To wash grapes properly, put them in a large bowl of cold water, add a spoonful of flour, and swish the grapes gently for about a minute. The flour acts like a gentle scrub, loosening dirt, waxy residue and any…
To make tortilla bowls in the oven, flip a muffin tin upside down, warm flour tortillas until soft, drape one over each upturned cup, and bake at 200°C for 8–10 minutes until golden and crisp. Once cool, the tortillas lift…
To fix food that is too spicy, stir in dairy — yoghurt, cream, or milk — because casein binds to capsaicin and washes the heat away. With no dairy to hand, a spoonful of sugar or honey, a squeeze of…
To make perfectly round pancakes, pour your batter into a clean, dry squeeze bottle and pipe neat circles straight onto a hot griddle. The bottle gives you full control over the flow, so every pancake comes out the same size…
To cut butternut squash easily, pierce the skin with a fork in a few places and microwave the whole squash on high for 3 minutes — the skin softens, the knife glides through, and you avoid wrestling with a rock-hard…
To ripen mangoes faster, place them in a brown paper bag, fold the top loosely closed, and leave the bag at room temperature — the fruit will soften and sweeten in 1–2 days. The bag traps ethylene gas, the natural…
To make a bread basket from a tea towel, lay the towel flat, fold all four corners into the centre, flip it over and fold the corners in again, then pull the corners up and out — they spring into…
To make lemon tea without a tea infuser, halve a lemon, poke 8–10 small holes in the cut face with a fork or skewer, tuck a spoonful of loose tea into the hollow side, and drop it into a mug…
To get ketchup out of a stubborn glass bottle, grip the bottle firmly by the neck, hold it upside down at arm’s length, and swing it in fast circles like a windmill. After 5–10 seconds of circular swinging, the sauce…
To slice cherry tomatoes in seconds, trap a handful between two plates (or press one plate gently over them), hold the stack steady, and run a sharp serrated knife horizontally through the gap in a single smooth stroke. You get…
