Six Great Kitchen Hacks for Busy Home Cooks

One of the projects that falls under my food writing umbrella is writing a blog called à la minute for The American Personal & Private Chef Association. I recently pulled together half a dozen of my favorite kitchen hacks that I've come across and used to share with the chefs--because these are folks who need to work as efficiently as possible and waste as little as they can. 

But I thought these should have a broader audience so I'm sharing them here in this space, too. A few  of these I got from the wonderful website, The Kitchn. Others come from friends. Have great kitchen hacks that work for you? Please share them below!

1. Preserved lemons: This Moroccan staple is brilliant added to pasta, salads, dressings, and proteins like scallops and poultry. And they're ridiculously easy to make. All you need is a large glass jar, about 7 or 8 Meyer lemons and sea salt. Slice the lemons down the long end almost half way, turn it a quarter and do it again. Stuff the inside with salt. Grab that end, turn the lemon upside down and repeat so both ends are stuffed with salt. Place the lemon in the impeccably clean jar and repeat with as many lemons as you can fit into the jar and still screw on the lid. A lot of juice will come out. That's fine. Keep the jar of lemons on the counter for a month, periodically turning it over and back to make sure the juice is covering the top. After a month, you can use the lemons in pasta dishes, in rice, salads, sauces, with fish or with Moroccan-style dishes. Keep the jar in the refrigerator and the lemons will last for months.

2. Freezing ginger: I don't know about you, but fresh ginger root can be frustrating. You buy a knob to use for a dish and then you still have leftover ginger that, despite your best intentions, doesn't get used and eventually shrivels up and gets tossed. Enough of that. The Kitchn has a great approach. I learned I could peel a hand of the root, grate it, measure it off in teaspoons, and freeze it. But I changed it up a bit and made it even easier. I didn't peel the root and instead of grating it, I pulled out my mini food processor, quickly sliced up the large hand, and ground it as fine as I could. Then I used a mini cookie scoop, which measures about a teaspoon, and before I knew it I had more than a dozen scoops of ginger on a parchment-lined pan. I put the pan in the freezer. Two hours or so later when the pieces were hard, I placed those now-frozen ground ginger rounds in a quart freezer bag so I can have what I need when I need it. And sans waste.

3. Dried dill: My mom has a Persian friend who has taught us all sorts of great recipes--and one fabulous trick. She uses a lot of dill so her way to always have what she needs on hand is to slowly dry bunches in the oven and then package it for storage. Wash and dry dill fronds. Cut off the thick stems and place the smaller fronds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Place the sheet in a 225-degree oven. Periodically move the dill around to make sure the air is circulating around all the pieces. Depending on how much you are drying it can take from half an hour to hour until they're just stiff and crunchy. Remove from the oven and let cool. Then carefully crumble the leaves over a clean sheet of paper so they don't fly all over your counter. Pull the ends of the paper together so the dill settles into the middle and you can easily direct it into a container, where you can store it in the pantry, or into a freezer bag. This also works for other herbs, like mint and parsley.

4. Vacuum sealing with straws: Unless you have plenty of counter space for large vacuum sealers, this little hack will save you space and money. About $1.50 will buy you a package of straws that can serve a multitude of purposes, including vacuum sealing freezer bag contents. Air is the enemy of freezer storage and as talented as you may be in strategically manipulating bags to push the air out of them, using a straw is way simpler and more effective. Simply fill your freezer bag with what you're storing, insert the end of a straw and seal the top around it. Then suck in until the plastic tightly encircles the contents. Quickly pull out the straw and finish sealing. Your frozen product will have a much better chance of lasting longer and without freezer burn.

