Kitchen Tips

Rice Pakoda 1 cup cooked rice
1/2 cup Channa dal powder (Besan)
2 Green Chili
1/2 tea spoon Red Chili Powder
1 Big Onion
Salt to taste and
Oil to fry

1. Pour oil in a pan and heat it.
2. Put all ingredients in a big bowl.
3. Mix them well.
4. Put as pakodas . Fry them till they become light brown in color.

If you have extra chapatti dough keep it in the deep freezer. Whenever you need the dough again, you can use it by defrosting. (If you keep the dough in the fridge it will turn in to black. But if you keep it in the deep freezer, it will remain as it is.)

OR

You can make chapatti as regular and put one by one in the Micro Wave Oven and make them crispy.
Just put the done chapatti in the oven and set the time for 1 minute. Now turn the other side and again put 30seconds, if the chapatti is crispy it is ok

Otherwise put another 30 seconds and make it crispy. Now you can have the crispy chapatti with tea.
Other wise you can store in a air tight container for more than a week.

1 cup Dosa dough
2 tea spoons Rice Flour
1 Big Onion
2 - 3 Green chilies
1/2 spoon cumin seeds
1/2 cup Cut Tomato into small pieces.
Salt

1. Cut onion and green chilies in to small pieces.
2. Mix all the ingredients in the dough except tomato.
3. Make them as thick Dosa.
4. After pouting dosa dough put cut tomato pieces on that.
5. Turn it carefully.
6. This is one type of Utthappam.

2. 1 cup Dosa dough
2 tea spoons Rice Flour
1 Big Onion (optional)
2" Ginger
1 spoon Black pepper
2 - 3 Green chilies
1 spoon cumin seeds
Salt

1. Cut onion and green chilies in to small pieces.
2. Mix all the ingredients in the dough
3. Make them as appams in non stick appam maker.
4. Serve hot with coconut chutney.

3. 1 cup Dosa dough
2 tea spoons Rice Flour
2 - 3 Tomatoes or 1/2 cup puree
1 - 2 teaspoons red chilly powder( as per your taste)
Salt
5 - 6 Bread slices trimed and cut into 4 pieces
Oil to fry

1. Make or add tomato puree, add red chilly powder, salt in dosa dough.
2. Mix well and make a thick batter like Bajji dough.
3. Pour oil in a pan and dip bread pieces in the dough and put them in the oil.
4. Fry them till they become golden brown.
5. Serve with Tomato ketchup or chutney.

Hi,

My brother is living in US, for his son we prepared this for him to have dosa, by naming Indian Pizza. Try this too.

Bye,
Krishna amma.

2 Cups Dosa Dough 2 Tomatoes (cut into small pieces) 1 Big Onion (chopped) 4-6 Green Chilies (chopped) 1 Cup Grated Cheese 1/2 Cup Chimla Mirch 1/2 Spoon Cumin Seeds (optional) Salt to taste

• Make thick Dosa
• Put all other ingredients in small quantities as topping, pour oil, cover the Dosa with a lid
• Simmer the stove
• After 1 or 2 minutes, open the lid and remove the Indian Pizza from fire and serve hot with sauce
• Make all the dough like this

Take fresh dosa dough with out adding much salt. And prepare this dish.

1 Cup Dosa Dough 1 1/2 Cups Smashed Jaggery 4 Cardamom Pieces( powder it !) 1/2 Cups Shredded Coconut Ghee to make Dosa

Mix Cardamom Powder, Shredded Coconut and Smashed Jaggery with Dosa Dough
Make Dosas as usual
Serve Hot

Note: For children, put a spoon of Tutti-Frutti in each Dosa as filling and fold it asMasala Dosa serve with honey.

Bye,
Krishna amma

• Add Rice Flour and Udad Dhal Flour in the ratio 4:1 to the Dosa dough and make it very thick.
• Add Salt, Asafetida and Cumin Seeds to it
• Heat oil in a pan
• Put the thick dough in the Murukku Achu and make Murukus ( Then Kzhual ) in the oil
• Deep fry them till reddish golden
• You can keep this for more than a week

Bye,
Krishna amma

HI,
Here are some more tips..........
1. While preparing Oats in MW you can add grated Carrots, grated Cabbage or cut garlic and put salt in that.

