New product feature make perfect pancakes with the salter aquatronic kitchen scale
New Product Feature – Make Perfect Pancakes With The Salter Aquatronic Kitchen Scale
In time for Pancake Day, embrace the one time of the year you can eat pancakes for your dinner without feeling guilty! This February 16th, impress family and friends with your culinar skills and enlist the help of the NEW Salter Aquatronic Kitchen Scale. The Salter Aquatronic Scale is just ?30.44 from Salamander Cookshop, the online cookware retailer.
The stylish easy to use scale is a great addition to your kitchen. A bakers dream, the scales allow you to measure both liquid and dry ingredients in the same recipe — the clever Aquatronic function allowing easy measurement of liquids, and you can also weigh ingredients in your own bowl making the pancake mixing process hassle free!
For an internationally celebrated occasion, recipes can often vary from metric to imperial, the Salter Scale is designed to measure in Litres, UK Pints, US Cups and Fluid Ounces, accomodating all cooking requirements.
Give our recommended healthy pancake recipe a try, from sweet topping to savoury sides, pancake day is perfect for getting creative in the kitchen!
Light ‘n’ Low Pancakes
Preparation time: 10 minutes, plus standing
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 4
125 g (4 oz) brown or wholemeal plain flour
1 egg
300 ml (1/2 pint) skimmed milk
(If using wholemeal flour you will need a little more)
1 teaspoon vegetable oil, plus
A little extra for cooking, or use an oil–water spray
Topping ideas
Chopped fresh fruit
Chopped apple, raisins and ground cinnamon
Cottage cheese
Low-fat cream cheese
Fruit spread or preserve
1. Sift the flour into a bowl. If using wholemeal flour, also add the bran left in the sieve to the flour in the bowl.
2. Beat the egg, milk and oil together and then slowly add to the flour. Stir the mixture until a smooth batter forms.
3. Leave to stand for about 20 minutes, and then stir again.
4. Heat a little oil in a non-stick frying pan, or spray with an oil–water spray. When the oil is hot, add 2 tablespoons of the pancake mixture and shake the pan so that it spreads.
5. Cook the pancake for 2 minutes until the underside is lightly browned, then flip or turn over and cook the other side for a minute or so.
6. Keep the pancake warm in the oven while you cook the rest – you can stack one on top of the other as they are cooked. The mixture should make 8 pancakes in all. Serve with your chosen topping.
*Recipe found in the book, Hamlyn All Colour: Cakes and Bakes*
http://www.octopusbooks.co.uk/
View original article at Salamander Cookshop Blog
Cooking healthy with waterless cookware
Cooking Healthy With Waterless Cookware
We use many of the recipes of South Beach diet and several years ago we were strictly on that diet until we reached our target weights. Now we blend the Latin cooking with at times using recipes from the South Beach books. The use of the Waterless steam control cookware is perfect for these recipes as well. Of course this would be true of any of the great successful diet regimens out there. Whether Weight Watchers, South Beach or whatever, as long as there are lots of healthy vegetables, reasonably amounts of fruits, lean reasonable portions of meat of your liking, and moderate starches.
They all work and the premium Waterless Steam control stainless steel cookware makes it all that easier. With any recipe with meat, and vegetables including potatoes, just braise the meat (no oil or water necessary) 30-60 seconds on each side, top with the vegetables cover and when starting to steam a little close the steam control valve. This allows the heat to distribute quickly and evenly to the point that you can even stack the pans and cook other goodies on top of the first pan and have the same heat distribution. If you do go this way, you’ll find cooking fast, easy and in a style that preserves virtually all of the vitamins and nutrients.
Always remember to watch out for eating too much useless calories like fattening deserts high in short chain carbohydrates as in cakes, pies, pastries. Of course that goes for ice cream and all those other high fat and high cholesterol deserts. Calorie count and you can enjoy a little of everything.
