Cooking Hints & Tips Archive 42
Cooking Tip: To prepare vegetables in advance blanch, drain, and rinse under cold water to stop further cooking. Wrap and refrigerate. At serving time, drop blanched vegetables into boiling water for 30 seconds to reheat, then toss with flavored butter.
Cooking Tip: To ripen tomatoes, place them in a shallow box or basket and slip them into a brown paper bag. Close the end and leave at room temperature. The gas released by the tomato ripens the fruit naturally. Never store unripened tomatoes in the refrigerator -
it makes the pulp soft and cottony.
Cooking Tip: To keep cocoa and chocolate cakes brown on the outside, grease pans and dust with unsweetened cocoa powder instead of flour.
Cooking Tip: To add variety to salad dressing, make your favorite oil and vinegar dressing by the quart. At meal time, measure the amount you'll need and add blue cheese, onion, garlic, or a favorite herb.
Cooking Tip: Sweeten store-bought mustards with maple syrup, honey, or fruit spread, or add a savory touch with grated horseradish or citrus peel, crushed peppercorns and dried herbs. Refrigerate for at least a few days for flavors to develop before using.
Cooking Tip: The Greek name for basil means "king", which shows how highly it has been regarded throughout the ages. Sweet basil is a sun-loving annual with highly aromatic leaves that has a pleasant spicy odor and taste somewhat like anise or cloves.
Cooking Tip: Both the basil leaves and their essential oils are used as flavoring agents. There are many different types of sweet basil ?€“ large and dwarf forms, with green, purple, or variegated leaves. Many of these widely grown plants are ornamental, as well as edible.
Cooking Tip: Store a bunch of basil, stems down, in a glass of water with a plastic bag over the leaves. Secure plastic bag to the glass with a rubber band. Refrigerate for up to a week, changing water every other day.
Cooking Tip: To freeze basil, rinse herbs and let drain until dry. Lay in a single layer on baking sheets, keeping pieces slightly apart. Freeze on baking sheets just until herbs are rigid, about one hour. Place frozen herbs into small freezer plastic bags, press out air, seal, and return to freezer. To use, take out of the bag what you need, reseal, and immediately return to the freezer. Frozen herbs will retain flavor up to one year.
Cooking Tip: To freeze, puree basil leaves with a little water and put into ice-cube trays. When frozen, the cubes can be stored in the freezer in plastic bag.
Cooking Tip: Buying oil in small sizes, or splitting larger bottles with friends, is a practical way to buy expensive olive oils. Olive oil purchased in bulk should always be poured into smaller containers, preferably in a can or a dark-colored bottle.
Cooking Tip: Air, heat, and light will cause olive oil to turn rancid. Rancid is the flavor which is imparted in an oil after it has undergone the process of oxidation. Since prolonged contact with oxygen is the rot cause of oxidation, rancidity is a common defect, so it should be stored in a cool place in an airtight container.
Cooking Tip: The ideal temperature for storing olive oil is 57°F or 14°C, although a normal room temperature of 70°F works very well if the olive oil is stored in a dark area where the temperature remains fairly constant. A kitchen cabinet located away from the stove and away from direct sunlight will work quite well. If you have a wine cellar, store your olive oils there and keep a small amount in your kitchen. Do not put olive oil in a container without a tight cap.
Cooking Tip: Refrigeration does not harm most grades of olive oil, but it is not recommended for expensive extra virgin varieties because condensation may develop in the bottle, affecting the flavor. When chilled, or in cold weather, the oil may turn cloudy and even solidify. Such oil will clear again as it warms, so cloudiness should not be taken as an indication that the oil is past its prime.
Cooking Tip: Refrigeration will extend the life of olive oil without harming the oil. Doing so will cause it to congeal and turn cloudy, but should not affect flavor. If refrigerated, olive oil will return to its original, liquid state when warmed to room temperature again. Refrigeration does not harm most grades of olive oil, but it is not recommended.
Cooking Tip: Coffee was first introduced to the west by Italian traders in 1600. Specifically in the affluent trading port Venezia (or Venice as it is known by many). Prior to its introduction, coffee was viewed as predominantly a Muslim drink.
Cooking Tip: Coffee wasn't readily accepted by Christian Europe and was even considered evil because of the strained relations with the Islamic. That was until Pope Clemet VIII became a coffee aficionado and allowed free trade and consumption of coffee in the Christian empire.
Cooking Tip: In Venezia, the first Italian caffe shop opened in 1607 and others soon followed. These shops were simply named to reflect what they sold, caffe. These caffe's were frequented by Venezia's intellectuals who would come to drink coffee and sit and discuss worldly affairs.
