Basic Kitchen Tips

Let me share with you some of the basic kitchen,cleaning,health and beauty tips from our visitors and friends.
All of them might not work good for you.Use common sense and make adjustments as per the quantity and quality of the environment where you work out the tips.Also feel free to submit and share your own tips so they could be useful to others too.

Cooking Tips

Most of us run out of time while making most of our delicious foods.So let us know some of the cooking and food stoarge tips so that we could have the ingredients handy at time.

Storing ginger garlic paste

You can store your own home made ginger garlic paste for a long time in fridge by adding,

Salt- 1 tspn
Lime juice - 1 tspn
Turmeric - 1/2 tspn
Hot canola oil - 1tspn

Make the ginger garlic paste and mix the above with it and store it in a glass container in fridge.
By this way you can use the preservative free paste.

Storing Onion 

Slice the onions thin or grind it into a paste and store it in a container in freezer with the date labelled in it.

Storing Herbs (Mint,corriander,curry leaves)

Wash and drain the herbs.Then spread it on a cloth or paper towel and air dry them, in shade and not under sun.Change the cloth everyday so that the moisture it would have absorbed from the leaves doesn't affect the drying process.Dry for a weak atleast.Then store it in shelf in Ziploc bag.This way you could be handy with the herbs on demand.

Making Soft Chapathis

Knead the dough gentle with warm water,milk or curd.

After kneading at last knead once again by adding 1 tspn olive oil.

Cover it and keep aside for atleast 30 minutes.

Also knead the dough  little loose and roll out the dough evenly and thinner.

Dough shoul not be left open as it will dry out.Keep it covered.

Following all the above,and with practice you can make soft and fluffy chapathis.

There is no more magic in making chapathis soft.

Browning onions quickly

Some recipes like hydrabadi dum biryani needs onion to be browned.

You can sprinkle salt when you sauté the onion to make it done quickly.

Also it can be stored in the fridge after cooling them.

Chapathi storage (Pre-rolled chapathis)

Roll out the dough and store all of them by placing cling wrap in between each of them and put them in the freezer.You can also place butter sheet in between them.   

When you need to make chapathis just take them out,separate the wrap,heat the tawa and make hot chapathis .

You can also store pre cooked chapathis by placing butter sheet in between them and wrap them in aluminium foil.

Avoid blackening of chopped vegetables

Potato,brinjal and eggplant gets oxidized quickly.This could result in cell damage and hence some loss in nutrition.so just put them in  a bowl of water to avoid this as soon as you cut them.

To make golden colour dosa,

Just add some cooked rice to the batter while grinding.

To ferment the curd faster,

Just add 2 to 3 red chilies in to the curd.The same could be done to ferment idly/dosa batter too.

Making Idly soft

Add ½ cup poha along with idly rice and urad dhal.You can also add methi seeds which gives a unique flavour

If your dish is more spicy,

 Then try adding a few drops of lemon juice or coconut oil.You can also add 2 tspn curd.

Getting rid of more salt in dish

Just add some sliced potatoes to the curry.It will get rid of the extra salt.

To make pooris puffy,

just add some sooji (rava) while making the dough.This will make the poori stand puffy for a long time.

To store curry leaves for a long time,

you can get the leaves out of the stem and put in a glass jar and store it in the fridge.You can use it upto a month.You can also store it in the ziploc and put it in the freezer.

How to know if honey is pure,

Honey that mixes with water is said to be impure.While that does not get mixed is said to be the pure honey.To test this just drop 1tspn of honey in a glass of water.

Also if the honey gets freezed in the refrigerator then its impure.The real one is supposed to stay in the same colloidal state.

To keep the flies out of rice bags,

 just add few springs of neem leaves.

Cleaning Tips

Remove food stains and odour from containers

Wash the dishes with normal dish soap and dry it.Then wipe a piece of paper towel or cloth with 1 tspn of white vinegar.This will completely eliminate the odour as well as the stains in the food container. 

Cleaning kitchen sink

First rinse the sink with water.Then scrub with dish soap and 1 tspn of baking soda.Allow it to stand for a minute.Then wash away the remains.Now the sink should shine and should be free from odour and stains. You can also use lemon juice.But do not let it stand.Wash it immediately.It will create stains.

Washing food disposer

For everyday cleaning of the disposer, you can just put in some ice cubes and run the disposer with little water turned on.This will remove the dirt when the ice cubes gets chopped by the disposer.

Once in a week and whenever you use non-veg foods,just pour 2 tspn of white vinegar and run the disposer with water.Alternatively you can also drop a quarter cut lemon and run the disposer.This can clean the dirt as well as the odour.

Cleaning Fridge

First clean the inside of the fridge with a damp cloth.Then apply 2 tspn white vinegar in a paper towel or cloth and wipe the inside completely.This will remove the stains,germs and also the odour.

Remove onion odour from fridge

Wipe the inside of the bridge with a paper towel or cloth using 1 tspn white vinegar.Alternatively you can also place a half cut lemon inplace and this will remove the smell by morning.

To remove bubble gum,

From  any surface,just  try scrapping it out with white vinegar

To avoid ants ,flies ,cockroaches.

