Cooking Tips

• Add a pinch of turmeric and a few drops of cooking oil to the toor dhaal while pressure cooking.The dhaal gets cooked very nicely and is perfect to use for sambar / rasam.
• For recipes involving tamarind,if you feel its a little sour than expected,add a little jaggery .This reduces the sourness from the item.
• Green leafy vegetables must always be washed thoroughly before cutting.Never cut and then wash the greens,it loses all the vitamins /nutrients.
• To avoid tears in eyes while cutting onions,wash the onion in cold running water for about 5 mins and then chop it.
•  While tempering,wait until mustard seeds crackle before adding any other ingredients.If mustard seeds don't crackle they taste bitter and the taste of the dish gets spoilt.
• Never add salt to the onions until they turn pink.
• If any gravy/curry seems to be too liquified,take about 2-3 tsps of besan/chickpea flour,mix it in water without any lumps and add it to the gravy.Allow it to boil for sometime,this thickens the gravy without spoiling the taste.
• To retain the green color of spinach after cooking,blanch the spinach with sugar and salt.
• To prevent the extra dough from drying when storing in fridge,coat it well with cooking oil,wrap it in a cling film or a neat plastic cover.
• Cooking vegetable with a lid over it ,helps retains the nutritive value of the vegetables.
• Add a little curd/yogurt or few drops of tamarind juice while cooking Okra/Lady's finger/Bhindi. This helps in removing the extra sliminess/stickiness present in the vegetable.
• Place a cup of warm water with tea bags or tea leaves to remove odour / smell from the oven. You can also place  lemon juice in warm water.
• Soaking cauliflower florets in warm water with turmeric and salt helps in getting rid of tiny invisible germs/insects.
• When demoulding the idlis from the idli stand,dip the knife or spoon in warm water and demould,the idlis come out very well from the mould.