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Great Kitchen Tips

http://icecubez.com/

If any of us are competent home cooks, it's because we have accumulated hundreds and hundreds of small little lessons on how to do it right. And if you spend as much time talking cooking with Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Schola Cooking School as Jerry do, you will pick up a think or two. Here are just a few of hundreds of tips Jerry has complied.

The Tips

  1. Repurpose your box grater – Freeze a stick of butter and grate them directly into the flour for make pie crusts and pastries.
  2. Salad greens tend to transpire when kept in the refrigerator and the buildup of that moisture causes them to become soggy. Store your greens in a plastic bag with a dry paper towel to absorb that moisture and allow the greens to stay crisp longer.
  3. Pit Cherries by placing them over an empty glass bottle and push each pit through with a chopstick.
  4. Use unscented dental floss as a knife for cheese and cakes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZioq-PvSqU
  5. Use cooking spray to coat measuring cups to measure sticky stuff like corn syrup, molasses and honey.
  6. To preserve fresh herbs, chop them and place in ace cube trays. Fill each compartment with extra virgin olive oil and freeze.
  7. For summer punches and Sangria or other cold drinks where traditional size ice cubes are too small, make ice cubes in muffin tins. Feel free to add fruit or other garnished to the trays to make decorative and functional ice cubes.
  8. Chop big pieces of lettuce with a pizza cutter right in the salad bowl
  9. Use a heating pad set on low for helping yeast doughs to rise.
  10. Gluten Free – use crushed Rice Chex as Panko Bread Crumbs.
  11. Use disposable plastic bags over the sink faucet for peeling vegetables to catch peeling scraps.
  12. Use two ¼ inch dowels set on each side of a batch of cookie dough as a rolling pin guide to roll out dough to the perfect thickness.

Al Spoler, well known to WYPR listeners as the wine-loving co-host of "Cellar Notes" has had a long-standing parallel interest in cooking as well. Al has said, the moment he started getting serious about Sunday night dinners was the same moment he started getting serious about wine. Over the years, he has benefited greatly from being a member of the Cork and Fork Society of Baltimore, a gentlemen's dining club that serves black tie meals cooked by the members themselves who are some of Baltimore's most accomplished amateur cooks.
Executive Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Corks restaurant is fascinated by food and wine, and the way they work in harmony on the palate. His understanding of the two goes all the way to the molecular level, drawing on his advanced education in molecular biology. His cuisine is simple and surprising, pairing unexpected ingredients together to work with Corks' extensive wine offerings.