Indian Recipe Corner | Indian Recipe Guide

Kitchen Maintenance

2011-10-16T15:44:00.000+08:00

Tiring to clean up your refrigerator?

Start with checking what leftovers can be discarded.
Find out which of the bottles of water or sauces are almost empty, or are too old.
Remove the shelves, wash and them.
Clean the outside as well as the inside of the fridge with a soft cloth.
More Kitchen tips....

Tidy Kitchen

2011-05-28T01:53:00.000+08:00

Despite the taste that food brings, the preparation of the food should be given the prime importance. In the sense, planning for the food in a clean manner is highlighted. The clean kitchen paves way to a healthy food prepared in a hygenic manner. Keeping your kitchen neat and clean is no more a difficult job, with these following tips. They may help you to carry out cleaning effectively.

Begin by cleaning your kitchen counters. If you don't use your fruit juicer, or grinder or mixer, or toaster or coffee maker everyday, the ideal thing to do is to stash it away somewhere out of sight and away from your kitchen counter. Do away with everything that you think you are not going to use in the next couple of days. Then, spray liquid cleaner or a disinfectant and wipe the counter clean.
Clean your gas stove or oven daily at night after all the cooking is done. Make sure that all the grime and the spills are wiped clean. Do not ever leave it unclean for the next day as that will make the stain added up to remove.
Make sure your sink is free of clutter. Wash and stack away your dishes and utensils. Clean the sink once it is clutter-free. Then, remove the stubborn stains. Finish by rubbing it dry. To freshen up, add few drops of vinegar in the sink or alllow a small piece of lime to stay there overnight.
Cleaning up your refrigerator can be a very tiring job. Start with checking what leftovers can be discarded. Find out which of the bottles of water or sauces are almost empty, or are too old. Next, remove the shelves and clean them. Clean the outside as well as the inside of the fridge with a soft cloth.
Lastly, clean the floor of your kitchen. Sweep up all the debris that you had thrown onto the floor from the counter top and the over and the toaster etc. Now mop it to a shine.

Reference

The Times of India

Mangayar malar

Tips from friends

2011-01-19T11:46:00.000+08:00

Stick radium stickers below wash basin, wet area and places where cockroaches reside. Cockroaches are allergic to any lights. Isnt it a good idea?
~ Sumathi, Miri

Tips from Health Kitchen

2011-01-03T19:11:00.000+08:00

Fry minced shallots in castor oil and eat with hot rice to overcome piles and constipation problems.
Cabbage: Though delicious & healthy,this leafy veggie can spur painful bloating. Avoid it or try eating it slowly for relief.
Milk:Filled with vitamins & nutrients, milk is a major offender of bloating & gas. Opt for lactose-free milk or almond milk for relief without sacrificing the milky taste.
Broccoli:Filled with fiber & vitamins, broccoli can cause gas & bloating. Try eating broccoli very slowly to reduce gas.

Tips

2011-01-02T18:40:00.000+08:00

Fry pearl sago and grind it to powder.Add it with murukku to make it more crispy.
~ Subashree, Kulalumpur

Maintenance tips

2010-07-30T08:57:00.007+08:00

To clean the oily surface of your stove add a pinch of vinegar to the normal soap you use to clean and scrub.
Put some neem leaves or dry chilli in your rice storewell to avoid small insects and worms.
If you are to leave your vessels unwashed in the sink for a night, then do not forget to squeeze lime juice over them. Doing this prevents foul smell and also insects like cockroaches and small flies in your kitchen.
Stick a list of grocery items in your fridge or a place in kitchen where your eye focuses regularly. Strike the items whatever you finish in the list as such. This list will aid you plan for your shopping.
I keep a small cassette player in my kitchen to play my favourite melodies as I cook. Hearing music while cooking makes me do cooking with pleasure rather than a burden.

