Tips , tips , tips.

Buy any FRESH SANDWICH bread – it can be wheat bread, mixed grain bread etc.
This can be prepared & kept wrapped in clingfilm, in a box to preserve freshness.

Very finely grated carrot - ½ cup

Finely grated processed cheese - 2 tbsp

Butter - 2 tbsp

Salt

Blend cheese & butter well.

Add carrots & pepper powder.

Use as sandwich filling, rather thicker than usual.

Dear Chithra,

Today, I spent the last 1 hr breezing through almost all the messages posted on this thread and what an amazing wealth of information there is :) !
Thank you sooo much for sharing your knowledge with us...hopefully, soon, I shall read each of them with more time and note them down :)

Yet another query from a kitchen novice :)
While arranging freshly cooked food, food ingredients and previously cooked food, is there some specific method of arranging them in the kitchen, for example, echil & pathu? I've heard salt etc shd not be kept with other cooked food..is my understanding correct?

Any suggestions on how to organize and segregate items?
Sorry, if you have already clarified this earlier...

Thanks and love
Pavithra

Dear Pavithra,
Thankyou for joining me in this thread.
You will enjoy the interaction in Ask chitvish -ask your queries here, as well as post your comments thread also !
Now a days, who remembers or follows echil & pathu ?
Old items are likely to perish faster; so must be kept separately.
Curd, pickles are all kept away, because, pickles have to last long.
Items like payasam also are kept separately so that any drop of a savoury item may not fall inside & spoil the dish.
Just follow the general "common sense rules".
Your F B is very warm, thankyou.
Love,
Chithra.

Coconut Milk Extraction:

If the coconut is very tender, we will not get good milk.

Use only the white part of the coconut. Frozen coconut must be thawed well, befor extracting milk.

For thick, medium & thin milk - as for coconut milk payasams
For this you need minimum 2 cups of coconut.
First milk - Add just ¾ cup of water & blend for a mte. Strain squeezing it well.Do not boil after adding this milk.
Second milk - To the residue add 1 cup warm water, blend & strain.
Third milk - 1 ½ cups warm water.

For cooking pulaos, sabjis etc:
To 1 cup of coconut, add 1 – 1 ½ cups of warm water (as the case may be) & extract just one milk.
In this, if you need just little coconut milk for flavour, squeeze the coconut first with hand & use it, before adding water.

Dear Chitra Madam,

Great going. I have been trying many of your recipes and most of the times, successfully. Whatever I say to appreciate you will only be a repitition of what many other friends have already said. So please accept a lot of thanks from me too.

Can you please tell me what does "pre heating" of the oven mean? Does it mean switching on the oven for sometime before keeping the items to be baked inside?

And I have another silly doubt! What is the difference between a tea spoon and a table spoon? I thought tea spoon means the regular small spoon which we generally use. Please clarify.

Thank you.

Veena.

Dear Veena,
Sorry, I missed out your query. Please post only inth allotted threads & not "respective" threads, so that, the queries will not miss my attention.

Preheating means this - as soon as you start getting the ingredients for the bake, beating etc, heat the oven , rather switch it on, so that it will be hot & would have reached the right temp for baing when you keep the biscuit or cake inside.
I always say, Veena, no doubt is silly. That only shows your eagerness to learn. A teaspoon is 5 ml. A tablespoon is 15 ml, three teaspoons.
I am very happy to know that you have been successfully trying out my recipes. If you send F Bs. others will feel more confident & inclined to try it.
Please stay tuned, Veena.
Love,
Chithra.

Originally Posted by Naveena

Dear Chitra Madam,

Great going. I have been trying many of your recipes and most of the times, successfully. Whatever I say to appreciate you will only be a repitition of what many other friends have already said. So please accept a lot of thanks from me too.

Can you please tell me what does "pre heating" of the oven mean? Does it mean switching on the oven for sometime before keeping the items to be baked inside?