Of course if there are dietary restrictions from medical problems like high cholesterol, diabetes etc. you need to follow the diets given to you by your physician. The concept from the 80’s that red meats are all bad luckily have been thrown out the window by, Weight Watchers, South Beach diets and quite a few others. Lean meats with excess fat trimmed, cooked without added oil(or only Olive oil in small amounts) and small portions are as good a protein source as fish or poultry, If on a restricted cholesterol diet then follow doctor’s recommendation.
The Waterless cookware helps to reduce cooking fats but you still need to trim out the fat in the meats and of course monitor the amount of carbohydrates you eat in rice, bread and potatoes. Eat intelligently, have a safe regular exercise regimen directed at your age and physical conditioning. We all can have healthy, happy lives and look to be a healthy weight for our age. I’m not an advocate of skinny, but of being in good cardiovascular shape without carrying those extra pounds causing strain on your heart, joints and back. There are no real fountains of youth but exercise, healthy diet and sufficient sleep will help your health overall and even your mental health.
Have fun,
Jay Mawhinney
Surviving the heat of the kitchen
Surviving the Heat of the Kitchen
(ARA) — You’ve seen aspiring singing idols, survivors in the wilderness and gold-medal athletes. Now meet the Best Teen Chef in America Patricia Homma, who saut?ed, roasted and whisked her way to the top award in a national high school Culinary Arts scholarship competition sponsored by The Art Institutes, a leading educator in design and culinary arts nationwide.
After an intense two-hour cook-off, competing with 17 other high school seniors from around the country, Homma, an honors student at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Ga., was awarded the gold medal and a $30,000 scholarship to attend The Art Institute of Atlanta. The competition was held at The Art Institute of New York City.
Homma dreams of having all her family and friends celebrate every holiday at her home, the way it was at her mom’s house growing up in Brazil. After she moved to the United States in 1997, Homma began to watch cooking shows on television after school and was inspired to try some recipes and start cooking for her family. She’s been cooking ever since, for her friends as well. Although busy with work and a local youth group, she still finds time to watch Food TV, where her current favorites are “Iron Chef” and “30-Minute Meals with Chef Rachael Ray.”
Each contestant submitted a three-course menu as part of the entry requirements. Homma’s menu was titled “Tropical Sensations” and featured spinach and mango salad and grilled salmon (recipes below).
Now in its fourth year, The Art Institutes Best Teen Chef in America competition is an annual scholarship program that seeks to spotlight and recognize the most promising young culinary talent in the country. Eighteen high school seniors and would-be chefs were selected as finalists at regional competitions held in March at each of the Art Institutes where Culinary Arts programs are offered. More than $190,000 in tuition scholarships was awarded to the top nine finalists.
Next year’s Best Teen Chef 2004 competition will take place at The Art Institute of California — Orange County on May 22. Deadline for entries is Feb. 13, with local cook-off competitions taking place March 27. To receive information, register at www.artinstitutes.edu/today.
First through third place winners received $30,000 scholarships from The Art Institutes. In addition to Homma, second place finisher Lauren Cianfrani, representing The Art Institute of Philadelphia and Jenny Winiecki, representing The Art Institutes International Minnesota, who finished third, received $30,000 scholarships.
Have your fill of food and cooking at lutongbahaycom
Have Your Fill of Food and Cooking Articles at Lutongbahay.com
Do you subscribe to food and cooking magazines? I used to. I love reading articles on food and cooking and eating healthy. I realized that it had become an expensive habit, though. I tried to cut costs by buying old issues of magazines, instead, and even previously-read magazines. Still, the cost adds up and these days every penny saved counts. Fortunately, I found a treasure trove of food and cooking articles at Lutongbahay.com. Now I can have my fill reading online.
Lutongbahay.com is the first ever and the only interactive cooking portal online that highlights Filipino regional food recipes and features international dishes, as well. Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike united by a passion for food and cooking gather at the site to try the thousands of recipes and interact through the discussion forum. Recipes not found in the vast data base may be requested for. Experts are available to answer questions. Each member can compile individualized cookbooks based on the recipes and create weekly meal planners that are ready to print out. A weekly e-newsletter keeps all members updated on the site and supplies fresh articles.