Then keep it in the oven and cook asusual.

Remove from the oven and bring it to room temp.

Now add thick butter milk and mix well.

This is very good for sugar patients.

2. When ever you make keer or payasam or sarkarai pongal or Akkara vadisal at the end add some EVAPORATED MILK. That will give more flavour to your dish.

Here in Saudi we will get one company named LUNA, that is the best milk which will come in small tins.

3. After getting Bombay Rava from the shop, it is better to fry immediately and keep it in a container to avoid the insects and warms.

4. Uppma is the easy dish to prepare. Let me tell how to prepare it more easier.
Even your children or husband can prepare with out boreing.
Asusual you make tempering and put rava in the pan and fry well. Add salt and fry well. Transfer it to a cooker vessel, and place it in the cooker.
Pour correct quantity of water in it and place a lid on it. And bring it 2 -3 sounds.
Remove and mix well. Your Uppma is ready.

No need to have contimues staring and you can prepare this with LESS OIL, which is good for health.

In this way you can prepare Rava Uppma, Rice Rava Uppma, Wheat Rava Uppma and Rava Kitchadi too.

Try this,
Bye,
Krishna amma

Tips On Cutting & Peeling :

Wash vegetables before peeling or cutting to preserve the water soluble vitamins.

• Peel vegetables as thinly as possible to preserve the minerals and vitamins.
• Soak potatoes and eggplant after cutting, to avoid discoloration.
• If you boil vegetables in water, do not throw the water, keep it to make gravies.
• To avoid browning of apples after cutting, apply a little lemon juice on the cut surface. The apples will stay and look fresh for a longer time.
• Keep coriander leaves in a muslin (cheese) cloth bag in the refrigerator. They will remain fresh for a longer time.
• Remove the stems of green chilies while storing them .This will help them to stay fresh for long.
• After peeling onions cut in half and soak in water for about 10 minutes before cutting to avoid crying.
• Soak almonds in a cup of boiling water for 10 minutes .The skin will peel off easily.
• Chopping vegetables can be done in different ways using a sharp knife and a wooden chopping board. Cutting on a marble slab will blunt your knives.
• Remove the outer leaves and husks from the corn (bhutta). Holding the corn upright with the flat end firmly in a board, take a sharp knife and run it down between the kernels and the cob to strip them away.
• Wrap the fruits and vegetables in newspaper before refrigerating to keep them fresh for long.
• Chopping dry fruits - Freeze them first for one hour & then dip the knife into hot water before cutting them.

Tips On Frying :

• Heat the oil thoroughly before adding seasonings or vegetables.
• Fry the seasonings until they change color, to get full flavour of seasonings.
• If masala sticks to the pan that shows quantity of fat included is not enough.
• Add some hot oil and 1/2 tsp of baking soda in batter while making pakodas.
• When coconut is used in grinding masala, do not fry for a longer time.
• If you are making patties or tikkis of potatoes, always make sure that the potatoes are boiled well in advance and cooled before you use them. It would be better if they can be refrigerated for a short time. This helps the starch in the potatoes to settle down and the tikkis will not be gooey.
• 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.
• Poori can be rolled and place between well-rinsed wet muslin cloth at least an hour ahead and can be Fried before serving.
• To make pooris more crispy add a little rice flour to the wheat flour while kneading.
• Pakodas will turn out crisper if a little corn flour is added to the gram flour (besan) while preparing the batter.
• Heat a non-stick pan and add a little more butter than usual. Now beat the egg and stir briskly (even while frying) with a fork. This way more air goes in your omelet, making it light and fluffy. Fry till done and serve hot.
• Sprinkle a little amount of salt in the frying pan before adding bacon to fry. That way it will not splatter all over.
• When browning meat in fat, choose a large, deep pan. This will enable you to fry quickly, without splashing the stove with fat and meat juices.

