Cooking tips

Here i will try to give you some cooking tips, which could make cooking Indian recipes a little quicker and easier.

Home made ginger garlic paste

Ginger garlic paste is one of the key ingredient in many of the Indian recipes. I don't like the store bought ginger garlic paste but I have a full time job so i don't so much time for cooking so i can not make it every time i need them so i have to store it I make my own ginger garlic paste and preserve it in the fridge for about Max 7-10 days. I recommend almost everyone could do this, its so simple and its without preservatives :-)

Problems are the plastic container that you will use to store it is going to stick of ginger garlic paste so i recommend a glass bottle. If you still go for a plastic then have a dedicated one for this paste.

You obviously need only fresh ginger and garlic! A little water and a mixie.

I use 2:1 ratio of garlic:ginger, grind them to a paste by just adding enough water. Here is how it looks.

Adding oil cook lentils

I think by practice all of us add oil to the toor dal when cooking it for sambar or to make simple dal recipe. You know we do it in order to increase the boiling point of the water to cook the dal faster. I have tried with and without a 1 tbsp of oil. It make a lot of difference in the cooking time of the dal. So never forget to add oil to cook the stubborn lentils. 

Tamil - English names of ingredients

Its an useful website which lists out most of the ingredients used in south Indian cooking in Tamil and English along with pictures.