Cooking tips - Part 4

There are several such tips which i myself was surprised to see when i started writing it down.

To check More, Click Cooking tips - Part 1
                                  Cooking tips - Part 2
                                  Cooking tips - Part 3



61) While boiling potatoes, add some salt or vinegar in the water, to avoid cracking while boiling.

62) Chop curry leaf finely and add to the seasoning. It will be easy to eat and those who hate it will not be able to notice it too.

63) If you have added extra salt to a dish, don't worry; just add a peeled raw potato or a ball of wheat flour dough and boil for a minute, then discard the potato or flour ball.

64) If your rice gets burnt, don't worry; just put a slice of bread in the pan for 10 minutes. The bread will absorb the burnt flavour.

65) Freeze leftover coffee in an ice tray; and the next time you make cold coffee, use these cubes instead of plain ice cubes.

66) To remove worms from cauliflower, add some white vinegar or turmeric in the water and soak the florets in it for 15 minutes.

67) Add 1 tsp white vinegar to idli batter to make softer idlis.

68) Add some gram flour or semolina to wheat flour to make crisp poori's.

69) To enhance the flavour of coffee, Tea or any sweet dish, add a pinch of salt to it.

70) To thicken gravies, sambhar or curries, Add boiled and mashed potato to the boiling gravy.

71) If cooking potatoes in an open pan, add water until the potatoes are covered well. When the water starts to boil well, turn off the stove and close the lid and leave it for around 10mins. Then take out the water and wash with cold water. Potatoes do not turn mushy and crumbly after cooking. If the potatoes are very big, cut them into half and pressure cook for fast cooking. Also, do not forget to prick holes using fork which fastens the cooking time.

72) To remove bitterness from bitter gourd, deseed them and add the chopped pieces in water with some salt and turmeric, mix well and set aside for atleast 1 hour. Squeeze and discard the water before cooking.

73) Always deep fry in hot oil in medium flame while making snacks like murukku,mixture etc. To check the right temperature, drop a small ball of dough and it should rise immediately.

74) To check if the muruku or any snack is fried well, check if all the foam around it has disappeared.

75) To make soft puri's, mix fine rava with salt and 1/2 tbsp of ghee. Mix well using sufficient water. dough must be not too soft and too hard. Leave it for atleast 30mins to rest. Its now ready to roll and fry.

76) When making gulab jamoon, fry them with constant stirring to get the even golden brown color and even frying.

77) When frying potato / carrot or onion, try to smash one. if it smashes without much effort, then its completely done.

78) When making a veggie juice, use a minimum of three different colours (for instance, a red tomato, spinach and an orange carrot) so that you'll get different varieties of anti-oxidants.

79) Store fresh herbs as you would for fresh flowers: in a jar of water on your countertop. Pluck off what you need, change the water daily, and they'll last two to three times longer than they would in the fridge. You'll get the most extra mileage from flat-leaf parsley.

80) While cooking lentils or vegetables in a pan, bring them to a boil for some time and separate the froth that accumulates on the top. This is collected dirt that should be removed before one covers the utensil with a lid.



 To check More, Click Cooking tips - Part 5