COOKING TIPS ON MAKING GRAVIES - EASY COOKING

Tips on making Gravies

1. Always use ghee or vanaspathi instead of oil, which gives a good flavour to the gravy.


2. 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 colour and taste.


3. Little plain sugar or caramelised sugar added to the gravy makes it tasty.


4. When tomatoes are not in season, tomato ketchup or sauce can be successfully used in the gravies.


5. To retain colour in the gravy always use ripe red tomatoes. Discard green portions if any.


6. Good variety chillies and chilli powder also gives colour to the gravy. Try to use long variety of red chillies. Dry it under sun for few days and powder coarsely at home. Always the coarse powder gives good taste in gravies and pickles.


7. 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.

FOR INGREDIENTS COOKING TIPS CLICK HERE.

FOR FRYING COOKING TIPS CLICK HERE.

FOR GENERAL COOKING TIPS CLICK HERE.

COOKING TIPS ON FRYING - EASY COOKING

Tips on frying

1. Smoke Mustard oil first before using for preparing vegetables etc. Heating to a point till light white smoke emerges from it. This would remove the potency from the oil.


2. Poori can be rolled and place between well-rinsed wet muslin cloth at least an hour ahead and can be Fried before serving.


3. To make pooris more crispy add a little rice flour to the wheat flour while kneading.


4. Pakodas will turn out crisper if a little corn flour is added to the gram flour (besan) while preparing the batter. Heat the oil thoroughly before adding seasonings or vegetables.


5. Add some hot oil and 1/2 tsp of baking soda in batter while making pakodas.


6. When coconut is used in grinding masala, do not fry for a longer time.


7. 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.


8. Sprinkle a little amount of salt in the frying pan before adding bacon to fry. That way it will not splatter all over.

FOR INGREDIENTS COOKING TIPS CLICK HERE.
FOR GRAVIES COOKING TIPS CLICK HERE.
FOR GENERAL COOKING TIPS CLICK HERE.

COOKING INGREDIENTS TIPS - TASTY COOKING TIPS

Tips about various ingredients

1. To avoid browning of apples after cutting, apply a little lemon juice on the cut surface. The apples will stay and look fresh for a longer time.


2. Keep coriander leaves in a muslin (cheese) cloth bag in the refrigerator. They will remain fresh for a longer time.


3. Wash vegetables before peeling or cutting to preserve the water-soluble vitamins.


4. Peel vegetables as thinly as possible to preserve the minerals and vitamins.


5. Soak potatoes and egg plant after cutting, to avoid discoloration.


6. If you boil vegetables in water, do not throw the water, keep it to make gravies.


7. Remove the stems of green chilies while storing them. This will help them to stay fresh for long.


8. After peeling onions cut in half and soak in water for about 10 minutes before cutting to avoid crying.


9. Soak almonds in a cup of boiling water for 10 minutes .The skin will peel off easily and so there is no need to soak them overnight.


10. Chopping/Cutting on a marble slab will blunt your knives. So use a wooden cutting/ chopping board.


11. Remove the outer leaves and husks from the corn (bhutta). Holding the corn upright with the flat end firmly in a board, take a sharp knife and run it down between the kernels and the cob to strip them away.


12. Wrap the fruits and vegetables in newspaper before refrigerating to keep them fresh for long.


13. Chopping dry fruits - Freeze them first for one hour & then dip the knife into hot water before cutting them.

FOR GRAVIES COOKING TIPS CLICK HERE.
FOR FRYING COOKING TIPS CLICK HERE.
FOR GENERAL COOKING TIPS CLICK HERE.

GENERAL COOKING TIPS - EASY COOKING

COOKING TIPS

1. To make one cup of dal, add atleast 2-3 cups of water, depending on the type of dal.


2. Soak whole pulses overnight and other dals for one hour before cooking. Always add hot water to the gravy to enhance the taste.


3. Add 1 Tbsp of hot oil to the dough for making Kachories or Kulchas.


4. Always use heavy bottomed vessels to make desserts, in order to avoid burning.


5. Make desserts with full cream milk, to get thick creamy texture.


6. Whenever curd is to be added to the masala, it should be beaten well and added gradually.


7. Never discard water in which vegetables are cooked, use it in gravies, soups, rasam or kolumbu.


8. Onions and masala are fried in the cooker body itself, raw vegetables are added to that with enough salt and water. Cook under pressure according to the cooking time of the vegetable. This method helps us minimise our cooking time, use of utensils and nutrients are also preserved.


9. If poppy seeds are used in grinding, soak it in hot water for 10 to 15 minutes, if you are grinding it in a mixie.


10. While boiling milk, always add a little water at the base of the vessel to avoid the milk from sticking at the bottom.


