Saturday, January 30, 2010

kitchen tips

►flexible breast bone and firm pink flesh, weighing around 0.4 to 0.7 KG.
►. Lamb (White Meat) requires more cooking in comparison to Mutton (Red Meat). If Lamb / Mutton is slightly underdone, it is not harmful, but Pork meat should always be thoroughly done.
► Avoid washing grill top with water, instead use rock salt and oil on hot grill and wipe it with a cloth duster before use, it ensures non stick (seasoned) grilling all the time.
►The strength of flour (atta, maida) can be determined by the amount of water it absorbs while kneading. See to it that kneading is given its due importance while making the dough. More the absorption better is the flour strength-wise resulting in a better product.
► Do not discard the cut away skin of pineapple, it can be used to make an alcoholic or non- alcoholic drink. The simplest is a drink, made by simmering the skins with water, sugar or honey and a little lime juice. When cool, strain out the solids, and add chopped fresh mint, serve this juice chilled.
►. If there is less butter for making sandwiches, you can extend it by beating in some fresh milk (100 ml per 150 gm butter). Add the milk in a thin stream to the softened butter, beat with a wooden spoon or in a blender / food processor.
►. Roll ripe bananas in a bed of chopped nuts or scraped fresh coconut or desiccated coconut and freeze. This treat tastes and has the texture of an ice cream and can be served as a special and healthy treat to children specially during the summer season.
► To remove the odour of onions from your hands after cutting or slicing onions, rub a little milk, then wash with a little soap.

►. Can-openers function better when dipped in hot water.
►. To measure honey, coat the measuring spoon or cup with a little oil, this will help in honey sliding off easily from the spoon or cup.
►. To remove tea or coffee stains from pots or cups, rub the stained area with a little salt and rinse afterwards.
►. To remove a spoonful of honey from the jar easily, slightly heat the spoon, the honey will come off easily.
► To remove the lemon rind from a grater run a straight bladed knife across the grater and remove the rest with the help of a toothbrush.
►. If you want to avoid using colour in tandoori chicken, use lime water and turmeric instead.
►. To make vinegar last twice as much, divide the vinegar in two bottles and add water which has been boiled, after a week it will come up to full strength again.
► You can create your own tea bag by putting the required amount of tea in a muslin bag on a string and adding it to the pot , you can remove this bag easily when the tea has steeped enough and it helps not only in cleaning, but also the leaves can be easily scattered in the garden.

►. To remove unpleasant odours from the oven, place a wide pan with warm water in which used tea leaves have been added and leave it to stand in the oven for some time. Even a bowl of warm water with vinegar or lime juice does the trick.
► Always use 2 bowls for breaking 2 or more eggs. Use one bowl to break one egg at a time and collect the clean broken egg in the other. If an egg is bad, then that can be identified and thrown and not mixed with the rest.
►. One teaspoon of vinegar added to oil while deep frying foods will prevent them from absorbing too much oil.
► Give extra colour to tomato soup or sauce by adding a slice of cooked beetroot.
► If after cooking you find that the soup is too thin, you can thicken it by adding a mashed boiled potato.
► When making cutlets you can substitute dry breadcrumbs with finely crushed cornflakes.
► Grease your baking tray and dust with flour bef
► To prevent raisins or fruits from sinking in cakes and puddings, coat them with dry flour and add to your batter, they will not sink to the bottom during baking. If nuts are to be placed on the top of cakes or biscuits, dip them in milk first. They will not fall off while baking.
► Before removing the cakes from the tins, leave it for five minutes to shrink. Always turn it out onto a clean towel and then reverse it on a rack or a flat plate to avoid any markings on the cake.
►. To get light spongy idlis, do not stir the batter when pouring it in the moulds. Instead, mix it well the night before.
►. Chapattis would come out very soft if a little rice flour is used while rolling out the dough.
►. Add a knob of butter to spaghetti or noodles after draining them so that they do not stick together.
►. Coat cutlets with a fine powder of roasted chickpeas if you have run out of breadcrumbs. You can also coat them with semolina.
► If soda bicarbonate is not at hand, add a pinch of fruit salt to pakora batter to make them soft and fluffy.ore pouring in your cake mixture. The cake will come out easily when baked.

► To prevent gummy noodles, rice and macaroni, add two teaspoon of limejuice or cooking oil to the water before cooking. This prevents them from sticking together.
►Vegetables cooked with their skin retain a larger part of vitamins.
► Low heat is best for cooking eggs because too high a temperature toughens the egg white and shrinks the protein content.
► A few pieces of tender raw papaya added to meat while cooking helps to soften it.
► When adding beaten egg to meat loaf or meat balls, etc. reserve a little for brushing or coating the surface. This prevents cracking of the surface and gives a uniform brown and attractive colour.
► Save cooking cost by pressure-cooking chicken and mutton and then proceeding with the recipe.

► Use a meat baster to "squeeze" your pancake batter onto the hot griddle - perfect shaped pancakes every time.
►To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.
► To prevent egg shells from cracking, add a pinch of salt to the water before hard-boiling.

►To get the most juice out of fresh lemons, bring them to room temperature & roll them under your palm against the kitchen counter before squeezing.
► To easily remove burnt-on food from your skillet, simply add a drop or two of dish soap and enough water to cover bottom of pan, and bring to a boil on stovetop-skillet will be much easier to clean.
►When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking pan, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead-no white mess on the outside of the cake.

► If you accidentally over-salt a dish while it's still cooking, drop in a peeled potato-it absorbs the excess salt for an instant "fix me up.
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► Brush beaten egg white over pie crust before baking to yield a beautiful glossy finish.
► Place a slice of apple in hardened brown sugar to soften it back up.
► When boiling corn on the cob, add a pinch of sugar to help bring out the corn's natural sweetness. (ah, an old 1940’s Fannie Farmer trick!)
►To determine whether an egg is fresh, immerse it in a pan of cool, salted water. If it sinks, it is fresh-if it rises to the surface, throw it away.
►. Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.
► Don't throw out all that leftover wine: Freeze into ice cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces.
►have a problem opening jars: Try using latex dishwashing gloves. They give a non-slip grip that makes opening jars easy.
► Potatoes will take food stains off your fingers. Just slice and rub raw potato on the stains and rinse with water.
► To get rid of itch from mosquito bite: try applying soap on the area, instant relief.
► Ants, ants, ants everywhere ... Well, they are said to never cross a chalk line. So get your chalk out and draw a line on the floor or wherever ants tend to march-see for yourself.
► When you get a splinter, reach for the scotch tape before resorting to tweezers or a needle. Simply put the scotch tape over the splinter, then pull it off. Scotch tape removes most splinters painlessly and easily.
►Clean a toilet-drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets, wait twenty minutes, brush, and flush. The citric acid and effervescent action clean vitreous china.
►Clean a vase-to remove a stain from the bottom of a glass vase or cruet, fill with water and drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets.
►Polish jewelry-drop two Alka-Seltzer tablets into a glass of water and immerse the jewelry for two minutes.
►Clean a thermos bottle-fill the bottle with water, drop in four Alka-Seltzer tablets, and let soak for an hour (or longer, if necessary).

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