Here are twenty interesting kitchen tips by Chef Suresh Pillai

Chef Suresh Pillai in a recent social media post had shared two interesting tips that would make cooking hassle free. The first tip was to cut and wash the veggies for sambar and marinate with asafoetida powder, turmeric powder, salt and curry leaves before cooking.

You could try this tip sans asafoetida powder while making avial. In order to make tea extra special, you could mix your two favourite brands of tea powder with some sugar and store in air tight containers. The chef promised that this would add more flavour to tea.

He even asked his followers to post more tips in the comments section so that it would be useful for everyone. To the chef’s surprise, his comments section got filled with thousands of tips that are both interesting and helpful. Moreover, he also shared twenty more tips for his followers.

In order to remove the lumps in coffee powder, you could store the jar in the fridge. Meanwhile, adding egg whites in the fish fry marinade would prevent the fish from crumbling in hot oil. Chef Suresh Pillai says that he couldn’t stop laughing after reading the tip about how to store chips or crispies that was shared by one of the followers. Funnily enough, the 'easiest' way is to eat the entire bag of chips so that it wouldn’t lose the crunchiness.

Check out the twenty tips shared by Chef Suresh Pillai
1)To cook the rice easily, soak them overnight (not basmati rice).
2)Crush the coconut lightly in the mixer jar before roasting; it would give colour and flavour evenly.
3) Add rock salt in fish curry; besides you could scrub the fish clean using rock salt.

4) Add some fenugreek seeds along with mustard seeds while preparing the tempering for fish curry.

5)Add some dried shrimps in avial to make it extra special.

6) You could cook avial without adding turmeric powder; adding peanuts and cashews would make avial tastier.
7) Soak the vegetable pieces in water mixed with turmeric powder before cooking.
8) Instead of using store bought coriander powder, coriander seeds could be powdered at home. Homemade coriander powder adds more flavour and aroma to the dish.

9)Add some boiled rice in hot oil to clean the oil; the rice would suck the impurities in the oil.

10) Microwave the tomatoes for a few minutes to make gravies quickly.

11)Add some caramelised sugar in payasam made using milk.
12)Pat the cleaned fish or prawns using a tissue paper to remove the moisture. It would make the fish crispier when fried.

13)While sautéing whole spices, wrap them in a clean cloth before adding it in curries. It would be easier to remove them later if cooked like this.

14) If you are not using non stick pans to sauté or fry, heat some oil and spread it on all sides. This would prevent the food from sticking on to the bottom of the pan.

15) Sprinkle some chutney powder on fried papads when they are still hot.

16) Instead of normal water add tamarind water while making fish pickle.

17) Prawn chutney could be made using dried fish powder too.

18) Prepare a stock by sauteing the head and shells of the prawns in oil and then boiling in some water. Add this stock in the prawns curry to make it flavoursome.
19) Add oil in 40:60 ratio while grinding ginger and garlic to increase its flavour.

20)Sauté mustard seeds, shallots, curry leaves and dried leaves. Mix boiled rice in this tempering. Chef Pillai vows that no Keralite can resist this simple yet extremely delicious dish.