Cooking Tips

Here are some cooking tips, picked up along the way of perfecting and learning cooking. Possibly, might come in handy.

A well balanced meal will comprise of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, essential vitamins & minerals.
Source of protein, that we get from food are from meat, fish, poultry, lentils....etc. Vitamins & minerals from green leafy vegetables like Spinach, Cabbage, fresh vegetables like carrot, beans, cauliflower, peas and fruits. Fish is a good source for Omega-3 Fatty Acids.

Now on to some cooking tips...........

1 ) If Basmati rice is over cooked and soggy,add a teaspoon ghee / butter. The grains will separate.
Or Drain all the water using a colander, pour cold water all over the hot cooked rice and drain well.

2 ) To prevent eyes from watering when cutting onions, cut onion in half and soak halves in water for 5- 10 minutes.
Or Chew a gum while cutting onion.

3 )To peel the skin off the tomatoes...put the tomatoes in boiling water for 2 minutes and then in icy cold water. Peel comes off easy.

4 ) Soak potatoes for an hour in water before cooking to reduce cooking time by half.

5) Soak lentils/dal for an hour in water,before cooking....will cook faster.

6) Do not soak vegetables in water before cooking. This causes loss of vitamins and minerals.

7 ) Do not add baking soda, when cooking green vegetables. It keeps them green but destroys their vitamin contents.

8 ) Avoid any delay between peeling,chopping and cooking.

9 )Pappad can be cooked in microwave without any oil. Place pappad on a paper towel and cook for 1 minute. Depends on the microwave for cooking time.

10 ) If rice dishes, like fried rice, pulao ... turns out very spicy. To reduce spice level, add lime juice liberally. It will reduce the burning hot level to certain extent.

11 ) To identify and buy fresh prawns, check the head part of the prawns /shrimp. If it's clear white, without any coloration, then it's fresh. If it's not white and has orange or blackish color, then its been sitting on ice for a long time.

12 ) To ripen raw green plantains, place then in a bag of uncooked rice and cover with the rice. It will take a few days to ripen. You can try same method with other fruits like mango.

13 ) To clean Mushroom : Mix a spoonful of cornflour in water and wash mushroom with this. This will remove all the surface mud.