KITCHEN TIPS
Cooking is no rocket science but it's an art.. Women know how to cook food according to the taste of the members of her family. With cookbooks available in the market and with the innumerable cooking sites and blogs, cooking has become very easy. Every home cooked meal has a very special ingredient which can never be bought from the market and that special and necessary ingredient is, Love..:)
I have been browsing various websites all these days and a i have tried to make a list of the kitchen tips and tricks. Some of them are from other websites while some have been accidentally tried by me.. The ingredients for the tricks are normally available at our home..
I would love to get more tips from the people who read this, to add into the list!!
- If a gravy becomes too salty, add a raw peeled potato for sometime and remove it before serving, it will be all fine!
- If the dal becomes salty, add a piece of wheat flour dough and leave it for sometime. Remove it before serving.
- To peel an orange or a tomato less messily, dunk it in hot water for 2 minutes and for the same amount of time in cold water. It peels easily!
- While cooking cabbage, add a bay leaf (tez patta), this reduces the smell of cabbage while cooking and gives it a subtle flavour too.
- Place rolled puris in the fridge for 10 minutes before frying. Then fry, it will consume less oil and will turn out crispier.
- To remove seeds from a lemon, just roll it on a hard surface with a little pressure from your palms before cutting it.
- Since women have also started working, so on weekends or on holidays, the vegetables should be washed and dried under the fan and then stored. It saves a lot of time in everyday cooking.
- Sprinkle some salt in the frying pan to prevent the hot oil from splashing and spluttering.
- When boiling milk, smear some ghee on the edges of the vessel to prevent overflow.
- While making dosas, add 2 tbsp cooked rice into the batter. This helps the dosas to flip easily and makes it crispier.
- If sour cream is unavailable, substitute with 1 cup cottage cheese, blended with 1 tbsp lemon juice and 1/3 cup buttermilk.
- Stains on marble can be removed by rubbing them vigorously with a wet cloth, dipped in saltwater.
- Add a little sugar while frying onions, they will turn translucent faster.
- To remove the skin of almonds and pistachios easily, soak them in hot water for 15-20 minutes.
- To retain the green colour of spinach, always add some sugar and little milk while blanching or boiling.
- Garlic skin comes off easily if the garlic cloves are warmed slightly, best is microwave for 15 seconds.
- Never keep onions and potatoes together, the potatoes will rot quickly.
- To keep the green chillies fresh for a long time, remove the stems before storing.
- Moisten the base of the vessel with water to reduce the chances of milk sticking at the bottom.
- To bake potatoes quickly, place them in salt water for 15 minutes before baking.
- To avoid crying, cut the onions into 2 parts and place them in water for 15 minutes before chopping them.
- Water that has been boiled and cooled at room temperature will freeze faster than the tap water. This tip is very helpful during a party when loads of ice cubes are needed.
- Add a few drops of lemon juice in the water before boiling rice to make the rice whiter and to avoid sticking them to each other..
- To set yoghurt in winter, place the container in a warm place like the oven or over the voltage stabiliser.
- Use the water drained from curdled milk to knead chapati dough, they will turn out to be softer and whiter.
- If a soup, sauce or a dip gets too fatty or greasy, add an ice cube to it. The ice cube will attract the fat which can be scooped out before the cube melts.
- If a cake recipe needs nuts to be added, heat the nuts first and then dust it with flour before adding to the batter so that they dont settle at the bottom of the batter pan.
- To break open the coconuts easily, place them in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes. This would separate the brown shell easily.
- Always add a tbsp of oil to the water while boiling pasta, this avoids them from sticking to each other.
- To get the best out of saffron, soak it in 1 tsp of warm milk before crushing or microwave with 1 tsp milk for 10 seconds before crushing.
- Use tissue paper for reheating fried snacks like samosa, kachori etc. The tissue absorbs the excess oil and moisture and keeps the snack crispy!
- Grind ginger, garlic and green chillies and store them in an airtight container in the freezer. This saves a lot of time in daily cooking.
- Put lemon peels or apple skin inside the pressure cooker and steam it for sometime to have a sparkling inside of the cooker.
- If the salt gets lumpy, add a few grains of raw rice to absorb the moisture.
- Use a wooden chopping board instead of the plastic ones. This prevents the knife to become blunt and the small plastic pieces also dont go into the food which are there while chopping.
- Make a habit of spraying oil in the utensil while cooking instead of pouring it, it helps the oil to spread well and you tend to use less oil.
- Watch from the oven window to conserve energy, everytime the over door is opened the temperature inside the oven drops by 25 degrees.