Kitchen Tips

2010-04-13T08:36:00.004+08:00

Soak bittergourd in salt water for 1/2 an hour before cuting to cook to overcome its bitterness.
When cooking peas add a bit of sugar to get good aroma.
Mix butter with chopped onions to keep it fresh.
To overcome smell in knife due to chopping onions & garlic, apply some salt on it.
When doing kolukattai, add some milk with water and then stir the dough so as to avoid splits.
When you have mint leaves more than required in store then allow it to dry and then pack in a tight plastic container. It is reusable. Whenever you need to gring any masala for gravy just add them.
When you cut cabbage do not throw its stem. Cook it in regular sambar. It will be very delicious.
Add coconut water along with tamarind pulp when cooking rasam to yield an yummy rasam.
When cooking coconut burfi, also add roasyed coarse powder of groundnut to it for enhanced taste of Burfi.
When you give vegetable soup to kids, to make it more delicious and attractive, add nicely chopped and ghee roasted cashew nuts and deep fried bread crumbles along with it. The Kids will ask you ' Mum, Once more..'
Soak chilli in warm water and then use for cooking to discard Ulcer.
The word 'recipe' comes from latin word that means 'Take!" Doctors wrote this word in prescriptions to tell a drugist to 'take' certain drugs and combine them to make medicine.More Tips....

Sambar Tips

2009-10-19T10:51:00.001+08:00

To avoid gastric problems due to Toor dal, roast the dal before pressure cooking.
To get a thick sambar, add a teaspoon of rice flour to it and bring to boil before turning off.
Add 2 chopped green chillies, some curry leaves, close the lid before turn off. The aroma would wake up even a sleeping person.

Cooking Tips

2009-08-08T01:03:00.005+08:00

To avoid using baking soda in bajji, boondi, add a spoon of hot oil to the paste and go for deep frying. The snack wont be oily also
You can add kesar powder or saffron powder to the sweets made out of sugar. But to the sweets made of jaggery even if you add color it will not change.
Do you have left over Idiyappam(cooked rice vermicilli)? Dont worry. Soak them in yeast formed curd a night and dry it the next day and deep fry in oil to have crispy curcurre or pappads
Try this! Take 1:1 proportion of a glass of wheat flour and water. Mix well and boil it. If the flour is cooked, add a spoon of oil and make small round balls, knead it and thaw it to make chapathi. You will get very delicious one without making the dough.
If you dont have red chilli or green chilli when you are to do coconut chutney, try pepper instead of them along with little cumin seeds. You will have a special flavour and your guests also will be delighted.
Use pepper instead of chillies in all your meals to avoid ulcer and heartattack problems. Pepper gives the same hot spice that chilli gives with a different aroma and flavour. Try for good health.
When you are to taste a recipe that you are cooking, use spoon to taste rather than your hand as cleanliness is an important ingredient in all recipes.
Always rinse onions before you go for cutting to get rid of dirts and tears.
When you use gingelly oil for cooking snacks or any deep fry, to avoid its foam add a piece of banana skin and allow to boil and then remove it. You will never get that foam due to gingely oil.

Cooking Tips

2009-08-08T01:00:00.003+08:00

To overcome oily feel in pans and tava, rinse them with 2 spoons of buttermilk and then wash.
To avoid black spots in bananas, place them in brown covers.
To overcome the itchy effect of colacasia roots, peel its skin, wash and then boil them in tamarind water before going for any recipe out of it.
If any spinach gravy is left over, mix with it - soaked and ground urad dal flour, curry leaves, a pinch of asafoetida, salt and make tasty crispy vada.
The pet water bottles are now available in different colors and diffeent patterns. Its better to buy plain and transparent light colored bottles to ease cleaning of bottles often and also any dirts or dusts in water will be easily locatable.
Do you know the difference between baking soda and baking powder? Baking Soda - It will give crispy effect. used to make crisp choco-chip cookies. It gives a flatter appearance to cookies. Baking powder - when added to dough it gives a softer, more cake like spongy cookie.
I had some leftover sugar syrup of Jamoon. When preparing Tea, instead of sugar I added 2 spoons of syrup to it. The tea had a very special flavour and my guests kept on asking me what Tea was it?
Add 1/2 tbsp of lime extract to sugar syrup while making laddu, halwa, badusha so that the whitening of syrup doesnt occur.
When you get burns while cooking oil items, apply salt water immediately to avoid scar.

