Cooking With Eggs

We use eggs in so many recipes. They are a staple in the kitchen.

An egg can be cooked alone – boiled, poached, fried, scrambled.
Or used as an ingredient in baking, batters and cakes.
Alternatively use an egg to thicken sauces or to add air to lighten dishes.

The egg is truly amazing. And without it – well our menus sure would be dull.

But do you know much about the egg?

Chances are that you have never even given it a thought. Well it is time you did.

The most critical aspect of the egg is – it’s air content. (bet you thought I was going to say the shell).

When first laid, the egg has barely any air inside a tiny air pocket. However, because the shell is porous, it allows air to penetrate.  And as time passes, air moves inside the egg and the air pocket grows.

As this air pocket enlarges, the moisture in the egg evaporates. So, as the egg gets older the yolk becomes less plump and flatter and the white separates and spreads.

And this all impacts on cooking. Depending on how you intend on using the egg determines how fresh an egg you should use.

If you fry an older egg, you will end with a flat ‘pancake’ instead of a neat rounded egg.

The more stale an egg the more fragile and difficult to separate it will be.

As opposed to the fresh egg, which has a tight and tough inner skin. This makes peeling the shell off the boiled egg very frustrating. As the egg ages with skin relaxes allowing the shell to peel much easier.

If you are lucky enough to have your own hens, then you know how old your eggs are. But what if you have to buy them?

The easiest method of tell how old an egg is, is to put the egg in a dish of water.

If it sinks and lies horizontally – very fresh.
If it sinks but tilts slightly – about 1 week old.
If it sinks but stands vertically – older, stale.
But if it floats – it’s off and be careful not to crack the shell.

Some people prefer brown eggs and some white. But nutritionally they are the same.

The yolks will also vary in color depending of the diet of the hen.

Do you find your eggs crack when boiling? Well, follow these simple steps to get perfect eggs, every time.

Use 2 week old eggs and ensure they are at room temperature. Make as pin prick in the rounded flat end of the egg – this allows any steam that might build up to escape.

Use as small a saucepan as possible, so the eggs fit in snuggly – you don’t want to much space otherwise they may bounce around and crack.

Bring to the boil but only simmer do not boil vigorously. Follow these tips and your eggs won’t crack.

So, for frying and poaching use as fresh an egg as possible. When the recipe calls for eggs to be separated, use fresh eggs as well. But if you want easy to peel eggs use the older ones. And when it comes to scrambling, fresher is best but older ones will do.

Happy Egg Cooking
Lisa “The Crock Cook”
ARTICLE SOURCE:WWW.NOSHKITCHEN.COM

Cooking Recipes, Anytime And Anywhere.

Have you ever known exactly what you want to cook but searched and searched through all of your cook books and had no luck finding that tender morsel that has been making your mouth water all day? Having to settle for something else is so disappointing isn't it? Or have you been to a restaurant and fell in love with a dish or a dessert but don't have the money to go there to enjoy it all the time? Well I have got the answer for you, and that is internet cooking recipes!

You know all of the advantages of computers and the internet by now but let me run through them real quick just to emphasize my point. First its paperless, you don't have the clutter of cookbooks and cards and other random loose cooking recipes that you have collected over the years.

Second the search is so much better than paging through each paper recipe, all you do is simply type a small description of what you are thinking and the computer spits out several cooking recipes that match your request. Other things are the incredible access that you gain when you have the internet at your disposal. You can get recipes from the chef's themselves. You can get recipes from any country in the entire world directly. You can even find the secret recipes from the famous dishes at restaurants that you crave. Sounds like its worth it to make the switch doesn't it? Even if it would cost you a little money!

Well the cool part is that many if not most of the cooking recipes on the internet are free. You simply have to search on one of the main search engines and you will get more options than you can handle some times. You can often download the text so that you can have it on your computer filed away in an organized fashion for the next time you feel like making that dish. Often too there is contact information for the person who posted the recipe on the internet for you to contact if you have a question about a certain ingredient or a change that you are thinking about making.

There are sites that if you pay a reasonable one time membership fee or a small monthly fee will allow you access to award winning restaurant dishes and dishes from famous chef's as well as popular international dishes that are translated into English for you. If you are serious about cooking it is certainly worth checking out all the wonderful cooking recipes that are available to you.


ARTICLE SOURCE:WWW.NOSHKITCHEN.COM

Cooking Indian Food at Home - Where to Start?

