A robust meal is all about eating balanced, tasty and simple food, says Chef Michel Nischan

It's all about putting together a perfect meal using the base ingredients in their full glory. What is important is to achieve balance in every meal, eating what is ripe and best and enjoying the pure pleasure of eating simple and well. Here, I would like to introduce you to cooking methods that are healthful and completely basic and that, which culminates in a tasty meal.
Simply follow these basic rules.

Rule No 1
Use vegetables and fruits that are in season. Tasted apples in June? They are bland, juiceless and tasteless. So, if you are out to buy Kashmiri apples, the time is NOW - till the end of March. Remember, when vegetables or fruits are available out of season, it simply means that they have been artificially produced using fertilisers and inorganic ingredients or stored for a long period using preservatives, both of which do not contribute to your health.

Also, they lose their nutrients before and after their natural season. Thus, to begin with, eating fruits and produce in season is the most important step towards cooking a healthful meal. So, wait for summer's ripe tomatoes, July's golden corn and winter's carrots and cauliflower, to enjoy their lusciousness with no more embellishments than say, a sprinkle of salt and pepper or a few spices, at most.

Rule No 2
Buy local. From a market. Not the packed stuff available at the grocer's. Large manufacturers, who sell their produce through supermarkets and grocers, do not allow vegetables/fruits to grow and ripen naturally. Vegetables are picked when semi ripe, forced to ripen in rooms with artificial temperatures, filled with gases to enable maturing and then tinned, canned or packed off to stores! They naturally have no flavour, leave alone nutritious elements.

Rule No 3
Listen to Nature. Nature tells us what to eat depending on where we are. Why else would Eskimos lead a healthy life despite consuming a whole lot of whale fat? Eaten anywhere else, this fat could only prove hazardous to health. In tropical countries like India, vegetables, fruits, spices and herbs, sea and river fish are available in plenty. There is a reason for this.

Rule No 4
Use healthful techniques like steaming and poaching, rather than frying or using too much oil. It is important to lay emphasis on the way vegetables or meat are cooked. Maintain freshness while you cook. Here is a great tip: To make gravies, combine naturally dry vegetables with juicy ones. The gravy not only turns out healthier, but tasty too. In fact, you can completely avoid the use of oil. For eg, cook ridge gourd with ripe tomatoes, as the juice from the tomato forms the base gravy in which to cook the gourd. Add dry-roasted spices. This helps in strengthening the flavour. Also, add fresh coriander. All these add to the richness of the food that you are cooking.

Rule No 5
Avoid the use of excess oil. Try this. Brush your veg or meat with oil and then cook, instead of adding them to heated oil in a pan. This ensures that no extra oil is used than is required. Never let oil, butter or ghee smoke in heat. This is harmful as they get highly oxidised. While buying oil, look for a freshly pressed one. Use unprocessed butter, like white butter made from milk. Ghee made from such butter too, is not harmful, when consumed in limited quantities.

Rule No 6
Use pure ingredients. For eg, buy whole coriander seeds. Seeds have all their nutrients intact. Keep in stock whole cardamom, coriander seeds and other spices and grind them as and when you require them. When you grind them much in advance and store the powders, the ingredients lose not just their health value, but also their original flavours. Also, it is advisable not to buy spice powders off the shelf, as they could be stale stock. Moreover, spices are mixed with certain other often inedible powders to make them bulky.

Rule No 7
Spend time with food - right from choosing the vegetables, fish or meat and the ingredients to cook, to the actual cooking and then the final act of eating. It's good when you involve yourself in what you are about to consume. Eat with your loved ones - family and friends. Food has great effects when eaten with love and loved ones.

Chef Michel Nischan is a board member of Chef's Collaborative and a well-known proponent of organic wellbeing. He was in India recently on a tour to share his expertise and knowledge on cooking techniques.

Some Useful Tips:
• Homemade ghee mixed with rice is natural, pure and not harmful.
• Use jaggery instead of sugar whenever possible.
• To thicken soup, use vegetables that naturally thicken, like whole pea, corn and sweet potato.
• Use potato juice instead of starch powder.
• As far as possible, let vegetables cook in their own juices.