TIPS

Tips On Cutting & Peeling :

• Wash vegetables before peeling or cutting to preserve the water soluble vitamins.
• Peel vegetables as thinly as possible to preserve the minerals and vitamins.
• Soak potatoes and eggplant after cutting, to avoid discoloration.
• If you boil vegetables in water, do not throw the water, keep it to make gravies.
• To avoid browning of apples after cutting, apply a little lemon juice on the cut surface. The apples will stay and look fresh for a longer time.
• Keep coriander leaves in a muslin (cheese) cloth bag in the refrigerator. They will remain fresh for a longer time.
• Remove the stems of green chilies while storing them .This will help them to stay fresh for long.
• After peeling onions cut in half and soak in water for about 10 minutes before cutting to avoid crying.
• Soak almonds in a cup of boiling water for 10 minutes .The skin will peel off easily.
• Chopping vegetables can be done in different ways using a sharp knife and a wooden chopping board. Cutting on a marble slab will blunt your knives.
• Remove the outer leaves and husks from the corn . Holding the corn upright with the flat end firmly in a board, take a sharp knife and run it down between the kernels and the cob to strip them away.
• Wrap the fruits and vegetables in newspaper before refrigerating to keep them fresh for long.
• Chopping dry fruits - Freeze them first for one hour & then dip the knife into hot water before cutting them.

Measurement

• So many experienced home cooks seldom measure their ingredients. They use a pinch and a pinch of that, depending on look and feel to know what is right. Key word here is "experienced". For beginner, it is best to always measure ingredients. The essential part of kitchen should be a set of measuring cups and measuring spoons.After measuring you should conform with the recipe in using "heaping" or "level" measurements. A "heaping" spoonful is just what it says, you mound  the ingredient on the spoon. However, a "level" spoonful should be leveled by raking a knife or your finger across the top area of the spoon.

Seasoning

• Good use of seasoning is one of the secrets to cooking. Good cooks season "to taste". In other words, when possible use a little less seasoning than the recipe calls for and taste the dish when nearly completed cooking. Then add more seasoning to achieve the flavor you prefer.

Baking

• Temperatures of oven vary. Because the dial says 400 degrees does not necessarily mean your individual oven will be 400 degrees. Trick is always to use a timer when baking and check the dish a few minutes before the prescribed baking time expires. Then adjust the baking time as needed for oven.Always pre-heat your oven to the required baking temperature. Never start baking in a cold oven.

Tools of the Trade

• A good set of pots and pans, while not essential, will certainly make the job easier and much pleasant. With some dishes the wrong cooking utensil may even ruin your dish. You should not use reactive pots and pans when cooking acidic foods. Reactive materials impart a metallic taste and can discolor your food. Two common acidic foods are vinegar or tomato based dishes. Reactive metals include copper, aluminum, and cast iron. Non-reactive materials are stainless steel, enamel and  glass.

Timing

• A very general problem beginners have is in timing their cooking so that everything gets to the table hot. This is not rocket science, just a matter of planning ahead. Here's how. Before putting anything on the stove, take a minute to think about the cooking time required for each food item. For example, you are preparing hamburgers & french fries. French fries will take considerable longer to cook that the hamburgers, therefore, you want to start the fries first. Simple?
• Should also be aware of certain foods that are difficult to keep hot or do not lend themselves to re-heating, such as mashed potatoes. They should always be the last dish cooked since they do not stay hot long and are really not very good cold.