HANDY KITCHEN TIP

HANDY KITCHEN TIP

Listed below are tips compiled by Dr GTS which I find very useful, will publish the tips part by part so others will also benefit after reading the article.

1. Do not throw away hard pieces of stale bread. Dry them in the sun or on the tawa and grind and use as breadcrumbs.

2. Add a little milk to the onions while frying. This will help to retain the rich color and prevent them from burning.

3. While frying mushrooms, add a tsp of lemon juice to the butter. This will prevent them from breaking

4. While cutting hardboiled eggs, the yolk often tends to break. To avoid this dip the knife in ice cold water for a few seconds and then cut smoothly.

5. To 5 kg basmati rice of cheaper qlty add 1 kg of superior qlty and sprinkle a little oil and mix well with your hand. Store in airtight container for 6 months. All the rice will now taste like the superior qlty one.

6. Add wheat flour to the leftover rasagulla syrup and mix to a smooth batter. Keep overnight. Treat yourself to sweet chelas (pancakes) for breakfast the next day.

7. If home made gulab jamuns have not turned out soft and fluffy, steam them in a pressure cooker using the weight along with the syrup for 10 minutes

8. If a recipe requires self raising flour you can make your own by sieving each cup of maida with 1 ½ tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt.

9. To make softer idlis and dosas mix a little cooked rice while grinding the batter.

10. To increase the quantity of fresh cream by say 250 grams add half a cup thick curd and half cup of milk and beat well. This will double the qty and also the taste will be better.

SUJI COOKIES

Very easy and fail proof cookies I have baked several times. Since the ghee was not in hand, substituted  ghee with butter and it turns our perfect.  Suji Cookies are baked for about 20 minutes so do check your oven. Recipe by Chef Devagi.

CHICKEN KORMA

A traditional mild curry which has its root in Persian and Indian cuisine. Its uses coconut, yogurt, cashew,almond or cream in the cooking to give its distinctive flavor.My Chicken Korma recipe used coconut milk, cashew and black peppercorn (adjust to taste) and quite easy to prepare. Best eaten with rice, naan and parata.

APOM

Appam is a famous South Indian breakfast dish especially in Kerala.It uses raw rice, cooked rice and  coconut milk. After soaking the rice  for few hours, grind it using mixer and fermented for 8 hours then only it is cooked using appam pan. After pouring the batter, swirl the pan to have a crispy edge but thick in the middle.

Instead of doing it in a traditional way, I tried this simpler method using rice flour and yeast,the result is close to original appam but using normal flat pan since I don't own a special pan for making the appam. In Malaysia and Singapore it is called apom normally served with orange colored sugar.

FATT KOH

My first attempt of making  Fatt  Koh which is smiling steamed cake and fatt koh means prosperity. This is a must for Chinese during prayers. They are other version too but I tried this one using self raising flour.

I'm using my muffin cup but you can also utilize any shallow glass bowl or heatproof plastic mold to steam them but make sure you grease your container before filling with the batter.