Cooking Michael Jordan – Page 11 – Contains about cooking Information

04
Apr
2018

Nutrients saved with pressure cooking

categories: Cooking

A lot has improved in the last 20 years with the modern day pressure cooker. They’re most definitely safer than Grammies pressure cooker, and theyre built with style. Even though the pressure cooker was first built around 300 years ago, it’s become the leading cooking method for today. When food is cooked with pressure, it’s cooked the healthiest way possible. Food comes out tastier and faster than any conventional method. Meats come out tender and juicy, and vegetables are colorful and their flavors are intensified. Pressure cooking makes it easy for even the busiest cooks to prepare meals. With a 70% reduction in cooking times, your time spent slaving over the stove-top can be spent on more important things. Use your pressure cooker to make complete casserole style meals, or cook several foods at the same time and have a home cooked dinner served in minutes.

Nutrients

How meals are cooked can have a huge impact on their nutrient content. Cooking your food in an open pot of boiling water is the most effective way to destroy the vitamins. To conserve the most nutrients feasible, many experts recommend that you use as little water as possible. You should also cook your food as rapidly as you can because many vitamins are sensitive to water, heat and air exposure. Water used for cooking can dissolve and wash away water soluble vitamins, while the high temperature deteriorates them. Many vitamins including “B” and “C” are water soluble and the simple act of washing them takes away some of the vitamins. Fat soluble vitamins such as “E” and “D” are stored and metabolized with the fat in our bodies. Fat Soluble vitamins are not as sensitive as water soluble vitamins and are not cooked away so easily.

It is crucial to select the best cooking method that optimizes and keeps the nutrients in food. In a study published by Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, experts looked at the effects of different means of cooking broccoli. Up to 97 percent of specific antioxidant compounds were ruined by microwaving, while steaming the broccoli caused only 11 percent loss. Therefore, any cooking that lessens the time, temperature, and water will help to retain nutrients. Pressure cooking under steam is one of the best methods because it minimizes time and calls for little water.

The super-heated steam which is created by high temperatures within a pressure cooker, makes the food cook swiftly, and intensifies the natural flavors. This enables cooks to use less salt, sugar, and use less costly herbs and seasonings and also get a far better taste. Pressure cooking creates an airless atmosphere that holds more nutrients than other cooking methods. When food is cooked with less liquid, more vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients are preserved and not boiled away during cooking. The procedure of cooking in a steam environment is virtually a fat-free method of cooking as well.

As a rule, accelerated cooking approaches are much better for preserving nutrients than slower methods. Any type of cooking alters food in some way, and more nutrients are wasted when food is subjected to heat, light, moisture and air. The order in which nutrients are typically preserved from quickest to slowest is: Pressure Cooking, Microwaving, Steaming, Stir-frying, Poaching, Roasting, Baking and Broiling.

There are a few tips you can utilize to maintain nutrients. Leaving vegetables in larger portions will minimize the surface area of food. That way fewer vitamins are damaged when they are subjected to air. Always cover your pot to hold in steam and heat. This will also assist in decreasing your cooking times. Leftover cooking water can be used for: sauces, stews, soups or vegetable juice.

It’s not tough to see why a lot of people are beginning to catch on to pressure cooking. They’re efficient, save electricity, lock in nutrients, safe to use, designed to last and highly flexible.

24
Mar
2018

Fishing Fresh Caught Fish Cooking Preparation

categories: Cooking

To maintain the delicate flavor of a newly caught freshwater or saltwater fish, this must be handled properly to avoid spoilage. Not to mention preserving the fish with pleasing odor. There are ways to properly prepare and maintain the quality just after the catch of the fish into a sumptuous fishmeal. Check out the tips below:

1) As soon as the fish lands avoid any contact with hard surfaces to prevent bruising. It should be washed immediately by hosing or bucket rinsing in order to remove the slime and possible bacteria that cause spoilage. Never use water from close proximity marinas, municipal or industrial discharges. To make sure, always use potable water instead.

2) Simply chill the fish to prevent deterioration in less than an hour. With a little advance planning, proper icing can be accomplished with the use of some relatively cheap equipment. Fish should be stored in coolers and should be well chilled. It should be 3″ deep, thus, covering a pound of fish with pound of ice. Use chlorinated water per quart of water for the final rinsing.

3) Clean the fish as soon as possible. Their tissues are sterile but not their scales, which contains many types of bacteria. When cleaning fish, avoid rough treatment because wounds in the flesh can allow the spread of bacteria. Gutting the fish does not have to be necessarily long. It is wise to cut the belly, as it leaves no blood or viscera in the body. Make sure not to soak cleaned fish fillets in a prolonged freshwater as this could reduce the meat texture and flavor.

