Tips for cooking

Cooking Tips!

Hello All, I know that many of us must have observed the best way or hassle free way of cooking/preparations while on our experience of cooking, so why don't you share those experiences that serve as tips for the beginners?

Peeling Garlic
Soak garlic in luke warm water for 3-5 minutes before you start to peel, all the layers of garlic skin will stick together, when you peel the skin, it will peel off like magic!

Cutting apples
Always use a stainless steel knife to cut apples, to avoid it from turning brown. Also tossing in some lemon/orange juice will prevent the apples turning brown to certain extent.

Pepper
Always use freshly ground pepper. Use a pepper crusher instead of storing powdered pepper.

Storing green chillies
To keep the green chillies fresh, put them in a paper bag and then into a polythene bag, before you store them in the fridge. You can store them for about 10 days that way.

Handling Pickles
1. Never leave a steel spoon inside a pickle jar. 2. Never use a wet spoon to scoop out pickle.

Green Chilli paste
If you are a working lady, having green chilli paste ready will make things faster and easier. You can make fresh green chilli paste and store it in the fridge. Wash chillies, dry them thoroughly, remove the sepal, grind it along with a little salt (absolutely no water). Store it in an air tight container, it will stay for about 10 days if refrigerated.

Cardamum powder
If you have trouble in grinding the cardamum to a fine powder try this:keep it in to oven for 10 seconds, or keep it on the stove for half an hour when in use, shell it, powder it along with a little sugar(if intended for a sweet) or salt. The cardamum powder is relatively finer.

Frying/Roasting nuts
Always fry nuts in low flame, this way it is more aromatic, crispy and tastier.Use the convection mode in your micro wave or use a very low temperature while roasting nuts in the oven.

Avoid dosa sticking to the pan
Heat the pan, oil it and rub the pan with some raw onion, then spread the dosa batter, the dosa will not stick to the pan.

Soft phulkas
To make very soft phulkas add a little oil, salt, milk to the flour while mixing the phulka dough. Prepare the dough about half an hour before you start making phulkas. Your phulkas will be softer and will puff up better.

Boiling pasta
While making any pasta add salt to the boiling water, pasta will absorb some salt into it, you can also add some butter/oil while boiling to avoid the pasta sticking to each other.

Mixing cake batter.
While mixing cake batter, always fold in the cake mixture in one direction, gently and slowly, if carelessly done, the cake may not rise.

Chopping onions
1. Chill onion is refrigerator before chopping to avoid tears. 2. Soak peeled half cut onion is water and then chop it.

Deseeding Pomegranates
Cut it into half and hold it in ur hand with the skin facing upwards. Hit the skin with a rolling pin or a wooden spoon thus letting the seeds fall into a bowl.. easy stuff..


while Cooking pasta
B4 cooking pasta ...take a sauce pan full of water and then add salt ...let the water be boiled ...then add pasta....cook till tender and soak enough water ......drain it....refresh in cold water and apply a little oil with hands...

Equipments...
Always buy good quality cooking equipments.....and should be economical, long lasting etc.... poor quality equipments results in poor cooking....and will make you cry too....^^

Strawberry Cake
Whenever ur making strawberry cake using fresh strawberries and cream, dont make it too much in advance as the strawberries will macerate the sugar and make the cream runny.

Peeling Tomato
just boil water in a sauce pan......make a cross cut on the tomato from where you can peel...dip the tomatoes into the BOILING WATER for 5-8 seconds...take out the tomato with spoon ...start peeling it with hands where you have cross cut....and in within 2 seconds you will be smiling....as it will peel off very easilynjoy