LESSONS I LEARNT IN COOKING

Some things we learn the hard way. These are a few of the things I learnt when something got wrong , most of the tips from my mother , friends and elders ,books and the internet.

MAKE AHEAD

• Powder almonds in a blender and store it in an air tight plastic container in the freezer. It is very useful in thickening gravies. There is no need to roast the almonds .
• When you get time peel garlic and ginger , make ginger garlic paste and freeze in flexible ice trays. Store these cubes in a Ziploc cover. It keeps well for a long time . Use these in anything you make . Can be put directly while sauteing.

COOKING

• There are so many cuisines in the world and thanks to the internet we can learn to cook all of these. But it's good to bear in mind that we have to learn the basics . Our taste of food ,stems from our childhood meals and that is best taught by our grandmothers, mothers, mother- in-laws , aunts ..... They have been cooking all the way and they are the best chefs, who knows the dos and the don't dos.

• You get the salt right , you get the taste right( and also the aroma).
• Frying increases the salty taste of the fried product. It tends to increase as it sits. So less salt is required if something is being fried and more salt while baking.

• Many a times adding 1/2 to 1 tsp of sugar accentuates the taste of the dish , but if the salt is right , there is no need of sugar too. The right amount of salt brings out the sweetness in the dish too.

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  Steel pressure cooker requires more liquid to cook than aluminium ones. 

• When making curries with coconut milk , very less amount or literally no oil is required.

• Appams made with refrigerated batter, puttu made with refrigerated soaked puttu podi, dosas made with refrigerated dosa batter , pancakes and waffles made with refrigerated batter come out very nice and soft compared to the non refrigerated ones. I used to wonder  WHY?? Recently I read in a book that when the batter is kept in the fridge ,the flour during this time  , expands and absorbs the liquid , which results in tender products. Hmm! Now everything makes sense.

TRYING OUT RECIPES

• When you see a recipe that you like and want to make , and finally does not turn out as expected. Don't stop there , forgive yourself , try it another time and yet another and finally you will have perfected the recipe your way . And it will be a genuine one. You will also discover methods that is much more easier than the original recipe.

• You want to try out a recipe and you don't have the same exact ingredients , don't go out and buy the ingredients , improvise , use what you have in your pantry and then again you have your own genuine recipe.  

STORAGE

• Wash and dry take away containers , cake boxes etc. that you get from the store. This comes in handy when you have to share  some food with your neigbours or take out some food for yourselves. My aunt does this . She has a good collection of this. It comes in handy when she sends us special treats , that she made for us .
  
• If you have a lot of unused space in the freezer , use that space to store less frequently used flours. I store gram four , maida in the freezer.
• Make ahead  ginger garlic paste , mint chutney , tamarind chutney , etc and freeze it ice cube trays , when frozen , take the out and store it in zip loc or plastic boxes , in the freezer.
  
  
  
  

           

            

BAKING

 

• A note on leaveners

To make baked goods rise in the oven , you need to put air and gas bubbles into them. This process is called leavening.  It can be achieved  mechanically , chemically or biologically. Mechanical leavening is physically incorporating air into the batter. You do this when you whip egg whites . Blending the sugar and butter is another mechanical way.

Baking soda and baking powder are chemical leaveners that produce carbon dioxide when moisture or heat is introduced. Baking powder is chemical leavener that has a built-in acid. Baking soda requires an acid to work. It's four times as powerful as baking powder, so you need only 1/4 th of the amount you'd use for baking powder.Baking powder needs some sort of acidic ingredientto start the reaction. Buttermilk, natural cocoa powder, lemon juice , vinegar are some of them.

Biological leavening is produced by yeast.