5. Homemade vanilla extract: For years I've bought large bottles of vanilla whenever I've gone down to Tijuana. It's inexpensive and very good. But recently my friend Robin Ross of Cupcakes Squared gifted me with a beautiful bottle and a long, thick vanilla bean with instructions to fill the bottle--with the bean in it--with vodka, brandy, bourbon, or rum. Vodka, she says, gives the cleanest flavor, and that's what I've used. Then let it sit in a cool dark cabinet or pantry for six weeks. At that point, your extract is ready to use. And you can keep adding more alcohol to top off your bottle as you use it. Robin claims the single bean will give pure vanilla extract for 25 years. Mark your calendar.

6. Bacon by the slice: How often do you need just one or two slices of bacon to add to a dish (or make for yourself)? Here's a great way to access a single slice at a time that I learned from The Kitchn. Buy a package of bacon, separate and roll up each slice individually. Get out a small baking sheet and line it with parchment. Place each little roll on it and put it in the freezer. Once they're hard (I know; this is like the ginger--but, hey, it's a great and versatile  technique), remove and toss into a freezer bag. Grab that straw from hack 4 and vacuum seal the bag. Next time you want to add a little bacon to a vinaigrette, you're all set.

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Summer Israeli Couscous Salad

Last spring I was invited to join the San Diego chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier. Last night the group had a summer BBQ potluck. I'm not usually a fan of potlucks, mostly because you just never know what kind of food will arrive. But a potluck with dishes by women who are restaurant owners, caterers, cookbook authors, and cooking school teachers? Now, game on.

As it happened, the organizers also enjoy making it just a little competitive, and they had a contest for the best salad. You could also bring an appetizer or dessert, but since I was pressed for time and happened to have the ingredients on hand, I decided to make my version of Mark Bittman's Israeli couscous salad. This salad really takes advantage of the bounty of summer produce. And, I love the impact of the cinnamon, cumin, and preserved lemon.

Anyway, there were a lot of salads on the table last night, each one different, each delicious. Most, like mine, were simply plated in large bowls, but cooking teacher Edie Greenberg made a potato salad in the shape of a hat, decorated with flowers. It was absolutely charming. Another salad, linguini with shrimp, was arranged in a huge margarita glass. Along with the salads was an array of barbecued chicken thighs, pork ribs, and lamp chops. And, I don't have to tell you how delicious the half-dozen desserts were.

Okay, so the salad competition. The newbie won. I was pretty surprised and delighted. And my prize? A stunning plastic tiara. Because, of course, every girl should have one. This Les Dames experience is going to be fun!

Israeli Couscous Salad

Adapted from Mark Bittman’s Israeli Couscous Salad from “How to Eat Everything Vegetarian”

1 8.8 oz. package of Israeli couscous

1 small chopped white onion

1/4 cup plus 2 T. extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and ground black pepper

2 cups boiling water

2 T. sherry vinegar

½ t. ground cumin

1/8 t. ground cinnamon

1 preserved lemon, skin only, sliced thinly

½ small red onion, thinly sliced

¼ cup currants or golden raisins

½ cup drained canned chickpeas

2 T. capers

½ cup pine nuts, toasted

½ pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

½ pint roasted cherry or grape tomatoes*

Kernels from 1 ear of fresh white corn

6 shishito peppers, chopped

1/2 cup chopped parsley

Using a large frying pan, saute the white onion and half of the shishito peppers in 2 T. of olive oil until the onions are golden brown Add the Israeli couscous and stir until the couscous begins to brown. Add salt and pepper, then add two cups boiling water. Cover the pan and simmer for eight to 10 minutes.

Pour the couscous into a large bowl and let cool. Then stir in oil, vinegar, and spices. Add the remaining ingredients. Let the salad stand at room temperature for an hour before serving. Taste and adjust the seasonings if necessary.

