Monthly Archives: November 2012

The Most Important Thanksgiving Cooking Tip of All

admin | November 29th, 2012
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The-Most-Important-Thanksgiving-Cooking-Tip-of-All
Of the many Thanksgiving cooking tips I can give you, this is perhaps the most important. It can be the difference between a triumphant meal and an undercooked case of food borne illness.

I get many questions on email about correct roasting temperatures. “What temperature should my oven be for turkey”? “What is the correct temperature for chicken”? “How hot should my oven be for…?”

All these questions can be answered simultaneously with the one important tip I told you about. Forget your oven temperature. Your oven is wrong anyway. It’s probably been lying to you. Your oven temperature is different from your neighbors, and it’s much different from my commercial kitchen, so why cook by EXTERNAL bird temperature?

Cooking by INTERNAL temperature is the only way to assure and quantify that your item is fully cooked. An instant read digital thermometer will tell you EXACTLY when your thanksgiving cooking efforts are complete.

You don’t need to guess. You don’t need to poke anything with a fork or gash it with a knife. A thermometer is insurance from overcooked turkeys and especially from the dangers of under-cooked poultry.

Most people’s household ovens have a range of 200F to 500F. What’s in the middle? 350 degrees is exactly in the middle. Is this why most recipes just say “cook at 350 degrees”? Would your turkey be ruined if you cooked at 375 degrees or 325 degrees? No, probably not.

Your turkey is completely cooked and safe when the thickest part of the bird reads 165F. This means if its cavity is filled with stuffing, take the temperature there. If it’s not stuffed, at the deepest part of the thigh.

You can choose any roasting temperature, as long as you understand the basic cooking method of roasting. Roasting is a dry-heat convective cooking method. It uses hot air to transfer heat to food.

Roasting is the best way to dry out an item because of the indirect use of hot air to cook foods. The higher the temperature, the faster that moisture will evaporate, proteins will stiffen, and sugars will caramelize and turn brown.

Whatever temperature your oven tells you it is, whatever temperature you choose to roast your bird, just assure you have a thermometer to tell what the internal temperature is. Internal temperature is much more important than external when it comes to thanksgiving cooking.

by Chef Todd Mohr from articlecity.com

Category: Useful Cooking Tips

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Cooking Tip For Onions and Garlic

admin | November 27th, 2012
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Cooking-Tip-For-Onions-and-Garlic
Onions and garlic always add great flavor to most dishes. But let me share with you a cooking technique on preparing them that will greatly enhance the flavor of your meals. Your guests will rave about your cooking.

Many dishes call for onions and garlic in their recipes. You chop them up, saute them for 3 minutes and you are done. This is where, in my opinion, they miss the flavor boat.

When I was younger I would watch my husband’s Italian Nana cook spaghetti sauce and a number of other dishes and you know what she would do? She would always, finely chop the onion and slowly saute them in olive oil for about 35 to 40 minutes. It was a fairly slow process, because she would tend to the onions stirring them frequently as they slowly cooked. Eventually the onion would cook down (to almost half of what she started with) and turn a nice golden brown.

When the onion was about done Nana would add minced fresh garlic and saute the whole mixture another 4 or 5 minutes. What a wonderful smell that was. Boy was her spaghetti sauce special and this is why I believe her dishes were so delicious.

So I started using this technique every time I made a dish that called for onion and garlic. You know what? Every time I sauted the onion slowly in olive oil my dishes were more flavorful. Special if you will.

So now I use this little technique every time I make spaghetti sauce, casseroles, beef stroganoff, taco soup and any other dish that calls for onion and garlic.

Once I made a Pampered Chef casserole with egg, zucchini, onion and garlic and used my little technique. Well let me tell you, that dish disappeared fast with many requests for the recipe. When I made this dish previously without using my onion technique the dish was nothing special.

So if you have the time, and I believe it is definitely worth it, try Nana’s tip.

One thing to keep in mind is that the onion cooks down to just about half of what you start with so use double the amount of onion that the recipe calls for. Don’t worry if it looks like way to much onion. Once it cooks down, the amount will be just right.

Again, here is all there is to it:

Finely chop up the amount of onion you will need. Pour olive oil into a frying pan. Be generous here. There is no set amount. Say 3 or 4 tablespoons for one onion.

Turn the heat on to medium high. Add the onion stirring frequently, until it is reduced by 1/3 to 1/2. If the onion appears to be cooking too fast, turn the temperature down to low. Just make sure the onion doesn’t burn.

When you think it’s done (after 35 to 40 minutes), add the minced garlic and cook an additional 4 or 5 minutes.

