Tips

Cooking

• If you have prepared the dosa batter late and not sure it would ferment. No need to add soda to it. Just put the dosa batter bowl on the Gas cylinder. Dosa batter will ferment faster. 
• If sometimes you have put excess salt in gravies boil potatoes and them to the Gravy the potatoes will absorb the excess salt.
• If you want good color for your dosas like the hotel people soak few methi seeds along with urad dal and rice. Take care not to add more methi seeds as dosas could turn bitter.
• If you want soft and tasty dosas add sabudan, methi seeds, chana dal, pesarapappu while soaking the urad dal and rice for dosa batter. After you grind the dosa batter if any left over rice is there make a paste and mix in the dosa batter dosas will be soft and tasty with excellent color. 
• If you want your Idly to be soft take any leftover rice make a paste and mix in the Idly batter.
• Do not throw away the water used for boiling vegetables use it to make gravies. you will not lose the vitamins in the process and gravy will also be tasty.
• Peel the skin of the vegetables very thin so that you would not lose essential vitamins and nutrients just under the skin. 
• Wash the vegetables before peeling/cutting. to avoid losing water soluble vitamins.
• To keep chillies fresh for long remove their stems before storing.
• To keep coriander fresh for long cut the roots/Edges and store.
• To avoid browning of apples after cut for long time apply lemon juice on the surface.
• To avoid crying while cutting onions, remove the top and bottom portion, cut into two halves and put in water for 5-10 minutes.
• If you want crispy pakoras, add hot oil to the besan flour while mixing. Do not make the dough soft just moist enough to make small pakora balls.
• If you want soft and crispy murkus add hot oil to the flour while mixing.
• Add a few drops of lemon and a tsp of oil to rice before boiling to separate each grain for biryani.
• To peel off the skin of tomatoes put the tomatoes in boiling water for about 2-3 minutes covered with lid then take out and peel off the skin easily.
• After boiling the noodles, immediately cool them under running water and add a tsp of oil and mix. This will keep the noodles seperate and avoid over cooking.
• After boiling rice for biryani, immediately cool the rice under running water and add a tsp of oil and mix. This will avoid over cooking of rice and keep the grains seperate.
• If you forget to soak chana/Rajma over night for curry soak them in hot water for 1 hour then they will be ready
• If you want to set curd faster during winter place it in microwave. 
• If you want the onions/vegetables to cook faster add salt. The moisture generated will help the veggies to cook faster.
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General

• If you have too many cockroaches in the house take boric powder and mix in wheat atta and make a dough and make small balls and place them in areas where u mostly find cockroaches. Cockroaches will eat the dough and die you cannot find cockroaches for few months
• Caustic soda is a powerful chemical available in flakes form (available in secunderabad/begum bazar). Do not touch the powder with bare hands.

• This if used can help us a lot in our cleaning. Add caustic soda to boiled water and soak the objects(Combs/Knifes,Tea glasses/cups etc etc) if u want to remove dirt and tough stains which would not go from normal cleaning. When u soak the combs you can see all the dirt leaving the comb automatically and u just have to brush it once and your comb looks clean like new. Any kind of dirt which has accumulated on any surface which would not go with normal cleaning can be cleaned with caustic soda. Be careful not to touch the water mixed with caustic soda when hot use a brush/stick/holder. the chemical is powerful
• Caustic soda can be used for any kind of cleaning - mugs/buckets, combs, taps, tiles etc
• Caustic soda can also be used to soak clothes like whites/Jeans having tough stains and dirt. (But use it carefully if you add too much then chances of holes in your clothes). Add 1/2 tsp of it to water and also add normal surf and soak for 1/2-1 hour and wash without much effort your clothes are clean
• Tired of cleaning Silver articles. Blackness does not go. We get a liquid called Rooperi exclusively for silver articles. Clean the silver articles with this liquid and all stains will be gone and silver articles will look brand new
• For cleaning Copper articles use the pitambari very effective in cleaning.
• When One vessel gets stuck in another and difficult to seperate. Pour water in the vessel and heat it. The vessels will seperate easily.