With lockdown and stay-at-home advisory still in place, many people are preferring to stay indoors to evade Coronavirus. In the absence of dine-in option in a restaurant, many people have taken to cooking all meals at home only, during the quarantine period. For some, it even became a means of saving money or passing time. Here are some basic and useful tips to make the most of lockdown cooking while also making it easier and effective.
(Also Read: Covid-19 – 5 Tips To Properly Wash Fruit And Vegetable Produce Before Consumption)
8 Basic Tips For Lockdown Cooking –
1. Divide and carry out your entire cooking process in three stages – preparation, cooking and finishing. This will help smooth out your cooking flow and will prevent rushing through cooking and making it a mess all at once.
2. Heat your pan before putting food or ingredients on it for cooking. This method will prevent food from sticking to the pan.
3. Sharpen your knives regularly for faster and effective cutting of vegetables and fruits, saving some time spent in the kitchen.
4. If you are not sure about the amount of seasoning (salt, pepper etc.) required in a particular dish, put in a small amount while cooking and adjust it later when the cooking is reaching its final stage.
5. If you are stocking a lot of food for rainy days and facing storage issues, prep some meals in advance and store in the refrigerator. For example, Onion-tomato base, ginger-garlic paste, chutney etc. can be made ahead of cooking the main meal. Storing these takes less space than storing raw foods.
6. While storing foods in freezer to extend their life, make sure to label them with their date of purchase, date of storing etc. along with the contents inside the packaging. This will ensure you use all the foods before they turn unfit for consumption.
7. Make sure to wash your pans and cooking vessels right after cooking to avoid wasting time and effort later in scrubbing dried foods sticking to it.
8. Use leftover vegetables and meat trimmings to make stock that can be used later to make many other recipes like soup and pasta.
Happy Cooking!
About Neha GroverLove for reading roused her writing instincts. Neha is guilty of having a deep-set fixation with anything caffeinated. When she is not pouring out her nest of thoughts onto the screen, you can see her reading while sipping on coffee.