Poornima's Recipes: Tips and Tricks

Tips and Tricks

Dosa: Soak all dals separately. You can mix while grinding. Add water little by little, because urad dal(black gram dal) will increase in quantity and that makes the batter fluffy. For soft dosas, add cooked rice or soaked poha(avalakki/parched rice) or puffed rice(churamuri or mandakki) while grinding. All gives the same result. For crispy dosas increase the quantity of rice and decrease the quantity of cooked rice or poha or churamuri. Let the batter ferment overnight. You may store the batter at least one week in the refrigerator. Just remove the batter from the fridge at least ten minutes before you start making dosas.
Cooking Rice: Wash rice thoroughly 2 or 3 times. Soak for 10 minutes with enough water if you are doing fried rice. Drain water completely and add desired water(it depends upon rice variety) and pressure cook for 15 minutes. Rice dishes doesn't taste good if overcooked. So you can add a teaspoon of oil or salt. Allow rice to cool down, spread on a broad plate and separate grains.
Add more water while cooking in rice cooker. Rice needs more water in rice cooker compared to pressure cooker.
Frying: Frying without covering the lid and with covering the lid have different tastes. Try you will find it. If you are making any kind of dry palya(curry) like okra, eggplant or bittergourd palya, fry without lid. It tastes better.
Taste: Always add little salt to sweet dishes and little sugar to other gravies and dishes. It tastes better.
Chapathi or Paratha: While kneading add 2-3 tbsps oil or butter and little salt. Add warm water for soft chapathis.
Better gravy taste: Use little ghee along with oil, which gives a good flavor and taste to the gravy.
Fry the ground masala in low heat, so that it retains it's color and taste.
The course chilli powder gives better taste to gravies and pickles.
Preserving: Always cool before storing in a jar. It may be chakkali, laddu, holige or any food item. Store any sambar powder or flour in airtight container or ziplock bag in the freezer section of the refrigerator. In this way you can preserve powders fresh for many days.
Indian method of Seasoning: Usually seasoning ingredients are mustard seeds, black gram dal(urad dal), bengal gram dal(chana dal), asafoetida, turmeric powder and dry red chillies. Take oil in a pan and heat it(low heat). When it becomes hot then add black gram dal, bengal gram dal and mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start crackling add turmeric powder, curry leaves, and red chillies. Be sure to add asafoetida at the end .

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