It's been ages since I have been active on Hive, I’ve had a really crazy work period, and I found it so difficult to balance my work and Hive activities, but I’m gradually getting a hang of it. I have really missed being active on this space, I’ve missed the positivity, the wonderful stories from friends here, the games and everything in between, I have missed all of that.
That one Life Hack
Well I'll share my experience with you all, and hope it helps someone out there as it has also helped me greatly.
Where I’m from, Nigeria to be precise there’s a particular dish we prepare, we often refer it to as ‘stew’.
it often eaten with rice majorly but I can be used with so many different meals. It can be used to eat yam, beans, plantain, potatoes, etc. Trust me the list is long. It’s usually made with tomatoes, those red succulent ones. Here’s a list of the ingredients used in making it, incase you intend to try it out emoji
2-3 bulbs of onions
Lots of grinded tomatoes (10 -15 medium size)
2 Table spoons of pepper (you can add more if you’re like me emoji)
2 Table spoons of Curry
2 Table spoons of Thyme
2 cubes Seasoning
1 Table spoon of Salt
Half cup of Vegetable oil
One medium sized Ginger
Half a bulb of Garlic
So, growing up I usually had difficulty making this stew, as if not made properly, it would end up tasting a bit sour, due to this, I was always trying to run away from making this during the weekends. My younger sister on the other hand was known for her famous tasty and spicy stews.
Whenever she made it always tasted delicious, and I always asked her what her secret was and she would that she always let the tomatoes cook for look in order to kill of the sour taste, but whenever I cooked mine, no matter how much time I cooked it for, it still tasted slightly sour. At some point I was almost frustrated, I decided to just accept my fate and cook my stew like that.
While I thought all was lost, one day while surfing the net I stumbled on a post made by someone. In the post, she listed some easy cooking hacks that one should know about. I was instantly eager to check it out, so I opened it and while I was reading through, the next thing my eyes landed on was “add a little baking soda to your stew when it tastes sour even after you have cooked it for a while, that the baking soda would neutralize the sour taste”. I had to reread it to be sure I was reading the right thing, and oh yes it was right, the solution to my life long challenge emoji, right there in front of me. To say I was ecstatic is an understatement of the century, I felt really good, I had found the solution to my little trouble.
The next time I was making my stew, I just dived into my pastry ingredient shelf and found my baking soda, and added it to the pot after I was almost done, and true to whoever wrote its word, my stew tasted sooo good that day. When my siblings tasted the stew with their rice, they were awestruck, they couldn’t believe it was Elfreda’s stew, I was proud of myself that day.
So here you have it, adding a little baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) to my stew was one cooking hack I learned of that ended my almost terrible-tasting stews.
Thank you for stopping by 💕, you can also share some of yours, so we all can learn
All images are mine except otherwise stated