Signs of cooking
There is almost always a change in color. Cooked vegetables are easier to chew and cut. Cooked vegetables sometime change color slightly. White matter may turn brownish. Cooked onion turns somewhat transparent but brownish. Peas loose water - their skin becomes wrinkled.
Boiling generally means production of good sized bubbles even in the middle of the liquid, and not just on the borders.
Cooking X in pressure cooker with 1:N water with M whistles
Clean lid and gasket of the pressure cooker.
In a container pour X and water in 1:N ratio.
Close lid with gasket. Turn on the flame.
Wait for steady steam to appear.
Place the weight on the steam egress.
Wait for the cooker to whistle M times. If cooker does not whistle M times in a period of 10 minutes after placing the weight, something might be wrong
- Turn off the flame at once. Turn off the flame, and let the cooker cool down for 15 minutes. Remove weight.
Storing cooked food
Files and maggots
Protect from flies - avoid fecal bacteria etc..
A maggot is the larva of the common housefly. Maggots are around 3–12 millimeters in length, have no legs, and are white or cream.
An adult female housefly can lay up to 130 eggs at a time, and each one of these will develop into a single larva.
Flies lay their eggs in decaying organic matter, such as spoiled food and animal waste.
Grain fermentation
Procedure
- Wash grains twice, save water from second washing.
- Cook grain
- Immerse in water from second washing + extra as necessary.
- Leave for 1/2/3 nights. But protect from flies - else you get maggots + contamination!
Provenance
Widely used - poita bhAt, paLHam kanji, chaddannam …
Traditionally consumed by brahmachA
Consumption
- separate out water from fermented grain - good to drink with salt.
- eat cooked grain with soup or curds (+salt?).
Freezing
Store all foods at 0 F or lower to retain vitamin content, color, flavor and texture. Freezing preserves cooked food for long durations.
Defrosting
Never defrost foods in a garage, basement, car, dishwasher or plastic garbage bag; out on the kitchen counter, outdoors or on the porch. There are three safe ways to defrost food: in the refrigerator, in cold water, or in the microwave. [Ref] Refreezing:
It is safe to refreeze, provided you did not introduce or allow the multiplication of bacteria during thawing. So, during thawing, it shouldn’t have sat between 40°F–140°F (4°C–60°C) for more than two hours. [ Ref] It is however safer to cook the food and then freeze it.