Cooking Tips

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• I always use non-stick or thick bottomed vessels, they use less oil to cook. 
• The ingredients of the recipes can be modified according to your taste. Go ahead and experiment. The worst thing that can happen is you may not like it, you can always try again. With baking however, be sure to get the measurements right, flavoring is of your choice, rest has to be followed the way it is written.
• If you are a vegan, use vegan substitutes for milk products and eggs. If you are Jain, then you can eliminate root vegetables in almost all recipes. Some are based on roots, which can not be helped. 
• Please visit my friend Sruthi's blog for Non-Veg Indian and Andhra recipies @ www.sruthiskitchen.blogspot.com
• If you do not have an Indian mixi, you can make powders in a blender jar, provided your mixi speed is 12 and above. Use the crush ice option, you can make a coarse workable powder, that is what I do.

1. Unfortunately, no matter how many pre cut vegetables we get in the market, we will have to chop a few ourselves. So chop the veggies when you find time and put them in small freezer bags or freezer safe boxes and store them away. All you have to do when cooking is, bring the veggies you might need out 15 minutes before you start cooking. Storing chopped veggies this way cuts prep time to 3/4 or more and also reduces cook time to a large extent. Storing in small quantities is essential as it reduces thawing time and you will always thaw quantity close to your usage.

2. Processing fresh herbs is also a problem during cooking when you find less time. So do it before hand, whenever you find some time, while watching tv or something, put them in a freezer safe box or bag. Cut a small strip of kitchen tissue or any other thick tissue, place it in the box or bag with herbs and put it in the fridge, not freezer.

3. . To cook vegetables faster and use very little oil, you can steam the chopped veggies in the microwave for 5 - 7 minutes depending on the microwave capacity. This will reduce cooking time in half and oil also by half.

- courtesy my friend Shruti.

4. Do not chop herbs like onions, garlic and ginger before hand. they tend to lose all their goodness when refrigerated or frozen.

5. You can replace water with vegetable broth in soup recipes. If you are a non vegetarian, you may replace water with chicken broth.

6. When are cooking many varieties, make a mental list of all the common vegetables and herbs used. When chopping, chop enough for all the dishes, it will save you time, you can finish all the chopping at one time for the varieties.