Now add the onions and garlic to your favorite dish.

You are going to love the flavor.

by Robin Gai from articlecity.com

Category: Useful Cooking Tips

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How to Cook Great Meals in a Small Kitchen?

admin | November 25th, 2012
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How-to-Cook-Great-Meals-in-a-Small-Kitchen
We all know how difficult it can be to cook great meals in small kitchens. However, fantastic meals can be prepared in small kitchens whether you are in a house, condo or an apartment. All you need is creativity to cook big meal. You can also search for culinary arts information on the internet. I have mentioned some of the tips that will help you to cook extravagant meals below.

Organization
If you want more space in your small kitchen, then organization is the only option. You need to be organized not just before starting the cooking but also while you are cooking. It is extremely important to organize your freezer, fridge, cupboards, pantry and other spaces. You won’t be able to find the things that you require if you don’t organize your small space, which will later lead you to be frustrated. Keep all your produce together, all canned items together and all your boxed items together so that they can be easily reached when needed. This will save you a lot of your time and money. The moment you open your pantry to see some spice and don’t find any of them, you go to the store to buy another package of the spice. So, organization not only saves money but also saves the time needed to go to the store. At the time of cooking, keep all the things that you require in one counter rather than spreading out all over.

Cleanliness
Cleanliness is as important as organization while you are cooking in a kitchen with small area. It doesn’t look good when you splatter food on the counter and use all of your pans, pots and spoons. Use only one pot or pan and bowl for each recipe. Use the pot or bowls that are already dirty instead of using the new one. You can wash the utensils that are not needed anymore while you are waiting for something on the stove or in the oven. This will not only free up space, but also lessens the burden of cleaning lots of utensils after enjoying the meal.

Cook Alone
In a small kitchen where there is no bigger space cooking alone is the best thing to do. Keep everyone out of the kitchen while you are preparing meals. It will be difficult to cook meals if you don’t have enough space to turn around. So, the best idea is to not let anyone to enter the kitchen while you are cooking.

Plating
It is not a good idea to prepare buffet style meal in a small kitchen. It will be very congested when guests line up to get their food. It is better unless you have the space to place the plate for each guest. Or else, you can store the dishes on the counter for your guests after passing the dishes at the table.

So, these are the things you need to remember while cooking extravagant dishes in a small kitchen. Follow these instructions and you will surely be able to cook great meals in limited space.

Author Bio: Scott Garcia is a professional chef and has been engaged in this field for 10 years. Get complete details about vegan culinary school in NYC from him.

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The Secret to Asians’ Longevity

admin | November 23rd, 2012
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asian-rice
There are not many people in the world who live to see their hundredth birthday. Interestingly enough, most of those who live over a hundred years are from Asia. Research has proven that Asians’ longevity can be associated with their diet. Their cuisines may be diverse but essentially they have the same nutritional structure. Asian food covers the cuisines of China, Japan, Indonesia, North and South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Bangladesh, Nepal, Malaysia, India, Vietnam, Laos, Taiwan, Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines and Myanmar.

Differences in diet

Studies involving the diet pyramids of various countries and continents help in understanding the differences involved in the impact on health. For instance, though the Asian and the French diet pyramids seem quite similar, yet the rate of diet related diseases vary immensely between the two groups. The case is similar while Asian diet is compared to the rest of the world. It is for this very reason that scientists have tried to understand the Asian diet. Using the insights to the Asians’ secret to long healthy lives, nutritionists have created food guidelines for various cuisines that help maintain the culture and tradition and improve the nutritional value as well.

What Asians eat

Rice is a common feature in all Asian cuisines. Most of traditional Asian dishes focus mainly on rice. Despite having a high-carb diet, a large population of Asians is slim. Their daily diet includes a lot of proteins in the form of fruits, vegetable, cereals, noodles, bread, nuts, sprouts, legumes, fish, etc. The balance between the rice and proteins is the secret to their good health.

Asians avoid consuming a lot of dairy products and thus limit the amount of fat consumption. They do not include a lot of unhealthy food like red meat, fried food, fat filled dairy products, processed foods, etc. in their diet. It is believed for this very fact that they are in a better shape of health while compared to those who have unhealthy eating habits.