Kitchen Tips

2009-05-27T08:27:00.001+08:00

1. Apply a pinch of oil over eggs to avoid getting spoiled
2. When you boil lentils add a dry red chilli along with it for more flavour and get cooked quickly
3. When you make adai dosai also gring 2 potatoes along with it for a great taste
4. When you make food packets in banana leaf, dip the leaf in hot water and make for a perfect pack
5. When you do vatha kulambu fry chopped orange skin, green chilli in oil along with mustard seeds and curry leaves for a great aroma and flavour.
6. To have fresh lime dip the lemon in midst of salt
7. Wash bronze and copper vessels with salt and lime juice to get a shiny look
8. Do not use bronze or silver spoons for pickles. Use only wooden or plastic spoons
9. When you cut boiled eggs, dip the knife in chilled water and then cut to make perfect egg slices
10. When you make omlette, add a spoon of maida( maize flour) along with it for yummy taste and a big omllete.
11. When you make ulunu vada, grind a handful of cabbage along with it for a bigger and tastier
one.
12. When you make dosa, to get a crispier one and make it easier, apply a spoon of oil and salt on the dasa pan an heat it before you do dosa
13. To avoid insects, worms in wheat flours, add a spoon of salt in the flour box
14. When you cut the chicken meat, before you do apply turmeric powder over it, keep it for 10 minutes as such and then cut. Now you wont have that smell.
15. Cover spinach with wet paper it wont droop so fast.
16. To differentiate baking soda between washing soda:
When you touch baking soda with wet finger, it will turn to a light brown while washing soda will be hot.
17. Do you cry whe you peel onions? Dont worry keep them in fridge for half an hour before you peel.
18. To cook the roots and tubers (potatoes, yam, beetroot, sepam, sweet potatoe) quickly soak them in salt water for 10 minutes before you cook.
19. To increase the life span of meat in fridge keep them along with bay leaf.
20.Add a drop of Lime extract while you pressure cook rice to see it soft like jasmine

21. When you melt butter for ghee, add any of the following to get a great aroma.

pepper
fenugreek
a spoon of buttermilk
curry leaves
drumstick leaves

Also find Herbal tips here...........

Cooking Tips

2009-03-27T14:49:00.000+08:00

1. Add butter to egg and beat it, before you make Omlette for a more excellent taste.
2. To sprout the grains, soak them for 8 hours, drain the water and place them in Hotpack or any plastic cotainer and keep it closed for a night. The next morning you see beautiful sprouted grains.
3. When you make porridge for kids, add a spoon of corn flour to get extra protein contents for your kids.
4. When your dish becomes too salty, add either of milk, cream, curd, lime juice, tomato pulp appropriately that suits your dish. Adding potatoe also lowers the salt content.
5. Fry cabbage with ginger till cooked and grind with chilli, salt and curd to make a different raita.
6. Grind soaked Peas with chilli, salt, asafoetida, and add curry leaves to make crispy vada. Can add cabbage and onion also.
7. If you have previous day's cooked rice, dont worry. Make a superb dosai out of it as follows: Grind that rice, add gram flour, green chilli, salt, curry leaves, corriander leaves, 1 spoon curd, mix well and make a crispy, yummy dosai.
8. When you prepare soup add 2 spoons of barley water along with for a more healthy soup.
9. Avoid buying potatoes in green color
10. If cooked spinach or keerai masiyal is left over, add flour of urad dal and try a vadai out of it. Really it will be very tasty.

More on next week..............

Kitchen Tips

2009-03-17T19:37:00.000+08:00

Kitchen is the prominent place in the home, more loved and is the best place to savour the pleasure of being together with all the tastes, memories and daily habits of the family. So each and every activity in kitchen counts for health and economical means also.I herewith give some titbits or tips and tricks on all kitchen matters from my collection. Actually this collection is hiered from my Mother and most of them from my Sisters family. It also includes tips from the magazine "Magayar Malar" a very good old and still a successful magazine for women in tamilnadu, India. I was maintaning a seperate blog on this topic. But keeping in mind that to bring all kitchen aspects at one point for foodies I have forwarded all posts from that to here.

I categorise the tips as follows:
1. Kitchen Layout based on Fengshui & Vaastu Sastra
2. Kitchen maintenance Tips
3. Economical cooking Tips

Hope my tips would be fruitful to you all and am to add more tips apart from recipes in the following days...

