Insider Tips for Your Kitchen - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. One of the tricks that I have in my kitchen is when I am making chili or any type of bean dish, is that I presoak my beans in water just so that the beans remain tender when I cook them, especially when I am boiling them. But the thing of it is, when you boil beans they expand, so it is important for you to measure the beans before you even soak it in the water. So right here I have mung beans. And I am getting ready to make a spinach and mung bean recipe. And my mung beans are going to sit in my pot of water here for about an hour or two. And we will leave it there and we set it aside and forget about it and when we get back it is going to be ready to be boiled. So my next trick is actually making my own salad dressings. And it is a lot more practical that way and I can also flavor it to how I want it. And right here I just have the basic stuff that I, again, have in my kitchen often, is the olive oil. This is my balsamic vinegar and I like to keep it in these pretty bottles, they last longer with the seal on top. And again the basic ingredients of salt and pepper. So to make your basic balsamic vinaigrette, you take olive oil, and I sort of just eyeball it, just a little bit of that, just to form an emulsion. And then you take your balsamic vinegar and you pour just a little bit in there. Salt, pepper, stir it up a little bit, mix it up really well, and now you can pour it into your salad. And there you have it. My next tip is actually making your own rub. And you can use this sort of rub when you marinate your chicken, your beef, or your pork or even your seafood. So it is very simple, first we start off with the olive oil, just a little bit, that is about a tablespoon and half in there and then we have crushed garlic, I love this thing because it is a time saver, you just need a quarter of a teaspoon in there. Cayenne because it packs some heat, just a pinch of that. Again your basic salt and pepper, and my favorite herb, rosemary, and you just stir it all up like so. Make sure it is mixed really well. Now you are ready to rub this on your meat. Last but not least I have for you a premade vegetable stock. I make my own vegetable stock. I do not usually toss out the cutouts from the vegetables or even the meats. As soon as I cut them I set aside the portions that I do not want, and then I boil them later on to make stock out of it. So with stock, I actually, as soon as I have drained all of the vegetable parts or the meat parts that I have used, I actually store them in these tight lid containers and freeze them until I am ready to use them. Or, another good tip is using an ice cube tray to store your stocks in. So it is easy to use, you can just pour all your stock in here and it sets right up quickly and when you are done, when you need it, all you do is break it in cubes and you can use it for your soups, gravies, or any base that you need, for sauteeing maybe, just a spoon full of stock, just to flavor your meals better. So these are just some of my insider tricks and tips to make your life easier while cooking in your kitchen.
