TIPS

• Almonds: To remove the skin of almonds easily, soak them in hot water for 15-20 minutes.
• Ants: Putting 3-4 cloves in the sugar container will keep the ants at bay.
• Biscuits: If you keep a piece of blotting paper at the bottom of the container, it will keep biscuits fresh for a longer time.
• Butter: Avoid the use of butter. If it is essential to use, use a butter containing low saturated fat or with plant stanols (which avoid absorption of cholesterol by our body) or similar substitutes.
• Apples: Apply some lemon juice on the cut surface of the apple to avoid browning. They will look fresh for a longer time.
• Banana: Apply mashed banana over a burn on your body to have a cooling effect.
• Bee and Scorpion Sting Relief: Apply a mixutre of 1 pinch of chewing tobacco and 1 drop of water. Mix and apply directly and immediately to the sting; cover with bandaid to hold in place. Pain will go away in just a few short minutes. 
• Bitter Gourd (Karela): Slit Karelas at the middle and apply a mixture of salt, wheat flour and curd all round. Keep aside for 1/2 an hour and then cook.

Steaming keeps what boiling takes away

Steaming possesses great advantages over eating raw and deep frying your veggies, like you do not need oil when you steam your vegetables. This is one of the biggest selling points of steamed vegetables over frying or deep frying. And with the number of people turning to steaming their vegetables, there are some tasty recipes out there too! There are quite a few problems that arise when you boil your veggies.

Nutrition Difference

There is a heavy leach of nutrients and colored antioxidants from the vegetables you boil. This is applicable to soluble nutrients, namely folic acid and vitamin C. There is an average 15% to 25% loss of folic acid and vitamin C when you boil instead of steaming. This is because, heat breaks down the vegetable cellular linings and soluble vitamins and acids that then dissolve into the water. The same happens with steaming, in a way, but the nutrients are still fully retained by the veggie, as there is no contact with the boiling water and the veggie. The problem here is that we mostly tend to throw away the water when we boil, and a part of our health with it. If you can, make a soup out of that water to reduce the loss of nutrition.

Maintaining Consistency

Vegetable consistency is hard to maintain when you boil it. The outer sides of the vegetables get cooked much faster when you boil, and the constant contact with the boiling water and the hot utensil surface makes it all the more difficult for the vegetables to stay in one piece. Steaming, on the other hand, is much more subtle, and there’s no contact with the boiling water or the cooking surface with the veggies, so it’s much more easier to hold the vegetables as a whole.

Tendency to Overcook

Overcooking happens easily when you boil, as compared to steaming. The temperature exposure is much harsher and if you don’t time it right, you get veggie mush. You have to try really hard if you want to overcook by steaming. Apart from the whole health angle, there have been claims that steaming vegetables, when done right, tastes much better than boiling!

But, before you jump over to steaming, consider this – food keeps your body healthy as much as it keeps your mind healthy. A complete abstinence from other types of cooking is never the way to go, especially if you’re not a fan of steaming. Taste and palatability are sometimes more important than the nutrition leach. If you try steaming and grow tired of it, you’ll stop eating food steamed and keep eating food fried. If your mother used to boil the vegetables all the time, chances are you will prefer it to steaming in terms of taste. Bottom line is, you’ll still keep eating vegetables.

Tips On Cutting & Peeling :

• Wash vegetables before peeling or cutting to preserve the water soluble vitamins.
• Peel vegetables as thinly as possible to preserve the minerals and vitamins.
• Soak potatoes and eggplant after cutting, to avoid discoloration.
• If you boil vegetables in water, do not throw the water, keep it to make gravies.
• To avoid browning of apples after cutting, apply a little lemon juice on the cut surface. The apples will stay and look fresh for a longer time.
• Keep coriander leaves in a muslin (cheese) cloth bag in the refrigerator. They will remain fresh for a longer time.
• Remove the stems of green chilies while storing them .This will help them to stay fresh for long.
• After peeling onions cut in half and soak in water for about 10 minutes before cutting to avoid crying.
• Soak almonds in a cup of boiling water for 10 minutes .The skin will peel off easily.
• Chopping vegetables can be done in different ways using a sharp knife and a wooden chopping board. Cutting on a marble slab will blunt your knives.
• Remove the outer leaves and husks from the corn (bhutta). Holding the corn upright with the flat end firmly in a board, take a sharp knife and run it down between the kernels and the cob to strip them away.
• Wrap the fruits and vegetables in newspaper before refrigerating to keep them fresh for long.
• Chopping dry fruits - Freeze them first for one hour & then dip the knife into hot water before cutting them.