Essential cooking tips

There are many cooking tips available for those who would like to cook.

These tips are very helpful while cooking for various reasons.

Some tips to improve taste, some to give texture to dishes, some to store vegetables for long time, proper way of cooking tips and few are for health reasons – all are for good reasons.

Grandma is giving 18 such everyday essential cooking tips here – try it:

1. Softer rotis: Add lukewarm water while mixing and kneading the dough.
2. Garlic peeling: When you have time peel garlic (like watching TV) and store them in airtight container with a tissue paper lining inside.
3. Green herbs: To keep herbs like cilantro and curry leaves fresh, store them in airtight containers. Remove cilantro roots before storing.
4. Soak daal: To prepare any types of daal, soak daal in hot water for about three hours before cooking. This enhances the flavor.
5. Rice water: Don’t throw washed rice water. Mix little jaggery and cardamom powder and drink. This reduces thirst and gives energy.
6. Potato crispy curry: To make crispy potato, soak cut potato in cold water for an hour and prepare curry adding your regular spices.
7. Green spinach dish: To keep the green look, don’t close the lid while cooking spinach or palak. If you close the lid, it will lose color.
8. Fluffy rice: To get fluffy rice add a tbs of lemon juice while cooking the rice.
9. Basin flour help: If your curry or sambar is watery and thin, to make it thick – add a Tbs of basin flour (gram flour) to the dish.
10. Crispy poori: To make crispy poori, while kneding dough add little small rava or rice flour and this gives crispiness.
11. Okra cooking: To remove stickiness in okra, while cooking add a Tbs of yogurt or a tsp of lemon juice.
12. Softer paneer: To make soft paneer dish, soak paneer cubes in little salt water for few minutes and remove.
13. Remove excess salt: To remove excess salt from dish add few boiled potatoes in the dish – potato absorbs excess salt.
14. Aloo bonda: To give flavor to aloo bonda along with cilantro, add few chopped mint leaves. This gives a good taste.
15. Storing tomato: Avoid storing tomato in refrigerator. Instead, keep them in a vessel and close with a lid.
16. Cashew, sesame mix: Roast few cashew and sesame. Grind to a powder and add this to gravy to make it tasty and thick.
17. Crisp pakoda: Add little corn flour to make crispier pakoda/pakora/fritters.
18. Hing and ginger for the rescue: To avoid gas formation when preparing dishes using legumes – daal, rajma and other lentil, add hing or asafetida and grated ginger. Both will keep stomach health!

Reference: Healthylife.werindia.com