How to make fried rice : Chinese style

[hana-code-insert name=’rectangle’ /]China is famous for many things, its culture, its people, its infrastructure and the architecture of its cities. When it comes to architecture how can we not mention magnificently beautiful in sight ‘The Great Wall Of China’, but what China is most famous for is its food. The delicacies prepared by the Chinese are so delicious and mouth watering that no matter how many times we have it we are still left asking for more! Chinese food is available in almost all the parts of the world.

Not every, but many dishes are famous globally for its distinguished flavour and recipe. The Chinese are one of the largest consumers of rice in the world and their famous dish, the ‘Chinese Fried Rice’ is loved by one and all. We often wonder how they are so proficient in cooking and never fail to achieve the same taste every time. The answer to this question is that they have their set recipe and methodology that they follow while cooking which can be achieved with practice. The good news is that it is not even difficult to prepare!

Ingredients for preparing fried rice:

1. Salt to taste
2. 2 finely chopped carrots
3. 1/3^rd cabbage finely chopped.
4. 2 cups of rice
5. Pepper to taste
6. 4 tablespoonful of refined sunflower oil. Olive oil too can be used if you don’t want to run for extra hours on the treadmill to burn those calories.
7. 100 grams of French beans cut small
8. 3 finely chopped green chillies
9. 1 finely chopped onion
10. 1 sliced onion
11. 3 finely chopped garlic cloves
12. 2 tablespoonful of Soya sauce
13. 1/3^rd finely chopped ginger to add that zing to it.

 Method to be followed in the preparation of chinese fried rice

• Rinse the rice in drinking water thoroughly.
• Soak the rice for 15-20 minutes in water and then drain.
• Now boil some water in a pan, put the rice in it and add a pinch of salt.
• Put the flame on medium and let it cook. One thing to be kept in mind is not to overcook the rice as it needs to be cooked later too with other vegetables.
• Make sure you add in just enough water to rice so that after the water gets evaporated, leaving not a single grain of the rice sticky. For ensuring that the grains of rice don’t remain sticky add some oil or butter while cooking.
• When the rice is cooked rinse it in some cool water and again drain the water.
• Heat some sunflower refined oil in a pan.
• Add finely chopped onion, green chillies, garlic clove, ginger, cabbage and carrots to it.
• Sauté them for 5 minutes.
• Make sure the vegetables are not fully done and remain semi-cooked.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Now put in the rice and mix thoroughly.
• While mixing, add Soya sauce to it and again stir and mix.
•  Let the rice cook for 5 more minutes.
• Serve hot Chinese Fried Rice with a cup of herbal tea and sweetened cucumber and cabbage salad to get the real feel of China.

How to make butter at home

Worrying over going all the way to supermarket just to bring some butter home?
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Do you always fret that a simple thing as butter wastes most of your time as you have to fetch it from the market all the time?

Its time you set aside all worries and take a simple solution out that ensures good health, good value for money and not great efforts. Prepare some at home itself!

Butter is made of cream and cream is what comes out of the milk that you buy daily. So what you are doing is extracting the best out of what is available in your own home! If you purchase cow milk daily start purchasing buffalo milk instead, as buffalo milk contains more cream as compared to cow milk. In the process of preparing butter the first step is to extract cream out of the milk that you have.

Extracting the cream from the milk

1. Heat milk to boil and cool it.
2. Till the time the milk will cool to the room temperature you will see a layer of cream at the top.
3. Take all the cream out and store in some other air tight container in the freezer of your refrigerator.
4. If you follow this simple procedure daily, within a week you will see that you have collected enough cream to make butter out of it.

How to make butter from cream extracted from milk

Take out the container of cream from the freezer and let it come up to the room temperature. Be in no hurry and let it come to room temperature naturally. Remember not to heat it.

• When the cream comes to room temperature put all of it in a blender and start blending. Stop in a few seconds and again start blending.
• By repeating this procedure several times you will find butter forming and collecting at the top of the cream inside the blender.
• When enough butter is formed, add some water to it and again start blending.
• After blending for a few more seconds you will find a good amount of butter floating on top.
• Take the butter out of the blender and put it in a bowl having cool water in it.
• Take out the left over water after having cleaned the butter in the water properly.
• This clean butter is now ready to be used.