And I have another silly doubt! What is the difference between a tea spoon and a table spoon? I thought tea spoon means the regular small spoon which we generally use. Please clarify.

Thank you.

Veena.

Dear mrs chitra,
I am a new ilite and i find your tips extremely valuable.I am dying to tell my mom about u (and talk to my daughter too about u being such an expert and seem to have explored the entire field of cooking).And I must say u inculcalte an interest in cooking too.Makes one want to try your tips.
When i got married 20 years ago i did not know any cooking and my MIL introduced me to Meenakshi ammals cookery books and that too in english.u MUST publish a book for the next generation.
thanks once again
cheers
shobha

Dear Shobha,
Welcome to I L & to this forum.
I am just overwhelmed by your kindness.
The suggestion to write a book, has come to me from so many quarters !
But let me tell you, Shobha, in India, the market is flooded with cookery books. Nobody now bothers to look at them except Meenakshi Ammal's & perhaps now the younger generation go in for Tarla Dalal's.
Already my thread Old is Gold has come out in pdf form, thanks to kb2000.
So, I will request her to gradually convert all threads, over a period of time, o pdf files so that you can take a print out.
Thanks for your nice words - I am blessed to be at the receiving end of such nice words.
Love,
Chithra.

Originally Posted by shobabu

Dear mrs chitra,
I am a new ilite and i find your tips extremely valuable.I am dying to tell my mom about u (and talk to my daughter too about u being such an expert and seem to have explored the entire field of cooking).And I must say u inculcalte an interest in cooking too.Makes one want to try your tips.
When i got married 20 years ago i did not know any cooking and my MIL introduced me to Meenakshi ammals cookery books and that too in english.u MUST publish a book for the next generation.
thanks once again
cheers
shobha

That is exactly the point Chitra. The market is flooded with cooking books that are for the most part useless. Well I should know because I have used many of them. But none of them have been as helpful as your thread. Your thread isn't just a listing of recipes. Your way of writing gives everyone a huge inspiration to cook, even the lazy ones who just keep dreaming of good food. You make everything sound so easy and worth cooking. I have changed a lot in the past month because of your posts. Your book will do wonders. And when you do write a book, I will be on the waiting list even before it gets published.

Please give this some serious thought. Your book unlike this thread will stand the test of time and help women of the coming generations.

Love

Originally Posted by chitvish

Dear Shobha,
Welcome to I L & to this forum.
I am just overwhelmed by your kindness.
The suggestion to write a book, has come to me from so many quarters !
But let me tell you, Shobha, in India, the market is flooded with cookery books. Nobody now bothers to look at them except Meenakshi Ammal's & perhaps now the younger generation go in for Tarla Dalal's.
Already my thread Old is Gold has come out in pdf form, thanks to kb2000.
So, I will request her to gradually convert all threads, over a period of time, o pdf files so that you can take a print out.
Thanks for your nice words - I am blessed to be at the receiving end of such nice words.
Love,
Chithra.

Dear Shanthi,
If it were an easy job to publish a cookery book, I would have jumped at that idea ! But the woes are too many !! I am not at a stage of life when I want to take up hassels, in fact far from it.
Investing money on a project is not on my agenda anymore, in my life. I just want to share my recipes, shlokas, thoughts happily in I L with all of you & be done with the satisfaction I derive from nice F B s.
Please, do not lead me into temptation, sweet talking !
Love,
Chithra.

Originally Posted by Shanthi

That is exactly the point Chitra. The market is flooded with cooking books that are for the most part useless. Well I should know because I have used many of them. But none of them have been as helpful as your thread. Your thread isn't just a listing of recipes. Your way of writing gives everyone a huge inspiration to cook, even the lazy ones who just keep dreaming of good food. You make everything sound so easy and worth cooking. I have changed a lot in the past month because of your posts. Your book will do wonders. And when you do write a book, I will be on the waiting list even before it gets published.

Please give this some serious thought. Your book unlike this thread will stand the test of time and help women of the coming generations.

Love