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. Wash vegetables before peeling or cutting to preserve the water-soluble vitamins.
. When cooking cabbage, add a bit of vinegar to the pan to keep it from losing its color.
. Peel vegetables as thinly as possible to preserve the minerals and vitamins.
. After peeling onions cut in half and soak in water for about 10 minutes before cutting to avoid crying.
. Smoke Mustard oil first before using for preparing vegetables etc. By heating to a point till light white smoke emerges from it. This would remove the potency from the oil.
. To make pooris more crispy add a little rice flour to the wheat flour while kneading.
. Once the dough of wheat flour is made for making chapattis, cover it with a wet muslin cloth and keep it aside for 30 minutes. This helps in the development of gluten in the dough, which makes chapattis soft and elastic.
. Soak whole pulses overnight and other dals for one hour before cooking.
. Onions and masala are fried in the cooker body itself,raw vegetables are added to that with enough salt and water.Cook under pressure according to the cooking time of the vegetable.This method helps us minimize our cooking time, use of utensils and nutrients are also preserved.
. When making halwa add a pinch of besan.This helps in soaking the extra ghee from halwa and it will not look very oily.
. Put tomatoes in a large bowl and cover with boiling water.leave it for about 5 minutes.Take out one by one;piercing them with a sharp knife, the skin will peel off easily. |
 Posted by | Sunova |
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| May be the milkman’s adding more water to your milk, or you are opting for skimmed milk. Either ways, it is disheartening when the curd/yogurt turns out watery. Here’s a little secret to get thicker and creamier curd out of your daily milk.
Tip Just keep aside a little bit of starch water (the water which you get on boiling rice) and add 2-3 tablespoons of it to set half a litre of milk. And as you would usually do, add half a teaspoon of curd to ferment the milk. You will be surprised at how much thicker and tastier your curd turns out to be
To keep sweets especially Burfis as fresh as ever: Store then in a stainless Steel airtight container and put a wet muslin cloth over them. This way the sweets will be fresh for atleast 2 weeks
For a hot healing cuppa: Add 1/4 tsp. turmeric powder and 1/2 tsp. sugar to 100 ml. boiling hot milk. Stir till well blended, drink up first thing in the morning and last thing in the night. A great cure for monsoon related fevers, coughs, colds, chest congestion, etc. Take for at least 5-6 days, for full results. |
| Posted by | Sunova |
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| To make a fluffy omelet that will not collapse when removed from the fire on to a plate, simply add a pinch of corn flour and a pinch of powdered sugar to the yolks before beating them. You will be greeted with a full-blown omlette on your plate. |
| Posted by | Sunova |
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| Green peas loose their natural bright colour when boiled and become pale. Here is a simple trick to avoid that. Before cooking, boil the peas separately with a little water. Add a few grains of sugar and cover the pan. Cook under medium heat for few minutes. The peas will remain bright green even as they become soft. |
| Posted by | Sunova |
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| Chill out this summer with one of the world’s most favored diet snacks. To make flavored yogurt at home, mix together the following: 1-2 table spoons of your favorite jam/jelly, a few drops of vanilla essence and sugar (just as much as you want to taste). Stir this and a teaspoon of yogurt into warm milk and leave aside to set. You may also add chunks of fruits like strawberries and pineapples. Select fruits that will not secrete excessive juices. When the yogurt is set, keep it in the refrigerator to cool. Serve chilled. |
| Posted by | Sunova |
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| To prepare ladyfingers without getting the vegetable all sticky and messy, wash the vegetable before cutting and wipe it with a clean soft cloth or tissue.
While cooking add a sour ingredient --- perhaps tomatoes/kocum/amchur (dried mango powder) or even a teaspoon of lemon juice --- to the preparation. The sour ingredient prevents the vegetable from getting sticky. |
| Posted by | Sunova |
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| Here are some tips to prepare paneer that’s soft and fresh. The milk used to prepare paneer should be heated in a heavy-bottomed pan on medium flame. Dissolve about 1/4th teaspoon of fresh lemon juice in two table-spoons of water. When the milk is just about to rise, pour this lemon water slowly into the milk, stirring with a wooden ladle. The milk will start to curdle almost immediately. Keep stirring the milk till the paneer rises to the top, leaving a clear greenish liquid in the pan. Shut off the flame. Strain the paneer in a clean muslin kind of cloth. To prevent the paneer from hardening or becoming rubbery, dip it in cold water for 10 minutes. Hang it for about 2-3 hours to drain water completely. Paneer made in this process remains soft even after frying or cooking. |
| Posted by | Sunova |
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| For many of us, cooking is great fun. But it’s getting all the ingredients ready that can be a major headache. For instance, skinning cloves of garlic or baby onions isn’t a task many cooks look forward to. Well, here’s an easy way to go about it. Dry the garlic or baby onions in the sun before using them (or even before storing them). Rub a few drops of oil on your palms. Then rub the garlic or baby onions between your palms. The skin will come off easily. |
| Posted by | Sunova |
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| Potatoes as well as eggs tend to split or crack while boiling, making them messy and unpalatable. Well, here’s a simple way to prevent that from happening. Just add a pinch of salt to the water you will be boiling the potatoes or eggs in. They will remain in perfect shape after boiling. |
| Posted by | Sunova |
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| Dry cereals and pulses do not contain any vitamin C. Only when they are germinated vitamin C is formed. The sprout contains 85% of this vitamin. For sprouting just soak the grains in water for 24 hours, drain them and keep them in a wet cloth for a few hours. Many legumes like Chana (Bengal gram whole), Moth (moth beans) are sprouted. However Green gram is the ideal candidate for sprouting. |
| Posted by | Sunova |
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