Cooking made fun and easy

Not everyone has the desire to be a master chef. So, for all those reluctant cooks out there NIKITA WADHAWAN finds out some fun, innovative and faster way of cooking your supper

C ooking a meal is not just a mundane but a tiring task as well. While some people enjoy it as a hobby, some have to do it as they lack an alternative. For those health watchers out there cooking at home gives them a piece of mind in terms of quality and quantity, however for bachelors it is a desperate attempt to save money, and on the other hand for working mothers it is just a lack of better option.

To help such reluctant cooks out there, we have compiled some innovative products out there that can make your life a little bit easier by simplifying your everyday routines in some way.

Calorie measured spray

Traditional Indian cuisine is usually made with copious amount of oil and ghee which is one of the main embodiments of an unhealthy diet. Indian consumers today are at par with their global counterparts in their daily struggle to restrain calorie intake to achieve their lifestyle and fitness goals. Internationally, cooking sprays are commonly used and now their awareness and uses are gaining ground in India as well.

Cooking spray with its unique dispensing mechanism, enables consumers to use the optimum amount of oil in their cooking. This results in reduced consumption of oil/ghee by approximately 80%. Each can offers around 700 -750 sprays which can cook the same quantity of food that traditional cooking requires 3 litres of oil.

“The dishes that I love to make are flavoursome and that only comes in from lots of spices and lots of oil. However, I am not able to exercise as much I am supposed to because of my job. Hence, cooking using a spray is a lot easier then cooking with oil stored in bottles. You can monitor the amount of oil you need to use because you’re spraying it and not pouring it. Even spraying on salads and greasing baking trays becomes easy. The best usage is for Dosa’s and Omelettes because the oil doesn’t accumulate on the sides and stays on the pan, reducing to the amount we need. Also due to less consumption of oil, I can eat what I want and without worrying about calorie consumption,” says Pooja Shah, an assistant copywriter.

The dispense mechanism allows the spray to spread on the pan giving it complete coverage, which is apt for cooking and reducing oil or ghee intake. Moreover, the convenience of being able to use oil or ghee in spray form only adds to its appeal as issues of storage and spillage are managed.

Chopper’s delight

Whether a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian, no one like to eat big chunks of vegetables even in salads. But chopping vegetables is not easy task, thankfully products like Herb Scissors, a bamboo cutting board and a foldable chopping board help make chopping fun and quick. The Herb Scissors is an easy, non-slip grip ideal for cutting, chopping and mincing herbs in no time. Works great on basil, thyme, dill, parsley, chives, mint, fennel and many more plus you have fun.

“We grow a lot of herbs in our garden, and this is just the ticket for incorporating just about any herb quickly into a dish or cooking vessel. Sometimes it’s most useful for breaking down an herb such as parsley into smaller chunks, to be finely minced using a chef’s knife,” said John Vassar, an Infosys techie.

The cutting board is basically a plastic tray that is housed under the chopping board, designed to collect and separate unwanted waste maximising the space for you to cut, chop, slice or dice your fruits, vegetables, breads and meats, or collect prepared food items and directly add them into your pan. You don’t need to use a clean plate after you chops all your vegetables for your meal.

“I can easily chop fruits, vegetables and just slide the food aside onto the tray and keep working without having to take out additional bowls or plates to store the food. I also love that the cutting board has a drip catcher around the edge so juices do not overflow onto my counter,” says Bhavana Parikh, a housewife. While a folding board helps you to transport ingredients from your cutting board to your cooking pan without any spillage.

For bachelors

This is every bachelors dream come true. Put your ingredients different sections according to their cooking time and cook everything in one pan. It only requires one burner due to its heavy gauge metallic base plate that distributes

heat evenly throughout the pan. Plus, when you’re finished you’ll have just one pan to clean. Cook faster, clean less, and still enjoy great meals.

We all want to eat healthy and fruits are a must for a healthy eater, but slicing a fruit is another tedious job. The fruit slicer is another ingenious invention for a bachelor’s rescue. There are various slicers to cut different sizes of fruits, you can cut an apple to a watermelon in one go.