FATHIMA ANAS: Top 10 Cooking Tips For Indian Recipes

When frying, the oil should be in the correct temperature. If its too hot, the outside will get browned up too quickly before the inside gets cooked. If its not hot enough, the fried food will absorb too much oil before getting cooked.
To make crispier puris, add a little rava to the wheat flour while kneading.
To make crispier bajjis add a little corn flour to the gram flour to make bajji batter.
Use a deep vessel to fry chicken to avoid the splashing of oil and juices all around the place.
To knead chapattis, add 1/3 cup of warm water for 1 cup of flour approximately. To make softer chapattis, add warm milk or curd while kneading.
Use heavy bottomed vessel to make upma, kheer etc to prevent burning.
Toasting nuts, rice, rava and dal before cooking with it increases its flavors considerably.
Adding few drops of oil to the rice before cooking it will prevent it from becoming sticky.
Do not wash the mushrooms with water. Clean it with a damp cloth. Add salt to the mushroom only after it has browned.
Similarly adding salt to the chicken also slows up the browning.

Top 10 General Cooking Tips:

To peel the skin of almonds, tomatoes or peaches, simply soak in boiling water for 5-10 minutes. The skin can be easily removed.
To remove the corn from its cub, hold it straight with one end on the bottom of a big vessel. Then strip the corn with a knife. This will prevent messing up of the entire place.
When cutting raw banana, potatoes or eggplant, soak it in water to avoid discoloration. Similarly, to prevent apples, bananas or peaches from browning, add lemon juice.
Use the excess dal water from boiling dal to make rasam.
While adding curd to gravies or biryani, break it nicely before adding.
While boiling milk, a little water can be added to the vessel before adding the milk to avoid the milk from sticking to the bottom.
Store nuts in the refrigerator to increase their shelf life.
To separate each string of noodles or any thin pasta, run it under cold water immediately after boiling and draining the water.
Curd in winter - Set in a ceramic container and place it on the voltage stabilizer of your refrigerator.
To cut meat easily, freeze it for some time before cutting.

Tomato paste or sauce can be used instead of fresh tomatoes. This saves a lot of chopping time.
Soak chik peas in boiling water. In this way only 1-2 hours of soaking in needed.
Make ginger garlic paste in bulk and put it in the fridge.
Similarly, make green chilly paste and keep in the fridge. This saves a lot of cooking time.
While chopping vegetables, chop in a bulk, use what is needed and put the remaining in the fridge for later use. Chopping a vegetable at a stretch saves a lot of time.
Have lots of peeled garlic in an air tight box in the refrigerator.
Grate a whole coconut at a time and refrigerate it so it can be used easily whenever needed.
Fry grated coconut in bulk with curry leaves and store it in the fridge. This can be used easily whenever gravies have to be made.
Whenever you boil potatoes or cauliflower make some extra and put it in the fridge. This can be used to make stuffed parathas, cutlets etc.
Use the microwave to saute onions, tomatoes and to cook up the vegetables.

Do not wash the vegetables after peeling or chopping. This will wash out all the water soluble vitamins.
Whenever vegetables or dal is cooked in water, many nutrients are left back in the water. So do not throw it away. Instead use it when making some gravies or soups.
Potatoes have their nutrients in their skin. So try using potatoes without peeling it.
Eat fruits like apples along with its skin.
Tamarind can be substituted with raw mango powder.

Keep coriander leaves in a air tight plastic box in the refrigerator to keep them fresh for a long time.
Remove the stem of the chilly while storing them whole. Another method is to make chilly paste and store it for a long time.
To store fish longer and fresher, clean it, apply turmeric and salt and put it in the freezer.