If you’re just getting started on your cooking journey, it can be a little intimidating trying out new recipes and maybe even quite discouraging when you don’t get it right the first time. So if you want to whip up tasty delights and at the same time don't wish to spend much time in the kitchen then try these cooking tips to make your life easy.

Tips On Frying

• Heat the oil thoroughly before adding seasonings or vegetables.
• Fry the seasonings until they change color, to get the full flavor of seasonings.
• If you are making patties or tikkis of potatoes, always make sure that the potatoes are boiled well in advance and cooled before you use them. It would be better if they can be refrigerated for a short time. This helps the starch in the potatoes to settle down and the tikkis will not be gooey.
• To make pooris more crispy add a little rice flour to the wheat flour while kneading.
• Smoke Mustard oil first before using for preparing vegetables etc.. by heating to a point till light white smoke emerges from it. This would remove the potency from the oil.

Tips For Gravies:

• Always use ghee with or instead of oil, which gives a good flavor to the gravy. If oil alone is used, it does not get separated easily from the ground mixture, as ghee separates from it.
• Fry the ground masala in reduced flame, so that it retains its color and taste.
• While using ginger and garlic paste in curries, always use garlic at 60% ratio and ginger at 40% as ginger is very strong and may make your dish sharp and pungent.
• When tomatoes are not in season, tomato ketchup or sauce can be successfully used in the gravies.
• To retain colour in the gravy always use ripe red tomatoes. Discard green portions if any.

Food Storage Related Tips

• To keep ginger-garlic paste fresh for long period, mix oil and salt while preparing it and store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
• To keep green leafy vegetables fresh for 5 to 7 days, chop them and store in a thick plastic container in the refrigerator.
• To remove the skin of garlic cloves easily, rub them with a little amount of oil and dry them in sun for 20-30 minutes before peeling.
• To keep green chilies fresh for long period, remove and discard its stem before storing in the refrigerator.
• Put 3-4 cloves in sugar tin (container) to keep ants away.

Happy Cooking!