hacks COOKING
Inspired by Cambodian street food, this easy stir-fry puts dinner on the table in a flash.
After I got comfortable reading a charticle (a collection of images and text posing as an article), I got used to a listicle (much the same, minus the art, in the form of a list). Now, I am learning about — and from — hacks, often presented in both charticles and listicles.
Hacks are cool. The word comes from the realm of computer hacking — which is not cool — but originally was a quick workaround or solution, in computer code, to a particular problem.
Now, hacks are everywhere. You can find charticles and listicles of hacks for all facets of living. Of course, I especially like kitchen or cooking hacks. And they come at me, off the screen or page, like laser blasts in a video game (which is sort of the way that hacks hack anyway).
My two favorite kitchen hacks are so long in my cooking repertoire that I cannot remember where I picked them up. First, I never use a cutting board without something to hold it nearly stuck to the counter. A cutting board that would slip from under my knife is about as dangerous a thing in the kitchen as I can imagine. My wooden boards sit atop a piece of rubber matting. If on occasion I use a thin silicone board, under it goes a sheet or two of wet paper toweling.
The second hack helps keep tears at bay when chopping onions. After removing the onionskin and first layer, I slice or chop onions as hemispheres, keeping the flat side against the board as long and as much as possible.