Important Points to remember

1. The water in which the butter is cleaned is called the butter milk and can be used in making ‘Chhas’.
2. The butter should be cleaned thoroughly to avoid it getting spoiled or having bad odour.
3. The final product, the clean, ready to use butter can be kept out for 2-3 days. If refrigerated will last longer.
4. If you do not wish to refrigerate the butter add salt to it to make it last longer while it is kept outside.
5. Butter can be made into different shapes to lure children into having this form of a healthy food.
6. Different shapes can be made if the butter is stored in a container of the similar shape and then refrigerated. In such a way the butter will solidify and take that shape and children will be happy to have it.

How to make icing for cake

[hana-code-insert name=’rectangle’ /]Always wondered why the cake you get from the nearby cake shop tastes wonderful but yours lacks that ‘yummy-licious’ taste? The answer is simple they’ve got the perfect recipe, perfect flavours and to top all that perfect icing. Icing, often ignored, plays a pivotal role in giving the cake the flavour and perfect taste. You might have the correct recipe and flavour for your cake but if you don’t end up with a great icing to it all the efforts seem to go wasted. So, let’s see how we can achieve that perfect taste with a great icing without applying much efforts. The truth is that making icing is the simplest part in the preparation of a cake.

Ingredients for making icing 

1. One egg white
2. 250-300g of sifted powder which is also called the icing sugar. It is easily available in the market.

 Procedure for making icing for a cake

• First put all the egg white in a bowl and start stirring it.
• While stirring start adding the icing sugar to it. Remember to add sugar in small amounts slowly. If the mix appears too watery keep adding more icing sugar to it.
• Keep stirring and beating the mix until it appears to be glowing and becomes firm, appearing like the cake icing. Check by taking out some mix on the spoon.
• Now cover the bowl with a warm towel for some time.
• After removing the cover the icing will appear to be just perfect and ready to be spread over the cake.
• Spread the icing on the cake evenly with a spatula and your cake looks perfect.

You can also make patterns and designs on your cake by using a nozzle. In case you don’t have a nozzle, you can use a grease proof paper, like a butter paper to make the nozzle.

Some more useful tips

 In case you don’t want to use egg whites and want a splash of colour to it, use lemon or orange juice sans pulp.

• To give your icing a flavour use cocoa powder, coffee or vanilla powder.
• Always remember that to add more zing to your cake only use natural colouring and flavouring materials with no synthetic base.

How to make Ice Cream at Home

In the scorching heat of summers, when the temperature is soaring high, streets are breathing hot air and the sun shines mercilessly leaving everyone exhausted and feeling drained out there is nothing like having a scoop of fresh, freezing ice cream. [hana-code-insert name=’rectangle’ /]Ice cream is the most popular dessert all around the world and people prefer having it often to beat the heat and give a treat to their sweet tooth. What if we combine the happiness of having sweet cravings with health? It indeed sounds great! Here’s a cool way to prepare some mouth – watering cool ice cream combined with the goodness of fruits.

The first step: Ingredients required

First it is essential to gather all the ingredients at one place before starting off with its preparation. It is always wise to keep all the ingredients handy to avoid any confusion.

The ingredients to make fruit ice cream are as follows

1. 1 cup of fruit pulp (any fruit pulp of your favourite fruit)
2. 1/3^rd cup of whipped cream
3. 1/4^th tea spoonful of vanilla sweetener
4. Nuts and chocolate syrup for garnishing

 After having arranged all the ingredients we must follow the procedure of preparing fruit ice cream correctly to enjoy its delicious and cool taste.

The procedure to make ice cream at home

• First mix the fruit pulp and all the other ingredients in a container.
• Now blend them in a blender properly till you see no lumps.
• After blending take out the mix and refrigerate it for 30-45 minutes and take it out. Make sure you don’t refrigerate beyond 45 minutes.
• Repeat the same procedure of blending and again refrigerate it for the same duration as mentioned above.
• By blending it again the ice cream will be whipped properly and will taste like the one you eat at your favourite parlour.
•  The ice cream is now ready to be served. Take it out in a serving bowl and garnish with nuts and some chocolate syrup.

Finally, enjoy the ice cream without worrying about your health as your ice cream is fresh, home-made and contains the nutritional value of your favourite fruit!

