Poorva Chavan
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Written By: Poorva Chavan | Updated : June 24, 2016 3:05 PM IST
We all love restaurant style food and often wonder how to make it at home! And who better that Chef Ranveer Brar to tell us how to cook soft and succulent chicken or how to make the perfect Punjabi masala at home? Here are five cooking tips from the chef to up your cooking game at home!
1. How to cook soft and succulent chicken
We know the various health benefits of chicken but Chef Ranveer Brar in his LIVE video with us pointed out one of the biggest mistakes that we make while cooking the chicken is that we overcook it. Overcooking not only ruins the texture of chicken but most of its nutrients are lost. To get a soft and succulent texture, cook your chicken only till it is 90% done. Take it off the heat when it is almost done. The rest 10% will cook by itself in the residual heat, and your chicken will not become rubbery. Another important thing he pointed out is that most of us use frozen chicken nowadays. Avoid using it and use fresh chicken for a better texture!
2. How to make soft paneer at home
Most of us make paneer at home by splitting the milk by either adding vinegar or squeezing some lemon juice. Chef says that adding some curd to the milk while making paneer and a little bit of butter at the end when the milk has completely split makes the paneer soft! Use these tricks the next time you have to cook these low-cal paneer recipes.
3. His secret to the perfect Punjabi masala
Chef says that the base of a Punjabi masala is coriander, cumin and ginger. To make a good Punjabi masala at home, just increase the quantity of cumin and coriander seeds while grinding the garam masala. This masala can be used in all your curries and goes well especially with this oil-free chhole recipe.
4. Tips to use olive oil while cooking
It is a very common notion that olive oil cannot be used for Indian cooking, and it is used only for salad dressings and dips. However, the chef says that olive oil complements Indian food very well. But the important thing to remember while cooking in olive oil is not to use extra virgin olive oil. It has delicate and volatile flavours which get lost while cooking and its taste changes completely. You can use pure olive oil or extra light olive oil instead as it can be used for high heat cooking as well.
5. How to make Chinese food healthy
Chef says that most Chinese restaurants have now completely given up using monosodium glutamate. So the only unhealthy part in Chinese food that it is deep fried. To make Chinese food healthy, you can simply roast or grill the chicken or bake Manchurian balls instead of frying it. To make homemade Chinese food taste like restaurant food, chef suggests adding vegetable oyster sauce along with soy sauce to the gravy. Also, restaurants use more cabbage in Chinese food as it adds more crunch.
Image source: Chef Ranveer Brar