Indeed, Lutongbahay.com is a community I feel comfortable hanging out in. It feels like being with like-minded friends in a cozy neighborhood home. The big bonus is that this home happens to have a library filled with interesting articles that are all free to read online. Of course I couldn’t stop myself from settling down to have a good read.
One of the articles that immediately caught my eye was titled “De-Fattening” Your Recipes. Now that’s something I would really benefit from. Sometimes the craving for a certain dish is just so great despite the fact that I know it has a high fat content. Learning how to make any dish low fat – or at least lower fat – would make me feel less guilty and much healthier, too.
Now let me start from the end of the article because the last tip had me gasping then laughing out loud. It said, “Don’t follow directions.” Imagine that. Well, it did make sense. According to the article, you should remove, reduce or replace any fat in the recipe. Sometimes removing a fatty ingredient makes no difference at all in flavor, or is at least barely noticeable. If it’s not possible to remove an ingredient, replace it with a substitute. Fatty cuts of meat, for example, can be done away with in favor of leaner cuts. Butter can be replaced completely or partly with light sour cream or, better yet, non-fat sour cream. Half of the oil required can be replaced with unsweetened applesauce. In cakes, the oil can be replaced with liqueur, sherry, fruit juice or fruit puree. The article also recommends using “better” fat such as olive oil whenever appropriate. That I most certainly agree with. The flavor of extra virgin olive oil more than makes up for all the other fats removed.
It turned out that the article title was not just referring to fat content per se but to the fattening characteristic of certain food, as well. It, therefore, recommended cutting down on sugar, too, and switching to whole grains while adding more fruits and vegetables to the diet. After reading that article I felt eager to start experimenting with the recommended substitutions and start cooking healthy again.
Okay, I have to stop before I give a rundown of each and every article on the site. All of them seem so interesting. I also need to pace myself to ensure that I will still have something to read when I return to the site, because I do intend to return again and again.
So if you’re looking for something to read on food and cooking, visit Lutongbahay.com and get comfortable in their well-stocked library of articles. You’ll surely feel so at home that you would want to be a member.
How to choose salad spinners for great salads
How To Choose Salad Spinners For Great Salads
Put it, rinse it and spin it to dry. Using a salad spinner is that easy. Yes of course I mean using a salad spinner should not only be easy but cleaning it should be more convenient. For those these things are incomprehensible I will explain in details.
A salad spinner is the easiest and quickest way to wash and dry the greens in salad. A salad spinner is a plastic bowl with a removable plastic strainer and special top, which when closed and activated, spins the strainer inside the bowl.
Those who are into making salads can understand how much difficult it gets to wash the greens and trying to pat them dry using paper towels. Try it once and then you will admire this small and handy kitchen gadget. Using salad spinner you can rinse the salad ingredients for any dirt and then dry them just by spinning it around.
Let’s see how easy it is to handle the salad spinner. First put the strainer basket in the salad spinner bowl and put the greens inside. Then add enough water so that you can rinse the greens well. Remove the strainer from the salad bowl to drain off the water. Again rinse the bowl with clean water. You can repeat the steps if you need to be sure that it is properly clean.
After washing and draining the greens (upto satisfaction level) return the strainer with the greens to the salad spinner bowl. Fix the top on the bowl and spin it to dry (this is the most exciting part in the whole process). With a good salad bowl you will find the process easy and the greens water free in the serving bowl.
Now while choosing a salad right salad bowl for you do test it on some parameters. Get a model that is sturdy, has a tight fitting lid and spins easily. Also it should have a solid base so that it won’t trip over while spinning a big quantity. All these features are a must look for but I would also suggest a salad spinner which is big enough to hold, wash and dry greens for entire family (rather than putting it again and again to work).
