Hints and Tips

This is where I'll share any of the more useful knowledge I have gained, from how to get the smell of garlic off your hands to de-bearding mussels (and many more to come). If you have asked a question about technique, this is where you'll find the answer. 

Hints

How to get the smell of garlic off your hands

It may sound like an old wives' tale but rinsing your hands under cold running water for 10 seconds gets rid of the smell. I don't know why it works, it just does!

Soaking Skewers

If you have bamboo skewers and don't want them to burn and turn to ash on your barbecue, then you will have to soak them. An easy way without eliminating your sink from use is to put them in a bottle (if you treat yourself to a decent olive oil it will come in a lovely glass bottle you can use just for this purpose, or look posh and use it for water at dinner).

Make peeling ginger easy

The easiest way to peel ginger is to use a teaspoon. Put the flat edge of the piece of ginger (i.e. the bit you cut) on the chopping board and push downwards on the skin of the ginger, easy peasy!

Techniques

De-Bearding mussels

This is really quite simple once you get over what it is you are doing (and touching). All you have to do is pull the hairy bit until it comes away. 

Make sure you wash mussels by soaking them for a good 20 minutes to let all the grit come out. If they have barnacles on them a good way to get them off is just to rub them around against each other, most will pop off that way.

De-veining prawns

These veins on prawns are the digestive tract, you’ll see it on the belly and it looks like a blue/black line going down the centre. However you do this, it’s going to be fiddly. There are hundreds of tips on the internet and instructions in how to do it, but this is the way I have found easiest.

Get a cocktail stick (or if lacking them, anything pointy and thin) and poke the pointy bit under the ‘vein’ (I prefer this term) and pull up.

I find it best if you start on one end and in small increments slowly repeat the process pulling the vein out. It may well snap in half, but this isn’t a problem and using this cocktail stick method means you don’t notice holes on the cooked product.