash or kaun is used to make beans cook and done fast. Iron nails are also used to make beans very soft while cooking.
51. Serious kitchen accidents should be taken to the hospital.
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