*I used Peggy Knickerbocker’s recipe below for slow-roasted tomatoes:

36 to 48 cherry tomatoes, or more

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle

Balsamic vinegar

1 clove garlic, minced

1/3 to ½ cup fresh chopped herbs: any combination of parsley, marjoram, oregano, chervil

Sprinkling of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, optional

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

1. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half width-wise. Place the halves in one or two baking dishes cut side up in one layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with the olive oil and a few drops of balsamic vinegar.
2. Bake for three to four hours or until the tomatoes soften and almost collapse. Fifteen minutes before the baking is completed, combine the garlic and herbs in a small bowl. Remove the tomatoes from the oven and sprinkle the herbs and cheese on top of the tomatoes. Return to the oven for the remaining time.
3. Serve warm or at room temperature.

My note: These tomatoes freeze well.

Weird and Wonderful: Three Spring Treats

I always like a good surprise and this past weekend I found three in the form of produce. Two of them you may have heard of or even tried. I'm pretty sure that the third is something completely new to anyone but the growers and sellers and a few chefs in the area.

First up is a rare treat if you're a garlic lover: garlic scapes. These thick, curly cues of deliciousness are hard to find in San Diego. Last year I found them at First Korean Market on Convoy near Jasmine in Kearny Mesa. They were there just a brief time in the spring and that was it. On Sunday I found them at the Hillcrest farmers market at Sage Mountain Farm's stand and immediately snatched up a bunch, along with some first-of-the-season heirloom tomatoes, elephant garlic and a bunch of lovely multi-colored carrots.

Garlic scapes are the flower stalks that grow out of the garlic bulb. As they grow they begin to curl, and ultimately develop a little bud. They have just a brief season so get them while you can.


Some say they are milder than garlic bulbs, but they can be pretty potent while raw. Once cooked, however -- at least in my experience -- they lose a lot of that garlic flavor. So, my favorite way to use them is to make pesto. Simply chop them into smallish pieces and drop in the food processor. Add grated parmesan cheese, toasted pine or walnuts, salt and pepper and slowly drizzle in really good extra virgin olive oil until the mixture becomes creamy. In this batch above, I also added fresh thyme from my garden and about a tablespoon of fresh lemon zest.

The pesto is terrific on baked chicken, fish, grilled beef and pork. Add it to an omelet or roasted vegetables -- especially roasted potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes or summer squash. And, of course, it's a no brainer with pasta. I chopped some heirloom tomatoes and sea beans (see below for the big surprise), and roasted a couple of Japanese eggplants I bought at the City Heights farmers market.


The result was a wonderful vegetarian pasta dish that made two meals. And it was just as good cold as warm.


Okay, I mentioned the sea beans here and on Twitter. They're definitely a curiosity. I learned about them at Specialty Produce with L.A. food writer Erika Kerekes, who was visiting for the day. Specialty's Kelly Orange was showing us around and we walked by a large plastic bag of these greens on a shelf. They look like little twigs, but have a crispy texture and very salty, really briny, flavor straight out of the sea. Sea beans, also known as glasswort, grow wild on beaches and marshes, including estuaries in San Diego.


Part of the charm of these vegetables is their crispiness so I would use them fresh or maybe pickle them. But, certainly, you can saute or steam them or use them however you would any other vegetable. Make a salty pesto with them. Or just use them as a very interesting garnish. I added them to my pasta and looking forward to experimenting with them further.

While I was at Specialty Produce, I noticed they had pink lemons -- something I'd never seen. So I took home several to try. They're a variety unique to the average Eureka lemon. They start out with a very pretty yellow-and-green variegated skin but the flesh inside is pink and so they're often used to make pink lemonade. As the fruit matures, the skin starts to flush, as you can just see in the photo below. This is the result of lycopene, which also colors pink grapefruit.


Use these lemons just as you would a regular Eureka lemon. I thought they were too pretty to just squeeze and toss, so I made another jar of preserved lemons. If you haven't done this yet, give it a try. All you need are lemons, sea salt and a wide-mouth sterile jar.

First, cut the lemons vertically half-way down on one side, then flip the lemon over, do a half turn and make another cut. Then, stuff the inside of the lemon with the salt on each side.