- If you want to keep the salad fresh for an evening party, first chill the serving bowl or tray in which the salad is to be served.
- Store mushrooms in paper bags instead of plastic bags. This stops them from becoming slimy and prolongs their life.
- Do not add salt to red kidney beans (rajma) and other lentils while boiling. It will take half the time to boil when salt is not added.
- Put 3-4 cloves in the sugar container to keep ants at bay.
- Put a few leaves of mint (pudina) in the container storing rice to keep insects at bay.
- When noodles and pastas are done with boiling, immediately wash them with cold water so that they dont stick to each other.
- If the yoghurt has become sour, put it in a muslin cloth and drain all the water. Then add milk to make it as good and fresh in taste.
- Never scrape burnt leftovers from casseroles. Soak in a weak solution of vinegar, salt and warm soapy water for an hour or so. The stuck particles will come off very easily, without scratching the dish.
- Always soak cauliflower florets in warm salted water for sometime before cooking to get rid of small insects.
- The liquids used in making pastry should be ice cold so that they will not soften or melt the fat.
- Add a spoonful of dry rice to sugar while grinding sugar, it keeps it away from becoming lumpy.
- Add a pinch of turmeric powder and salt with a spoonfull of ghee to dal before cooking. This imparts a great flavour to the dal and prevents it from spilling when whistles blow.
- Add a pinch of turmeric powder and sugar to the oil before adding green vegetables to retain their greenness even after cooking.
- When boiling corn on cob, add a pinch of sugar to help bring out the natural sweetness of corn.
- Tamarind is an excellent polishing agent. Rub a slab of wet tamarind with some salt for sparkling brass and copper items.
- Toothpaste is the best cleaning agent for silver jewellery and utensils.
- Always chop green chillies with steel knife or scissors instead of iron knife so that they dont turn blackish later on.
- Few drops of lemon juice to beetroot deepens the red colour.
- The water strained from boiled pasta and potatoes should be cooled and added to green plant pots. The nutrients in the water is absorbed by the plants.
- To retain the colour of peeled potato, apples or peaches, keep them in slightly salted cold water.
- To freshen stale bread, sprinkle some warm water or milk over it and put it in the oven for 10 minutes.
- To retain the whiteness of cauliflower, add some milk while it is cooking.
- In case your hand or finger gets burnt by hot oil or hot untensils, immediately wash it with running water and apply toothpaste over it.
- Green peas should be cooked till tender in a microwave instead of boiling in a pan to keep the nutrients intact. Add a pinch of sugar to it to retain their green colour.
- To remove the skin of a roasted brinjal easily, put the brinjal in water for a few seconds after roasting and then peel the skin.
- For cleaning smelly hands after chopping garlic or onions, just rub your hands on a steel utensil, the steel absorbs the smell.
- When storing empty air tight plastic containers, just put a pinch of salt inside them to keep them away from getting stinky.
- If a chopping board is unavailable and chillies have to be chopped, apply a little vegetable oil on your palms to avoid the skin getting itchy and burning.
- Bananas release gases that ripens the other fruits as well. So never keep bananas in a bunch or with other fruits for a longer shelf life.
- Always cook vegetables with 2-3 pinches of sugar. It helps retain their natural colour as well as makes it tastier.
- Baking soda with white vinegar helps deodorize and clean the kitchen stoves and the sinks.
- To keep paneer fresh for many days, put the panner slab in a bowl of water and then put it in the fridge. Change the water daily.
- Grind some common salt in your mixer grinder every 2-3 months. This keeps the blade sharp.
- If you are making ghee at home, add a few pieces of betel leaf (meetha paan pata) while making. Remove it afterwards. This increases the shelf life of home made ghee.
- Put mushrooms and garlic in a pot of boiling water. If the colour of the water changes, the mushrooms are posionous.
- If the dough sticks to the rolling pin (belan) and you dont have time to add some dry flour and make it right, just put it in the fridge for 10 minutes and then use it immediately.
- Add a little honey to the cake mix, the cake tastes yummier and does not crumble when cut.
- If bread crumbs are not handily available while making cutlets, add some semolina (rava) instead.
- Potatoes have a longer shelf life if some garlic cloves are kept with it.
- Bakery items stay fresh for a long time if kept wrapped with butter paper.
- To remove chewing gum from clothes, keep ice cube on it and then scrape it off.
- To remove ink stains, apply curd on it and wash it off with soap and hot water after half an hour.
- Apply glycerine or petroleum jelly on lipstick stains and wash with warm soapy water.
- Dip a cotton ball with perfume and rub it over an electric bulb sometime before stitching it on. The aroma of the perfume spreads very fast and stays longer.
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