How to prepare pizza dough at home

One of the most famous Italian dishes all around the world is the ‘pizza’. People of all ages enjoy having pizzas, especially children. They jump at the thought of having a pizza. Many parents lure their kids into scoring well by promising a pizza on the ‘report card day’. Most people have pizzas in restaurants and food joints but few know that it is easy to make a pizza at home too.[hana-code-insert name=’rectangle’ /]

The key to a delicious pizza is its dough

With well prepared dough the pizza is bound to be delicious. It is not a difficult task to prepare pizza dough if all the ingredients are arranged for in advance and the recipe is followed in the right manner.

For preparing pizza dough the ingredients required are:

1. 3/4^th cup of warm water.(It doesn’t need to be hot but just warm)
2. 1 packet of active dry yeast
3. 2 cups of flour
4. 1 tea spoonful of sugar
5. 3/4^th tea spoonful of salt
6. 3 table spoonful of olive oil. (Using olive oil is good for health minus those extra calories that other refined oils add up)

Method of preparation of Pizza dough

• To make a tasty pizza dough first add 3/4^th cup of warm water into a bowl along with the yeast and stir it thoroughly.
• Now leave the mix for about five minutes until the yeast dissolves completely.
• In the meantime, add flour, sugar and salt in the food processor.
• Now add the yeast mix into it and the olive oil too. Switch on the food processor.
• Keep the mix processing until you see a sticky ball made out of it.
• Take another flat, big plate and spread some flour on its surface evenly. Make sure you spread only a little flour and not much in quantity.
• Take the sticky ball out of the processor and put it on the plate. Now knead the sticky yeast mix ball with the flour on the plate until it is smooth. The basic need to knead the ball with the flour is to make it smooth and non sticky. If it continues to be sticky add more flour to it.
• Take another bowl and apply some olive oil evenly on its surface. Put the dough into the bowl and keep turning it so that the oil is applied to the dough all over. Now cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and leave it for about an hour till it blooms.
• There are two things to be kept in mind. First, the dough should bloom and get double its original size. Second, the dough must be kept in a warm area.
• After leaving it for an hour, remove the plastic wrap and press the dough down by kneading it. After the dough gets pressed down keep it in an air- tight container. Refrigerate it. Now take out the dough and unroll it and make it flat. The pizza dough is now ready.

If the above mentioned procedure is followed correctly the dough is bound to be perfect and so will be the pizza.

 Advantages of making Pizza at home: Save time money and be healthy

By preparing the pizza at home one can cut down the cost of eating out both in terms of money and health.

Money, because if you prepare the pizza at home the preparation cost comes down to quite low as compared to the cost paid by eating out.

Health, because you can add the desired toppings in the quantity you like and can keep a check on the calories you consume. So, the next time you get that ‘pizza craving’ why not prepare it yourself and be health-sure.

How to make buttermilk

Come summers and buttermilk makes a centre stage in cold beverages, which can be made quickly at home and is also refreshing and energizing.

Health Benefits / Advantages of buttermilk.

[hana-code-insert name=’large rectangle’ /]It helps maintaining electrolyte levels and prevents dehydration of water from the body due to sweating as it contains both sugar and salt and also contains potassium and calcium.

Buttermilk is effective in reducing heat in the body.

Buttermilk is also intestinal friendly and lacto bacteria present in it assist digestion.

Types of buttermilk

Buttermilk is of two varieties sweet and sour. The sweet buttermilk is made from curd whereas sour / spicy buttermilk is made from milk

How to make buttermilk from Curd

Serves two

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of curd
• 2 cups of water
• Six teaspoons of sugar
• A pinch of salt
• Few ice cubes

Method of preparation

• Beat the curd by a hand blender / mixer for about 15 – 20 seconds.
• Add water, ice cubes, sugar and salt to taste and blend again fro 15-20 seconds
• Chilled Buttermilk is ready to serve.

How to make buttermilk from milk

Serves two

Ingredients:

• 2 cup whole milk
• 1 tea spoon Cream of tartar / vinegar / lemon juice
• Pinch of salt
• Some Ice cubes
• Few mint leaves

Method of preparation

• The milk should be at normal room temperature
• Add cream of tartar / vinegar / lemon juice to milk
• Stir well and allow it to stand for about 15 – 20 minutes.
• When milk starts to become thick / turns sour curdle, stir well.
• Add salt / mint leaves / and ice cubes as per taste and requirements. Stir / blend for about 15-20 seconds and refreshing buttermilk is ready to serve.