Beating the grind

[Geetha]

For some people it is an art itself and therefore dedication is self evident and easy to come by.

But for others like us there are time s when eve though you like your own food better you resort to some thing else options galore(...)

So if your needs are to take and make this chore of cooking an easier and happier one do add your pointer because it will help food lovers and haggered cooks of all age and groups

Please do find in your chest the one main tip to help enterprenewrs of starting a home kitchen to succeed. Thats all the help I aak of you some interesting stories will do here.

Release your cherished wish here and become one with a cause of cooking freely. Make a healthier and a happier outlook

[Geetha]

I've also made a group out of interest for viewers so please join me in our group of

cheativechore@yahoogroups.com

[Geetha]

ofcourse I was misspelling there it is creativechore@yahoogroups.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/creativechore/

I believe it will be a free for all forum and share your good views for others to take hint from.. but I 'm open to any other suggestions for it too, on the other hand if you take to a unknown corner we will be not able to benefit others like who know they migh be interested

Edited August 30, 2004 by Geetha (log)

[Geetha]

I would like to invite all of you teacher s of indian and any other cuisine with interesting tips for work out in kitchen

would help out great deal if you'd add posts of your cooking classes as they begin, and may be some of your typical hints too.. like how to boil water

Love to all you gentle guides out there ready to take care of us inspired beginners

[Edward]

I like my own home-cooked food. So I try and do things to avoid eating out too much.

Here are some things I do to make life a little easier.

Make dal in a large batch, but leave it plain. Do add salt though-this helps keep it fresh. Throughout the week you can take out just what you need, add more water as desired and season the way you want it that night. Monday could be brown onions and garam masala, Tuesday could be curry leaves, hing and mustard seeds. Wednesday...well you get the idea.

When you make chapatis make extra and freeze those. They heat up in just minute on a hot tawa or directly on a gas flame.

Make double the rice you need. It is great stir-fried with vegetables a day ot two later. Gobhi, gajar, hari matar...you name it. All you need is papar, pickles and a dish of yogurt.

God bless the wonder of uppma!!

Never forget the glories of the egg! Bread omlette, bread omlette, bread omlette!

any maggi sauce like tom-chili makes this extra special.

If you are a strict vegetarian and don't do eggs than paneer is your friend. Homemade keeps for a few days and store-bought much longer. Paneer ki bhurji happens very fast...even tofu made this way is good.

[Geetha]

I've been thinking of it myself, I have had the opportunity of guidance from within a lot of times and peculiar thing about me is my absentmindedness results from overdoses of these intuitive guidances. I wonder who is giving me all those (not that I do mind but it is confusing for me to follow when too many of those guides are following me around in the kitchen while I cook around. For instance if I am making tarka for dal some one will tell me to my moms standard tarka and when I reach for the mustard s\eeds to begin with some one will start giving me another sset of those ingredient s for tarka hmm have you tried ginger and and green chilli and I will say of course no , reply will be why not , I will think now what am I to do go for mustard or to reach out for ginger from the fridge... I will stand for 1 minute thinking about it. It normally doesn't help to stand and watch because no one will guide you here and the oil for tarka is getting over heated so I will grab ginger and start to reach for the flame reducer knob at the same time take my kitchen knife out(I use only one and am a great fan of its sharp blade) helps to have a good one do your duty

Any way I do all these things in a matter of seconds, only to realize that no matter what there will be alyas more of those guidances coming through have you put those dried vadiyams( mother in laws pre salted and dried kadoi leaves mix made into rounds for future convenient use)...

So I don't have a moment of peace while preparing these dishes which I consider my greatest misfortune and luck at the same time it is how you take it right

Well I gladly say that I am in reeceipt of a lots of peoples guidances may be from the yonder group so I don't want to insult them it may be my revered family fro mlong ago . So I try it with my best intentions, so it helps a lot to tell my friends on the eG board the truth about all this rush of information I pass on to them when ever I do, the idea to substitue poha ( a type of flattened rice for oats bran came from an unknown source too) well I know they are all meaning to do good, about all and thanks for the tips too your children here on earth need it too may be they already know us and are offering us help too.

The mayan calender says that we are all moving too fast and the time has speeded up I do believe it so much is appening in and around us in so fast a period of time it is so fast we can't notice it any more, all people around the world are seeking a healthier opportunity to live and thrive in divine state of happiness, well tomorrow is never same as today, so it s true with our eG too, how many changes occur soo soon, I learnt a lot in the last one week that I am amazed at it right now, I hope to share meaning fully and help others realizethe gift of help that others givee to us. Its good to help and promises to get better each time some reaches out in kindness and desires to help some happiness to sprees through us..