Cooking Tip: Coffee eventually spread throughout Italy and became an important staple in the Italian cuisine. A little coffee bean company merged with a little coffee shop in Seattle in 1987 and was branded Starbucks. The Starbucks coffee shop was modeled after a caffe house in Milano, Italy.
Cooking Tip: Italy's caffe bars are plentiful and in a pedestrian environment. Patrons don't drive to the coffee shop to meet up, they stroll in from the sidewalk. The caffe bars are small with one or two tables that only tourists use.
Cooking Tip: The word beignet (pronounced bey-YAY) comes from the early Celtic word bigne meaning to raise. It is also French for fritter. Beignets, a New Orleans specialty, are fried, raised pieces of yeast dough, usually about 2 inches in diameter or 2 inches square. After being fried, they are sprinkled with sugar or coated with various icings.
Cooking Tip: Beignets are like a sweet doughnut, but the beignet is square shaped and without a hole. Beignets are considered the forerunners of the raised doughnut.
Cooking Tip: Beignets are often enjoyed with cafe au lait. In New Orleans, cafe au lait is strong dark roast coffee and chicory, served with equal part hot milk.
Cooking Tip: Mushrooms are relatively high in protein, averaging about 20% of their dried mass. They contribute a wide range of essential amino acids, are low in fat, high in fiber and provide several groups of vitamins, particularly thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, and ascorbic acid.
Cooking Tip: While nutrients vary from one kind of mushroom to the next, many contain protein, vitamins A and C, B-vitamins and minerals including iron, selenium, potassium and phosphorus. Phytochemicals found in some mushrooms are being studied as possible cancer-fighting substances.
Cooking Tip: The word ham means pork that comes from the hind leg of a hog. Ham made from the front leg of a hog will be labeled pork shoulder picnic.
Cooking Tip: Hams are either ready-to-eat or not. Ready-to-eat hams include prosciutto and fully-cooked hams; they can be eaten right out of the package. Fresh hams must be cooked by the consumer before eating.
Cooking Tip: Fresh Ham (which is not cured) is a raw uncured rear leg of a pig. The cut usually comes with the skin still on. Since the meat is not cured or smoked, it has the flavor of a fresh pork loin roast or pork chops.
Cooking Tip: Dry Cured Ham is cured by burying it in a mound of salt or by rubbing the skin with salt. It is usually hung and air-dried for 6 to 18 months at cool temperatures allowing for dehydration and concentration of flavors. Often a dry cured ham is smoked at low temperatures to help enhance the flavor.
Cooking Tip: Raw pork must be stored in the refrigerator at 40 degrees F. or lower and used within 3 to 5 days of the sell by date on the package or it should be frozen.
Cooking Tip: Chia is a member of the mint family. The seeds are either white or black and both types are highly nutritious. Originally grown in Mexico and the Southwest between 1500 and 910 B.C., Chia seeds were an important part of the Aztec and Mayan diet.
Cooking Tip: Medicinally, Chia was used to relieve joint pain and stimulate saliva. Commercial production is increasing and you can now find Chia seeds online as well as in many health food stores.
Cooking Tip: Chia seeds can help reduce blood pressure. The seeds contain one of the highest known plant sources of essential fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6). EFAs cannot be synthesized by our bodies however, it is very important that we get enough to support our immune, cardiovascular, nervous and reproductive systems. EFA deficiency is quite common in North America.
Cooking Tip: Chia seeds slow down the rate at which complex carbohydrates are digested and then assimilated into the body. The soluble fiber helps to stabilize blood glucose levels resulting in steady, sustained energy.
Cooking Tip: The essential fatty acids contained in Chia seeds helps to boost metabolism and promote lean muscle mass. The seeds are sometimes added to food to provide bulk and nutrients while adding very few calories. For these reasons, many people have found Chia quite useful in weight loss and weight maintenance.
Cooking Tip: Place overripe tomatoes in cold water and add some salt. Overnight they will become firm and fresh.
Cooking Tip: An egg stored under refrigeration for one week will be fresher than one stored at room temperature for just one day. The inside of an egg may be bacteria free, while due to its porous nature the shell may hold a high bacteria count.
Cooking Tip: All spices should be stored in small airtight jars in a cool, dark place, as heat, moisture and sunlight reduce their flavor.
Cooking Tip: Don't discard the water in which the vegetables are soaked or cooked. It is more flavorful than plain water so use it in making soup or gravy.
Cooking Tip: Bouquet garni are little bundles of herbs and spices tied together with twine or wrapped in cheesecloth. These packets are added to soups, stocks, sauces, braises, or any other dish with a lot of liquid and a long simmer.
