John Quilter of Food Busker shares useful kitchen hacks

John Quilter of Food Busker shares useful kitchen hacks

These days, it seems like everyone is always rushing from one place to the next. 

It's no wonder then that we're always looking for time-saving ways to make our lives that little bit easier - especially in the kitchen.

Now street food chef John Quilter, otherwise known as the Food Busker, has created a video of six very clever kitchen hacks exclusively for FEMAIL that will save you both time and money.

From a trick that will allow you to spread rock hard butter that's come straight from the fridge without using a microwave, to a method of keeping an avocado fresh for three months after cutting into it, these are essential top tips that could change your cooking life forever.

1. GRATE BUTTER FOR SPREADING

Grating butter will soften it so that it instantly becomes spreadable without the need for a microwave

There's nothing more frustrating than when the butter is too hard to spread onto your toast in the morning after it's been stored in the fridge.

But rather than use a microwave to melt the butter - which can easily turn it into a puddle - former restaurant owner John, who has 137,000 Youtube subscribers, says there's a much easier way to make it spreadable.

He says grate as much butter as you want to use. This will soften it and make it easy to spread on toast or bread.

2.  KEEP AVOCADOS FRESH FOR THREE MONTHS

Keep avocados fresh and prevent food waste by freezing the half you're not going to use

As any avocado fan will know, there's no point keeping half of the fruit in the fridge in the hope it will be good to eat the next day as it quickly turns brown and mushy.

But John says there is a simple way to make sure your avocado halves stay fresh for up to three months, preventing food waste.

He says you can wrap up your halves in clingfilm and freeze them. You can then take them out whenever you want to use them. Just allow them to defrost for an hour or so and you can then eat on toast or blend into guacamole.

3. TURN GREEN BANANAS YELLOW

Bananas are not always ripe enough to eat when you buy them, and if they are green, that means they are not ready. But John says you can heat them gently in the oven to turn them yellow

Fancy a banana but all the fruit in your bunch are too green to eat?

John says you can speed up the ripening process by popping your fruit into the oven at a very low temperature for an hour.

They should be bright yellow by the time they're done and ready to eat.

4. TURN CUSTARD INTO ICE CREAM

If you freeze custard, it forms large ice crystals and won't be soft and smooth to eat. But by adding vodka, you will have perfect soft-serve every time

If you have leftover custard, you might think it's a good idea to simply freeze it so you have instant ice cream.

But freezing custard will make it rock solid, hard to scoop and it will contain huge ice crystals.

However John says if you add two tablespoons of vodka to a litre of custard before freezing it, you will have a tub of perfect soft-serve ice cream. 

5. TURN ICING WHITER

Buttercream icing is usually a creamy or light yellow colour. But you can turn it white by adding two drops of blue food colouring

To make buttercream, you simply mix together butter and icing sugar.

But the resulting mixture will be cream in colour rather than white.

If you want to make it pure white, John has a handy trick that will solve the problem in seconds.

He says just add two drops of blue food colouring to your mixture to make the icing a bright white.

6. TURN BAKED BEANS WHITE

Baked beans are simply cannellini beans in tomato sauce, so they will work just as well in other dishes if you don't eat them on toast - just wash them first

If you need white beans to make a cassoulet, then John says a money and time-saving trick is simply to use a can of baked beans you probably already have in your cupboard.

He says just wash them in a sieve and let the tomato juice drain away and you will have white beans. 

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