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The trick is that you're bruising the clove of garlic a little bit so the paper will release easier -- if you're doing a bulb or less, it's not too bad to do the side of the knife press thing. ... but if you're doing a recipe that calls for a dozen heads like @ceejayoz, there's an alternate trick: break the head into cloves put the cloves into a sealable ...

Dump pearl onions (with skin) into boiling water (on high heat) Bring water back to boil After 1-2 mins, take the onions out, and dump them in cold water (or ice bath) After 1-2 mins, take the onions out of cold water Take an onion, hold it between your index finger and thumb, and squeeze. The onion will pop right out of the skin. Repeat this step for each ...

I take a hint from TV (and my fiancee): smash each clove with the flat part of the knife until the skin breaks, then you can easily take it off. If you are peeling the whole clove, then you can just smash the whole thing with the flat part of a bigger knife (safety first) and take all the goodies out.

Fast home made salads are possible with a few different but just as tasty ingredients. Some things to try that you can buy pre-prepared You can buy catering bags of ham and salami pre-chopped for pizza making purposes. Freeze in small portion bags suitable for a few days, and take one out of the freezer and put in fridge every few days as required Roasted ...

As roux said, and you alluded to, you want a piping bag of some kind. Where I find a piping bag doesn't always work the best, I've been able to steal the concept and slightly modify it by "making my own at home". Put all the filling into a large ziploc bag (I use gallon sized cause I make manicotti in bulk, but quart sized works just as well). Edit: as ...

Two methods that work great. 1: Put the garlic cloves into lukewarm water and wait 20-30 minutes. 2: Put the garlic cloves into a tupperware and shake. I'd use method one for peeling large batches of garlic that you can store in the fridge for a couple of weeks, and method two for immediate use.

If you need to keep the cloves whole, there's a nifty little tool that looks like a piece of rubber manicotti, which is specially designed for this purpose. You put a clove of garlic inside, then roll it back and forth on the counter. The clove will pop out the end completely stripped of its skin. If you don't feel like going out and buying a one-use ...

Actually I've found that constant stirring has little to no affect on the final product. You can simply stir rigorously at the last minute and achieve similar results. Don't believe me? Try it for yourself and you'll see. Another trick is pre-cooking your rice. Just follow a standard risotto recipe but stop cooking the rice about half way through the ...

I call these Garlic Cannoli. For Christmas, I gave my wife one of these as a stocking-stuffer. I had seen them in kitchen gadget stores for years, but was always reluctant to get one, believing it was another useless, cheap gadget. I was wrong! I used to peel garlic using a knife, but now, with this, I can peel a clove every 5 seconds. Penny for ...

Looks like the closest you can get is to add lots of cheese and butter (for the cream) and stir less often. This recipe follows that trick, using the lid of your pot unlike a traditional risotto. If you have a pressure cooker, you can also coopt it to do some of the work for you, as seen in this recipe. The trick there as suggested by many similar ...

Great video on pealing garlic. It's basically the same as in Joe's answer. Smash the head, put it all (if you need a whole head of garlic) in a large metal bowl, put another metal bowl on top, but upside down, so that the rims overlap and shake hard for a couple of seconds.

If you Google for "risotto oven baked" you can get a lot of recipes and comments. The general consensus is that it's not quite as creamy as the constantly stirred stove top version, but that most people would never know it wasn't made on the stove top if you don't tell them.

I just use a strainer. Slap something over the top so your flour doesn't fly all over the place, and shake it. It's got such a huge surface area, that it takes much less time than a lot of special purpose sifting tools (those stupid little cups with the trigger handles? What the hell is that about? The crank ones are no better. What am I? An organ grinder ...

As both roux and stephenmcdonald mentioned, a piping bag is the way to go, as you assumed, but you often need to fill from each side, rather than just one side. (it depends on your filling ... also, it'll give you a prettier canneloni) ... but for manicotti, many places don't use tubes. They use crepes, so you don't have the trouble filling them. I've ...

I also used to find sifting a pain, but got a sifter from Tupperware last year that is fabulous - highly recommended! See http://www.tupperware.com.au/wps/wcm/connect/AUS/website/productgallery/productcollections/bakebasics/bake+2basics+sift+n+stor for details.

You can probably just leave the sifting step out. I'm lazy when making food for my own consumption, and often just dump the flour on top of the wet mix in the bowl and sift the salt/soda/whatnot in by hand a bit. Most recipes don't seem to mind, but some do (some also specify a volume of sifted flour, so that needs to be compensated for as well), so best to ...

you might try forcing whatever it is into the cherries. This can be done under pressure, which you might be able to do it using a fizzgizz? or maybe with a creamer, or simply by vacuum packing the cherries with the soaking liquid. once vacuum packed you might be able to put in a pressure cooker to increase the pressure, but I'm not sure what the heat would ...

There is one recipe for risotto that doesn't require that much attention: "Risotto alla pilota". Basically you boil the rice in salted water and then stir-fry it with a particular shredded Italian sausage meat (called "pesto", but it's not that pesto). You then add Grana or Parmigiano.

Although this isn't exactly a "cheat," it can help expedite the making of the risotto. You par-boil the rice, so it is partially ready when it is time to actually cook it. Ever wonder how they get the risotto to cook so fast on shows like "Hell's Kitchen?" Par- boiling. Here's a link to how it's done: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/601758

The side of the garlic clove closest to the core will usually have a flatish edge where the skin is thicker - if you slice at the base of the clove with the flat side down, and then rotate the knife 90 degrees, you will pull off this thick edge off easier, and frequently this will also take the rest of the skin with it.