Miracle Spices

The core ingredients of food that plays a major role in health are spices. Asian recipes include those spices known to be excellent for good health. Here are a few spices with their health benefits:

1. Chilies are the main spice in many Asian dishes. Capsaicin is the ingredient in chili that makes it spicy. It has anti-cancer and analgesic properties. To get the best effects on health, cook with the spiciest chilies.
2. Turmeric has a component called curcumin that is known to have anti-cancer properties. It is also rich in vitamin B6 and minerals like iron, manganese and potassium.
3. Ginger is a miracle spice. It can be used in teas, entrée, main course and desserts even to add bags of flavor. The medicinal components of ginger are gingerols and shogaol. Together they help in aiding digestion, curing cold, cough, fever and relieving pain.
4. Cinnamon is a widely used spice that can be added to any edible dish to add to the flavor. It regulates cholesterol and blood sugar levels. It helps control ulcers. It is also used in teas to relieve stress and pain.

Grace is an expert associated with The Good Food Network. They are specialists in gourmet food and cater quality French food. For more information on their products, visit www.thegoodfoodnetwork.co.uk.

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4 Cooking Tips Will End Your Recipe Guessing

admin | November 21st, 2012
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4-Cooking-Tips-Will-End-Your-Recipe-Guessing
Cooking is not made easy when you’re still guessing. In fact, guessing at cooking increases the stress because guessing makes you unsure of the results to come. I’m going to give you a little cooking help by offering some tips on how to end your guessing.

One of the reasons that you guess is because it’s hard to believe something until you can actually see it. But I want to help you to wrap your head around the idea that you have to believe it first and then you’ll see it.

Quantifying your portion sizes, temperature and testing are great ways to allow you to stop guessing. Let’s go ahead and look at how that might work.

4 Ways to quantify your cooking and eliminate guessing:

Cooking Tip #1: Temperature

Temperature is important in cooking. Some foods will make you sick if you don’t cook them at the right temperature. Other foods will be utterly destroyed if you cook them much above “medium heat”.

Use water as an indicator of temperature. Water evaporates at 212 degrees F, so if you are using a saute pan, if you sprinkle a little water in the pan and it evaporates, you know that the pan is at least at the boiling point of water. The quicker the water evaporates, the hotter your pan is. This works on the grill as well.

You can also test a small piece of your food to test for temperature. For example, maybe you’re going to fry some chicken in oil on the stove, but you can’t tell if the oil is hot enough or not. Don’t ruin a whole breast by putting it into oil that’s not hot enough. Instead, take a small piece of the chicken and drop it in the pan. You’ll know right away whether the oil is hot enough or not to cook your food.

Cooking Tip #2: Test a Small Quantity

Sometimes, you just need to test a small quantity of something before cooking the whole thing. This is especially helpful in roasting. I can tell you that when I had my catering business, sometimes we would have to make hundreds or thousands of crab cakes in one big batch. Well, we would take one crab cake, cook it and test it. This would allow us to make adjustments on the rest of the batch and make a superior product! Cooking or roasting a small piece of something is a great way to see if your plan is going to work without sacrificing all of your ingredients during one of your guessing adventures.

Cooking Tip #3: Portion Size

Get a digital scale and begin to understand your raw portions sizes. Let me tell you a story about how I discovered the importance of this tip.

• When I used to make spaghetti for myself and my wife, I would cook a whole pound of spaghetti, basically one whole box for the two of us. When we sat down to eat, because so much spaghetti was available, we ate more than we should. After finishing our meal, there was always spaghetti left over, we would put the leftover spaghetti in the refrigerator and a few days later throw it out because we wouldn’t eat it.

• With my digital scale, I started by weighing 8 ounces of dry pasta for the two of us. I cooked the 8 ounces and still had some leftover, so I adjusted it down until I knew EXACTLY how much dry pasta to cook for the two of us…5.3 ounces is our perfect amount. Knowing this finally made cooking pasta easy, we don’t overeat and we don’t have leftovers.

Understanding and knowing your portion sizes will also help you to not overbuy at the grocery store because you’ll know EXACTLY how much to buy of a product to feed your family for a particular meal. And make sure you stick to the portion sizes. If you’re cooking frozen shrimp from a bag and the portions end up leaving 3 shrimp in the bag, don’t just dump them into the meal and cook them. NO, you’ll be feeding too much to your family! Leave them in the bag and cook them the next time. You don’t have to “just make the whole package.”

Cooking tip #4: Test Spices

If you are making a pot of something and you need to add spices, don’t start throwing in the spices and guess what it’s going to taste like. Get the spices that you’re thinking about using and put the “concoction” in a small ramekin or a small soufflé cup first. This will help you to know how the flavors work and give you the confidence that the combination is going to work.