Just sprinkle baking soda covering all the sides of the kitchen close to the walls because most of the flies and cockroaches originate from kitchen.This is also non-toxic even if kids reach them when compared to other commercial bug killers

Health Tips

Acidity Relief

Its not advisable to consume milk or coffee when you suffer from acidity problem.Just drink 1/2 glass of butter milk by adding little salt and temper it with 1/4 tspn hing powder.This should provide an immediate relief.

Wheezing,cold and cough relief

Add 1 tspn  of turmeric powder and ½ tspn of pepper powder to a glass of hot milk.This would provide 
immediate relief.

Bad breath

Mix 1 tspn cinnamon powder in a glass of warm water and gargle with it both morning and night.Sure you will feel the difference and will get rid of the bad breath.

Sinus Headache

Drink a cup of hot tea made of ginger,cardamom,cloves – 2,dhaniya seeds -5, and milk.

Beauty Tips

Glowing Soft Skin

Mix raw milk a few tspns, gram flour 2 tspn and a pinch of turmeric like a paste and apply it on face and neck.Wash it after 20 to 30 minutes once its dry.This will make your face glow and shiny.

Its also a best remedy for sun tans.

You can also apply smashed papaya on your face to have a glowing skin.

Remove black dots,marks and stains on face

Apply pure aloe vera gel on face and wash it after 20 minutes.

Then dab a paper towel soaked with orange juice.

This should remove all the marks on your face.

Do this atleast once a month based on your skin condition.

Remove dark circles.

Mix  ½ tspn castor oil and ½ tspn almond oil and apply it on the dark circles.This is more effective in removing the black circle and also the crow’s feet wrinkles around the eyes.

Apply this at night before going to bed.

Another good known remedy for dark circles in applying fresh milk cream.

Its also equally important to get enough sleep and drink more water.

Dry lips

Apply Vaseline before going to bed especially in winter days.Also apply it before getting exposed in dry or windy weather.

While at home,the best remedy is applying milk cream or coconut oil.

Thick,dense hair

Twice in a month apply whipped egg to the scalp and take shower after 20 minutes.Adjust the number of eggs as per your hair density.

In order for the egg nutrients to be absorbed into the scalp,exfoliate your scalp before that.

You can prepare your own home made scrub to exfoliate your scalp

Just mix 2 tspn sugar in ¼ cup olive oil.Use granulated sugar and not the fine one.Scrub with this all over the scalp so that it opens the pores and cleans the dirt that clogs the pores.

Then apply the whipped egg after 10 minutes and take shower after 20 minutes.

Egg contains the nutrients essential for hair growth.

Do this atleast twice a month.Its not good to do this often.

Dandruff

Apply whipped egg and take shower after 20 minutes.

You can also apply fenugreek  paste.

Soak methi seeds over night and grind it into a paste and apply it over the scalp.Take shower after 20 to 30 minutes.For the first time,just check if you are ok with applying it .Because some people with sinus and other problems are allergic to this.They catch up with cold after using this.

Sun tan

After being exposed to sun for a long time,every one gets coated with sun tans which makes our look really bad depending on the intensity of the sun on that day.
Just apply mixtre of gram flour and raw milk and wash it when it becomes dry.This is a very good remedy for sun tan.
You can also apply aloe vera gel  or ice cubes for sometime before applying gram flour just to cool the skin.

Applying  tomato juice and washing it with cold water can also yield best results.

To get rid of pimples,

apply 2 to 3 drops of tea tree oil with a sponge.Soon you will see a good result.Its better to apply it twice a day,morning and night.Tea tree oil has more healing benefits.

For Bacterial,fungal,yeast and viral infection on the skin ,

Apply full strength tea tree oil in the affceted areas.Soon you will recober from the rashes.Do the same fro pimples and eczema too.

Healthy long black hair

Shallow fry 1 cup of curry leaves in 2  tspn coconut oil.Fry till they turn become crisp.Then add 2 tspn methi seeds and fry it too.Then sun dry the hibiscus flower and add them to the oil.

Then add 1 cup of coconut oil to it and boil it well for 20 minutes.Then store the oil in a bottle after cooling.You can either filter the leaves or can just use the oil along with them.They will just sediment at the bottom.

Apply this oil daily and soon you will have a long and healthy black hair.

Foot cracks

Apply a mixture of equal amount of almond oil ,coconut oil and castor oil on the cracks everyday twice morning and night.You can also apply Vaseline if you can afford it.

You will notice vast difference within a week

Shiny and silky lustrous hair

Massage with coconut oil or olive oil 3 hours before shower.After shower you can feel the shine on 
your hair.

Exfoliator

Add 1 tspn  granulated sugar with ½  tspn besan flour and 2 tspn olive oil.Rub this for 1 to 2 mins.In face rub smoothly.By doing this you can remove the dead cells.

To make face look supple and plumpy,

Just dab ice cubes on your face wrapped in  a cloth  for about 5 minutes and then apply a good moisturizer.

To avoid infection after waxing or tweezing,

Before starting with tweezing make sure you clean the tips of the tweezer with alcohol.

After tweezing or waxing dab with ice cubes wrapped in a cloth over the waxed or tweezed areas.

After some time apply aloe vera gel to cool any blisters that could come out because of waxing.

Those who are sensitive to waxing and its blisters do not use hot wax.Instead use cold wax.It will minimize the infections and blisters.