1. Keep it simple. There is no need to prepare green-chilli coriander, red- tomato onion , white- cream cashew gravy for every curry. Vegetables like gourds, pumpkin, cabbage , roots have their own taste , please enjoy those the way they are. It will save time, resources, nutritional value and the originality of the vegetables. A gravy with ginger garlic paste and onion tomato will give same taste always.
2. Mind your utensils. Use metals like copper , brass and iron or mud cookwares. Practice with mud tawa for rotis, once your hand is set process will be smooth. Boil your milk , tea in brass , cook your vegetable fry in iron ( where you aren’t adding water). “ Don’t use pure metal vessels for cooking with anything sour.Iron ,copper and brass will react with those”. Use mud pot for settling the curd. Nonstick cookwares aren’t for hate. pancakes , dosa , chilla and other less oil cooking are good with those, just make sure not to use the one with damaged coating.
3. Spices. Keep cloves, Carom seeds , black pepper, fenugreek seeds, licorice , fennel seeds, bay leaves, dry ginger ( laung, ajwain ,kali mirch ,methi, mulethi, Sauf,tez patta , sauth )handy in the kitchen. One is useful medicine for cold cough and throat infection and other helps in digestion.
4. Storing the leaves. Separate the leaves from stem and remove the cap of green chillis then store in air tight container.
5. Try not mixing one strong flavour with a weaker one. Adding garlic and asafoetida( heeng )together makes no sense , as garlic will definitely over take the later flavour. ( Don’t get into health gyan here that heeng supports digestion. One or two pinches of heeng in 500 gms of curry won’t do any magic ).
6. Asefotida ( heeng ) : Use compounded heeng for dals and curries, soak a piece in water and then use that heeng water in your curry/ dal.For veggie fries powdered heeng should be used at first in oil.
7. Add flavours, colours and seasonings at last. Add Coriander leaves , chopped spring onion etc just before serving. Add nuts, cardamoms , saffron in sweets after switching off the flame. Garam masala powder and dry mango powder should also be added at last. Turn off the flame , add and cover it.
8. Cook millets. Have ragi, bajra , jowar, makai in the kitchen. Have mix roti every once in a while. Soke the grains and pulses and make vegetable khichdi. It’s fast to cook and high on nutritional value.Broken wheat ( daliya ) is easy and tasty choice.
9.Replace pickles with chutneys. Pickle either have artificial preservatives or lots of oil/ salt / sugar which works as preservative. Make fresh chutneys and store for 3 to 6 days. Make coconut , coriander, mint , tomato - garlic / tomato - onion / green mango chutneys .
10. Cook good breakfast. Include Bengal gram, moong sprouts , soya beans or groundnuts. Soak for 4 - 5 hours and then just leave with drained water. Mix bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, pomegranates, cucumbers , beet roots , carrots with sprouts or boiled beans / grams. ( keeping a chopper will save a lot of time ).
11. Home made hassle free ghee.If you are using milk in good quantity in your home , then try to store its cream. Once a week or fortnight just freeze it and then heat it on lowest flame. That harmless cream will turn into purest form of clarified butter (ghee) without putting any real efforts.
12. Soak ,soak and soak: Be it pulses or rice soak in water before cooking. They say in Hindi “ daal galni chahiye, pakni nahi “, means that lentils should be soaked not cooked. The pulses which soaked and puffed nicely will spent lesser time in pressure cooker and thus retain maximum nutritional value.
13. The flour dough: For making softer rotis, paranthas or pooris , there is no need to mix any oil or ghee in flour . Just mix the dough with plain water ( or warm water if you have time) and let it rest for 1/2 to 1 hr. Mixing oil ghee is not required.Beat the dough nicely , that will play the part.
14. Use Fresh whenever available: Use raw wet turmeric in curries in winters ( it’s tasteless and have ample amount of health benefits ) , just grate it in your curries and skip powdered turmeric. Use raw garlic with green stems for chutneys and curries in winters. It’s tasty and healthy.
15. Stay organised. Wash , dry and anrrange all the fruit and vegetables as soon as you bring those home. Clean and ready to use things will save time.
16. Mother’s kitchen tip : You can’t actually cook in mud pots always ( it takes time and needs care while handling ), so after cooking transfer the food in those pots. The food will stay in that pot for some time until you eat.
Using copperwares for drinking water is also tough to clean.So, put a copper piece in your earthen pot (matka) or steel water container.
17. LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST : Cook and eat local and seasonal.
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