Category: Tips & Hacks

Chicken Stock From Carcass

How many chicken carcasses have you thrown in the bin?? if you’re anything like me probably a fair few. We are lucky as we have a family of foxes who visit so I give mine to them so nothing goes to waste.

However I thought it was about time I started using the carcass to make stock it’s such an easy process especially if using a slow cooker. Pop it in walk way let the slow cooker do all the hard work for you.

In the video you will see i used a fat separator, now I have used every method known to man to do this and to be honest they are all a ballache. Why have I not had one of these gadgets before now?? I have no idea, it takes all the hard work out of the equation and does a perfect job of removing the fat.

The separator I use is on my Amazon Shop press here https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/julesthelazycook look under kitchen gadgets.

From my batch I made 1ltr of ready to use stock, my top tip is to taste the stock once all fat is removed and check for any adjustments you may need to make. If the stock is strong in taste you may need to add more water to dilute it further also check season you may need a touch of salt & pepper.

by julessmithie

Pesto Hack

Sick of throwing away opened jars of pesto after one or two uses?? Well here is a fantastic hack for you to stop that happening.

I freeze mine into 2 Tablespoons as there’s only 2 of us, and when I need to cook a meal with it I use it from frozen.

by julessmithie

Removing Fat From Meat Juices METHOD ONE “SIEVE”

There are so many different methods for doing this and I’m pretty sure we all have our favourite. Today I’m giving you one method which out of most of them is probably the quickest.

For me making gravy from the meat juices is the tastiest but not always the most healthy.

When I’m cooking a really fatty joint such as pork I use a completely different method (ice cubes) but I will come back to that on a different day – the sieve method works on fatty joints but you may need to sieve it twice just to be sure the fat is removed.

by julessmithie

How To Make Creamy Mash

This seems like a really easy question to answer but if you are following slimming world everyone is looking for the holy grail of how to make it syn free and this is the method i use.

I know i really sounds crazy to add an egg but trust me it works – if you have not tried it yet please do.


by julessmithie

Creamy Mashed Potato (using an Egg)

I have seen this many many times on the internet and and blogs and always wondered does it work??? will it be eggy?? and will it leave lumpy egg in my mash??? well i can confirm the answer to all these are NO.

This works so well and gives a really creamy mash i used 1 egg in my portion and if following slimming world this now keeps your mash syn free.


by julessmithie

Slow Cooker (thicken the sauce)

This happens lots and as you can see it even happens to me it depends on many factors the veggies you use and how much liquid they add back into the dish also the amount of condensation your slow cooker produces which forms on the glass lid and then drips back into the cooker but here is a very simple way of dealing with it – basically this is exactly the same as bubbling a pan on the hob to reduce a sauce down

by julessmithie

Microwave Bacon

Got to admit when i first did this i frazzled the bacon and the kitchen roll stuck to the rashers but god loves a trier so i persevered with it and found a way that worked for me so here goes:-

 TOP TIPS

Dont pat the kitchen roll down after laying the bacon down this makes the kitchen roll stick to the rashers
It will depend on the type and thickness of bacon you use as to how long you want to microwave it for and how crispy or not crispy you like it (i like mine well done)
If you build the power up slowly this stops the bacon becoming overdone and you can get it cooked the way you like it
Each microwave is different so have play around with heat and time settings once you have cracked it you wont look back…………………..  no more cleaning messy grill pans out!

by julessmithie