Cooking is fun and a real experience if we are well prepared and enjoy doing it. As homemakers or responsible cooks or chef we can improve our repertoire and try and introduce variety into daily cooking. Simple cooking tips if followed help us in a way to make things easy for us and the kitchen can be a place where there is learning and excitement .

Lets go through some of them.

• Butter the bottom and sides of a pan in which noodles, spaghetti, rice or milk cooked or boiled top prevent them from boiling over and sticking to the pan.
• When cutting cakes or ice cream, dip knife in hot water to make smoother cut.
• If you chill glasses before preparing the ice-cream in, it will stay stiff longer.
• Use scoops and ladles to portion food as it allows uniform servings.
• Before preparing pumkin, yam and other fuzzy vegetables rub hands with little oil as it prevents irritation of hands and roughness.
•  If refrigerated fish has been freezed for long and it has becomes old then remove it and put in vinegar and water mix to remove the smell.
•  Grease measuring cup slightly before measuring molasses, corn syrup etc to ensure that nothing is wasted.
• After cleaning fish just scrub your hands with lemon juice or lemon halves to remove the persistent smell of the hand and fingers.
•  To retain the freshness and whiteness of cauliflower florets soak them for a few seconds in a mix of lemon juice and water.
•  Wrap meat in foil or waxed paper before storing in freezer or refrigerator. Brown paper or wax paper softens and get stuck to the meat especially mince.
•  A tsp of soda bicarb placed in a small crucible in the refridgerator will keep away smell of food from permeating each other.
•  Pressure cooks a lot of tomatoes in lots of water. Once cool blend them in the blender and make puree. Strain, cool and freeze in ice tray and let it settles, once frozen, remove the cubes and store in polybags and keep in the freezer, use whenever required.
•  Add dry rice while grinding sugar as it avoids it from being lumpy.
• Add a few drops of lemon juice and ghee while steaming long rice (Basmati) to keep it whiter and grains unbroken.
•  Green leafy vegetables like fenugreek, spinach, etc can be blanched in boiling water for 2 minutes then hold under cold running water, press out excess water, and store in freezer for about 2 weeks without spoiling.
•  Salads can be made better and crisp if the cut vegetables have been soaked in chilled water for some time.
•  Soups should never be over boiled as they lose their colour and body volume.