• When a recipe contains baking powder and baking soda , the baking powder does most of the leavening . The baking soda is added to neutralize the acids in the recipe and to also to add tenderness and slight leavening.
• Cakes baked in different ovens come out differently. I used to bake cakes in a round oven before I switched to the big oven in the cooking range. The crust of the cakes baked in different ovens are different.
• There are thousands of cake recipes on the internet. It's good to have one chocolate cake and vanilla cake , tried , tested and tailor made according to your family's taste. Find recipes which have the minimum ingredients  and simple to make. My go-to chocolate cake is Alice Medrich's fastest fudge chocolate cake and go-to vanilla cake is chiffon cake.
• Wheat flour(I use atta) can be swapped instead of all purpose flour for chocolate cakes. The chocolate flavor somehow masks the flavor of the wheat flour. This is not the case in vanilla cakes.
• Have you ever messed up with the eggs while separating them in recipes  that call for whipped egg white?? First  things first , always break each egg separately in a bowl , separate it first and then follow the same with the following eggs. If a little bit of the yolk has come into the whites , try fishing it out with the egg shell.Now if you have messed it up , then combine the whites and yolks , all together and beat it for 5 minutes. You will get almost the same consistency .
  

CONVERSIONS AND SUBSTITUTIONS

• For using oil instead of butter in cakes:

BUTTER            OIl        

1 tsp                     3/4 tsp

1 Tbsp.                  2 and 1/4 tsp

1/4 cup                 3 Tbsp.

1/3 cup                 1/4 cup

1/2 cup                 1/4 + 2Tbsp

2/3 cup                 1/2 cup

3/4 cup                 1/2 cup +1 Tbsp.

1 cup                    3/4 cup

• Self-rising flour = 1 cup All-purpose flour + 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp salt
•  1 cup All-purpose flour = 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• Buttermilk = 1 cup milk + 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice or white vinegar(let stand 5 minutes before using)
• Molasses = 3/4 cup dark brown sugar +1/4 cup water
• light brown sugar = 1 cup white sugar + 1 Tbsp. molasses

Baking powder :

• Baking powder consists of base , acid and filter.
• The base is the baking soda , acid is cream of tartar or anything acidic. Filter , which is corn flour will absorb moisture in the air and forestall a chemical reaction between the soda and acid.
• baking powder = 1/4 tsp baking soda +1/2 tsp Cream of tartar(or 1 tsp vinegar or lime juice) +1/4 tsp corn flour

CHOCOLATE

We all like to have chocolate and chocolate cakes. have you ever wondered how chocolate is made .I thought chocolate was made by mixing sugar , milk and cocoa powder. I happened to read , how chocolate is made and it was a real eyeopener. Well at least for me. This is what I understood:    

1.  Cocoa pods grow on Cacao trees.
2.  Inside the cocoa pods are sweet ,sticky , pulp-covered cocoa beans , which are scooped out.
3. The bean with the sticky pulp are fermented for days , during which the sticky pulp dissolves and the beans remain.
4. The beans are rolled out to dry . Then roasted and their outer shell removed. What remains is the kernel called the nibs.
5. The nibs are ground resulting in chocolate liquor which consists of cocoa butter and cocoa mass.(there is no liquor in the chocolate liquor!) .This chocolate liquor hardens into unsweetened chocolate.(finally!!). This is the chocolate base from which all kinds of chocolate are made.
6. When the cocoa butter is squeezed out from the chocolate liquor , the cocoa mass that is left is roasted and ground into cocoa powder. 
7. Blending additional cocoa butter and sugar with chocolate liquor produces eating chocolate.
8. The amount of sugar and cocoa butter added controls the sweetness and texture of the chocolate from semisweet to bittersweet.
9. Milk chocolate contains powdered or condensed milk along with cocoa butter , milk solids , sugar and other flavorings.

ENTERTAINING

• The first few bites of a delicious dessert or in fact any dish , are always the most intense , but if you serve enormous portions of everything you are not increasing the pleasure of that food . Think of small handfuls of food rather than giant portions. ~ How To Hygge  by Signe Johansen

PLANNING

• Plan and write down the next day's(next 2 days is more better) menu before you wind up the kitchen in the night. This saves a lot of time and last minute trip to the store. Also if there is any soaking of dals required, you can do that overnight. 

CLEANING

• Clean the counter tops and the stove , in the kitchen , no matter how late it is. A clean and neat kitchen is a pleasure to wake up to.
• The microwave is most neglected appliance in the kitchen. Clean the inside of the microwave everyday in the night (when all the working and heating is complete).

MAINTENANCE

• Keep a small screw driver handy in the kitchen. use it to tighten screws of lids , pressure cookers, mixer ......A stitch in time saves nine.