4) The eating quality and nutritional value of fish can be maintained up to 5 days if properly cleaned. Washing of the hands before touching the fish is also important. No matter what fish and the cooking technique used, one golden rule is to be followed always. Whether it is whole or not, cook exactly 10 minutes for every inch measured. 15 minutes should be allotted to fish enclosed in foil or sauce baked. Double the time for frozen fish.

Allow extra time if fish will be baked while packed in an aluminum foil and allow extra time for the penetration of the heat. That should be an additional 5 minutes for fresh fish and 10 for frozen. In thawing frozen fish, slowly thaw in the fridge for 24 hours or let the wrapped fish be run under cold water not at room temperature. Do not thaw a fish that’s frozen before cooking as it may make it mushy and dry.

18
Mar
2018

Cooking Brisket in the Oven – A Beginners Guide

categories: Cooking

Did you know that at one time, brisket was considered a very poor quality meat? History has it, that two brothers from Germany, back in the 1950’s decided to smoke up some leftover brisket they had. They left the brisket inside their smokehouse for an entire weekend. When they returned to work they sliced up the meat and served it to their customers. The meat was so flavorful and tender that it quickly became a hit.

I remember the first time I had the pleasure of eating beef brisket. It was at this fabulous little Barbecue Restaurant in Croton-On-Hudson, NY called Memphis Maes.

New York isn’t known for its BBQ, so my wife and I were a bit skeptical. But after we took our first bite of the “Texas BBQ Beef Brisket”, we became believers! My wife then looked at me and said , “You have to make this!” Not wanting to let the lovely wife down, I took it upon myself to try and recreate the BBQ brisket at home. I don’t own a smoker, so I needed to improvise and cook the brisket in the oven.

Believe it or not, the oven makes a pretty darn good BBQ brisket. Many BBQ enthusiasts will tell you that a smoker is the only way to cook brisket, but I can tell you from experience this is simply not the case.

The secret to a good beef brisket is to cook it nice and slow at around 225 degrees for several hours. So if you are looking for a quick and easy meal tonight, cooking brisket in the oven is not the way to go.

You will have to prepare this particular recipe one day in advance and you will need to plan some extra time to cook the brisket as it takes several hours to finish cooking.

Lets Talk About Dry Rubs

There are a variety of different dry rub recipes you can use for your beef brisket. One such recipe is listed below. Don’t be shy with your dry rub. You want to really coat the brisket well. Its not called a rub for nothing, so really rub those spices into the meat with your hands. After the rub has been applied put the brisket in the fridge and let it marinade over night.

DRY RUB

– 1/4 Cup Paprika – 1/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar – 2 Tbs Chili Powder – 2 Tbs Kosher Salt – 2 Tbs Freshly Cracked Black Pepper – 1 1/3 Tbs Granulated Garlic – 1 1/3 Tbs Granulated Onion – 2 Tsp Ground Cumin

THE SAUCE

We need some type of liquid to slowly braise the brisket in the oven. Braising is an excellent way to cook brisket in the oven because it keeps the brisket moist and very tender.

What I do is mix some good quality store bought barbecue sauce with a little beef broth to thin it a bit. I like to use a smoke flavored barbecue sauce. To give it a little more smoky flavor, I also add a few drops of liquid smoke. This makes a very tasty braising liquid.

LETS START COOKING ALREADY!

Before we start cooking, lets do a little preparation.

Remove the brisket from the fridge and leave it on the counter for 30 minutes or so to allow it to come to room temperature.

11
Mar
2018

Cinnamon in the Cupboard Real or Imposter

categories: Cooking

I have a bone to pick about cinnamon. How many of you really know what spice you have in your cupboards. Are you sure it really is cinnamon.

We in the U.S. are having the wool pulled over our eyes about cinnamon. What we commonly know in the U.S. as cinnamon is actually Cassia (cinnamomum aromaticum). It is a relative of true cinnamon, but not the real thing. The rest of the world uses true cinnamon (cinnamomum verum), in their cooking or baking, yet here we are sold something completely different.

As background, I first found out how much difference there was between these two spices when I lived in Guatemala. The cinnamon there tasted very different from what I knew growing up in Ohio; making things like an apple pie or apple crisp just tasted different. They were very good, but didnt taste like what had known. I chalked it up to differences in quality of product, or maybe my baking skill was inadequate. Any typical Guatemalan foods I ate or made with cinnamon tasted just fine of course, with nothing to compare.

That was back in the 1970s, and it wasnt until much later, when once again living in the U.S., I tried making a Guatemalan dish, Platanos en Mole (Plantains in Mole Sauce), using the cassia available. The dish just tasted wrong. I couldnt understand it. I had made this dish many times in Guatemala. I had a lot more cooking and baking skill by this time. What was wrong? I started checking into spices in general, with an eye to those things I knew were different, and discovered that we in the U.S. are being marketed a completely different product.