Tips For Gravies:

• Always use ghee or vanaspathi with or instead of oil, which gives a good flavour to the gravy. If oil alone is used, it does not get separated easily from the ground mixture, as ghee separates from it.
• Fry the ground masala in reduced flame, so that it retains its colour and taste.
• Little plain sugar or caramelised sugar added to the gravy makes it tasty.
• When tomatoes are not in season, tomato ketchup or sauce can be successfully used in the gravies.
• To retain colour in the gravy always use ripe red tomatoes. Discard green portions if any.
• Good variety chillies and chilli powder also gives colour to the gravy. As far as pos sible try to use long variety red chillies. Dry it under sun for few days and powder coarsely at home. Always the coarse powder gives good taste in gravies and pickles.
• While using ginger and garlic paste in curries, always use garlic at 60% ratio and ginger at 40% as ginger is very strong and may make your dish sharp and pungent.

Tips On Cooking :

• To make 1 cup of dal, add atleast 2-3 cups of water, depending on the type of dal.
• Soak whole pulses overnight and other dals for one hour before cooking.
• Always add hot water to the gravy to enhance the taste.
• Add 1 Tbsp of hot oil to the dough for making Kachories or Kulchas.
• Always use heavy bottomed vessels to make desserts, in order to avoid burning.
• Make desserts with full cream milk, to get thick creamy texture.
• Whenever curd is to be added to the masala, it should be beaten well and add gradually.
• Chop some extra vegetables, for next day stir fry.
• Use the leftover dal water to make rasam or sambar.
• Never discard water in which vegetables are cooked, use it in gravies, soups, rasam or kolumbu.
• 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 minimise our cooking time, use of utensils and nutrients are also preserved.
• If poppy seeds are used in grinding, soak it in hot water for 10 to 15 minutes, if you are grinding it in a mixie.
• While boiling milk, always add a little water at the base of the vessel to avoid the milk from sticking at the bottom.
• Add a tsp. of hot oil to homemade pastes of garlic, ginger or green chili, along with salt to make it last longer and taste fresher.
• Store raisins in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They will stay fresh for much longer. Pour very hot water over them if they had harden, after that drain them immediately, and spread on a paper towel to dry. You can also leave a spoon in the vessel in which the milk is being boiled at low heat so that it does not get burnt at the bottom
• Add a few drops of lemon a tsp of oil to rice before boiling to separate each grain.
• Never discard the water in which vegetables are cooked, use it in gravies or soups.
• 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.
• Immediately after boiling noodles put them in normal cold water to separate them each.
• If you forget to soak chana/Rajma overnight. Just soak the chana/Rajma in the boiling water for an hour before cooking.
• Curd in winter - Set in a ceramic container and place it on the voltage stabilizer of your refrigerator.
• Potatoes soaked in salt water for 20 minutes will bake more rapidly.
• Roasting is a dry heat method of cooking - it does not use water. The flavors roasting draws forth result from the process of browning. As the surface of the meat browns, and its juices and fats drip down and brown on the surface of the hot roasting pan, it adds to the flavour of the meat.

Tips On Leftover Food:

• If you are making pasta or rice, cook some extra and store in refrigerator for the next meal.
• Keep some boiled potatoes in fridge, to make quick sandwiches for breakfast.
• Use left over rice for next day meal, use your imagination and cook something new.
• Keep some extra dough in fridge to make chapatis for breakfast.
• Use leftover sukhi dal to make stuffed paratha...

Hi
U've given so many tips here.
I'll copy them and take a print out.
Really all of them very useful.
Though some knows some tips, if one posts all at once, its useful for one and all.
Thanks for posting...

Gayathri.

Originally Posted by slgayatri

Hi
U've given so many tips here.
I'll copy them and take a print out.
Really all of them very useful.
Though some knows some tips, if one posts all at once, its useful for one and all.
Thanks for posting...

Gayathri.

Thank you gay3

simpls tips.
curry leaves will get dry easily,to avoid this,make it powder & store in a container,curry leaves is good for hair growth,if v put the leaves directly in the food,it'll go outside of the plate,normally nobody will have it,so if it is powder it'll go along with curries or in sambhar, for all the preparations..