Tips for the kitchen

Cooking can be a whole lot easier and fun when you have some tricks up your sleeve. Here are a few tips to a more organised kitchen.

*While grinding whole red chillies to red chilly powder, first dry them in the sun till they become crisp. Then add 1-2 tbspns of mustard oil to them while grinding to get a nice red colour.

*To remove the bitterness from karelas or bitter gourd, first pell and cut it into pieces. Apply some salt and 2 tbspns of wheat flour and leave it for 2-3 hours. Wash well before cooking.

*If you have ended up adding extra salt to your curry or dal, just make a few balls from wheat flour dough and put them into the curry and leave it for some time. Remove the balls before serving.

*To prevent noodles from sticking to each other, after boiling them, strain and hold them under cold running water for a minute. Then put a tbspn of oil, mix and transfer to a wide vessel.

*Put 1-2 pieces of used lime peels in the water while boiling potatoes to prevent the inside of the pressure cooker from turning black.

*Apply some cooking oil on the grater before grating cheese to prevent the cheese from sticking to it.

*To store greens like coriander leaves or fenugreek leaves, put a piece of newspaper or tissue paper in a plastic container, put the coriander or fenugreek leaves and place another piece of paper over it and then close the container and refrigerate. You can change the paper everyday if it becomes damp.

*Add some salt to the water in which you cut brinjals to prevent them from turning black.

*When you make ghee from milk cream at home, do not throw away the brown residue which is left after straining the ghee. Add some water to it and boil it for 2-3 minutes, strain, cool and keep it in the freezer for some time. A thin layer of ghee will be formed on the top, which can be removed with a spoon. Alternatively the water can also be used for making dough for parathas.

*If you get a burning smell while cooking rice or some dry vegetable in the pressure cooker, remove from the gas and place the cooker in a vessel containing cold water.
nAdd ½ tspn of sugar to your dosa batter to enhance the golden colour of the dosas.

*Squeeze out the juice of a few limes and put it in a small ice tray and keep it in the freezer. These cubes can be used when you have run short of lime.

* To get rid of cockroaches in the kitchen, put some boric powder in 2 tbspns of wheat flour and knead it together. Make small balls and place them at different places in the kitchen.

*Store shelled green peas in an airtight container in the freezer.

*While boiling milk, if you feel it is going to curdle, just add a pinch of sodium bicarbonate (cooking soda) and mix.