If you read my article, Curry - A Journey, published on the Curry page of this site, you’ll know that my first experiences of the dish were of the generic variety which the British invariably cooked and ate when living abroad a few decades ago.  You’ll also know that I then discovered “real” Indian cookery and decided that as I couldn’t afford to eat out that much, I needed to learn how to cook the stuff myself.

My first stop then, was a local bookshop, where the choice of books on Indian cookery was somewhat limited.  However, I struck lucky and discovered a book called Indian Cookery by Madhur Jaffrey - what a find.  Written in simple language but with lovely descriptive text and recommendations on what to serve with what, it was just what I had been looking for.

There was a stumbling block, however, which was the endless list of spices, seasonings and flavourings in the front of the book.  I didn’t know where to start - I’d heard of quite a lot of them, having watched a few TV programmes on Indian cooking but, “help” I thought,  “buying that many all at once is going to cost a fortune”.  If you’re thinking the same, don’t panic.  Check in your store cupboard.  You probably already have some of the items you will need.  For example, look for black peppercorns, bay leaves, chilli powder (if you’re already a fan of chilli con carne), ground ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon if you bake cakes or apple pies.  Maybe you’ll find mustard seeds if you do your own pickling and sesame seeds if you make rolls or cook Chinese food.  That only leaves a few basic ingredients which appear in a lot of Indian recipes - cumin, coriander, turmeric and cardamom.  Often you need ground cumin and coriander but if you buy the whole spices, you can grind them as necessary (and they keep longer that way too).

The other thing I did was to choose a fairly simple recipe to start with and I just bought the spices I needed for that.  The next time I want to cook an Indian meal, I chose another recipe with similar ingredients so I had to just buy a couple more things.  Soon enough I built up a whole store cupboard of the things I needed and it didn’t have had such a drastic effect on my wallet.

Then there was no stopping me - I even know some recipes by heart now and you can do the same if you want to.

You don’t need special equipment for Indian cookery, although I wouldn’t be without my electric coffee grinder (to grind spices) and it’s nice (but not necessary) to have the traditional dishes to serve your meal in.  Other than that, you need a bit of patience and it’s fun to cook with a friend so that you can share the chopping and grinding or have someone read the recipe out to you step by step so you don’t go wrong in the middle.

The flavours are great, a curry evening is really sociable, so go on, give it a try.

ARTICLE SOURCE:WWW.NOSHKITCHEN.COM

Cooking In Lapland: The New Tundra Grill

To offset any confusion, we are not talking about a grill for the Toyota Tundra but the powerful new Tundra Grill from Hammacher Schlemmer, built to withstand the elements and burn a variety of fuels including wood, charcoal, pinecones and brushwood, as well as cook all kinds of meat, poultry, fish and pretty much anything else you want to throw on, within reason. With the Tundras 37 inch diameter basin you are not limited to one type of cooking method either; you can grill, broil, simmer, fry, smoke and bake.

The options do not end there is the Tundra Grill comes equipped with a grill rack, skewers, and three swing-out skillets for frying eggs, simmering sauces, or even baking bread Dutch-oven style. No need to fret about your steak not coming out just the way you like it; the skillet, skewer, and rack height are adjustable for precise flame proximity. You will be able to cook for an entire dinner party or family gathering all at once, with space for two whole fish, three whole chickens, and six steaks. Want a cup of hot coffee or soup on a brisk morning or chilly evening? No problem; put on a cast-iron kettle for coffee or stock pot for soup.

The Tundra Grill is built to last, justifying its price tag. Whether you are cooking out in your backyard or braving the tundra, this grill has all the features and equipment to accommodate. The Tundra comes with a stainless smoke hood to induce draft in a gazebo or lean-to, or to keep out the rain so nasty weather will not thwart dinner plans. The Grill is wind deflector also helps make outdoor cooking a cinch. Zinc-coated steel shrugs off anything Mother Nature dishes out, while Birchwood handles allows for safe skillet use. Worried about messy ash clean up? The Tundra has got you covered,the Grills ash box and scoop makes for one-step ash disposal.

ARTICLE SOURCE:WWW.NOSHKITCHEN.COM

Cooking Healthy For Radiant Health

Who can resist the mouth-watering pictures in a cookbook? Who doesn’t have childhood memories of the fragrances that wafted from the kitchen on holidays, and even on regular, ordinary days? Spices, bread baking, cookies fresh out of the oven – all these trigger a deep longing in most of us. As eating holds a guaranteed spot in everybody’s daily schedule, so do those who prepare it. They have beome the uncrowned gods and goddesses of our lives.

