Time management in cooking

It would be helpful if you can read my post 3 women influencers in my cooking before reading this. It will give you an idea why I improved and process improved my cooking skills. Because I could not envision myself spending so much time in the kitchen.

I love and am passionate about cooking and flavours. But it does not mean that you need to spend all the time in the kitchen.

I will give my way of cooking everyday so that it will give you an idea.

for me, I cook only traditional Tamil dishes. And a little of North Indian.

Because I believe that food is medicine and we need to incorporate all herbs and native vegetables in our daily cooking. Just how our ancestors did. Though we cannot do everything because of lack of knowledge, atleast what we know we need to stick to.

First is arranging the spice powders.

I have salt, tamarind separately on the counter. There was a logic, refer to Sadguru’s video.

all my spice powders are placed in a draw below the stove,( in the ladle or spoon drawer that is usually designed by everyone) and my spoon drawer is below the spice bottles drawer.

mustard seeds and ulutham paruppu I mix and keep. also have separate ones.

separate chilli powders, coriander powders and turmeric. Few people mix and keep. I keep separate powders.

have sambhar powder separate ( I make)

I use very less tamarind in my cooking.

perungayam in one bottle.

jeeragam in separate.

pepper and jeeragam mixed in one bottle for pongal and rasam.

have one salt in my spice draw too.

I use very less oil, like a tsp for each dish. and few I avoid oil totally.

And by this sort of cooking, my gas cylinder usage is 1 cylinder for 3 months. yes. not lying. My husband did not believe too, till I asked him to check the previous booking.

Day 1 menu:

Rice, Spinach, potato fry, pudalangai kootu, rasam, curd, lime pickle.

Keep all the vegetables ready, not chopped yet. onions, potato, pudalangai, spinach, green chilli, coconut broken, garlic, a lemon, curry leaves all handy.

I have four burner stove, so that also matters a lot. and I always cook in sim.

First I measure the rice, pour water and keep it in a heavy saucepan or a vessel. I don’t use cooker for cooking rice. (After cooking I drain off the excess water.)

Put in simmer and half close it.

One stove occupied.

In the next one, in a dry pressure cooker add little oil and put the flame low. while it is getting hot, peel one onion and chop it. when oil is hot, add mustard seeds, urad Dhall mix and jeera. when it splutters add onion. Still in simmer. Meanwhile cut one green chilli and add to it along with the curry leaves. still in sim. now wash Dhall and measure water add to the onion mixture. Still in sim. now chop the pudalangai and add to it. Add salt and turmeric. close and cooker. now you can increase the heat, because cooker if you cook inn simmer for long time the pressure might increase inside.

another stove occupied.

take a pan and place it on third stove. Don’t ON yet. wash the spinach as a bunch, cut the entire roots in one go and just look out for any grass or weeds. when you are sure that it is clean, now chop. not necessary to chop too fine. either way it will shrink. now switch ON the gas and simmer and add the spinach, 2 green chillies and close with the lid. simmer. no oil is needed. you will be surprised how tasty it is. when it is done you can add salt. because if you factor for the salt when the spinach or greens are uncooked, you will end up putting too much salt.

third stove occupied.

Peel one or two potatoes (I get big ones, so one is enough for three people) and chop it. Switch on the fourth one, add a pan, pour 1 tsp oil, add potato, salt, chilli powder, turmeric. pour 1/2 glass water and close. simmer.

fourth stove occupied.

now as rice is getting ready, your kootu, spinach and potato is also getting ready.

now grate two handfuls of coconut and keep it aside.

By this time the rice and the Dhall in cooker must have been done. cooker 3-4 whistles it will be ready.

so check rice and drain. close it and it is ready.

check the spinach and potato and flip it so that it does not stick to the bottom.

I have pre-fried tuvar dhall powder. meaning take a glass of Tuvaram paruppu, in a dry kadai saute till a nice aroma is released. This I have kept stored in a glass container.

now in the free stove, place a small vessel for rasam. add the tuvar Dhall powder a tsp. pour 2 cups water and simmer. add turmeric powder and salt a little asafoetida, . in a mortar pestle. pound pepper jeeragam mix, , a sprig of curry leaf and few garlic. now rasam masala is ready.

add this to the boiling rasam. and switch off after 3 minutes. cut one lemon into half and squeeze into it. your lemon rasam is done.

if you want you can temper it. either way it will be tasty..

now your spinach must be done and the pressure cooker with kootu can be opened too. now add the grated coconut to both. check the consistency of the kootu. if too watery keep high in flame and bring it to the required consistency.

all this together it takes maximum 30-40 minutes for me. even lesser than that.

food is about nutrition and not just taste. you can choose to keep rice in pressure cooker too. but one more cooker to wash. so I do it heavy milk saucepan. so I just drain off the rice water just by tilting the pan and by holding the handle.

There is no right way or wrong way to cook. of course cooking in an iron pan helps but if you are going to wash vessels then it becomes difficult to wash.

especially for people who live abroad. we here have the luxury of a helper, but even they complain if there are more than 10 vessels or so.

A little planning of buying the vegetables and 30 to 40 minutes. You can have a balanced, healthy fresh meal. Team it up with lemon pickles ( our pickles have enough probiotics) and curd.

sometime in a full big box, I fry and keep vadagams and more milagais. if you have all this its a feast. No restaurants can offer.