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15
Nov 11

Cook Great Food Like Your Mama Used To Do

If you are having trouble lately in the kitchen when it comes to getting your cuisine just right, you are not alone. Many people have natural cooking talent but not quite enough know-how to cook with perfection. This article will give you the help that you need to get it right by providing invaluable cooking tips.

To get perfectly cooked salmon that is not too dry, remove it from heat when the fish is opaque and it flakes if you press gently with the back of a fork or spoon. Salmon dries out quickly and is easy to overcook, and because it stays pink, color is not an accurate indication of doneness.

Use oils for flavor. When using oil in uncooked sauces or dressing, be sure to use a high quality oil. The flavor of regular cooking oil will ruin your dish. Extra-virgin olive oil, with its fruity flavor, is a must for uncooked sauces such as aioli, or raw tomato sauce. A green salad will benefit from a simple dressing of extra-virgin olive oil and vinegar. Hazelnut and walnut oil have a delicate flavor that is suitable for ‘light’ sauces and dressings.

When you are sautéing anything, make sure that you use a big enough pan to accommodate the amount of food that you are putting in it. You do not want to overcrowd the food. Overcrowding the food will cook it by steaming it instead, and it will ruin your sauté.

If you have intolerance to dairy milk, and you recipe calls for milk, a very good substitution is tofu milk. Tofu milk can come in powered form, and once mixed with water, it will have a smoother texture and better flavor than the other alternative soy milk. Use this milk when you want to replace dairy milk in recipes, over cereal or for drinking.

To keep your tasty homemade ice cream contained in a sugar cone, stick a marshmallow in the bottom of the cone before filling it. The marshmallow will plug the hole at the bottom, preventing drips and leaving a tasty treat when you or your child reach the end of the cone.

Store speciality oils correctly. Keep specialty oils in the coolest, darkest area of your cupboard or pantry. Try to use the oil within three months of opening. Hazelnut and walnut oil are highly perishable, and should be kept in the refrigerator. Olive oil, however, should never be refrigerated, as the cold temperature can ruin its flavor.

Don’t worry if your sauce is too salty. Quite often, we make the mistake off adding too much salt to a recipe without tasting it, but all is not lost! Peel and chop a couple of raw potatoes, and let them simmer in the sauce for about 15 minutes. The potatoes absorb the excess salt. For a tomato-based dish, simply add more tomatoes to dilute the saltiness, and continue cooking until they are tender.

Instead of rinsing fresh mushrooms under water, wipe them with a damp paper towel or a mushroom brush. Mushrooms already contain a high water content, and their porous flesh will absorb even more if you run them under the faucet. Wiping them gently removes the dirt while preventing sogginess or sliminess.

Don’t try to squeeze your Thanksgiving turkey into a roasting pan. Never try to cook your turkey in a roasting pan that is too small. If it is touching the sides of the pan, the bird will steam, not roast. Place a rack in the pan that will raise the turkey so that hot air will circulate around it. Don’t forget to line the bottom of your stove, in case of any drips.

Now that you have read the great tips in this article, you have a leg up on most people and you have the know-how that you need to perform in the kitchen. Get that apron out, dust off your mixing bowls and roll up your sleeves. You have some cooking to do.

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6
May 11

How to Read Nutrition Facts Labels

Understanding food labels can help you make wise choices―if you know what to look for. Here’s a rundown of the most important elements.

Serving Size
This number is at the top for a reason: The nutritional information on the rest of the label applies to one serving. The FDA sets serving sizes for all foods―they are measurements, not recommendations. Total calories are calculated per serving, as are total calories from fat, so be sure to look at the servings per container. A bag of potato chips might say it has 150 calories per serving, but the entire bag might be three servings, or 450 calories.

Percent of Daily Value
This is calculated for a moderately active woman, or a fairly sedentary man, who eats 2,000 calories a day. (Highly active women, moderately active men, and growing teen boys may need closer to 2,500 calories a day.) A serving of Cheerios with 1/2 cup of skim milk gives the average adult just 3 percent of the daily value of fat intake and 11 percent of the daily value of fiber intake recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Fat
More important than total fat are the numbers for saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and trans fats. You want to see that the food contains relatively little saturated fat and trans fat, and relatively more polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. Keep in mind that “fat-free” doesn’t equal “calorie-free.” Many fat-free and low-fat foods have added sugar.

Cholesterol
This is a fatlike chemical that’s an essential component of cell membranes, a covering for nerve-cell fibers, and a building block of hormones. Only animal products contain cholesterol. Adults are advised to limit their daily intake to 300 milligrams. Too much can elevate your blood cholesterol, raising your heart-disease risk.

Sodium
The recommended daily limit for an average adult is 2,300 milligrams; too much sodium can cause high blood pressure. By the USDA’s reckoning, a food is low in sodium if it contains no more than 140 milligrams. (A serving of Cheerios has 210 milligrams and is therefore not low in sodium.) A single serving of soup or a frozen dinner may contain 1,000 milligrams or more of sodium, which is nearly half the daily limit.

Potassium
Getting enough of this mineral―4,700 milligrams a day for adults―may help prevent high blood pressure. Low potassium can lead to an irregular heartbeat.

Total Carbohydrate
This large category includes everything from whole grains (healthy carbs) to sugar and other refined carbs (unhealthy ones). It’s most helpful to look at the sugar and fiber numbers.

Dietary Fiber
The average adult should eat between 21 and 35 grams of fiber daily, but most don’t reach that level. When buying bread or cereal, look for a brand with 3 grams or more per serving. Some labels describe whether the fiber is soluble or insoluble. Both are important. Soluble fiber, found in oatmeal, barley, and dried beans, can help lower cholesterol levels. Insoluble fiber, found in whole grains and fruit and vegetable skins, protects against bowel disorders and may help digestion.

Sugars
These simple carbohydrates include glucose, dextrose, fructose, and galactose, all of which provide little nutritional value. Sugar shows up in surprising places, like crackers, “healthy” cereals, and salad dressings. It’s often added to foods that need a flavor boost (like low-fat products).

Protein
In general, .45 gram of protein daily per pound of body weight (that’s 68 grams for a 150-pound person) is plenty of protein, even if you’re breast-feeding or physically active. Most Americans get enough protein effortlessly (unless they’re vegetarians). And it’s rare for people eating a normal diet to get too much.

and
This list includes the vitamins and minerals found in the food naturally, along with any added to it, and the percentage of daily value for each―again, calculated for a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet. The footnote (not found on all labels) provides a table listing the total daily grams of fat, cholesterol, sodium, potassium, carbohydrates, and fiber that the USDA recommends in a 2,000- or 2,500-calorie diet.

Ingredients
The product’s ingredients must be listed in order of quantity, so the major ones come first. When checking a label on bread, for instance, you want to see that the first ingredient is whole wheat, oats, or some other grain. (Note that “whole wheat” means “whole grain,” but not all brown-colored and “multigrain” breads are made of whole grain.)

Supplemental Vitamins and Minerals
Listed below the ingredients are supplemental nutrients that the manufacturer has added to the food.

Exchange
This information, listed voluntarily by the manufacturer, is for people with diabetes. The food-exchange system categorizes foods into food groups. A nutritionist may counsel a diabetic person to eat eight exchanges of starch per day, for example. A bowl of Cheerios would take up 1 1/2 of those exchanges in a 1,600- to 2,000-calorie-a-day diet.