1).For masala curries / gravies, if you need khus khus paste you can follow this tip.Instead of soaking and grinding poppy seeds ( every time you need it) just dry fry it lightly along with few cashews and badam ,grind it into a fine powder.Keep it in fridge and use it whenever you need it. Add it to the curry by mixing it with little water. You can add good quality dessicated coconut powder also while grinding.Keeps good for even a month if kept in fridge.But fresh is always the best.

2).For tadka/ thalimpu usually we break red chilli into pieces and add them to hot oil.Some times it is difficult to break them when they are little soggy.To solve this problem you can cut the chilli with scissors into desired size bits and stock them in a tin or bottle.They are very handy for tadka.

3).For a strong cup of coffee ( when coffee percolator is not available ).Here is a tip- Take a long glass ( preferably stainless steel) put required amount of coffee powder .Pour boiling water over coffee powder .( Say for 4 tsp of powder you can add 75ml ) Stir once with spoon and sprinkle few drops of water over decoction and cover the glass .After 2 to 3 minutes remove lid , slowly tilt the glass and collect the decoction into another container.Enjoy strong coffee whenever you desire.

4).Always use mung dal batter fresh as it turns sour if you keep it long .Even soaking this dal also should be for 4 to 6 hrs only if you want to enjoy the recipes from freshly ground dal.Even mung dal dosa – if you want to enjoy it,it should be from dosa tawa to serving plate.

5).If you have left over (two or three ) Channa dal vada , mash them and add it to simple thalimpu or dry curries.Tastes great.

6).Drop a piece of sweet potato/ yellow pumpkin into the toor dal while preparing sambar.It can be mashed along with the dal.This gives mild sweetish taste which is similar to hotel sambar.