cleaning a tea strainer thoroughly

If your tea strainer is made out of plastic or metal just soak in water with very little washing soap or 1 tsp of vinegar and allow the all the blockages of the stariner to disintegrate for atleast half an hour and the wash off

A metal strainer can be immediately cleaned just holding it over a gas flame and allow the particles to burn off and then just cool off with flowing water

Dont have a double boiler?

You may come across recipes where you are asked to melt chocolate, cheese or butter in a double boiler.

U need not go and purchase a new kitchen item for this. A milk cooker will do the job. Even if you dont have a milk cooker just heat water in a big pan and place a preferably thick walled utensil in this and use it as a double boiler. The advantage with this arrangemnet is u will be able to use utensils of any size depending on the quantity of cooking

Idlis and dosas! kids will love them........!

Colour your idlis and dosas!

coriander/mint paste- green
turmeric+carrot juice- yellow
beetroot juice - pink
beetroot+tomato juice- red

1.mix in small quantities in different bowls and create patterns such as flower, aeroplane, etc using the different coloured dosa batter

2.decorate the idli with cut vegetables, green peas etc. to form a pattern

3.In Bengaluru one can purchse mini idli plates in which u can cook small sized idlis. Not sure of its availabilty in other places
kids will not say no to idlis again