[Geetha]

Another one of those pointers for the harried persone behinf the startup kitchen to know... It helps to know what you like the most for instance when you are utmost subjected to think that you're not up to it today you can do somethings to inspre you out of your doldrums

take a sip at hot flavourful tea(Taj mahal from India ) lipton and any other you find suitable for your time of day do take care to drink hot for it steams you up and energizes you to your taks with a lot of help from others you can make it happen to you and make easily through the task of you day Im not telling any thing new but just a suggestions instead of taking out take a sip into your favourite drink and it will help infinitely more when you are happy to do a certain thing than when you're not

You'll notice that the happier you are in the moment of your preparing of food the easir it is to complete your task is to take up and to do it right from start to finish

Good luck

[Geetha]

Two tips here

1. Dosa batter prepared and placed inside room temp oven ( for fermenting stable temp helps ) for a period of 36 hours. Batter prepared by mixing rice flour 1 cup , urad or papad flour 2 cups, with adequate about of water to make a thick batter add salt to it and let it ferment.

2. Use dessicated cocnut for everything else except for cutney, can prepare tomato cutney with ease using only onion tomatoes and chillies sauteed and then blended using a hand blender in the vessel used to sautee the vegetables . I use the dutch oven(you guessed it) so the ingredients dont fly out as soon as the blender goes on. Any way you can also use any other divice for grinding other than the immersion blender( which is a very handy tool for quick preps), then make a tadka of curry leaves mustard and red chillies.

[Geetha]

Please let me add to this my one main concern for food stuff here cooked ones, are meant to be eaten with in one day of its preparation and the fridge is no good either with preserving freshness of it. It is for the energy or prana that we consume food in first place, So I prefer to take a fresh approach at our techniques here, the lesser you use the older food the better off you are to wards health and beauty therin. So be careful you don't get in to the grind of leaving leftovers stocked in refrigerators for week and end up eating off fridge to stave of hunger.

I see one way over this situation, I believe in not using or rather overusing the regrigerator because it does no good for the food stuf you put into it. I leave most of my food outside and there fore make sure it is eaten by the next day.. no food stuff stored for days for me.

This is really a scientific fact that the fresh prepared food offer us life energy it is different fro mwhat we call carbohydrates and fats, it is the life energy you partake from from plants to fruits to all of the animal kingdom too. There fore fresh veg's and fruits (first preference are the greatest source of prana on this planet) you should be sufficiently effuced with prana to do your daily activities fruitfully in future

May God Us bless for future successful ventures in to unknown world of truth and silence and bliss

[Geetha]

I have a batch of Dosa batter ready after ferment, and it is good to make with too. When I retrieved the batter from the oven where I'd left it to ferment it was a pool of porous mass, and also had an odor of sourness to it, even if you're not used to it take off and mix it evenly with a ladle, then the odor goes out, it is the fermentation release, nothing to worry about.

If you are trying it out just be self assured more than anything else, it will turn out just fine then.

I will pore the batter to the middle of a hot griddle or a non-stick pan and circle it with a ladle, to the sides and even it out, then keep the flame on medium low, when the dosa surface facing pan is turning light golden brown I will press, and pull in stripes with a thin spatula all over the surface, to spread the semi-dried batter on top to an even layer, then leave it until the lower surface is brown to dark brown in color, then I roll over the paper thin crepe or fold in two halves before removing it from pan.

I can't resist it when I have the batter on hand I love making dosas too. I hope I leave some for my husband he loves it too.

Tip: add some rice flour (4 Tbsps) to each batch that you use just before you pour it on the pan, this adds to crispness of the outcome. Also you must store in fridge to prevent from extra sourness and also spoilage after the ferment period of 36 hrs

Edited September 1, 2004 by Geetha (log)

[Geetha]

By all means if you want a closer look at how were doing it please drop in home, I hope any one around our place in NY will drop in.

I 'm placing the classes just in case some one is keen to learn from me Im home at all times but then I'm busy on my eG posts

I am living in Astoria, NY let me know if you are able to come this week end

I will keep raw materials ready for you to learn from, may be you could also join in for lunch .. will be awaiting youre response. I don't want to offend any one here but my classses are only on the need to know basis and will be free for all to make it.. we'll see how we can plan it or impromptu anyway works

Bring your interest