Kitchen, Cooking, Baking & Cleaning Tips

• ALWAYS soak powdered gelatine in cold water for a few minutes before dissolving over a pan of simmering water.
• GRATE off the rind of lemons and oranges with a fine grated and blend with castor sugar. Store in an airtight glass jar and use the flavoured sugar when needed for special cakes, puddings and so on.
• TO peel tomatoes quickly, place the tomato on a fork and hold it over the gas flame till the skin bursts. Keep turning it for a few moments, and then peel without any trouble.
• FOR a quick snack or unusual breakfast dish, cook fresh mushrooms in butter; add salt and pepper and a dash or cream and heap onto hot toast.
• WHEN making a lot of sandwiches, one has all the crusts from the sides leftover. You can make use of these by drying them in the sun till they are hard and then crushing them into bread-crumbs with a heavy rolling pin. They can be used for coating fish, chicken, cutlets, and so on.
• FOR light, fluffy omelettes, add half an eggshell filled with water to the eggs before beating them.
• VERY sour curd can be made to taste more palatable by mixing it with a few spoons of fresh cream or even milk and a bit of sugar. You can lessen the sourness further by making it into a tasty raita by adding boiled potatoes diced small, or putting in finely chopped onion, tomato, cucumber or capsicum, depending on what you have at hand. However, add the tomato, salt, pepper and spices just before serving. 
• GET rid of all the insects hidden in a cauliflower by immersing the whole vegetable in a big pen or pail of cold water with a tablespoon of salt mixed in it. Leave it soaked for ten to fifteen minutes before taking out. Rinse well under running water before cutting.
• FOR keeping lettuce and other green masala in the refrigerator use paper bags, not plastic ones, if you do not want it to go mouldy.
• ONE can also add a pinch of cooking soda when boiling vegetables so that they retain their color. However, do not make this a regular practice as cooking soda is supposed to reduce the vitamin content of most vegetables.
• ADD flavouring or essence to puddings or ice creams only after they have cooled. If put into hot food they are not so effective.