Tips from Simple Recipe Directories to Make Cooking Fun

Sometimes we need to prepare something quickly, but everyone wants it to be yummy. We don’t have many things at hand or we are short of time and cannot do a lot of procedures. Moreover, the dish should be such that it should replace the regular meal. Housewives are always troubled with such questions. Especially if they have a very busy schedule and nobody to help them, they need a simple recipe at times. There are lots and lots of directories and websites for simple recipes on the web, which you can refer. You get useful tips for making cooking simpler, quicker and at the same time, tasty. Here are some of the tips taken from these useful simple recipe directories, that may hopefully help.

Stuffed Things

If you can stuff breads with various types of stuffing, that will make a good change in the meals, will be wholesome, and most importantly, they can be made quick.

Stuffing 1: 4 boiled eggs, 4 1-inch cheese cubes, 1 tsp black pepper powder, salt to taste, cilantro 6-7 sprigs – Just grate, cut or finely chop them as required and mix them. You can exclude eggs if you want a vegan stuffing.

Stuffing 2: 250 kg boiled potatoes, 1 tsp garlic-ginger paste, salt to taste, cilantro 6-7 sprigs, 2-3 green chilies made into paste – Just grate, cut or chop them as required and mix them.

WARNING – Take care while making the paste of green chilies. If possible wear plastic gloves and don’t touch the paste with bare hands while it is raw. Otherwise it may leave your hands burning for at least 1 entire day.

Stuffing 3: 100 gm grated coconut, 6-7 sprigs of cilantro, 2-3 green chilies, salt to taste – Here you will have to do a little extra work of mixing all the ingredients in a blender to make a thin paste.

Stuffing 4: 200 gm Fenugreek leaves finely chopped, 1 tsp cumin seeds, ½ tsp turmeric powder, ½ tsp chili powder, salt to taste – Here you will have to fry the cumin seeds first and then powder them. Then mix all the ingredients.  

Equally as the stuffing, covering too is important and should be changed regularly to avoid boredom.

Covering 1: Plain flour, water, salt – Make regular dough and roll it flat to 2 mm thickness. Cast rounds of about 8 to 10 inch diameter. Spread any of the first 3 amongst the above stuffing; place another round on it and join the borders. Roast in a roasting pan or bake. If you prefer, apply a little oil on the pan while roasting. While baking too, you will have to butter the baking tray.

Covering 2: Make regular dough and roll it flat same as above. But instead of cutting big rounds, cut small rounds of 4 inch diameter. Keep one on your palm, place enough stuffing on it and join the borders of the round on top. Now deep fry these stuffed balls in oil or bake them.

Covering 3: Bread slices, water – Cut the borders of bread slices and dip them in water. Keep inside a clean and fine cotton cloth and press to remove maximum water soaked by the bread and make the bread slice expand. Now spread the stuffing on the wet slice and make a roll. Deep fry these rolls in oil or bake.

Covering 4: This is especially for the stuffing 4 above, which is not actually to be used as a stuffing. It is to be mixed with the flour while making the dough and then roll flat, cut rounds from it of 8-inch diameter, and roast or bake.

To Make the Job Simpler

You can make your job still simpler by doing some things in advance whenever you have some free time, like keeping some of the condiments required above prepared, because they last for quite long. E.g. making garlic-ginger paste, and frying and grinding cumin seeds.

Garlic-ginger paste – Take 30 flakes of garlic and 1 inch of ginger. Chop them and put in blender to make a thin paste. Keep in refrigerator. 1 teaspoon of this paste is enough for the stuffing recipes, wherever they are required.

Frying and grinding cumin seeds – You can take 1kg or more of cumin seeds at a time (as per your convenience) in a fry pan and sprinkle oil over them. Fry them on slow flame till they become brown and start giving strong aroma. Let them cool down and then put them in grinder and make fine powder. You need not keep it in refrigerator. It lasts quite long and you can use only 1 teaspoon of it for the stuffing.

Tip – Don’t use cumin seed powder in meat, fish or egg dishes. Use powder of caraway seeds instead, which too is to be prepared in the same way or you can use them whole after frying them a little in oil.

Hope these tips will help you in making some quick, tasty and wholesome meals, which will please you and your family and will make cooking fun for you. Happy cooking!