Fill the jar as you stuff each lemon with the salt and press down to release the juice and make room for the next lemons. By the time you fill the jar, you should have no room for more lemons and they should be sitting in juice. If they don't release enough juice, squeeze more lemons and fill the jar with the juice to the top. Then, all you do is secure the lid and let the jar sit on your kitchen counter for a month to six weeks. Periodically turn the jar over and back upright to remix any salt that's settled at the bottom. If the lemons begin to collapse, you can add more split and salted lemons so the jar remains full.



At the end of a month to six weeks, you'll have a wonderful condiment to include in pastas, sauces, salads and sautes. Keep the jar refrigerated and pull out what you need. Trim away the flesh, rinse the peel and chop it. It adds a wonderful salty, sour flavor. But, remember, a little goes a long way for the best effect.

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Spring Greens Novelty: Broccoli Spigarello and Piret Lettuce

Just when you think you've got enough veggies in your rotation you come across wonderful new things to try. This week, it was Piret lettuce and broccoli spigarello.

Piret lettuce is a lovely leafy green that has the shape and texture of butter lettuce but with the vibrant hues of a red leaf lettuce. I grabbed it the moment I saw it at Specialty Produce.


And what better way to show it off than a red salad. I had sweet little strawberries a friend had brought to me last weekend (I love incorporating fruit in green salads), peppadew peppers, red onions and just because I love them, toasted walnuts. A little vinaigrette and voila. Sweet and savory, and oh so pretty.


I also picked up a bunch of broccoli spigarello. Yes, this is in the broccoli family, although it doesn't have the thick stems and florets we associate with broccoli. Instead, think along the lines of kale. It's native to southern Italy, although Specialty Produce gets theirs from Coleman Family Farms in Carpenteria, just north of L.A.

Raw, its greyish tinted leaves are thin and curly, like a mass of unruly hair. And it has a very distinctive tangy flavor. Once you cook it, the leaves turn a crazy bright dark green and the flavors soften to something more like spinach without the edge. It's easy to prepare. Simply cut off the long stems, blanch the leaves in boiling water for about 3 minutes, drain and then saute in olive oil with garlic, onions or shallots. It's wonderful as a side dish or can be incorporated in stuffed pastas or lasagna, tossed with pasta and shell fish or mixed with cheese into a stuffing for fish or even a rolled flank steak.

I had bay scallops on hand so I made baked scallops with preserved lemon and served them on a bed of sauteed broccoli spigarello.

Baked Scallops with Preserved Lemon

8 oz. bay scallops
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 tsp. preserved lemon, minced
1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves, minced
1 1/2 tsp. fresh Italian parsley leaves, minced
Olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Drizzle olive oil in a gratin or baking dish. Toss scallops with preserved lemon and spread on dish.

In a skillet, heat 2 tsps. of olive oil on medium heat. Add garlic and bread crumbs. Stir until the crumbs are golden and crispy. Remove from the heat and add the herbs. Mix well. Top the scallops with the bread crumb mixture. Bake for five minutes or until the topping begins to brown and the scallops are opaque in the center.

Serves 2.
You can certainly leave out the preserved lemon if you don't have it, but they're very easy to make and wonderful to have on hand. All you need is a large glass jar, about 7 or 8 Meyer lemons and sea salt. Slice the lemons down the long end almost half way, turn it a quarter and do it again. Stuff the inside with salt. Grab that end, turn the lemon upside down and repeat so both ends are stuffed with salt. Place the lemon in the impeccably clean jar and repeat with as many lemons as you can fit into the jar and still screw on the lid. A lot of juice will come out. That's fine. Keep the jar of lemons on the counter for a month, periodically turning it over and back to make sure the juice is covering the top. After a month, you can use the lemons in pasta dishes, with fish or with Moroccan-style dishes. Keep the jar in the refrigerator and the lemons will last for months.

This jar was my inspiration. My friend Anne Otterson introduced me to them in her kitchen.


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