Adventures in Armenian Cooking - Hints

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• It's easy to make your own parsley or mint flakes by drying washed, cleaned and stemmed parsley or mint in a very slow oven. When it's very dry, crumble and store in a jar.

• Keep parsley garden fresh by storing it in an airtight jar, unwashed, in the refrigerator.

• Do not use dried herbs in the same quantity as fresh because their flavoring quality is more intense. Usually 1 teaspoon of dried is equivalent to 3 teaspoons of fresh.

• Onions can be cut tearless and odor free if chilled thoroughly in the refrigerator before slicing.

• Stick a garlic clove on a toothpick before dropping it into stew if all you want is the flavor of garlic. It will be easy to find garlic to discard.

• When grease collects on top of broth or soups, float a piece of paper towel lightly on top of the broth or soup and it will absorb grease; or skim the soup with a piece of ice. The grease will harden and cling to the ice.

• If your yogurt fails to congeal - don't fret, add a slice of white bread to the top of yogurt and wait a few hours. You'll be happy with the results.

• Before heating milk to make yogurt, rinse inside of saucepan with water. This will stop the milk from sticking if your flame is a little high.

• Pouring cold water into a hot aluminum or stainless steel pan will cause it to warp.

• Cheese will store well in a plastic bag; but sprinkle drops of water inside to maintain moisture. If mold forms, just trim off. It will not harm the cheese.

• If some yolk gets into the white when separating eggs, take a cloth moistened with cold water and just touch the yolk. It will stick to the cloth.

• Butter and sugar can be creamed with ease when butter is hard, by warming the sugar slightly

• To hasten the activation of dry yeast, add 1/2 cup warm water and one teaspoon sugar to it.

• Walnut meats or other nut meats may be frozen until ready for use. Nuts may also be frozen with shells.

• Heat your lemons in the oven or in hot water and you will get twice as much lemon juice, or roll the lemons until slightly soft before squeezing for same results.

• When frying with butter, add a few drops of oil in the pan first, then the butter won't burn.

• Sticky dates, raisins or figs will come apart easily if placed in the oven for a few minutes.

• Do not discard rinds of grapefruit, oranges or lemons. Grate the rinds first, put in a tightly covered glass jar and store in refrigerator. Use as needed.

• Pearl barley may be substituted for dzedzadz.

• Fresh grape leaves may be frozen. Blanch in boiling water in bunches. Drop in cold water and squeeze out excess water. Bag and freeze.

• Dried mint in tea is an old folks remedy to aid in stomach aches or for colds.

• If you find your tourshi is a little strong for your family, just pour off 1/4 of the brine and replace with water.

• To peel almonds easily, put into boiling water for a minute.

• To refresh wilted vegetables, soak in water with a little vinegar.

• After using a knife for cutting garlic or onion, run your knife through a potato to get rid of the odor.

• When your yeast dough does not rise, take another yeast and put in 1/4 cup water and knead your dough again.

• Meat will cook faster in water when you use cold water.

• When dough is sticky, do not add more flour to your dough, just add a bit of oil to your hands and you will find that you can shape your dough more easily.

• If you run out of lemon during the summer months and are fortunate enough to have a grape arbor, you may use the green grapes as you would lemon juice.