Recipes

To drive away the smell from the furnitures after it is painted with varnish, keep a little vinegar in a bowl, add chopped ginger which will absorb all the smell emanating in the room. -Courtesy: Shantha Radhakrishnan
Uses of the stabiliser of the Fridge:
- When the biscuits and the chips loose their crispness, keep them over the stabiliser in a container and see the effect!
- You want the curd to form faster. As soon as you add buttermilk to the milk for curdling, keep it over the stabiliser
- If you want to use the batter made either in the night for the next morning's use, or the batter made in the morning for the afternoon's use, keep it over the stabiliser if it is a small container. If not keep it behind the compressor.
- If the bread kept for the cutlet is not crispy, keep it over the stabiliser to make it crispy.
-Courtesy: Shantha Radhakrishnan
To make the dhal well cooked, add a piece of coconut while keeping the dhal in the bowl with water. It will get cooked well and totally besides giving a good aroma.
To clean silver ware -- immerse them in sour butter milk overnight and wipe it with a sponge. It would sparkle.
Eat carrots atleast twice a week. It will keep the acids and the alkallies in our body in a balance and prevent skin diseases. Besides, it is a good tonic for the eyes, heart, and purifies the blood.
Powder a little dry neem leaves and wash your teeth with that powder once a week. There would not be any problem with your teeth.
If in case you have got very old pickles which you feel unfit to consume,wash the brass vessels with that pickles. It will sparkle.
To remove black rings around the eyes: Take a little SOUR idli batter, smear around the eyes, leave it for 15 mts and then wash it with rose water for 2 weeks.
If by chance there are a few scratches or small gaps in your wooden sofa, apply a little wax to the crevices and apply turpentine. It will bridge the crevices besides preventing the housing of insects.
To ward off bad smell from the mouth: Drop a few methi leaves in boiling water and gargle your mouth after it is a little cooled down and spit it out. Gradually the bad smell from the mouth will vanish.
To drive away the paint smell from the newly painted room, keep few cut onions in a bucket of water and keep it open. It will drive away the paint smell.
To drive away house flies: Place a small cube of camphor in warm water in a ontainer.
When you are offered betel leaves as is the custom in some South Indian families, do not throw them away. Keep them in your almyrahs. It will drive away the cockroaches. Courtesy: Dinamalar (tamil daily)
-Forwarded by Shantha Radhakrishnan.
By rubbing the oil stain area with a mixture of lemon juice and salt,it will fade.
Reduce or eliminate the fat you need for sauteing and pan-frying by using a nonstick skillet.
Mix 1 tbsp of salt, 1 tbsp water softner and 1 glass of hot water.
Now stir this mixture for 10-15 seconds and dip any silver items in this solution. Believe me, you will see miracle!!!
There are few tips for the maintenance of sarees which I found in the Tamil weekly "Ananda Vikatan" which I am sending for others to know:
1. To remove the coffee or tea stain or oil stain from the sarees : Boil a potatoe mash it and rub it over the stain. It is gone!
2. To remove the ink stains from the sarees: rub a little tooth paste over the stain, wait for an hour and then wash. Stain vanishes.
3. To remove the stains due to ball point pen ink : rub a little glycerine over the stain. and then wash.
4. To avoid patchy takeup of the starch applied to the sarees -- Before dissolving the starch, add a little salt to the water and dissolve the starch and dip the sarrees in that It would spread evenly.
5. To retain the colour of the new saree : Before washing, dip the saree in the water in which a little salt it dissolved. Then wash the sarees. The colours will be everlasting.

