Techniques

Many recipes, especially sauces, use blanched and skinned tomatoes to avoid the unwanted texture of cooked curled tomato skin in the dish. Blanching essentially loosens the tomato skin, so it is easy to peel off. Once that’s done, the tomatoes can be used to make tomato juice, tomato soup, homemade pasta sauce or ketchup.

A very easy recipe to work with. Use a fork or preferably a food processor to cut the butter into the flour to quicken the process. Just remember not to over-knead the dough since too much handling will toughen the pie crust. So bring the dough together, cling film it and refrigerate to get that perfectly flaky crust. This dough can be kept frozen for months and comes in real handy for a variety of quick appetizers. Measurements here yield a 9" double crust.

This is the perfect way to use your leftover bread, whether it’s buns, sandwich bread, baguettes, brioche or paos. These make great starters with Mayonnaise or spicy cheese sauce, add crunch to salads, texture to soups, and when blended, crumbs to bread your chicken and croquettes.

Curd cheese is really simple to prepare and has many culinary uses. It is a good substitute for cream cheese in cheesecakes and dips. When mixed with cream and a little vinegar, it can be a substitute for sour cream too.

Homemade vinaigrette is fresh, easy and the flavour can be adjusted as per your need. Just remember the magic formula - 3 parts oil and 1 part vinegar. This vinaigrette does not require much seasoning except salt and black pepper. 

I’ve always wanted to make Tiramisu in my own kitchen, from scratch. Even the Mascarpone Cheese that is a key ingredient in the dessert. That’s partly because I was turned off by exorbitantly priced imported Mascarpone that costs around Rs.350 for 250 gms! My determination led me to some good recipes on how to make this cheese at home, which I am sharing here. You can also see this step-by-step video recipe of Tiramisu.

Double Boiler is a technique of delicate, indirect heating used to melt chocolates, slow scramble eggs, keep food warm or incorporate more air into eggs quickly when making sauces like Sabayon and Hollandaise. It also cooks foods that would otherwise undergo a quick change in texture when placed over direct heat. Here are 3 recipes that use this technique:

3-minute Hollandaise Sauce
Tiramisu
Incredibly Creamy Scrambled Eggs