Cassia cinnamon is a very good spice, of course. I do not for a second propose we do away with it! What would our apple pies taste like without it. It is a wonderful spice, worthy of the space in our cupboards. However, I propose that true cinnamon have an equal place.

Cinnamon of either kind is the bark of the tree. The bark is peeled off and dried, curling into what are known as quills or ground into powder. This is where the similarity ends. Cassia quills are very thick curls, strong and sometimes even hard to break. It has a stronger taste, warmer and more potent. There is some very good quality cassia to be found these days, such as Korintje AA. A lovely spice to perk up anything you commonly make with cinnamon here.

For my cooking classes I always take both types of cinnamon: a high quality cassia quill and ground Korintje AA cassia, alongside true cinnamon quills and ground cinnamon. True cinnamon quills are curled and layered together in a tight roll, are very thin and easily crushed. The flavor is lighter and more delicate, with a somewhat lemony quality. I set the quills side by side and demonstrate the differences, first breaking a cassia quill, with the ensuing loud snap when it breaks. Then I show the cinnamon quill, layered together, and how very easily it breaks and crumbles. With the ground version of each side by side, I ask the class members to smell the two; first the cassia that is the most familiar, and then the cinnamon. The startled reactions when they realize exactly how big a difference exists between these two spices, is quite rewarding.

I would liken this before the U.S woke up and smelled really good Arabica coffee. Once we found out about good coffee, the tide turned. I believe this country is in the process of bringing true cinnamon into the light. It is found in most any Mexican grocery section these days. Good quality spice shops carry excellent quality cinnamon and also excellent quality cassia. If you want to make any ethnic food from anywhere else in the world, or just become familiar with a new flavor go for true cinnamon. Its worth the effort.

Thank you for taking the time to read my article. I hope it was informative and helped you along your own culinary journey. You will find many more recipes and helpful tips on my web site. I am on Facebook at A Harmony of Flavors and share a recipe or tip each day to the fans that have liked my site. I hope to see you there soon.

03
Mar
2018

Cooking For Sunday Dinner

categories: Cooking

From as far back as i can remember there were special church occasions when dinner on the church grounds was the order for the day.

far too many times I noted as person after person walked in with store acquired fried chicken. Whether the explanation for this was shortage of time, lack of planning, or absence of ideas I was not certain. It may appear bizarre but I have traveled all across the country and lived in a couple of different areas of the culture.

One thing that appears steady irrespective of where I live is that somebody unavoidably brings fried chicken from a local restaurant or deli as their potluck offering. Sun. Dinners obviously aren’t the one time when cooking a stew or making a pudding is a good call for the day. They’re however the most common from my youth, explaining why I continually refer to them.

There also are ‘pitch ins’ at work that need a contribution and these are a brilliant chance to make colleagues envy your culinary gifts. Even for the ones that are health aware but there are countless fantastic kinds of salads that could be prepared for occasions like this that may provide you with a guilt free entre at the event for which you are preparing your offering. You do not have to choose calorie or fat filled dishes for your Sun. Dinner cooking. Actually when you’re doing the cooking you should cook the things you like eating.

Many people are loads more bound to put our best efforts into preparing the foods we enjoy rather than the ones that feel as if they seem to be a chore for us to make. Just watch out that you don’t prepare the same dish everytime or folks will think it’s the sole dish you can prepare.

Even mags that offer fitter eating options constantly have a stew, enormous salad, or perhaps a good pudding you can prepare for these events.

My private solution has traditionally been to assemble recipes over time that I just wish to try out and use the potluck audience as my recipe guinea pigs. This way if my folks or I don’t like it, we can’t be stuck with remains for one week and if we do like it, we are able to put it into our revolution of recipes to be used at home. Sunday dinner cooking does not have to be virtually as scary as many of us make it out to be. Just load your slow cooker with the correct ingredients and turn it on before turning in. You must awaken to the amazing odour of whatever nice dish you have prepared and still come up with a method to stand by for church in record time.

This proven strategy is a brilliant way to make Sun. Dinner cooking fast and easy. Even if you are one of the countless who’ve intensely limited culinary abilities it is sort of feasible to wow your buddies, kin, and fellow church members with the right ‘simple to make’ recipe. Puddings are definitely the simplest way to go in this effort and may also be made the evening before ( in countless cases ) and stored in the chiller. Puddings are virtually generally a solid bet and just a couple of folk ever moan about them in any case. The Kraft foods web site offers some fabulously easy to make and tasty puddings if you’re in need. Next time it’s your turn to take part on the potluck preparation don’t resort to fried chicken. Dish up something which should actually turn heads instead.