Maintenance Tips - 2

2009-03-17T19:35:00.000+08:00

21. When you plant the rose plant, plant along with it 2 onions to avoid any insect bites.
22. Place an onion plant in kitchen in a small pot. Lizards will never enter your kitchen.
23. Place a chalk piece in your toolbox to avoid rusting of tools.
24. Apply wax to new chappals inner line and wear to avoid having itchy wounds.
25. Use nailpolish remover to remove the hair-dye stains in clothes.
26. Try brushing your teeth with pomegranate skin once a week to get strong and glittering teeth.
27. To avoid Jeans clothes from fading rinse it in 2 tbsp vinegar in half bucket water.
28. To maintain the freshness of ghee add a piece of jaggery to it.
29. To avoid yeast forming in curd, put a piece of coconut in it.
30. To get aroma in drinking water add a Tulasi leaf in your water can

Maintenance Tips - 1

2009-03-17T19:34:00.000+08:00

1. Sprinkle asafoetida around the kitchen cabinet to interdict ants.
2. A boundry of cloves also can be made around Kitchen granary store to prevent ants.
3. Neem Leaves on rice bags ad dals prevents insects.
4. To avoid flies in kitchen, mob the kitchen with water added with little salt.
5. To get glittering vessels, soak them in yeast formed milk or curd and then wash.
6. Place dried lemon and orange skins on cabinets for freshness and avoid amall insects.
7. Place a bowl of water with camphor pieces in bedroom corner to avoid mosquitos.
8. To avoid bad smell in flasks, keep with flask with litte vinegar.
9. when making curd add some steamed rice water or porridge to it to get a cake like curd
10. Sprinkle camphor powder on wooden articles to avoid getting decayed by white ants.
11. When performing Yagas at home switch on exhaler fans or keep a table fan facing window and switch on to get the smoke away.
12. Apply 2 drops of perfume to any bulbs on your room and allow it to glow. The entire room will be perfumated.
13. Add a spoon of table salt on the water to wash white clothes to get more whitening effect.
14. To remove over dirts from school uniforms like that soak them in mild hot water before washing.
15. Do the same tips to remove blood stain from any clothes
16. When you light candles during power cut, place a mirror behind the glowing candle to get brightened.
17. Cover bananas with wet cloth to avoid bananas becoming black.
18. Add castor oil to little water and wipe the wooden articles to get the varnishing effect.
19. Place tobacco leaves on book shelves to protect books from insect bites.
20. Use nailpolish remover to clean stained white phone to retain the white color.

4 comments :

Gayathri said...
Great tips, love 'em, keep writing such wonderful posts..
March 2, 2009 7:40 PM

women-wisdom.com said...
Thanx gayathri, your comments are so encouraging
March 12, 2009 4:52 PM

Gayathri said...
Hi,I am regularing visiting your blog, to get more tips, you are so good in giving tips,Can you let me what should i do to keep a half cut apple in the fridge fresh, it turns brown most of the times
March 17, 2009 9:53 AM

women-wisdom.com said...
Gayathri, Thanx a lot dear for your regular visit.Apples do turn dark due to oxidation. Normally i used to apply a bit of lime juice over it to avoid turning dark and it works. The taste also is more good when doing this tip. Have a look at why oxidation takes place at this link.http://www.springerlink.com/content/lq1553u46353837k/
March 17, 2009 4:08 PM

Economical cooking Tips

2009-03-17T19:33:00.000+08:00

Pranam Ladies & Foodies, I am in practice with these tips which are really economical that I rarely go for wasting any left over foods and also some tips that are too easy but adds more flavour to normally cooked simple dishes . Try this .....

