Salads
- Before use, wash the vegetables very thoroughly. When washing them in a bowl, add salt. This prevents the loss of minerals and easily removes insects on them. Next, rinse the salad ingredients under running water.
- Stew the vegetables you intend to use for a warm salad in just a little bit of water, so they don't burn, lose their taste, nutritional value and color.
- Bitter cucumbers need to be peeled well. Their bitterness is concentrated in their ends.
- When using onions to decorate a salad, you can get an amazing-looking and tasty result if you divide the sliced onions into rings and roll them in paprika and finely chopped dill or parsley.
- If you have to save already peeled potatoes from darkening for another 4-5 hours, place them in a plastic bag, tie it well and put them in the fridge.
- Never soak fresh mushrooms in water. Instead, wash them as quickly as possible under running water and place them in water with vinegar, so they don't lose their color.
- Leafy vegetables and tubers will last longer if you store them wrapped in a moist towel in a cool area.
- To freshen up leafy vegetables, dip them in cool water with lemon juice added in.
Appetizers
- Appetizers are added to a menu to whet one's appetite and always served before the main course. They are not intended for you to fill up on and need to be served in small quantities but also have to be varied.
- Serve cold appetizers before soup, serve warm appetizers after the cold ones when there is no soup. When serving soup after appetizers, be sure that they don't have ingredients with a sharp taste, so that the true flavor of the soup can be tasted.
- Suitable appetizers include salads made of raw and heat treated fruits and vegetables, marinated or salted mushrooms, meat, crabs and others.
- Appetizers need to be prepared and served in such a way so that there's no need of a knife prior to consumption. Warm appetizers are usually served in the container they were cooked in.
