salt Archives - MyEdibleCravings

Hi everyone. I have started a new section called How To’s in my blog. There I will share some basic tips/ideas on some common tasks that you would encounter while cooking. I hope this new initiative will help those who are new to cooking and also to others.

It is always tricky to boil eggs. I know it’s a very simple task but to get a perfectly boiled egg is akin to finding an oasis in the middle of a desert! I recently came across a novel way of perfectly boiling eggs using an oven. I tried and it did work! And so here is the first post in my How To’s on how to perfectly boil eggs.

First preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the eggs on a muffin tray.

Place them in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Fill a bowl with ice cubes just five minutes before taking out the eggs.

Add running cold tap water to the bowl and keep it ready.

After 30 minutes take out the muffin tray and shock the eggs by immediately placing them in the ice filled bowl.

Take them out, break and peel the shells and tadaaaaa. 🙂

Cut them and have them as you desire.

Here I have added little salt and pepper.

Or as a salad by adding them with chopped avocados drizzled with lemon juice, salt and pepper for the perfect breakfast.

For those who don’t have a conventional oven, you fill the sauce pan with water and add the eggs. Boil them for 15 minutes. Take them out and leave it for 5 minutes. Then shock them and peel the shell. I will add the step by instructions soon. 🙂

Today I am posting an important process that is most often an intermediary step during the preparation of dum biriyani, hyderabadi biriyani, fried rice, etc. Boiling rice is a traditional process of cooking rice that was in existence before the advent of pressure cookers.

Boiling rice is a simple yet an efficient process where even the byproduct, i.e., the water (vadi kanchi) is consumed as well.

The main purpose of boiling rice is to make the rice fluffy when cooked. Make sure to add salt while the water boils. Constant checking of the texture of the rice is necessary.

Boiled Rice

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 2 mins

Total time: 22 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients

Basmati rice – 1 cup
Water – as required
Salt - ½ to 1 tsp or as required

Instructions

Wash and soak the rice for 25 minutes. Drain the water and keep it aside.
Collect enough water in a wide open, thick bottomed vessel and bring it to boil in a high flame.
When the water starts to boil, simmer the flame to medium low. Add enough salt and again bring it boil. If your making biriyani, add shahi jeera, bay leaf and oil at this stage. Check for the salt. Water has to be salty.
Add the soaked rice to the boiling water and stand aside. Wait until froth is formed and the rice starts to dance on top. At this time rice would have cooked 70%. It takes only a minute so be sure to stand next to it and switch off the flame. Remaining 30% will be cooked in the hot water itself. Leave it for a minute and check if the rice is completely cooked by pressing in between your finger or tasting it.
Meanwhile take a strainer and place it on top of a wide vessel.
Immediately pour the cooked rice into the strainer and completely strain the water.
Leave it for about 5 minutes until all the water is completely strained.
Use this beautifully cooked boiled rice for making fried rice, hyderabadi biriyani, etc.