Home food is fresh, cozy, comforting, nostalgic and feels like all things warm and fuzzy on a cold winter evening. Home food is magic, it relieves your tummy and kisses your heart.
As the saying goes “A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness” and there is nothing better than a warm, home cooked meal.
All that being said who’s to say it has to only taste a certain way? Home cooking is not synonymous to bland, boring or mundane.
Here are all the tips and tricks to level up your home cooking game until everyone at the table asks- “Where is this ordered from?”
Here’s how you can make everyday home food taste it it’s been ordered from your favourite restaurant.
As we’d like to say- Cookd, putting restaurants out of business since 2019, empowering home cooks along the way!
Hack #1: Base gravies all the way!
Colour, colour, what colour do you choose? In Indian cuisine the gravies are the building blocks of any dish and the base gravies are the foundation.
The popular base gravies are: Onion tomato masala, makhni gravy, palak gravy, shahi gravy, yellow gravy and brown gravy.
(Why don’t we just discuss gravies in another article? :P)
Having these gravies handy lets you maintain a standard taste, prepare food fast and make so many permutations and combinations that your family will never get bored of “home food”.
Hack #2: Cook on a high flame
This does take some practice, let me kid you not but, is worth the effort and time.
Controlling the flame the right way makes the food taste so much better.
Picture this fried rice- easy enough recipe, right? Wrong.
At home it never tastes like the fried rice made on a high pressure gas range, in a wok with the flame touching the food in a Chinese fast food joint. Why? MSGok but also the flame.
Hack #3: Brown your onions, golden brown!
Browning your onions the right way is so underrated. The depth of flavour it adds is unreal and is all the difference when it comes your curries and gravies.
The caramelized, golden brown perfection is the way it’s meant to be.
Unfortunately, absolute even colour is hard to achieve when you shy away from oil/ fats.
Hack #4: Cook like calories don’t count
Sounds funny, right? Well it is kind of true, unless you eat clean at a salad joint, the chances that your chef is calorie counting for you is close to impossible!
Restaurant food never goes easy on the oil, butter, ghee, cream or cheese.
Why does all the good food have to be junk and calorie dense? Life’s unfair guys.
Maybe Cookd recipes can help you make healthier meal choices at home *wink wink*
Perhaps when you’re cooking to impress a crowd it wouldn’t do so much harm if you did the same, maybe just once in a while. Guys, it’s called balance!
Hack #5: Combinations matter and presentation goes a long way!
Serving the your food with the right accompaniments and condiments is your way to hacking your family to eat everything on the menu for that meal.
Picture this, a bowl of warm basmati rice served with a side of rajma, mix veg salad and boondi raita. The perfect meal on a cold evening. Or head on over to the south- a cold bowl of curd rice with grated carrots, pomegranate and grapes served with baby potato fry, lemon pickle and fryums on a hot summer afternoon. Pure bliss.
Smart meals for moms? Blend boiled beetroot or spinach puree into your roti dough to make multi coloured parathas stuffed with mixed vegetables and served with a side of thick curd.
This just goes to show that the right combinations served in an appetizing and presentable way will be consumed with delight and the visual appeal almost makes the food taste better!
Let us know in the comments below if you’ve discovered any hacks to your family meals!
