Tips

How To Peel Tomatoes

How To Peel Tomatoes

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Ingrediënten

  • Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat and place a bowl of cold water next to your stove.
  • Use a small knife to cut a shallow circle around the top of each tomato removing its stem. Flip the tomato upside down and slice a very shallow X on its bottom, just piercing the skin. Though this step isn’t totally necessary, it will make peeling slightly easier.
  • Use a spoon to lower each tomato into the pot of boiling water for 15 seconds then immediately plunge it into the cold water to stop it from cooking further.
  • Remove the tomato from the cold water. Use your thumb and the small knife against the four small triangles you created with the X cut and peel the skin downward to remove.

Instructies

  • Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat, and place a bowl of cold water next to your stove.
  • Use a small knife to cut a shallow circle around the top of each tomato, removing its stem.
  • Flip the tomato upside down and slice a very shallow X on its bottom, just piercing the skin.
  • Though this step isn’t totally necessary, it will make peeling slightly easier.
  • Use a spoon to lower each tomato into the pot of boiling water for 15 seconds, then immediately plunge it into the cold water to stop it from cooking further.
  • Remove the tomato from the cold water.
  • Use your thumb and the small knife against the four small triangles you created with the X cut, and peel the skin downward to remove.
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Recipe Category Tips

How to Hard-Boil an Egg

How to Hard-Boil an Egg

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Instructies

  • You can boil an egg in so many ways, but I like this method because it yields a hard-boiled egg with a perfect medium-cooked yolk.
  • If your egg is pale yellow with a green perimeter, you’ve gone too far.
  • Add the desired number of eggs (without overcrowding the pot; they should all fit in a single layer at the bottom) to a large pot and cover with cold water.
  • Set a bowl of cold water next to your stove.
  • Bring the water to a boil on high heat.
  • Once boiling, turn down the heat to low to bring the water to a gentle simmer.
  • Once simmering gently, set a timer for 6 minutes and 10 seconds.
  • Drain the eggs and immediately plunge them into the cold water to stop them from cooking further.
  • When it comes to peeling the eggs, I can’t say I have a magic trick where the shell peels right off in one go.
  • There are a few ways I’ve found that work well, such as shaking the egg in a tall glass of water with your palm over the top, or rolling the egg along the counter.
  • Essentially, you want the eggshell to break all over the egg, rather than in one place.
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Recipe Category Eggs / Tips

How to Poach an Egg

How to Poach an Egg

There are a few ways to poach an egg, this method being my favorite. It’s important to use a deep pot even though you’re only poaching one egg at a time. The egg will hit the bottom and disassemble in a shallow pot; it needs to be deep enough for the egg to drop and reassemble around itself without hitting the bottom. Wait to add the salt until the very end, as adding salt to the water toughens the egg white.
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Ingrediënten

  • 1 teaspoon white wine or red wine vinegar
  • 1 egg
  • Salt

Instructies

  • Fill a medium to large pot three-quarters full with water.
  • Add the vinegar and bring to a boil over high heat.
  • Have a bowl of cold water ready.
  • Turn the heat to medium-low and wait until the water comes to a steady but gentle simmer.
  • Crack an egg into a small bowl or glass.
  • Use a spoon to swirl the water, forming a whirlpool.
  • As the water spins, pour the egg into the whirlpool’s center.
  • The swirling water will force the egg white to reassemble around the yolk.
  • Allow the egg to simmer for 3½ minutes.
  • Use a slotted spoon to remove it from the water and plunge it into the bowl of cold water to stop it from cooking further.
  • After a few seconds, remove the egg from the cold water and place it on a paper towel to drain.
  • Finish with a pinch of salt.
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Recipe Category Eggs / Tips

All about Eggs

Eggs—Vade Mecum of the Sweet Kitchen

Nothing can change our modern eating habits, full of warnings about cholesterol. You can certainly reduce the amount of eggs in a modern cake. But without any eggs, you won’t get anywhere.

And you don’t have to. Even cholesterol skeptics admit that eggs have their nutritional benefits. In particular, they are relatively low fat and low calorie, especially the egg white, and yet rich in all sorts of vitamins and minerals such as sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphor.

Above all, eggs are ideally suited to baking and binding due to their physiological properties. When the egg whites are beaten, the proteins tear somewhat and are stretched out. The air that they capture in the process makes egg whites an ideal leavening agent.

The protein of the yolk also has its merits. It is somewhat less stable than that of the egg white, but is ideally suited to binding and thickening. But, of course, caution is necessary when heating egg yolk because it congeals easily under too much heat.

SHOPPING FOR EGGS

You can tell a good egg by the shell, which should be clean, undamaged, and even. Otherwise bacteria can get inside easily. That is why damaged eggs spoil more quickly.

Free range eggs exhibit a stronger taste and a more intensively yellow yolk due to the varied feeding situation of the hens. The slightly higher price of free range eggs pays for itself morally and in taste.

STORAGE OF EGGS

• Store your eggs in a cool, dark, airy place at about 54 °F (12 °C) and about 80 percent humidity.

• Keep eggs that you want to store for longer in your refrigerator at a temperature between 34 and 37 °F (1 and 3 °C).

• Before using eggs, let them reach room temperature.

• Avoid unnecessary temperature swings, because “sweating” can cause eggs to grow mold.

• Keep your eggs as protected as possible from other aromas, because they absorb strange smells very easily. For your sweet kitchen, this is especially important, because you don’t want your cake to smell of vegetables or fish.

TESTING FRESHNESS

You can test the freshness of an egg using the water test. Place the egg in a glass of cold water and see what it does. If it sinks to the bottom, it is fresh. If the wide base of the egg floats up, it is about a week old. However, if it floats up off the bottom, it was laid two or three weeks before. You can check the freshness once more after you crack the egg. The egg should have no smell, the white should be compact around the yolk, and the yolk itself should be high and round and brightly colored.

Small, dark flecks are a sign that the egg has been fertilized and should only be used with caution.

At the round end of the egg there is an air pocket which becomes larger as the egg gets older.

HOW DO YOU SEPARATE EGGS?

Gently hit the egg in the middle with the back of a knife over a small bowl. Let the white run into the bowl and dump the yolk into a different bowl. It is particularly important when beating egg whites that there are no bits of yolk mixed into the white. So it makes sense to avoid breaking the eggs over a bowl that is already full of egg whites, because just a little bit of yolk could make them entirely useless.

HOW EGG WHITES ARE SURE TO SUCCEED

• Use egg whites that are somewhat older. They are better suited to beating.

• Keep the bowl as well as the mixing tool—whisk, stand mixer, or hand mixer—as cool as possible.

• It is best to use granulated sugar with beaten egg whites.

• Beat the egg whites without sugar at first, until it begins to bind together, and only then add the granulated sugar.

• Beat the egg whites—unless otherwise directed—until they are firm and so stiff that little “glacier peaks” form.

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