Roochis: Kitchen Tips

Showing posts with label Kitchen Tips. Show all posts

Diabetes-Why and What ?

Our Body’s Main source of Energy is Glucose, passed via the bloodstream, is the Major source of energy for the body's cells in our Body.

Normally, in our Blood, blood glucose levels stay within a set - narrow limit throughout the day:
Accepted Levels and Range : 4 to 8 mmol/l (70 to 150 mg/dl).

Normally Levels rise after meals and are usually lowest in the morning, before the Breakfast of the day. Diabetes mellitus is the most feared disease related to failure of blood sugar regulation and control .

Blood sugar problems and its Health effects:

If blood sugar levels drop too low, a potentially fatal condition called hypoglycemia develops.
1. Symptoms of Low Blood Sugar:
2. Symptoms may include lethargy (Inactivity; showing an unusual lack of energy)
3. impaired mental functioning
4. irritability and
5. loss of consciousness.

Hyper Glycemia: If levels remain too high, appetite is suppressed over the short term.
Long-term hyperglycemia causes many of the long-term health problems associated with diabetes including eye, kidney and nerve damage.

Diabetics should sensibly ADJUST FOOD, EXERCISE, oral Medications or insulin.

DIABETES is surely controllable through PLANNED DIET AND NUTRITION . Diabetic patients can easily lead NORMAL LIFE with the above control.

Source : Various

Tips - General

Unless cooking khichidis, potatoes, etc. avoid cooking direct in the pressure cooker. Use the containers.
Add a piece of lemon peel to the pressure cooker water, to keep the cooker from becoming black from use.
Cover the containers when cooking dal, rice, etc. to avoid spillover.
Make extra quantities of chilli or garlic or onion pastes and store in freezer for quicker use.
Never overload a pressure cooker or add too much or too little water at the base. Exploding or burning out are serious accidents.
Always sieve any flour before making dough, for hygiene as well as breaking any lumps that may be present.
For soft Dosas, add some boiled rice to white gram and rice, while grinding.
To adjust salt when the salt is toomuch in curries add roasted rice powder.
If the curd is too sour, add 4 cups of water to it. After half an hour, remove the water collected on top.
For crispy dosas, add a teaspoon of toor dal gram and some fenugreek seeds while soaking rice.
For thick cream, cover the milk vessel with a thin muslin cloth and refrigerate over night.
While boiling eggs, put a hole with a pin on the rounded portion of the egg so that the shell won't break when boiling.
Keep boiled eggs in cold water for 5 minutes before pealing the shell.

Tips for Cooking Non-Vegetarian

When you cook chicken or meat, you should first cook on high heat to seal juices and then lower the heat and cook till it gets tender.
If you want to store fish for more than a day, first clean it, rub it with salt, turmeric and maybe, a dash of vinegar, and then freeze. It will stay fresh.
Don't salt meat before you cook it. The salt forces the juices out and impedes browning. Instead, salt meat halfway through cooking, then taste when the meat is done and adjust the salt as needed.
Meat that is partially frozen is much easier to cut or slice.
Allow meat to stand at room temperature 1 hour before cooking: It will cook more quickly, brown more evenly, and stick less when fried in pan.
To coat chicken evenly, you can place the seasoning or crumbs in a plastic bag or box, and then add a few pieces at a time and shake them well.

Read complete post...

Tips - Gravies

Always use ghee or vanaspathi with or instead of oil, which gives a good flavour to the gravy. If oil alone is used, it does not get separated easily from the ground mixture, as ghee separates from it.
Fry the ground masala in reduced flame, so that it retains its colour and taste.
Little plain sugar or caramelised sugar added to the gravy makes it tasty.
When tomatoes are not in season, tomato ketchup or sauce can be used in the gravies.
To retain colour in the gravy always use ripe red tomatoes. Discard green portions if any.
Good variety chillies and chilli powder also gives colour to the gravy. As far as possible try to use long variety red chillies. Dry it under sun for few days and powder coarsely at home. Coarsely ground powder gives good taste in gravies and pickles.
While using ginger and garlic paste in curries, always use garlic at 60% ratio and ginger at 40% as ginger is very strong and may make your dish sharp and pungent.
When you cook dal add some refined oil or garlic. It will reduce gas trouble.
If you don't have any cream to add in the soup or gravy, add a mixture of butter and milk.

Tips on Cooking

To make 1 cup of dal, add atleast 2-3 cups of water, depending on the type of dhal.
Soak whole pulses overnight and dhals for one hour before cooking.
Always add hot water to the gravy to enhance the taste.
Add 1 tbl spn of hot oil to the dough for making Kachories or Kulchas.
Always use heavy bottomed vessels to make desserts, in order to avoid burning.
Make desserts with full cream milk, to get thick creamy texture.
Whenever curd is to be added to the masala, it should be beaten well and add slowly.
While boiling milk, always add a little water at the base of the vessel to avoid the milk from sticking at the bottom.
Add a tsp. of hot oil to home made pastes of garlic, ginger or green chili, along with salt to make it preserve longer and taste fresher.
Store raisins in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They will stay fresh for much longer. Pour very hot water over them if they are harden, after that drain them immediately, and spread on a paper towel to dry.
Add a few drops of lemon a tsp of oil to rice before boiling to separate each grain, this is mainly when you want to do lemon rice or layered biryani.
Immediately after boiling noodles put them in normal cold water so that they dont become sticky.
If you forget to soak Channa/Rajma overnight. Just soak the Channa/Rajma in the boiling water for an hour before cooking.
Potatoes soaked in salt water for 20 minutes will bake faster.
Green peas will retain their original colour, if you add a pinch of sugar while boiling.

Tips for Storing and Chopping

Remove the stems of green chilies while storing them. This will help them to stay fresh for long.
Keep coriander leaves in a muslin cloth bag in the refrigerator. They will remain fresh for a longer time.
After peeling the onion skin, cut in half and soak in water for about 10 minutes before cutting to avoid tears.
Peel vegetable skin as thin as possible to preserve the minerals and vitamins.
Wash vegetables before peeling or cutting to preserve the water soluble vitamins.
Soak potatoes and eggplant after cutting, to avoid oxidation which dis colours them.
If you boil vegetables in water, do not throw the water use it for the sambar or rasam you prepare.
To avoid browning of apples after cutting, apply a little lemon juice on the cut surface. The apples will stay and look fresh for a longer time.
Soak almonds in a cup of boiling water for 10 minutes .The skin will peel off easily.
Wrap the fruits and vegetables in paper before refrigerating to keep them fresh for long.
Put some neem and turmeric pieces or garlic flakes in the container where you store rice or grains, in order to keep away insects.
Keep rice flour and basin in a polythene cover in refrigerator when you want them stored for a long time.
Add a pinch of corn flour to the jar of salt to prevent it from getting damp.
A bay leaf added to the flour container will keep the flour free from moisture.
To peel garlic flakes easily, wash and soak them in cold water for about an hour.
Leafy vegetables will remain fresh longer, if wrapped in news papers when you are storing.