Kitchen hacks

Exploring My Kitchen Hacks -

Not your typical food post today, but I'm excited to share some personal kitchen hacks that I might turn into a detailed blog post later. These tricks help streamline my cooking process, and I'm jotting them down here not just to share with you, but as a reminder to myself too! 😄 I'd love to hear your own kitchen tips and tricks, so please drop them in the comments below.

1. Switching Rice for Millets: As many of us move towards millets for health reasons, remember that millet flour can thicken gravies, sambars, and kootus just like rice flour. Millets are a great substitute in all rice-based recipes, often using the same ratios but with more soaking and quick grinding time required.

2. Custard Powder for Desserts: To thicken and enhance the flavor of payasams and other desserts, opt for custard powder over plain cornflour or rice flour.

3. Quick Dosa Batter Hack: If you're short on time, grind urad dal in a mixer with cold water. Let it ferment for just 4-5 hours for a slight rise. Then, mix in rice flour and a tablespoon or two of semolina for super crispy dosas. Udad dal grinds well with short soaking time .

4. Utilizing Leftover Urad Dal Batter: Transform leftover vada batter into dosa batter by adding rice flour and letting it ferment for a few hours.

5. Simplify Coconut-Based Dishes: Use coconut milk powder instead of grinding fresh coconut, especially for dishes like arachavitta sambar, where adding coconut powder directly to premade sambar powder saves time.

6. Instant Avial: Combine avial powder and coconut milk powder with any mix of vegetables for a quick, no-prep avial. I have ready to make avial mix too in my blog .

7. Quick Sambar Solution: For a rapid sambar, add 1-2 tablespoons of powdered fried gram instead of cooking dals.

8. Prepared Kesari Ingredients: Store a mix of pre-roasted semolina, wheat, or millet powder, along with fried cashew nuts, raisins, cardamom powder, and powdered sugar. This allows for quick kesari preparation, needing only a bit of ghee.

9. Mor Kuzhambu from Coconut Chutney: Transform freshly ground coconut chutney into delicious mor kuzhambu by adding extra green chillies, some veggies, and whisked yogurt.

10. Stocking Up on Flours: Keep a variety of flours and powders like besan, rice flour, and dal powders on hand for quick dosas or uthapams.

11. Enhancing Dosa Color: A little sugar in the dosa batter and splashing salted water on the hot tava can enrich the color of your dosas.

12. Tomatoes Over Tamarind: Keep tomatoes ready to substitute tamarind in recipes when you're out.

13. Pulikaachal for Tamarind-Based Dishes: Use pulikaachal paste as a versatile, seasoned substitute for tamarind paste in sambar, rasam, etc., due to its longer shelf life and enhanced flavor.

14. Pepper Rasam and Vattalkuzhambu Pastes: Make and store pastes for pepper rasam and vattalkuzhambu for easy mixing with rice and ghee.

15. Crisp Dosas for Guests: Maintain crispness by stacking prepared dosas on a separate, low-heated pan, allowing you to serve many guests efficiently.

Preparations for Quick Cooking:

• Sambar and Rasam Pastes: Ready-to-use mixes with included tamarind and dal powders.

• Rice Mixes: Various flavored mixes for instant rice dishes, ideal for lunch boxes.

• Spice Mixes: Custom spice blends for instant seasoning of dry curries and other dishes.

• Dry Spice Powders: For North Indian gravies, offering a longer shelf life than pastes.

• Dehydrated Mixes: Innovative mixes with dehydrated vegetables for upma or khichdi, perfect for travel.

I'm eager to expand this list with more tips and perhaps detail these hacks in a future blog post. Your contributions and comments are highly welcomed and valued!