Real cooking consists of more than opening a can with a dull picture of green beans on the front, or popping a TV dinner from a wax-covered box into the oven or microwave. The true goal of cooking is to nourish these marvelous bodies that we live in, to allow them to grow and express vitality and strength, to keep them healthy and able to overcome environmental germs and bacteria. Summarized in one word, the main purpose of cooking is heath!

When does a fruit or vegetable (or any baked item) furnish us with the most nutrition? The experts feel that food grown in one’s own environment will usually contain the most nutrition. Freshly harvested food provides the maximum nutritional value. After a fruit or vegetable has been sitting for several days, or transported around the world, the value of the vitamins and minerals diminishes.

The best means of ‘cooking’ fruits and vegetables for their health value is to eat them raw in salads or as snacks. As soon as heat is applied, a good quantity of the nutrition is destroyed. A good cook can prepare a beautiful plate with the natural colors of freshly picked fruits and vegetables.

Genetically engineered food has infiltrated the growing of almost all crops. This procedure didn’t exist until the last decade, and it remains highly controversial as the long range effect on humans has never been tested.

Briefly described, this procedure consists of infecting a healthy seed or grain with various bacteria or insects to lengthen its shelf life, to make it look ‘pretty’ for the consumer long after the nutritional value has dissolved. This not only has a negative effect on one’s health, but leaves the cook with a less than delicious product to serve.

Cooking with natural foods that are organically grown (that means with no harmful pesticides or chemical fertilizers) gives today’s health conscious cooks the best chance to delight in the time spent shopping and in the kitchen. Whipping up a carrot cake that will enchant both family and friends (best make two cakes while you’re at it), or preparing a quick but nutritious breakfast so the body will gleefully handle the challenges of the day without needing to be drugged by coffee or caffeine, make heading for the kitchen the favorite part of the day! Truly the cook is the god of the household!
ARTICLE SOURCE:WWW.NOSHKITCHEN.COM

Cooking from the heart, and from bare essentials!

You do not have to go by the book to create tasty, easy, sociable food. Easy  meal preparation is all about stripping cooking down to its bare essentials using little techniques and conveniences to make the most of your recipes. It is so simple: Skip the fuss and follow your heart.

Here are some tips to take the stress out of cooking, whether you are stirring up supper for your mate or hoping to impress the new in-laws:

Dinners-in-a-Bag

Make these dinner bags involving glorious aluminum foil and write on them,

25 minutes at 425 F”, for example, with a marker pen. Even though Jools didn’t like cooking, she never had a problem with cooking the bags. I just program the “Favorites Cycle, in your  microwave . Here’s just one version, but feel free to vary the recipe with things like grated parsnip, smoked bacon or red wine.

Chicken Breasts Baked in a Bag

(Serves two)

2 7-ounce skinless chicken breasts

1 handful of dried porcini

9 ounces of mixed mushrooms, torn up

1 large wineglass of white wine

3 large pats of butter

1 handful of fresh thyme

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

Using wide aluminum foil, make your bag by placing two pieces on top of each other (about as big as two shoeboxes in length), folding three sides in and leaving one side open. Mix everything together in a bowl, including the chicken. Place in your bag, with all the wine, making sure you do not pierce the foil. Close up the final edge, making sure it is tightly sealed and secure on the sides, and slide it onto a roasting pan. Place the pan on a high heat for one minute to get the heat going, and then bake in the middle of a 425-degree oven for 25 minutes.


Bare-Bones Cooking Techniques


* If you invited friends to come round but they are running late, pop up to four plates of food in the separate warming oven. Your glorious food not only stays warm, but also keeps the kitchen smelling wonderful until they walk in the door.

* If your side dish is ready but you still have other things to cook, just slide the pot onto the middle of the cook top. The “warming zone” there acts like a fifth burner, keeping it warm and freeing up the other burners so you can finish cooking.

Did you find this article useful?  For more useful tips and   hints, points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques, and insights pertaining to guides on cuisines, culinary styles, recipes and more  , do please browse for more information at our websites.
www.infozabout.com
www.cookery.infozabout.com
ARTICLE SOURCE:WWW.NOSHKITCHEN.COM