--Shantha Radhakrishnan,
Madurai.
Replace kitchen sponges often, since they provide a comfortable home for bacteria.
To dehusk the garlic (ie, to remove the outer coverings --
1. Mix a handful of coconut oil or sesame oil and keep in the Sun for 2 or 3 hours. The you can peel off the outer coverings easily.
2. As an alternate, keep the garlic in the freezer compartment overnight and take it out in the morning and the job can be done easily.
Include as much as green vegetables in your diet coz plant-based diets are high in fiber and low in fat.
To roast peanuts, microwave peanuts in microwable plate for just 2-3 minutes and cool it.
Brinjals pieces can be rubbed with a little salted oil after slicing to avoid discolouration.
After chopping garlic or onions, run a lemon quarter over both the knife blade and the cutting board to remove the odor.
To peel tomatoes, cut tomatoes in halves and place face down in a microwave vessel and microwave for 5 minutes or less. The skin peels away easily.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda while mixing the dough for chappathi and puris to make them soft.
Bookmark favorite recipes in your cookbooks or always keep printout ready while cooking that recipe in your kitchen.
You can grind 2-3 chopped, fried onions in freeze and use it in vegetables for gravy.
In order to measure ingredients in kitchen, always keep measuring bowl on a front shelf for easy/quick access.
To prevent coconut oil from freezing in winter,add a few drops of castor oil to the coconut oil, shake well and store.
--Shantha Radhakrishan.
To remove coconut from its shell: Break the coconut and show its shell (kernel) side in a nacked flame for a few miutes. It would come off easily. (courtesy: Krishna Sweets).
--Shantha Radhakrishan.
To remove the yellow colourationin the clothes due to washing borewell water: Dry the lemon peels in hot sun, powder it and mix it with the detergent powder being used to wash. The clothes would be sparkling in colour.
--Shantha Radhakrishan.
For dandruff and lice trouble: Add powdered camphor to heated coconut oil and apply it to the scalp. They would vanish.
--Shantha Radhakrishan.
To remove insects from the greens (spinach) add a few drops of vinegar into the water to be used for washing the spinachs.
--Shantha Radhakrishan.
To see whether baking powder has lost its power, drop 2 pinch into a glass of warm water. If it foams to the top, the baking powder is still active.
To remove odors from plastic container, add 1 tablespoon baking soda to 1 quart warm water. Dip them in this solution and rinse with fresh water.
To soak channa better in winter, add pinch of baking soda or eno to it, to a cup of channa, when soaking.
Put a lemon in hot water for 1-2 mins before squeezing. It will give you more juice.
Make 4-5 tbsp of ginger-garlic paste at once and put 1 tbsp of hot oil in this paste.Keep it in refrigerator so that it last for 3-4 days It will save your time while cooking.
To deodorize a container in which onions or garlic were stored, wash thoroughly, then put a crumpled piece of newspaper or papernapkins in the container, and cover the lid. In a few days the smell will disappear.
After chopping garlic or onions, run a lemon quarter over both the knife blade and the cutting board to remove the odor.
Soak Mung,Matki for 7-8 hours. Then tie them in thin cotton cloth for a whole day to sprout nicely.
Keeping a small piece of hing (asafoetida) in the chili powder container will store chili powder for long time.
When curd is stored in china ware it does not turn sour for a very long time. Likewise, if tamarid is stored in chinaware (made of china clay) they do not turn black on storage for a long time.
--by Shantha Radhakrishan.
Smear some oil mixed with salt before using a frying pan either for saute purposes or deep frying. It would remain everfresh.
--by Shantha Radhakrishan.
Please store garam masala powder and jeera (cumin seeds) powder in a dark place. Otherwise they would lose their aroma when exposed to light.
--by Shantha Radhakrishan.
By chance if you have added excess salt to sambar or rasam, add a few cooked and cut potatoes (bigpieces) and allow to boil for 2 minutes. It will take off the excess salt.
--by Shantha Radhakrishan.
In order to make the worms to come out of cauliflower, immerse the cut cauliflower pieces in leukewarm water to which salt is added. All the worms would come out.
--by Shantha Radhakrishan.
Please do not keep silver ware in steel cupboards. It will turn black. Try to store them in woodden almyrahs as far as possible.If not, keep them covered with an airtight cover. Inspite of all your efforts, it turns black, take a quality tooth paste, clean the silver ware with the tooth paste and see the difference!
--by Shantha Radhakrishan.
By chance if you have added excess salt to sambar or rasam,add a few cooked and cut potatoes (bigpieces) and allow to boil for 2 minutes. It will take off the excess salt.
---Shantha Radhakrishan.
To determine whether an egg is fresh, immerse it in a pan of cold, salted water.
If it sinks, it is fresh, but if it rises to the surface, it shouldn't be consumed.
Get yourself a bunch of fresh cilantro(coriander leaves), wash and trim of the stems. Dry on paper towels then put in individual freezer snack bags. Freeze. When you need some fresh cilantro for curries, garnishing or other things, just get a pack from the freezer, crush or chop and add to your recipe.
Before boilig the milk stored for more than one or two days,especially in places where there used to be powercuts (like our place), add 1/2 teaspoonful of cooking soda, mix it well and then boil it. It will not curdle.
--by Shantha Radhakrishan.
Baking powders lose strength over time. Store them tightly covered as moisture can cause them to lose their strength faster.
Add little milk while making roti or puri dough to make them soft.
While using pressure cooker, add one slice of lemon or 1 tbsp lemon juice to avoid formation of black layer.

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