Useful Kitchen Tips

This post is different compared to my other posts . But thought it would be useful to a vast majority of people who have stepped into the kitchen - to cook  ..
Many times we are faced with tricky situations in the kitchen and at our wits end on how to solve them , so I have collected some tips gathered over different places and from different people , hope it would be useful to all you people at some point of time . Here we go ..

- Add a peeled potato or a ball of dough to over salted soups or gravies to reduce the saltiness.

- Empty airtight containers will not be smelly if a pinch of salt is added.

- Warm pods of garlic in a microwave and you can easily peel it.

- Apply mayo on sides instead of butter while making sandwiches for crispier and tastier sandwiches.

- Saute mint or vegetables in some butter and add to pulao and see how it enhances the flavour.

- To remove the skin of almonds easily, soak them in hot water for 15-20 minutes.

- To chop dry fruits, place them in fridge for half an hour before cutting. Taking the fruits out and cut them with a hot knife (dip it in hot water before cutting).

- To make tasty filter coffee - add a little sugar to the coffee filter before adding coffee powder, then add boiling water to it.

- a mixture of turmeric in lemon juice can help you get a natural red tandoori colour.

- Remove coffee stains from china cups by scrubbing them with equal parts vinegar and salt.

-Add milk powder in cake to make it soft and fluffy.

-Boil potatoes in salty water for two minutes before frying to get crisp chips.

-If you burnt rice ,place a loaf of bread on top ,which will absorb burnt rice smell.

-place rolled puris in the fridge for about ten minutes before frying .. it'll consume less oil and be crispy

-Add a handful of salt +half cup vinegar and boil for 10 mintes and wash off for cleaning burnt pots.

-If your dough is sticky , refrigerate for sometime and then use.

-To prevent an egg from cracking (while boiling) or to boil a slightly cracked egg without the liquid coming out.. add salt/vinegar to the water.

Some tips for Cleaning microwaves
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- The quickest way to clean a microwave oven is to place a handful of wet paper towels inside and run it on High for 3-5 minutes. You don't need a science lesson to know that the steam from the towels will soften the grime. Once the paper towels cool down, use them to wipe the oven's interior.

-Cut a lemon in two and place on a saucer . Place it in your oven after sprinkling a tablespoon of water on the lemons .Run the microwave on high for one minute .Once the microwave gets steamy , all grime will loosen , wipe away with a wet cloth and add the lemon to garbage disposal to wipe away kitchen odours.

- Place a wet sponge with detergent in the microwave and run on high for a minute.Remove all the loosened grime and you will have a sparkling clean microwave.

Incompetent service but with a happy ending :)

Last week was my parents' anniversary and I had planned to gift them something nice. I settled on a gift worth several thousands as I wanted it to be a memorable one. Now came the dilemma , how was I to shift it safely from Hyderabad to Coimbatore without it getting lost and damaged . So I settled for the best(?!) known courier here - Blue Dart . Although they charged me five times more than the smaller couriers I went for it going by the brand name.

They collected the parcel from me on a Saturday and promised me a Tuesday delivery or at the most Wednesday .I waited and waited till Wednesday and when it was not delivered by 7 pm started a spate of calls. By 9 pm my hubby and I had to give up exhausted as there was no proper response from the offices at Hyderabad and Coimbatore or from their call centre . And I was left fuming as the usual helpless Indian customer who pays a high price for everything but gets pathetic service.

I was so irritated as I had paid a high price and didn't want to take it lying down . At around 9:45 at night fortunately I had a brain wave which urged me to do a google search for the Blue Dart MD . And surprisingly it threw up a result with the MD's details and his email ID. Within minutes I drafted off an angry email explaining about the pathetic service and how disgruntled I was . I didn't expect any response but at least was happy at venting out my anger on someone. And what a surprise ! Within 10 minutes I got a reply from his regional head apologizing profusely and telling me that the matter would be resolved at the highest priority. Another 10 minutes and I got a call from the Coimbatore office saying my parcel was on its way . My parents received the courier at 10:40 that night and I learnt a major lesson . In India to get any customer complaint resolved ,we always need to approach people at the highest level , no use raising a hue and cry at the lower rung . And it pays to actually contact people at the top of the hierarchy and they DO respond . Not sure it would work out always but guess I was lucky .I did thank him and ask him to train his employees at providing  better customer service and he promised to do so :) 

It’s almost routine that you can expect poor customer service in India, whether it’s a restaurant or store. Let's hope indian companies are challenged into being more customer friendly by increased competition.