Tuesday Tips: The Well-Preserved Edition

It's always frustrating to throw food away, whether herbs, produce or leftovers. here are a few tips to prevent that from happening at your house.

• I've learned that the best way to preserve fresh ginger is to store it peeled in sake (Japanese rice wine). Cover the ginger in sake in a glass jar and refrigerate. When ready to use, rinse the ginger and then slice or mince as usual. The ginger picks up just a tiny bit of the sake flavor (perfectly fine for your Asian recipes anyway) and keeps for several weeks this way.
• Mushrooms actually freeze pretty well. Slice them and lay in a single layer on wax paper lined trays and freeze. When frozen, place in zip-loc bags and back int he freezer for easier storage.
• Keep an egg carton on hand to store your strawberries. Put one berry in each slot. the cardboard allows air to circulate around the fruit better.
• Fresh pineapple can go bad quickly. Not if you cut into pieces and store in a glass or plastic container with orange juice to cover. It will keep for a week and you end up with delicious juice afterwards.
• Don't throw that lime away after you've squeezed it into your cocktail. Zest it and mix with one part kosher salt. The salt will absorb the citrus oil and preserve the zest. Use the salt mix to season veggies and meats for grilling. Use the same trick with orange and lemon as well.