Most exotic rich Indian recipes suggest using cream, butter and butter oil (ghee) but all of these can be replaced with more healthier and easily available alternatives. For example, in a conventional Butter Chicken or Daal Makhani recipe replace cream with milk to make the gravy creamy. For Daal replace water with milk and for Butter Chicken increase the amount of nuts (almonds or cashews whatever you are using).
Revive that creative side in you and try using coconut milk once in a while to give that distinctive flavour to a routine recipe.
Some tender veggies like cauliflower breaks away in the cooking pan as soon as it softens . To get the right colour and texture of the finished recipe for such ingredients, cook at highest heat level for first 5-10 minutes. Make sure to keep turning the ingredients occasionally so that some pieces get brown even though not tender or cooked fully. After you get the right colour and burnt flavour, alternate the heat to low to let the ingredients get tender and fully cooked. You may want to add a few drops of water when putting the heat at low to help tendering process and finish up the recipe.
Try using all the stove burners at the same time. Plan the use of burners in a way that the recipe taking the longest time is put on the burner first, and other recipes follow in descending order. This will result in all your cooking finishing at the same time and you can spend the saved precious time doing something else you love to do.
On the day you feel creative – Give a shot to this advice.
You can change the flavour of a regular recipe, caramelize ingredients by adding 1/2 teaspoon sugar to warm oil in the pan, once sugar melts and the drops becomes brown put in vegetables or other ingredients to cook.
How am I contributing to making this earth green by following four steps or less recipe?
Save fuel energy by covering the pan all the time while milk is reaching the boiling point. This will quicken the process and save energy.
Consider using the residue water after cheese is made, you can use it in some other recipe or make dough for cookies, bread or muffins.
You save: 10-40% of fuel energy by covering the pan and 2-3 minutes of your time
INGREDIENTS:
1 litre full cream milk
1/2 tablespoon of lemon/lime juice or vinegar
STEP 1: Pour milk into pan and bring it close to boiling point. Continue stirring the milk so that it does not stick to the bottom.
STEP 2: Add 10-12 drops of lemon juice. Milk will start to curdle as lemon juice is put in, keep the heat on until milk curdles completely and becomes watery and transparent.
STEP 3: Pour this into a muslin cloth over a sieve and either hang the cheese or press it with heavy weight for an hour for it to form shape.
HANDY TIPS:
For the cheese to get solid you can chose to hang it for the water to drain out. This is good if you want to grate or crumble the cheese when it is ready. However if you want it in a block to cut it into square or any other shaped pieces you can put it on a cutting board pressed by another heavy flat object or a heavy cutting board.
You can add any herb or spices of your choice like dill, rosemary, cilantro, red chilli flakes, garlic or black pepper to make flavoured cheese. Be as creative as you want to be.
To get a chargrill/barbecue flavour from stove top cooking, try caramelizing the ingredients by putting 1/2 teaspoon sugar in oil as the first step and let the sugar turn to dark brown liquid. Or, add some Thai/Indian sweet and sour sauce when ingredients are getting cooked. Put the heat on high for the sauce to burn and give a barbecue/burnt flavour. This will save fuel energy used by the barbecue and some of your precious time.
Here is a tip to get the quick cooking going and to save time on the days you are really pressed for it and yet want to make something nice and elaborate. Most sumptuous indian curries and dishes require sautéed onion and this is what takes time. So, be smart and keep some chopped sautéed onions in your refrigerator. The day you are making a recipe with onions, plan on peeling and chopping some extra onions to save them for the next time. You can also do this on a weekend or at a time when you are anyway in the kitchen cooking something else and have your hands free in between to peel the onions and drop them in a chopper. Sauté all onions together for your current recipe as well as for the next one. Save sautéed onion in small freezer bags/containers for the next time for quick use. This has been a trick that has saved me time on many occasions. For some my upcoming recipes I will be using ready sautéed onions from my fridge. It’s all about saving time, the most precious thing..efficient use of time in the kitchen this time around will save some time for the next time you are in the kitchen.
STEP 1. Put hing (Asafoetida powder), methi seeds (Fenugreek seeds) and jeera (Cumin seeds) into heated oil, sauté for 20-30 seconds.
STEP 2. Throw in the cut pieces of squash/pumpkin, sugar, salt, red chilli powder and ¾ cup of water.
STEP 3. Cover the pan and let everything cook until squash turns soft and turns a little dark in colour.
STEP 4. Add garam masala and serve with coriander leaves garnish
HANDY TIP:
Asafoetida has a very unique flavour, the recipe will still come out fine, even if you decide not to use it.
You do not have to take the skin off for most sitaphal/petha (in India)(squash/pumpkin in North America) for this recipe, however if you have already used a particular kind of pumpkin that is known for coarse skin, you may remove the skin.
Four Steps or Less 