South Indian Cooking Tips by my grandma

Curry turned out a bit oily and pungent:

No problem take 2 bread slices and make it like a powder. Now add to curry and mix well. Bread absorbs the excess oil and spice.

Want to make a fluffy omelet:

Heat the pan add some oil or butter, then beat the egg and pour into the pan and stir with a fork. The air goes inside omelet, making light and fluffy. Serve hot.

How to make idly soft:

While you make urad dal paste, in a hot water add half cup of rava (semolina) and rest for 2 to 3 minutes. Now compress it and add into urad dal paste. Next day you get soft idly recipe.

How to preserve ginger-garlic paste:

Before grinding ginger garlic fry them in oil and store in the same oil.

To avoid sticky rice:

1. Soak the rice in water 10 mins before cooking.
2. Add a teaspoon of oil to the cooked rice.

To avoid foaming hot oil:

During any deep fry some times oil foam and rise up in the pan, For that add small piece of tamarind to the oil.

Reducing fat in chicken:

Before marinating the skin of the chicken has to be reduced this will decrease the fat in the chicken by 10 grams per serving.

Forgot to soak chana:

If you forgot to soak chana overnight, no problem soak the chana in a flask filled with boiling water for an hour. The chana will be ready for cooking.

To fry onions faster:

While frying the onions if you add ½ tsp of salt it will become brown faster.

To remove garlic skin easily:

The skin of garlic can be easily removed if the garlic's are warmed little before you start peeling.

Oil safety cooking:

When cooking with oil you need be very careful sometime the boiling oil stars foaming rising out of the pan. You can avoid this by adding a small size of tamarind ball to the oil.

How to make soft chapati:

To make chapati soft there are two steps do be done.

1. While making dough use milk or yoghurt instead of water.

2. The more pressing the dough by your hand gives more smother.

Finally cover with a soggy cloth and set sideways for half an hour before using.

Easy Mash Potatoes:

Mash potatoes while it is hot, because mashing is easy and fine mash will done.

Cooking vegetables in microwave:

While cooking in the microwave to maintain the fresh green colour add pinch of soda bicarb to green vegetables

Peel Tomato Skin:

To easy peel skin of tomato place tomatoes in hot water for 5-7 minutes before use for peeling.