Hygiene is another important part which I would like to draw your attention to. Most of the salad spinners are easy to operate but really taxing to clean. Get your self one which is easy to use as well as to clean. Salad spinners come in a variety of sizes and designs, though all of them work on the same principle (Let me guess! it works on centrifugal force).
Some spinners have knob-lids for manual spinning. Others operate on pump action by a cylinder that pops up from the lid. Using your palm, you press down on the cylinder or pump to generate the spinning motion. Most pump action salad spinners also have a brake in the form of a button in the lid. When you want the spinning to stop, you simply press the button.
One more suggestion, a salad spinner can be used to store salad in the refrigerator. Although salad spinners are dishwasher safe, kindly read he product manual before putting it into the dishwasher.
Cooking games can be fun and educational
Cooking Games Can Be Fun and Educational
Cooking games can be fun and educational all at the same time. Cooking games can take you into the kitchen in a virtual way. This can be a great way to introduce your children to cooking prior to taking them into the kitchen to participate in the real thing. We all know that children enjoy doing things that are fun. Cooking games are a way to get a little education out of all that fun.
There are a lot of different cooking games they can play too. Children can learn how to make their own pizza pie. They can learn how to bake a cake. They can learn how to grill meats. There are no limits to the items that can make in cooking games on the computer.
What a way to get boys and girls excited about doing the real thing inside of a kitchen! And both boys and girls can benefit from learning how to cook in real life. So it is a good idea to use this as a teaching tool for both when thinking of utilising cooking games as an educational tool.
Imagine how much easier it will be for a parent to bring a child into the kitchen to help make a birthday cake for a sibling, for example. They will see this as nothing more than an extension of the cooking games they are used to playing online. And it will help the experience seem less like a chore and more like and exciting activity. It also leads to more bonding time between parents and children, which is always a good thing.
So the next time you see your child playing cooking games, encourage them to continue. And when the opportunity arises, call them into the kitchen and provide some live experience for them to test the skills they have learned while playing those cooking games.
Tips to save money on food catering service
Tips To Save Money on Food Catering Service
Wedding is one of the most memorable occasions of the life especially for bride and groom. It is the most beautiful time as the two people make legal proclamation of their love. In this event food is the most important part and hiring a best wedding caterer is something that one cannot miss. But it is very difficult to hire a caterer who suits your budget and needs.
Generally the caterers raise their price during the wedding seasons especially for those customers who hire the caterer at the last minute. Therefore you can cut down your price on the wedding caterers by hiring the caterer in advance.
There are many ways to save money on food catering service. The best way is to cut down your guest list. There is no need to invite everyone you can invite the people who are very close to you. Always remember that the cost will increase when the dishes of the main course is fancier. So you can select the food which is pleasant to everyone and according to your budget.
Wedding cakes are also very expensive. Usually wedding caterers charge high for wedding cakes therefore if you want then you can save money by purchasing your cake by your own. You can buy your wedding cake from your own shop and can also ask for some discount.
Another biggest expense of wedding parties planning is the drinks especially alcoholic drinks. You can save money on the drinks by not over serving to your guests and you will be also assured that no one gets over drunk and spoils your wedding. You can also hire your own bar tender and can serve only champagne with your wedding cake.
Before arranging for your event it is good to discuss with your caterer about your budget. You must tell him that how much you want to spend on their services. It is obvious that you have to compromise little bit but a professional and good wedding cuisine caterer can come with excellent alternatives within your budget such as sit-down meal is expensive compare to buffet style dinner. Hence if you are planning for sit-down meal then by arranging buffet style dinner you can save lot of your hard earned money. By arranging buffet-style dinner you can give your guests same delicious dishes just served in different way.
You can also have a reliable person to confirm the number of guests before your wedding event. Always remember that a good company can allow you to change the number of plates which you have to pay and allow you to pay according to the number of people present for your event. By proper planning you can easily save your money on catering service. And a best wedding caterer has always the idea when to make suggestions and what type of suggestions to offer.