Your Best Friends in Kitchen
This is the age where people live life on their own for many reasons, primarily relocating to a new place for a job. Often youngsters and youth complain they do not get home like food in the new area and they fall sick.
This article is a revelation in deciding how to cook when you stay alone and the essentials you need in the kitchen. You will be self sufficient in kitchen and cook up wonderful dishes once you know the basics.
1.Identify your taste:
The first step in designing your kitchen is identifying your taste- are you a sweet tooth? Are you the spicy king? Are you the tamarind dependent? Once you identify your taste, it will be easier for you to select the spices you like to keep in kitchen
2.Stop killing yourself with ‘Maggi’
It is very pathetic to see that youngsters depend upon instant noodles and mainly ‘Maggi’. I am not killing the brand here but I am showcasing the fact that Maggi noodles is an emergency food; to be eaten when all possible options are unavailable. Instant noodles consist of wax and salt which takes the body three days to remove them!
3.Know basics:
All spices have basics attached to them. Cooking is an art. Every spice play an important role in food making. Once you know them; it will be easier for you to cook
4.Cooking is a project:
It is as simple as a-b-c. Cooking is a project management where you are the project manager and you/someone is the client. To get the best output you keep in mind the taste as well as all the Resources available.
5.Don’t Panic:
Never panic while cooking, maintain a calm posture and enjoy what you do!
Must Have Spices:
1.Mustard seed : This is just for tadka or giving a space in oil
2.Jeera seed
3.Urad dal seed
4.Lal mirchi powder : For giving a taste of little spiciness
5.Turmeric powder: This spice has properties of anti-bacterial agent as well as color
6.Coriander powder: for flavor of coriander
7.Salt : for taste
Must Have utencils/items:
1.Rice cooker : you can literally cook up wonderful dishes if you have rice cooker. Cooks and heats anything
2.Tadka small vessal
3.Big utencil
4.Spatula
5.Vessal holder
6.Spoons
7.Glasses
8.Gas stove with good gas connection
9.Strainer
10.Knife-sharp one!
11. Frying pan
Must have in refrigerator/kitchen:
1.Onions
2.Ginger garlic paste
3.Cleaning cloth
4.Milk
5.Water
6.Tomatoes
7.Ketchup
8.Cheese spread
9.Semiya/semolina
10.Upma rawa.
11.Eggs
Quick foods:
1.Omelete: We can make variations in omelete. For plain omelete just break open an egg and keep it on frying pan. Heat it for 5 minutes. For omelete with tomato and onions, break open an egg into a glass tumbler,add onions and tomato;mix it well and add it to pan and heat for 5 minutes.If you want your omelete to be more colorful and spicy; then add spices like turmeric and mirchi to it and mix well. Note that kindly add a spoonfull of oil around the edges of the omelete to cook faster. If you donot want your omelete to be plain, kindly add bread pieces or whole bread into the egg and heat it or even separately you can toast the bread and eat.
You made : plain omelete, bull's eye, vegetable omelete, bread omelete, bread toast omelete
2.Upma: The traditional age old food is upma which can be made quickly. Here you just need to fry semiya or rava till it turns golden brown. You can make tadka,add water to it with vegetables. When the water is heated, slowly add the roasted semiya/rava. For non vegetarians, after the upma is made,break open an egg and add directly to the upma,this will give a variety taste.Kindly donot try if you are allergic to egg taste!
You made: semiya upma, rava upma, egg rava upma
3.Sweets: You can make innumerable sweets. You can mix phova(rice flakes),jaggery and coconut crumbs to make a sweet. You can add sugar and rice to milk and make kheer. You can add semiya and sugar to milk and you can make semiya kheer.You can boil the milk, heat it and after it is condensed, you can add lemon drops and sugar and make kalakand. All you need to know in milk sweet is,it should be condensed and properly thickened. A must have spice here is Elaichi or cinnamon. If you have curd which you want to waste, just take a muslin cloth and dry the curd out. To the solid of the curd,add sugar and elaichi to form shrikand.
You made:phova sweet,rice kheer,semiya kheer,kalakand,shrikand
4.Dal: Here your rice cooker comes to use. If you donot have a proper whistle cooker, you can heat dal and cook it in rice cooker for half hour.Then you can add tadka. Here, you can make any dal of your choice, but make sure that you keep an eye on the rice cooker all the time.
You made: yummy dal!
FAQ-
Now you must be wondering, why is oil used? Oil is used as a base for taste as well as a medium for spices to cook. All the spices are oil soluble; hence you cannot put water and cook the spices!
Then why is mustard or onions added? Onions forms the base for spices. Onions help the spice to remove its flavor and stick to the pan; otherwise the spices gets evaporated if just kept in oil!
What should be kept in mind while adding spices? Spices are not like rice or dal, hence use sparingly and in little quantity.
When should salt be added? Add salt in the last, before you know that your dish is ready.
What is the precaution to be used while handling utensil? Please use cloth or cotton cloth or vessal holder in order not to hurt yourself in the heat.
What is the food that cooks fast other than magi? You can cook semiya upma/ rava upma/ atta dosa/ omelet/ lemon rice,etc.
You will emerge victorious when you cook them! Your best friends in the Kitchen!