Cooking tips

Hi Vidhya,

Now, dont face those problems as have stopped buying it from that particular shop. Could be old stock though it was not an unexpired product or some particular added antibiotics/hormones to the milk gallon, guess..

But, when comes to yogurt, yes, true..am not at all happy as it does not yield curd like our homemade one. Hence, will prefer to ask my friend to get the culture than trying with the shop yogurt.

FYI, one of my friend was telling that whenever she tried making curd with an organic milk, it does not work out for her, can u believe???

Rgds.

Hi everyone,

Here is my 2 cents. While using the commercial brand yogurt for making thayir, make sure that it has the live cultures in it ( L. Acidophilus, L.Bulgaricus etc....) . The yogurt should not have gelatin ( that along with the preservatives they use, is the culprit for the gelatinous texture). Also I have found that while making yogurt with the store bought yogurt , it is better to use a new culture daily , rather than use the culture from the home set yogurt. If using home set curd as culture, after some time, you will get the gelatinous texture again.
Again the quality of milk, season ( i get better set thayir in summer than winter) etc... will affect the texture of the curds. Good luck making thyir.

Vandhana

hi all,

earlier i was also having same problem. but now i m using hot boxes(which we use for chapatis)for making curd n i keep this box in oven for whole night.U can get gud curd this way.always boil ur milk for making curd.

hope it will work forall of u also.

Hi Friends,
I have also faced the same probem with home made curd, then i tried buttermilk as starter for curd and my curd came out very well. So guys can also give it a try.
Enjoy

hi all,

I tried samosa at home.sometimes it came out crispy spmetimes not(samosa cover).
I read in this thread we shd use rava for crispy vadas.
my question is can we use rava for getting crisp samosa?if so how much spoons of rava we shd use.and if I m not wrong rava is SUJI.

THANKS IN ADVANCE.

Tips and tricks are very important things while cooking. And I am going to give some “Tips” here. These tips will be useful for office going ladies as well as house wives to cook quicker and faster.
I personally use these Tamarind paste and ready made powders which I make myself in my house to make cooking easy and enjoyable for my loving husband and my loving son. Because I am shuttling between Saudi and India. So we are using these tips in our day today life. Even in my friends circle, tamarind paste and all my ready made powers are famous. So I think this will be very useful to Indus ladies also.

Let me put them one by one.

1. We South Indians, prepare sambar or rasam almost daily. For that we have to soke tamarind in hot water and extract water from that to make sambar or rasam. One day that water becomes more and another less in puli taste. To avoid that and to save time, do the following.
Take 1/4kg tamarind and soke it in hotwater for ½ to one hour.
If you have Preeti mixer grinder, take the JUICE EXTRACTER
and take juice out of the soaked tamarind. Let it be as thick as possible.

Other wise as usual do it by hand. Then put a big pan and heat it. Add 150 to 200 gms. of Sesame oil. Make tempering with mustard seeds, turmeric powder and asafetida powder.
Let the mustard seeds burst. Now add the extracted tamarind water in the pan. Add a little salt. Stair rarely and allow it to become like a paste. Oil must come out of the paste. That is the correct indication that you prepared the paste correctly.

Dry fry 2 table spoon Fenugreek, in another pan and powder it. Add the fenugreek powder in the Tamarind Paste. Mix well and remove it from the fire.

Keep aside for more than 2 hours. Now put it in a glass bottle and close it. Keep it in the fridge. When ever you need to prepare sambar, rasam, puliyodarai, puli kootu or any puli based items, you can use this paste instantly.
For vathal kuzhmbu or sambar for 4 persons, prepare as usual and after tempering, add 2 cups of plain water and add this tamarind paste. 2 spoons will be ok for your sambar. If you want more puli, at any time you can add the paste as per your taste. That is the Best advantage of this Tamarind paste.

Rest in next post

Originally Posted by ammu

I love the crispy rava dosas that are made in the hotels. Want to try doing similar ones at home, but not very sure of the flours and the proportions in which they are to be mixed?

Suggestions please.

To prepare crispy rava dosa, take 3 cups Rava , 2 cups Rice flour and 1 cup wheat flour. Dry fry the rava and add rice flour and wheat flour in that. Add sour butter milk, salt and make a thick batter. Now put a pan and heat it. Pour one or two spoons of oil and put mustard seeds, cummin seeds, chopped green chillies and chopped onions. Just fry them and add it to the batter. Keep aside for one or two hours. Now add some water and make it some what thin batter and pour it on the tawa from out side. i.e. dont pour the batter in the center, but pour it from the corner of the tava. Pour oil onit and make THIN AND CRISPY RAVA DOSA.

Originally Posted by Roshni

Vidhya,

Very true...not only bitter guard, any vegetable eaten half cooked or with minimal cooking or sauting will get you the nutritions in it.

Try this way...

Cut the bitter guard and soak it in tamarind water for 30mins to 1hr before you cook. Then cook whatever dish you want and you will find bitterness reduced.

Hi,
To reduce the bitter of bitter guard, add some salt with the cut bitterguard and keep aside for 30min. Then squeeze it and use.

Originally Posted by sonia

hi all,

I tried samosa at home.sometimes it came out crispy spmetimes not(samosa cover).
I read in this thread we shd use rava for crispy vadas.
my question is can we use rava for getting crisp samosa?if so how much spoons of rava we shd use.and if I m not wrong rava is SUJI.

THANKS IN ADVANCE.

Hi, To make crispy samosa, which ever flour you use wheat or maida take it 5 cups and add one cup of LIQUID VANASPATI . Pour the vanaspati in the flour and add salt mix well. After mixing well try to make a ball out of the flour. If you are able to make a ball and if you are able to crush it easily means your mixture is correct.
Now add water little by little and make a tough dough. Keep the dough over night in the fridge. Next day make samosas by using this dough. Definitly you will get crispy samosas. Try and tell.

dear krishnaamma,

thank you once agn. I will try n give u feedback soon.