Kitchen tips for newly married and settled abroad

How to protect fresh leaves without Fridge.

You can store fresh leaves like Coriander leaves, Curry leaves, pudina leaves by keeping them in wet cloth. Daily see and use as per your requirement and again cover the leaves with wet cloth.

Otherwise dry them and crush them into powder and keep them in bottle. First wash the leaves and drain them. Then put them on a dry cloth. You can keep them as it is for 2 days or you can dry them in sun light till they dry well.

Or you can keep them in MW oven and dry them thoroughly. You have to dry them till you are able to crush them. Then put them in a bottle and use were ever you need them.

For greens (கீரைகள்) you can 'wrap' them with damp cloth. by doing this you can keep them fresh for 2 to 3 days. IF it is drum stick leaves, you can keep them for a day only. The next day all the leaves will fall from the stem and it will turn in to yellow soon. {But if you keep the drum stick leaves in a cotton cloth in the night, without any strain you will get the leaves in the morning; no need to plug the leaves from the stem }

If you buy greens with roots, you can keep them in a deep vessel, and pour some water in it. (like flower vase ) This will help you to keep the greens fresh for 2 -3 days.

 

How to protect vegetables without Fridge.

For veg. like potato, yam, onion, ginger etc., (கிழங்கு வகைகள் ) 'root veg.' you can keep for more than 15 days.

You can keep them in a open shelf and use as per requirement.

Or you can put some sand in the corner of your balcony or room and you can keep these in them. They will feel like they are in their home If onion and ginger start growing, you can use their leaves also.

 

How to protect vegetables without Fridge.

If you want to keep beans remove the 'weed' and keep them in a wet cloth.

If you want to keep 'raw banana' (வாழைக்காய்) put them in the water bucket. They wont ripe.

If you want to keep green chilly, remove the stem and keep them.

If you want to keep tomatoes for long time, put some salt on them. They will not ripe soon.

If you want to keep 1/2 cut lemons, keep them in Salt. ( you have to keep the cut portion in the salt)

 

How to protect vegetables without Fridge.

When I was studying 7th or 8th standard, my father bought one 'khadi fridge' which was like 2 big flower pots, two in one. yes, one big flower pot and you can keep the other pot in the first pot but not fully. The second pot will hang, in it. And there was two lids ( big one and small one) for that. you have to pour water in the first big pot and have to keep the second in that. so that the second pot which is inside the first one will be surrounded by water. Now in the second pot you can keep all the veg. and greens and have to close the lids. you have to pour water daily in the second pot with the help of one mouth fixed in the second pot.(it will be almost like milk cooker; but this is made of mud like out pots).
If you keep in this you can keep the veg. fresh for more than 10 to 15 days. I dont know whether it is available now or not. but you can try this method and you can keep the veg. in new flower pots, by sprinkling water on it now and then. Try