Time Saving Tips
17 Oct, 2006. 5 Comments. Leave a comment
My top three time saving tips for cooking on busy work days
My mind often wanders while I sit at my filthy work desk, under a paper mountain that doubles up as an incredibly sophisticated filing system. I imagine myself in a cotton kurta, with my hair in a bun. A rolling pin in one hand, I wipe the beads of sweat off my face while diligently shaping the perfect roti.
Instead, here I am. Working on version 87 of longest-presentation-in-the-world after a virtually sleepless night, with a long day ahead. In times like this, I wonder how I could ever bring myself to cook anything, let alone a curry.
But every foodie has a bag of tricks up its sleeve when it comes to saving time when cooking. With Indian food, which isn’t always quick and easy, these are a life line.
Here are three of my time-saving Indian cooking tips:
- Always use non-stick cookware. Indian dishes often need regular stirring to cook the ingredients evenly and having a non stick pot/pan means less effort
- Wait until the oil is hot before you start cooking. To check, touch the oil in the pan with a wooden spoon. If the oil starts sizzling where it touches the spoon, the oil is hot enough
- Rather than chopping onions, ginger and garlic, just blitz them in a food processor. When you fry this paste, you will need a little more oil than usual though
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Great tips!! More please!!
) Love the egg raita!!
thanks! i should get out my food processor.
wooden desk…
I found it very useful. Thanks for the knowledge. I am personally trying to follow the advice & try to be independent….
Hey Mallika,
Contributing few more tips,
I normally cut my vegetables for the whole week on a weekend, and freeze them, in the mornings, i put one of them into the fridge and take out in the evening. As soon as I am back from office, first thing I take it out of the fridge. This saves me lot of time.
Also, I make ginger/garlic/Onion paste and freeze them too.
Same with tomatoes+green chilli paste.
I also use a nicer dicer (a huge time saver), cut 8-10 onions and keep it in fridge, Its really fresh when i use these onions.
I swear by them, else my cooking would be real slow.
This way i cut my preparation time.
I like your site, by the way.