11. Add a tsp. of hot oil to homemade pastes of garlic, ginger or green chili, along with salt to make it last longer and taste fresher.


12. Store raisins in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They will stay fresh for much longer. Pour very hot water over them if they had harden, after that drain them immediately, and spread on a paper towel to dry.


13. You can leave a spoon in the vessel in which the milk is being boiled at low heat so that it does not get burnt at the bottom


14. Immediately after boiling noodles put them in normal cold water to separate them each.


15. If you forget to soak chana/Rajma overnight. Just soak the chana/Rajma in the boiling water for an hour before cooking.


16. Potatoes soaked in salt water for 20 minutes will bake more rapidly.


17. Roasting is a dry heat method of cooking - it does not use water. The flavors roasting draws forth result from the process of browning. As the surface of the meat browns, and its juices and fats drip down and brown on the surface of the hot roasting pan, it adds to the flavour of the meat. Add a few drops of lemon a tsp of oil to rice before boiling to separate each grain.


18. Never discard the water in which vegetables are cooked, use it in gravies or soups.


19. Put tomatoes in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave it for about 5 minutes. Take out one by one, piercing them with a sharp knife, the skin will peel off easily.

FOR INGREDIENTS COOKING TIPS CLICK HERE.
FOR FRYING COOKING TIPS CLICK HERE.
FOR GRAVIES COOKING TIPS CLICK HERE.

Ms. JOAN ala MIRO

I am currently flustered. And I am running late with all the things I need to accomplish before the weekend. Due to my procrastination, this is the result I got–cramming! So how do I go about all these things? Step by step maybe, a huge amount of patience and probably people support. Then things will fall into place, I hope. So how would Joanie turn her new walls into a Jana Joana type of graffiti versus a Joan Miro type of mural? Dazed and confused? Argh! I am really torn and feeling helpless. But I hope this MAD back cover fold-in artwork would help me resolve my current confusion. A nice artwork I stumbled on the net and it's been ages since I read my favorite MAD magazine, and did some folding. And another thing that popped my mind just now, I also need to finish the Head Shot Project for Raffy Tesoro. I think I got the head shot that fits my mood. The "Maturity." Hope Joanie will get her work done soon.

hugs,
joanie xxx

CATFISH AND SHRIMP STEW RECIPE - EASY FISH RECIPES

Ingredients

2 carton of Catfish Fillets

1/2 lb. Medium shrimp; shelled

1 box frozen corn

1 box frozen Lima Beans

1 tsp. Garlic Powder

1 quart heavy cream

1 can condensed Clam Chowder

8 oz Clam juice

1 tsp. MSG (MSG)

1 tbsp. Thyme

METHOD:

Put everything simmer until the shrimp turns pink.

FOR MORE FISH RELATED RECIPES CLICK HERE.

TUNAFISH SALAD RECIPE - EASY FISH RECIPES

Ingredients

2 cans drained Tuna in water

1/2 cup finely chopped celery

4 tbsp. mayonnaise

Decorations

- i.e. capers, pimentos,Tomatoes, cucumber, artichoke \hearts, Or whateverLettuce and/or greens
Directions

Mix Tuna, celery and mayonnaise in a bowl.Put lettuce and greens into a salad bowlSpoon Tuna mix into the middle.Add decorations and accouterments around the Tuna Serve.

For more Fish Recipes Click Here.

EASY TROUT ITALIAN STYLE - EASY FISH RECIPES

INGREDIENTS

Trout fillets

Oregano

Basil

1 cup Spaghetti Sauce per fillet

Salt and pepper

1/4 tsp. garlic powder per fillet

1/4 tsp. Msg. per fillet

HOW TO COOK EASY TROUT IN ITALIAN STYLE

Rinse each fillet and remove any remaining bones. Mix seasonings in a bowl. Then put each fillet skin side down in a baking dish, sprinkle with the seasoning mix and cover with spaghetti sauce. Bake into a preheated 350°F oven for 200 to 35 minutes depending on how many fillets you are using.

FOR ALL EASY FISH RECIPES CLICK HERE.

EASY SAUTEED TROUT RECEIPE- EASY FISH RECIPES

INGREDIENTS

2 fresh trout

Flour 3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon [50 g] butter

salt and pepper to taste

HOW TO COOK EASY SAUTED TROUT:

Flour trout and melt butter. Brown trout into melted butter. Do not overcook.Serve trout really hot deglaze pan and pour thebutter sauce over the trout

GOAN PRAWN CURRY / FISH WITH MANGOES RECEPIE

Ingredients
prawns 400 gm
red chillies 10 gm
coriander 10 gm `
turmeric 1/4 tsp
garlic 4 flakes
cumin1/4 tsp
grated coconut 1/2
ginger 0.5 cm pieces
green chillies 2
raw mango slices 80 gm
onions 25 gm
coconut oil 30 ml
salt to taste
Method
1. Shell prawns .Remove intestines .Wash well .Apply salt and set aside .