1. Add a spoon of curd when making dough for Puri to get it softer
2. Add a spoon of cream or milk when making chapathi dough for softer. You can also follow this that make dough in the same container of milk when its emptied. So the layers of milk left behind will automatically get mixed in the dough.
3. When you make syrup for Jamoon, add a spoon of honey then off the fire. This will act as a perservaive for the syrup & give longer life
4. If Sooji uppuma is left over, mix rice flour with it & make vadai. The taste is superb.
5. Instead of onion, potato, brinjal, plantain bajji try cucumber bajji. Easy to digest also.
6. When making laddoo add 2 drops of any fruit essense to the mixture to have excess aroma and better taste
7. When making Dosa use gingely oil to get crispy dosa and also to have less oil consumption.
Instead of using chilli for chutney or Thuvayal use balck pepper for different taste and more good aroma
8. When making ladies finger bhajji, add a spoon of curd or 1/2 spoon of tamarind pulp to overcome the sticky charater and also the vege will be crispy.
9. Soak any kind of leafy vegetables like spinach in sugar water for sometimes and then go for regular cooking. and enjoy a extremely high taste of greens
10. Fry some fenugreek and make powder of it. Add this powder to Sambar or rasam or Puli Kulambu at the final stage of cooking and then switch off the fire. The aroma will spread to atleast 5 houses.
11. When you cook sago Kheer add 2 spoons of fried wheat flour mixed with milk to get a thick and better flavoured kheer.
12. Simple way of making butter at home: Make curd of the daily collection of milk cream(aadai or milk layers) and the next day with ordinary spoon stir the curd to get the ball of butter immediately.
13. When making ghee add curry leaves or fenugreek or murungai keerai( leaves of drumstick trees) to get best aroma.
14. Try making rasam from coconut water. Really delicious you know.
15. Add 1/2 spoon ginger extract to cauliflower or cabbage bhajji to overcome gastric trouble and also a different taste.
16. If corriander chutney is left over, mix it with curd and make a spicy buttermilk for summer.
17. When you make potato chips, as soon as you cut potatos for chips put them in cold water to get crispier one and no reddish colored chips.
18. Add vinegar in water to potato or cauliflower bahjji to avoid change of color.
19. Apart from green vege cook closing the lid of pan to avoid fuel loss.

Tips for Kitchen Layout

2009-03-17T19:31:00.000+08:00

Kitchen should be like a dome of the entire house as it is the place where importance of health steps from. It should be constructed and design with aim of making it a place in which it is pleasing to be together of the entire family who will find it easy to move about among extremely functional articles. It need not be larger and i have seen many small kitchens in my hometown being attractive and welcoming, perfectly in tune with the sorroundings and with the traditions talking family values. I share herewith some of the major disciplines that can be brought into our kitchen in the name of 'Fengshui' and 'Vaastu Sastra'. The hob can be placed in a central position with a canopy formed by its hood to destroy odour and fill the ambience with light at the same time. In most of the Indian Kitchens, hob facing right side is preferred according to 'Vaastu Sastra' so that anybody has to cook facing only east. The electrical appliances have to be carefully concealed beneath the worktop and not reachable to Kids.

According to fengshui an efficient and practical kitchen layout is one where the major three elements:

Washing area
Refrigerator
Cooking range

All these three have to be placed at a distance not less than 6m between them and not broken by full heights, fittments doors or passages.

Mosaic, ceramic tiles, marbles are mostly used for Flooring. Stone flooring or ceramic tiles are preferred for Indian conditions, keeping in mind the sorrounding dirt and dust since the material is hard and stin/ scratch resistant.
Good quality plastic emulsion paint for areas under the sink and near the wash area are required.
Cabinets are usually made of 19mm commercial block boards with laminate or enamel/duco paint.
Above all the kitchen layout should be designed airy to match the preferred style of the individual user, and style of cooking. And however is the layout designed, cleanliness is the only boost for the kitchen to give a pleasant and attarctive look. Such marked personalities of an innovative kitchen brings the home the soothing atmosphere of lively activity.

5 comments:

Gayathri said...

Great entry. i like the way you present your thought, good job

March 6, 2009 7:18 AM

women-wisdom.com said...

Thanx gayathri. U made my day with your comments

March 12, 2009 4:54 PM

Oak Solid Worktops said...

HiGood to see your information on Kitchen Worktops good work and excellent information provided by you.keep going and also provide more info on Solid Iroko Worktops & Kitchen Walnut Worktops.

March 13, 2009 12:27 AM

Oak Solid Worktops said...

Great work is done by you keep going and increase traffic.and also increase traffic for this also Iroko Breakfast Bar

March 13, 2009 12:39 AM

women-wisdom.com said...

Thanx Oak. Great encouragement from you. Well I will include your site in my blog on Kitchen layout post

March 16, 2009 11:56 PM