15 Cooking Tips for an Indian Kitchen

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Indian food is devoured all over the world and surely is delectable. Especially because of they use so many different spices in their recipes. Not just this, Indian recipes are hard to make. So, in this article, I have compiled a list of some few essential tips for the Indian kitchen to make it all simpler for the cook in you.

  1. A great tip to preserve lemon juice is by putting it in ice trays and freezing it. This way, the juice doesn’t get spoilt and then you may use it over and over again for almost 15 to 20 days.
  1. For getting softer chapatis, add to the flour a teaspoon of oil and knead the dough with warm water. Then later once you have done kneading, rest the dough in a bowl and cover for at least 15 minutes.
  1. While cooking rice for pulao or biryanis, you should add some salt, oil and a few drops of lemon juice to the rice. This will yield fluffy grains and each separate.
  1. When cooking dals or other beans for making dishes like Rajma masala or Dal fry or chole, do not add salt to the water while you are pressure cooking it. This will take care that the dal/beans are cooked to the optimum.
  1. For perfect tempering of the fodni, first put only oil in the pan and then heat the oil. Later add the spices and transfer over dish as soon as the mustard/cumin seeds have spluttered. If you add spices to the cold oil, it doesn’t carry much of the spice flavor to your food.
  1. A tip on getting mashed potato in under 5 minutes. Cut the potato in half and place it in a microwave safe box or a bowl with a lid with 2 tablespoons of water in it and take care to place the cut side facing up. Microwave on high for 4-5 minutes depending on the size of the potato and then let it cool for 2 minutes and peel and its ready to eat.
  1. Getting finely grated ginger made simple for you. Freeze the peeled ginger and grate it whenever required. Storing it in the freezer makes sure it stays fresh for a long time and you thus get finely grated ginger too.
  2. If any dal or curry that you made has become over salted a simple way to reduce the salinity is to add a half peeled raw potato and simmer for a few minutes on the gas. The potato will absorb the excess salt. If you don’t have a potato, a tightly pressed ball of cooked rice can also work for you.
  1. To retain the bright green color of any spinach based curries you are making like PalakPaneer, etc., blanche spinach leaves in boiling water in and then again refresh in cold water before pureeing.
  1. Coconut is amply used in many Tamil and Malayalam dishes as an essential garnish. To store coconuts for a long time and enhance their flavor more, grate the entire coconut and put it in a ice cube tray and store it in the freezer. Once it’s all frozen, save these grated coconut cubes in a sealable bag in the freezer and use as required.
  1. Once you are done eating a banana do not throw banana peel away. You can put it for a good use. It is loaded with potassium and can be used to reduce wrinkles around the eyes. Just rub the inside of the peel below and around your eyes and done.
  1. Before squeezing a lemon, microwave the whole lemon for 10 seconds in the microwave oven to get maximum juice out of it. This trick also works for oranges as well. If you don’t have a microwave oven, roll the lemon firmly on the chopping board or kitchen counter top before squeezing.
  1. Veggies like potato, sweet potato, eggplant or plantain, all these tend to discolor once they are cut. So, once cut, immerse them in a bowl of water until you are ready to cook with them.
  1. Stock up on the basic whole spices and spice powders in small batches. Always buy any spice powders in small batches only so that they have their freshness till they last in your kitchen.This way, once you run out of spices, you can buy fresh new ones from your usual spice store again.
  1. Never add spice powders directly to hot oil in the pan. This will burn the spices pretty quickly. So, add these spice powders directly into the masala and add a splash of water and cook again till oil separates. Oil separation indicates that the spices are cooked completely. Now, go on to add your meat fish or veggies to make your curry.

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