2. Grind together red chillies ,coriander ,turmeric , garlic , cumin, ginger , and coconut to a fine paste .

3. Slice onion .Heat oil and fry .

4.Add spices and fry .

5. Add water ,slit green chillies and mango . Cook for 5 minutes and then add prawns .

6. Cook till prawns are done.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FISH RECIPES.

INDIAN FISH CUTLETS RECIPE - FISH RECIPES

Serves : 4

Ingredients
fish500 gm
bread 2 slices
lime 1/4
green chillies 5 gm
onions 200 gm
egg 1
salt to taste
breadcrumbs 30 gm
oil for frying 30 ml
cucumber 30 gm
tomatoes 55 gm
coriander leaves a few
Method
1.Clean ,wash and boil fish .Flake fish .

2. Chop onions and chillies fine .

3. Soak bread in water .

4. Squeeze out water from bread .

5. Mix all ingredients .Add salt .

6. Shape into cutlets . Coat with egg and breadcrumbs and deep fry.

7. Garnish wih chopped coriander leaves ,sliced cucumber and tomatoes .

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FISH RECIPES

New Year Resolution.

I must write something. That is the whole point of having a blog. You write something in it. And New Year has started, and bloggers are supposed to write about New Year and New Year resolutions.

But I don’t have any, and I am lazy to write about my non existence resolution, especially when your last year resolution did not materialize at all. None of it.

So I might as well write about something else.

Emm, let me see.

Hack, I have nothing to write about now. Actually i have a lot of things to write about, but i am kinda lazy. So might as well I don’t write about anything just yet, and wait till the mood comes.


However, to share some information, last year seems to be a very good and exciting year to me. Mostly involves exciting people.

Anyway, to everyone, hope you have a wonderful and prosperous year ahead, and a productive one too. For those businesspeople, please be sure that you planned all your things carefully, and have all the necessary security measures ready especially in the 3rd and 4th quarter of the year. 2009 is said to be a not so good year for businesses.

Just hope and pray everything goes well.

And for the fucking Zionist Israel regime, i just hope they just drop dead, and go find a country already. Enough is enough.

The best restaurants are the ones where they know you

January 5

You might remember that I spent the day after Christmas waiting to have dinner at The Spotted Pig.
The day after New Year's, I walked right in to Kurve and got a table immediately
Well, of course I got a table at Kurve; the place is pretty much always empty. It’s a good thing to remember if you’re looking for a place to eat, because remember the chef and owner is Andy Yang, who also is chef-owner of the delicious Rhong-Tiam.

Andy had e-mailed me:

“Hi Bret
I have a new duck menu and couple of appetizer and also a new Steak pruveyor
would like your opinion. Come in bring friends...
Let me know....
C u :)”

A week earlier, my great friend Jonathan Ray had called. He was going to be in town for a historians conference and would like to hang out.
So I combined the two opportunites and invited Jonathan and his wife Michelle to dinner at Kurve.
Boy, was it empty. I arrived on Saturday at 7 — teeth-clenchingly early for the East Village, it’s true, but there wasn’t a single person in the restaurant besides me who didn’t work there.
I’m not sure why Kurve is empty, It has gotten lousy reviews but that’s not usually enough for a place to be completely deserted. Of course the retro-futuristic decor doesn’t really fit with the East Village.
“Really? It would fit better in Midtown?” Jonathan asked. "Tell me, in what neighborhood would this fit in?”
Jonathan gets passionate about architecture. He does. You should drive with him sometime past some of the McMansions in his native Westchester County (Jonathan’s not a spoiled rich kid; he comes from middle class Mount Kisco).
He agreed that a place with Kurve’s design might be suitable in the Meatpacking District, but suggested Miami would be better.
But the drinks are by Sasha Petraske, the desserts are by Pichet Ong, and the food by Andy himself. That's good pedigree.
I always get great food there, but as Anna Teresa Callan loves quoting James Beard as saying: “The best restaurant is the one where they know you.”
I don’t know if James Beard actually said that, but Anna Teresa does pretty much every time I see her.
So Jonathan, Michelle and I just sat there and let Andy send out food and drinks until we’d tried everything he wanted us to try, discussing Top Chef (Jonathan’s a fan), and the state of Medieval and early modern Jewish historiography, because Jonathan, whose PhD thesis was on Jews in 13th Century Spain, is now working on a book on what happened to the Jews who were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the 15th Century.
Apparently that book hasn’t been written yet.
Michelle doesn’t talk about history much, but she does talk about her genius students — she’s teaching gifted 11-year-olds in the DC suburbs — and global politics, and how much she loved Andy's wagyu beef burger, which she said was the best burger she'd ever had.
She gushed over all the food. She really did, and she’s not a gusher.
We also had chicken laab served in little cucumber cups; tiny little shrimp cakes; corn soup with apple wood bacon; beet soup; chicken wings wrapped with pandanas (a Thai classic, except they usually use cubes of thigh meat); tuna kratong-tong (an amusing play on a Thai classic appetizer that might be over the heads of most white diners); garlic skate wing; daurade served with the classic Thai sauce of vinegar, chile and fish sauce; beef tenderloin with a whole bunch of dipping sauces, but I focused on the jao, which I think is a Northeastern Thai sauce, although it could be Northern, sprinkled with ground, toasted rice.
Oh, we also had roasted lobster, and foie gras torchon topped with red currant jam, and I think I’ve forgotten some things.