So, by using these quantifying cooking tips, you can stop guessing at what’s happening to your food. Observe your results and purposely alter your steps for the next time. You will be amazed at how starting with these little visual cues can help you to stop guessing and be confident that what you see is what you believe will be true. This isn’t guessing, this is cooking made easy!

by Chef Todd Mohr from articlecity.com

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Kalderetang Labahit (Surgeon Fish)

admin | November 19th, 2012
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Ingredients for Kalderetang Labahita (Surgeon Fish)

1 1/2 kilos of labahita (surgeon fish), remove the bones and make square cuts
1/3 cup cornstarch
6 heads of garlic, crushed
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1/2 pound potatoes, make square cuts
1/2 cup water
1 can of spaghetti sauce, Italian style
1 medium-sized red and green peppers (bell pepper), sliced into strips
1/2 cup peas
iodized salt

How to Cook Kalderetang Labahita (Surgeon Fish)

1. Sprinkle the fish with iodized salt.
2. Fry until golden brown and set aside.
3. Saute garlic, onions, and potatoes.
4. Add spaghetti sauce and water.
5. Season with salt, soy sauce, and pepper to taste accordingly.
6. Boil for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
7. Add red and green peppers, peas, and fish.
8. Add more chile or spices to make it more spicy if desired.

Category: Seafood Dishes

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Fried Fish with Sauce

admin | November 17th, 2012
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Ingredients for Fried Fish with Sauce

2 pounds of fish
1 cup of shredded bread
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 small cucumber
whipped cream
lime juice

How to Cook Fried Fish with Sauce

1. Cut the fish into desired sizes.
2. Mix the milk and salt.
3. Immerse the fish here.
4. Roll in bread.
5. Fry in cooking oil on top of a low heat. Wait till the fish turns red.
6. Prepare the sauce.
7. Mix the chopped cucumber in whipped cream seasoned with salt and lime juice.
8. Serve.

Category: Seafood Dishes

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Pastilyas na Mangga (Mango Pastilyas)

admin | November 15th, 2012
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Pastilyas-na-Mangga-(Mango-Pastilyas)

Ingredients for Pastilyas na Mangga (Mango Pastilyas)

2 cups mango pure
1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup of fine sugar
1/2 cup of skim milk powder

How to Cook Pastilyas na Mangga (Mango Pastilyas)

1. Filter skim milk, flour, and sugar. Add the mango pure.
2. Cook over low heat while mixing, until nothing sticks to the pan.
3. Remove everything from the pan and make cookie sheets.
4. Refrigerate until it is fairly solidifies.
5. Cut into strips and roll in sugar. Wrap with plastic wrap in before wrapping with paper.

Category: Desserts

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Tips To Help You Improve Your Cooking Skills

admin | November 13th, 2012
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Believe it or not, just a few simple cooking tips can actually noticeably improve your cooking skills. If you manage to follow a couple of suggestions, the time you have to spend on preparing a meal is likely to decrease and you will also gain the ability to get around the usual obstacles that can pop up if you are beginning your cooking adventure.

Always buy fresh is rule number one in getting great tasting food. When shopping in the supermarket or produce market, make sure you view each item you buy, checking it for freshness or ripeness. Packaged foods can be judged by an expiration date, while fruits and vegetables must be looked at individually. Few skills are as helpful as being familiar with the general produce, and having the ability to understand what is quality produce in your local supermarket.

Beef, poultry, and fish should always be fresh, as well. For safety reasons, and to make sure your meats stay fresh, keep them in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook with them, and use both soap and water to clean any utensils that you might use.
When serving your meals, make sure that they are cooked thoroughly and reach a safe temperature. Cooked foods should be checked with a cooking thermometer to make sure they have reached temperatures of at least 140 degrees F. Foods that are designed to be chilled instead should be kept at temperatures less than 40 degrees F.

Investing in proper kitchen equipment will also speed up the cooking process and help you achieve greater diversity when preparing meals. So, don’t try to save money when buying a blender, a knife set, or pans and pots. Also, if you want to add a funny accent to your meals, buying an appliance such as the Mickey Mouse Waffle Maker could do the trick.

It is a common misconception that healthy, low fat meals cannot be tasty. Obviously, that is not true. There are lots of things you can do to add taste to your meals, such as adding spices or herbs for example. If healthy meals are what you are after, keep in mind that it is not necessarily fat that should be avoided, but carbohydrates in excessive amounts.

One of the best cooking suggestions you can get is to remember that you need a great beverage to go along with your meal. Most meals can be improve greatly through simply adding a tasty beverage. The tone and flavor of your meal can be changed drastically through adding wine, sparkling mineral water, or perhaps a cocktail.

Source: Walter Dreimann | populararticles.com

Category: Useful Cooking Tips

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