Simple tips while cooking vegetables and curries

I shall add several kitchen tips which make your kitchen work easy and tastier as well. Here I provide a few simple tips to note while cooking vegetables. Vegetables are rich in antioxidants and if cooked in proper ways, tastes and nutrition will be retained. In addition I have provided a few more simple cooking tips. Here are they.

1. Steam cook vegetables for your dishes. They save oil and fuel, and retain its nutrition facts as well.

2. While preparing bitter gourd theeyal (Paavakka theeyal), first boil salt and tamarind in water and then add bitter gourd pieces. If so your theeyal won’t taste bitter.

3. While preparing stew and mapas, splutter fenugreek seeds before mustard seeds. The curry turns tastier.

4. To remove Chinese potato’s (Koorkka) skin easily, put them in water for a while, and then bundle in a sack, beat it in rough floor and then try to peel the skin.

5. If you use coconut water instead of water for rasam, your curry tastes better.

6. Ground nut is the best substitute of walnut and almonds.

7. Tomato sauce is the best substitute of tomato for dishes. If tomato is not available in kitchen, use tomato sauce as substitute. Taste and quality of dish won’t change much.

8. If garlic is stored as cloves, they stay fresh longer. Place them under sun for some time to peel of their outer skin easily.

9. Stem of mushroom can be added to soups. So never waste it after mushroom curry or salad preparations.  

10. To get rid of the unpleasant smell while cooking cabbage and cauliflower, add a ginger piece to it. Another solution – Wrap a piece of bread in a cloth and place inside the water used for cooking these two items.

11. While preparing curry using red spinach, add a pinch of sugar while cooking. Spinach won’t loss its beet root colour. Salt can also do the same job.

12. Water left after cooking vegetables can be used for soups and preparation of other curries.

13. Before you cut raw banana if you apply a little oil to knife and your hands, they won’t get stained.

14. To remove stain of banana and banana flower, dip it in water for 10 minutes. Then wash using butter milk.

15. Separate each florets of cauliflower and dip in water mixed with vinegar. You can get rid of pests and worms in cauliflower. 

16. Add a pinch of sugar while cooking green gram. It’s green colour won’t fade.

17. While frying okra, add 1 tbsp curd or buttermilk to it. Okra won’t be sticky.

18. If you want to make your curry a little bit thick, grind a little couscous and add to the curry. If it’s some spicy curry for roti or breakfast dishes, couscous enhances taste as well.

19. To increase thickness of celery, take cold water and sugar in portion 3/4 glass to 1 spoon, mix well and dip celery for a while. 

20. Dip carrots and radish in lukewarm water for a while. It helps to remove skin easily. 

21. To get rid of the bad odour of cabbage and cauliflower in your dishes, add a little lemon juice or put a piece of lemon in the water used for cooking. While cooking cabbage, you can also add a bay leaf (vayana ila) to get rid of bad smell.  

22. Split bitter gourd into two portions and marinate using a mixture of salt, turmeric powder and curd. Use it after half an hour. Bitterness reduces significantly. 

23. While cooking cauliflower or cabbage, add a small spoon of milk or milk powder. White colour of both these vegetables will retain. 

24. If you use different types of vegetables for any dish, cut them in same size so that they get uniformly cooked.. Otherwise some items may be overcooked, while some may not. 

25. Boil water before adding vegetables to cook. Add salt first, then vegetables. If so they won’t lose colour. If you want to add tamarind or vinegar to your vegetables, add only when they are half-cooked. Otherwise vegetable pieces won’t cook well, and turn hard also.

26. When you cook tubers like potato, close the lid while cooking. While cooking green vegetables, keep lid open. If they they won’t lose green colour. 

27. Never overcook vegetables. To cook vegetables which contain water in plenty, just sprinkle a few drops of water.

28. If you want to completely remove water from your vegetables and make it dry while cooking, keep the lid open. 

29. Use vegetables soon after boiling.

30. Cut tomatoes just before adding to the dish or salad preparation. If chopped tomatoes are kept so for a long time, its juice comes out affecting the taste of dish. Same is the case of onions too. Tomato is a combo to almost every curry dish. It adds an extra flavour to your side dish and adds nutrition as well.

31. While adding tomatoes to dishes, saute well in oil until their raw smell goes out. It adds extra flavour to your dish.

32. Countryside tomatoes have extra sour taste. To remove it, dip them in hot water for a while, and remove skin and seeds.

33. Chop both ends of shallots and put in water. Manually squeeze them. Skin can be removed easily.

Image source: Pixabay

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