I forgot the duck.
I thought that would be impossible: honey-roasted duck with fig sauce. I think it was Jonathan’s favorite, although he also claimed great affection for the burger.
Honey-roasted duck is a Sino-Thai specialty, typically served in a sweet soy-sauce based sauce with young ginger.

For dessert, Andy sent out Pichet's butterscotch pudding with baby bananas, caramel popcorn and salted caramel; dark chocolate devil's food cake with kirsch Chantilly, brandied bing cherries, shaved chocolate and cocoa pearls (I don’t hear Chantilly mentioned much — it’s just whipped cream, with some powdered sugar and vanilla of course); and green tea tiramisu with pink rhubarb and raspberries.
We were there for about three hours, on a Friday night. A few people had come in for drinks by the time we left, but it was still pretty quiet.
I’d say you should check the place out, because it’s conveniently located, you’ll have no trouble getting a table and the wagyu burger’s just $17 (a good price for wagyu burgers in New York), but I’m not in the business of recommending restaurants and Andy’s a friend of mine, so I probably get better service than you would, and maybe better food.
Maybe you should go in and introduce yourself, say you read about Kurve in Food Writer’s Diary and thought you’d give it a try.
It’s worth a shot.

Welcome to 2009

Happy New Year to you all. Christmas came and went with a rapidity not seen since Usain Bolt jogged to victory in Beijing. Then 2008 limped into the vast unshakeable void of history giving way to a pristine and virginal ’09 just waiting to have its clean slate sullied by time and memories. Naturally, food and drink were consumed with appropriate abandon.

But now, as we rub the sleep from our eyes and wake, blinking, into the new year, reality once again begins to claw at our consciousness and offers us another twelve months to approach, each in our own inimitable way.

It will be an interesting one, that’s for sure, no doubt full of surprises, disappointments, excitement, boredom, smiles, tears, peaks and troughs. But that’s what makes everything so exciting – were it not for the lack of certainty, life would be a long, dull ride – much like driving up the A1.

One thing, however, is certain: we all have to eat. And with the full reality of the current economic malaise due to bite hard some time within the next couple of months, it looks like we are all going to be eating in more often and living on more beans, seeds and pulses than we have become accustomed to.

Say goodbye to midweek fillet steak and pork loins and hello to skirt and belly. Time to wave a farewell to all those exotic must have ingredients that have been damn near rammed down our throats by chefs and pretentious foodies for the last decade and welcome to the stage low-cost, low carbon and local alternatives.

In my book this is no bad thing and a food philosophy I have been trying to embrace for quite some time. There are many things I won’t miss and many more that I am very excited about seeing on menus again thanks to the increasing popularity of local shops. Yes, the supermarket may still rule the vast majority of households in this country but try asking the student behind the meat counter for half a kilo of beef skirt, a pork knuckle or a brace of oven ready rabbits and you will likely get a look more vacant than a soiled nightclub toilet at 2am.

Request these from the butcher, however, and you will be welcomed in with open arms and embraced like an old friend. You can apply the same thing to the greengrocer, the fishmonger or even the baker (although don’t forget to substitute meat requests for the appropriate items, else you’ll just look silly).

I hear the sound of a thousand over-priced restaurants closing their doors for the last time. The silence of self-important ‘food fanatics’ who only buy their flour from a convent deep in the Appalachian Mountains is blissful. No more shall we be made to feel nutritionally inferior, like a Victorian street child, just because we can’t afford to buy the latest must-have kitchen ingredient according to the weekend newspapers’ food editors.

So, here’s to 2009 – a year of health, frugality, simplicity, locality and appreciating the little things, the things that really matter. And for that I am deeply, excruciatingly, tinglingly, ball-bouncingly excited.