Ways of cooking

In your book, Our Wondrous World (Chapter 5), Surbhi and her friends enjoy the food at the festival and wonder how each dish was made. Food can be cooked in different ways: boiling, steaming, roasting, grilling, frying and baking.

Boiling cooks food in bubbling hot water. Steaming cooks food in the hot steam that rises from boiling water; idiyappam and idli are made by steaming. Frying cooks food in hot oil. Baking cooks food in the dry heat of an oven. Roasting and grilling cook food with strong, dry heat, such as over a flame.

Some foods need no cooking at all, such as fruit chaat and vegetable salads.

A solar cooker cooks food using sunlight, instead of fire from a gas stove or heat from electricity. It makes no smoke or ash, so it does not pollute the environment.