Kitchen Hacks: How To Make Your Cooking Ingredients Last Longer

If you are like me who is ambitious to cook every day but struggles to find a good time to cook, many times when you are ready to rock the kitchen you have to be disappointed with rotten ingredients. I am a working mother who wishes that I could cook every day. I usually cook in the morning before I head to work. But, it is not that easy as sometimes I am out of time. So, I had to pray hard that my chillies and vegetables won’t spoil before I can cook them. However, after experimenting with several methods, I finally found a method on how I can keep my cooking ingredients such as garlic, chillies, lemongrass, kaffir leaves, ginger, and others for a much longer time. With this method, I can keep them fresh for more than 1 month! Are you interested to learn how I do it? Make sure to keep on reading. Fresh up to more than one month! To keep my cooking ingredients fresh longer, I make a good friend with my fridge. But on top of that I would do these methods to make the ingredients stay fresh longer: For cooking ingredients such as lemongrass, ginger, galangal, chillies and garlic: Prepare a clean container with a cap. Layer a kitchen towel on the base. Wipe dry any wetness on the ingredients. Put into the container. Cover with another layer of kitchen towel. Cover with the cap. Keep it in the fridge. This way, I notice my ingredients can last longer. Sometimes more than one month. To extend its life span, pat dries any wetness whenever you open the container for the cooking. My lemongrass from more than one month ago. Our fridge is meant to cool whatever is kept in it, thus make them last longer. However, the fridge is also a place where there is constant wetness. This is why, with a trick using the kitchen towel, you can keep your ingredients dry and last even longer. You can combine your roots in one container. Remember to cover up with a kitchen towel before putting the container cap. For chillies like “chilli padi”, make sure to separate any rotten or wet leaves in between them and pat them dry. This will guarantee its freshness. Discard any unwanted leaves from the chillies. Chillies in the container, layered with a kitchen towel at the base. For aromatics such as kaffir leaves and curry leaves: Similar to the technique above, I keep my aromatic leaves in a container. I notice that each time I leave them in a plastic pack from how I bought them, they easily get wet and rotten. This way, when put in a container they can last much longer than before, usually more than one month too. My curry leaves and kaffir leaves from one and a half month ago. For pastes: For cooking paste such as for sautéing, I blend onions, ginger and garlic to make my cooking faster. Normally I would blend in a big batch and divide them into several containers. I would keep one container that I plan to use within the next 1-2 weeks in the chiller, while the rest I will keep in the freezer. My blended onions from last 2 weeks are almost finished. I applied the same method to the dried red chilli paste that I normally use for “sambal”. But, dried chilli paste will normally develop whitish colour on the surface within 1-2 weeks due to the wetness in the fridge. Worry not, if you see that you can easily discard the top part. For onions and potatoes: I keep my onions in a dry area. This way it can last longer. Onions and potatoes are best to be kept in a dry place. Which is outside the fridge. Remember, wetness can spoil our cooking ingredients. Make sure to keep the place dry. You can also follow these tips on how to preserve each type of vegetables longer. A little tip for busy mothers As a mother, we can be very busy with our workloads at times. We should take advantage of the limited time that we could spend in the kitchen. Other than the above tips, you can do it to your meat and poultry too. Every time I had done grocery shopping, I would clean the chicken, fish, prawn or whatever that I bought that day and divide them into several containers. At this rate, you might have noticed that containers are my best friend. I thought they were useful, so why not right? Not only that this can help to keep your food fresh, but can help us save a lot of time too. The tip is, to divide them into a container for a one day portion. This way, it will be faster to defrost. Plus, they are all cleaned, you can simply throw them into a pressure cooker on the day when you need to rush. Separate food for one day portion in the container. Chicken in the container. How I keep my raw food in the freezer. And that’s it. Avoid the waste that might happen when you need to go buying food or groceries too frequently due to easily spoiled and rotten food ingredients. Hope these tips help!

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