Heat your pan before your oil
Dry pan first, oil second, food third. It is the single easiest way to stop things sticking — and it takes about forty seconds of patience.
The bits I always end up explaining
Practical cooking notes from Bangalore Kitchen: pantry essentials, ingredient swaps, timing tricks and answers to the questions I get asked most.
Six habits worth stealing
Weigh flour, eyeball everything else
Baking is chemistry, so grams matter for flour, sugar and butter. For curries, salads and stir-fries, taste beats measuring every time.
Rest is part of the recipe
Pancake batter, dough, roasted meat, even a bowl of dressed salad — ten quiet minutes usually improves the texture more than any extra step.
Herbs go in twice
Stalks early for depth, leaves at the very end for brightness. Same herb, two completely different jobs.
Toast your spices
Thirty seconds in a dry pan until fragrant, then grind. It is the difference between a dish tasting fine and tasting like someone's grandmother made it.
Cold butter, cold hands
For pastry, scones and macarons, keep everything colder than feels necessary. Warm fat is the reason things spread instead of rising.
What lives in my pantry
- Mustard seeds, cumin and curry leaves for tempering
- Good chilli powder plus one whole dried chilli variety
- Fish sauce, rice vinegar and palm sugar for anything Vietnamese
- Flaky salt for finishing, fine salt for cooking
- Full-fat yoghurt, coconut milk and one decent hard cheese
- Lemons and limes — always more than you think you need
Questions I get asked a lot
- Can I swap ingredients I can't find?
- Almost always yes. Keep the role the ingredient plays: swap sour for sour, fat for fat, crunch for crunch. Lime for lemon works; lime for vinegar needs a little more sugar.
- Do I need special equipment?
- No. One heavy pan, a sharp knife, a mixing bowl and a set of scales will get you through every recipe on this site.
- How spicy are the Bangalorean recipes?
- Written at a comfortable middle. Halve the chilli the first time you cook one, taste, then adjust — heat is easy to add and impossible to remove.
- Can I make things ahead?
- Curries, chutneys and dals are better on day two. Batters, dressings and anything fried are best made fresh.
Still stuck? Send me a message or pick a recipe to cook tonight.