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adapt, adjust, air-tight, bargaining, canned, cheese, cling film, container, cornmeal, cupboard, fresh, fridge, frozen, Gourmet, improved, ingredients, kitchen tools, minimum, mould, solutions, stackable, substitution, zip-bag
So now that the problems on the road to ‘Gourmet-Dom’, (discussed in my last post) have popped out of the oven, here’s my list of simple, learnt-it-the-hard-way solutions to tackle them hot and head on.
Nothing beats ‘adjust’ and ‘adapt’… what we Indians are terrific at! But keep in mind that if you are going to make gourmet cooking a part of your weekly or even monthly routine, it does call for some lifestyle changes in your kitchen and shopping patterns, a gradual easing into a new, improved kitchen… and a new, improved you!
Some simple kitchen tools like air-tight silicon-lined plastic containers, cling wrap, aluminium foil and zip-lock freezer bags are a must today. These will help preserve your existing everyday ingredients as well as your fancy stuff. Try using the Lock n Lock range of kitchen containers – go for the stackable shallow squares for your fridge and the tall rectangles for your cupboards. If you really have to buy canned food, like baked beans, pineapple slices, pasta sauces, tuna etc. transfer the leftovers into these containers and store in your fridge, not in the cans you bought them in. Zip-bag your proteins like fish, meats and sausages and cold cuts to store in the freezer… no one likes to have fish-flavoured ice in their drinks!
And I know it’s a huge step, but… Freeze your cheese! Yes, as bizarre as it sounds, you’d at least get to eat thawed frozen cheese (a bit brittle, a bit less flavorful) a week later, than throw away the precious thing because of some disgusting rainbow-coloured mould on it. So if you love your cheddars and parmesans, wrap them individually in several layers of cling film, and then lock them into freezer bags and deep freeze them.
As far as possible buy small quantities of fresh produce. Most shops will sell you less than their ‘minimum quantity’ if they know you will come back… and when else will your bargaining powers come handy? 😉
If you are baffled by the names of the ingredients, try this website for Asian names, and this one for descriptions and substitutions.
And for substitutions, think creatively! If you know why you can make idli and dosa out of the same batter, but not vada, you CAN improvise. Take the elusive cornmeal – you could just use fine daliya or even finely crushed tortilla chips! ‘Think local, act global’ never fitted more snugly 🙂
Nivedita Gowda said:
Amazing Tips !!! Very useful ..thanx a bunch for sharing them 🙂
Follow The Eaten Path said:
Hey Niv,
Thanks, and glad you liked them… So what’s cooking for dinner? 😉
Jo said:
Very useful post! 🙂
However, as a passionate cheese-fiend, may I please implore you to NOT freeze your cheese!!!
The best way to keep cheese in the fridge is to wrap it well in baking paper and then put it in a box. And in order to keep it longer and still taste the way it should, change the paper occasionally, especially for softer cheeses. (Of course, ‘long’ doesn’t mean 6 months)
If you buy your cheese fresh, ask the shop to vacuum-pack it – that way it keeps well until you start on it.
As for the occasional spot of mould in cheese, it’s but part of what loving cheese is about – just slice off that bit and say bon apetit! 🙂
Follow The Eaten Path said:
Hey Jo,
Thanks for dropping by and leaving some really good cheese-care tips!
I knew I was sticking my neck out with ‘freezing the cheese’, but there’s a tragic tale behind this. Do bear with me…
I am lucky to get fresh cheese in small quantities from my local guy, so that I can use it up within a week, and at best refrigerate (not freeze) the rest for use later… as you rightly said, not 6 months later, but within the month. But, knowing my love for cheese, my sis would keep bringing me Red Leicester, Stilton and Mature Cheddar straight from some farm in Leicester where she lives. I would obviously be overjoyed, but neither the cheese, nor the joy would last… So when I had to throw away some completely rotted gorgeous cheese, it broke my heart! Since then, I have started freezing my leftover cheese… And no, my sis doesn’t know I had to throw her gift away, so thanks for not telling ☺
Very happy to meet a fellow cheese fiend ☺ Your vacuum pack idea has got me thinking… maybe my cheese seller and I need to enter some kind of a quiet arrangement… Hmmm…
Jo said:
You live in Bombay, getting someone to vacuum-pack your cheese should be a breeze. Heck, probably even getting someone to vacuum-pack your leftovers 🙂
People who sell fresh food should have the machine, even if it isn’t your regular cheese guy. Just work your charm 🙂
*I’m settling down to a very smelly, very mouldy, very gorgeous cheeseboard now, with fruit ‘mostarda’, onion jam and a fig conserve. And a very nice, dry Arneis :)*
Follow The Eaten Path said:
Ha ha! I guess I brought it on myself… :p But here’s raising a toast of Meloncello to you… Buon appetito!