Culinary Mishaps (or What to do when you mess up the dinner!)

1) Too Spicy - adding cream/ghee/butter, milk/curd, lemon/vinegar helps.
Or serve yogurt/curd based salads with it.
2) Too Hot - adding salt, cream/butter, milk/curd, lemon/vinegar helps.
Or serve yogurt/curd based salads with it.
3) Too Oily - add piece of bread, a boiled potato After draining the oil with a spoon. You can even reuse the oil for some other dish. Drain with tissue paper for absorbing surface oil off fried solids.
4) Too Salty - boiled potato absorbs salt like anything.
5) Too Sour - milk will neutralise the acid. So will cheese.
A dash of sugar and salt might actually enhance the flavour.
6) Too Bitter -
7) Too Sweet - dilute with milk, water maybe a dash of lemon/salt.
8) Too watery - add thickening agents like corn starch solution, things which soak up a lot of water like Soya Chunks, wheat flour etc.
9) Burnt - Remove the burnt bits. Place baking powder in a bowl near the food. It will absorb the fumes.
10) Bland - use sauces like Worchestshire, Vinegar, Chilli (Green/Red), SoyaSauce in combination with Sambar powder, Chicken masala, Garlic/Ginger paste. Try to balance out All the tastes. Put in a pinch of sugar, a bit of lemon while not dominating they will give more variety in the taste.
11) Use the natural texture variation for keeping the experience interesting.
12) Have a backup plan - order from the restaurant or keep a pack of instant noodles handy with a bucket of ice-cream, chocolate to keep the guests feeling satiated after a "not-so-bad" meal.