Re: Learning to cook with Daffy Duck
Sure Daffy,
Each spice alag sai doesnt have a strong impact but when you mix them in right proportions , thats when they start giving us the taste … so the quantity is very very important..
**Garlic
**Kills bacteria in the food and it also reduces the smells in the food , like meat for example … plus it helps the food to cook from inside sooner… so when you are cooking vegetables, use only one teaspoon garlic .. but when you are cooking meat use one and a half tsp of it … because meat has more germs and bacteria are gandi smell too …
Remember,if you put too much garlic in a dish, it will become too spicy , like not the mirch wala spicy , but will have a bit too strong a taste … so if you are cooking for 4-5 people stick to the quantities I mentioned above .. I will tell you in later posts what quantities to use for bigger quantities …
**Ginger:
**Ginger helps with digestion that is why it is used so heavily in asian food .. and it makes the garlic smell nice therefore most people use garlic and ginger together because they enhance each other’s taste and reduce each others sharp , pungent smells … you should only use one tsp of it … werna wohi garlic wala issue hai , if you put too much of it, it will make the salan too spicy …
I have cooked some dishes with garlic only , no ginger .. doesnt make a lot of difference in taste .. but ginger just has a nice smell and added benefit .. specially when you are cooking daals and gobi , things that can make us gassy , its important that you add more ginger in them , as it helps reduce flatulence and improves digestion …
**Corriander Seeds / sooka dhaniya
**It is used I think for its very strong antibiotic qualities … plus it balances the salt and red chilli pepper flavours … if you have added a certain spice ziaada galti sai , then you should add half a tsp of corriander seeds and it will reduce the spice taste thora sa …
**Turmeric
**Haldi is also a very very strong and a good kind of antibiotic , it has alot of health benefits attached to it … plus it gives a beautiful color to the salan … so you should most definitely use halfi in all your cooking … it helps improve the family’s immunity against day to day illnesses as well as helps the body recover incase koi wound ho jaaye bi tou … just half tsp is enough in the salan for 4-5 people ..
when we dont want the yellowish color in a dish, we dont add haldi …
**Tomatoes:
**Tomatoes are extremely healthy … they reduce the cholesterol levels in the body .. asians use tomatoes in their cookin coz we use loads of oil .. so to balance out the effect tomatoes are used heavily in our diet … normally you can use 2-3 tomatoes in your daily cooking … if we use more of it, then the it kills the taste of all the other ingredients in the salan …
Just remember, by not adding an ingredient, nothing disasterous will happen… but if you over add a spice , khana ka taste mar jaaye ga bi … so you have to be careful in adding just appropriate levels of spices ..