Over the past few months this blog has focused on the cooking aspects of Jewish recipes. For today’s blog I’d like to go in a slightly different direction, the clean up. Cleaning up after cooking a big meal is not something I particularly enjoy, and because of this I have devised ways to make this chore easier and quicker to do.
The first thing that I do is line all my baking dishes with aluminum foil. After lining the dish I spray it with non-stick cooking spray. This will allow the food to slide off the foil easily when I’m ready to serve my meal. Clean-up is also a breeze because instead of having to scrub away cheese, starch and bits of burnt on food, all I have to do is lift the foil from the pan, rinse it, crumple the foil and place it in the recycle bin. No elbow grease required.
Another tip that I have utilized in my own kitchen is the wipe and sweep method for cleaning up after baking. When I bake from scratch I get flour on the counter and on the floor. I used to try and wipe the flour into a dust pan or a towel and dump this in the garbage and then sweep the floor. Now I wipe everything onto the floor and then sweep up the mess. This quicker version helps to reduce the amount of work you have to do after a day of baking.
Saving a few steps during the cleanup process after preparing your favorite Jewish recipes will make cooking traditional dishes more enjoyable. For more tips return to this blog next week.