Tips for easy cooking

• Add sugar to fresh green vegetables before cooking to improve the flavour.

• Apricots bruise easily and decay. So keep them away from heat and direct sunlight.

• Fresh eggs are best for poaching, as they hold their shape.

• To serve better, the poached eggs should be served as soon as they are pulled from the water.

• Quickly stir in a tablespoon of butter or cream when the scrambled egg is likely to be overcooked.

• To check whether the cake is fully baked or not, insert a knife. It is fully baked if the knife comes out perfectly clean. Also when fully baked, the cake shrinks slightly away from the sides of the tin.

• To retain the freshness of nuts, store them in freezer.        

• Use milk instead of water to knead puri dough. Puris will become soft and luscious.

• Use skimmed milk while making paneer (fresh cheese) to obtain a lot of proteins and very low fat.

• When whisking egg whites, greater volume can be achieved if the eggs are a little old. 

Cooking Tips / Samaiyal Kurippukal

• Avoid cooking at high temperatures; this may destroy some of the vitamins due to oxidation.

• Avoid foods that are typically sprayed with pesticides.

• Avoid using copper vessels. It destroys vitamin content.

• Boil potatoes and beetroots with the skin.

• Do not soak fruits for more than 15 minutes in water.

• Do not strain the starch water from rice.

• Don’t add too much of salt to your food.

• Instead of frying, boil or bake.

• Limit intake of pickles as pickles contain lot of salt.

• Limit intake of salty processed meats.

• Select lean meat cuts and trim the fat.

• Steam or microwave the vegetables instead of boiling them.

• Steaming is the good cooking technique. It retains more nutrients than boiling.

• Store the vegetables in a refrigerator to retain vitamin content.

• To prevent excess oil absorption, remove and drain on kitchen napkins.

• Try to boil vegetables as whole and then cut. This will retain nutrients.

• Use boiled vegetable water and lentil water for soups and gravies.

• Use fat free chicken broth.

• Use lemon juice, vinegar or spices to reduce need for salt.

• Use less soda or baking powder as it irritates intestine.

• Use low fat cooking methods like steaming, baking, poaching, broiling or grilling.

• Use low fat milk instead of full cream milk.

• Use low fat yoghurt or skim milk.

• Use neat and clean tools for cutting, especially the knife and cutting table.

• Use non stick cookware while you cook so that you use less oil.

• Wash vegetables before you chop them.