Cooking RecipesSimple and Easy Cooking Recipes

Stock
If stock is needed, this may be made with a beef, chicken or herbs cube, but these are often rather salty and allowance must be made in seasoning the dish. As a change, some cider or light beer can be used in place of part of the water or stock. When bacon and chicken are being used in a casserole, they are usually cooked in water, then drained, and the resulting flavored stock is used as part of the recipe.

Thickening
The flour in which ingredients are coated will usually be enough to result in a lightly thickened gravy. Tomato puree from a can or tube color, flavors and thickens at the same time. If the stew is not quite thick enough to suit your taste, you can add a thickening ingredient at the end of the cooking. A little cornflour mixed with cold water may be stirred into the casserole and cooked for a minute or two, though this gives a slightly glutinous quality. A little butter and flour worked together into a ball may be stirred into the gravy a few minutes before the end of cooking for a better result.

Rice is our staple food. It is a cereal and can be bought as polished rice, unpolished rice, parboiled rice and glutinous. Rice is a starchy food, although parboiled and unpolished rice contain valuable vitamins and minerals.

Rice is most commonly eaten as boiled rice, but it is also ground into rice flour for making cakes and other dishes. Noodles are make from rice flour and can be eaten in place of rice.

Glutinous rice is a different variety of rice. It is more starchy than ordinary rice and is therefore more difficult to cook. Both white glutinous and black glutinous can be bought.

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Onions
The onions family used a lot in casseroles to give a delicious flavor. Large onions are usually sliced or cut into quarters or eighths. Very small onions look best left whole. Leeks must be very well cleaned and trimmed of most of the green stems, and they can be cut in pieces or left whole. Garlic is very strong and only a little is used.

Root vegetables
Carrots are the most popular root vegetables to use in stews. If they are large, cut them in strips of rounds, but small ones look best left whole. If you like turnips and swedes, these can be used too, but many people do not enjoy them. They are very good with lamb. Parsnips are rarely used in casseroles as they give a slightly sweet flour.

Flour
A little plain flour is often used to coat ingredients before frying and it helps to thicken and lightly color the stew. This is often called seasoned flour when salt and pepper are added before coating.

Herbs
The flavor of herbs is essential in good casseroles. Usually a mixture of parsley, thyme and bay leaf is used which can be removed before the stew is served. It is nicest to use fresh herbs, which are easily grown in a corner of the garden, in pots in the kitchen or on a balcony. In Italian style dishes with plenty of tomato flavoring, try a little marjoram and try mint in lamb casseroles or with fish.

Ingredients in a stew usually have to be sealed in a little fat before long cooking. Lard cooks the meat crisply without flavor. A little beef dripping can be used for beef or pork dripping for pork if you have been economical and saved some from a joint. Cooking oil cooks crisply without flavoring, unless olive oil is used which gives a strong flavor that blends well with onions and tomatoes. Butter gives a delicate flavor but burns and browns quickly. It is safer to mix butter with a little oil for frying as this prevents the rapid burning.

You can try the pork, lamb and beef recipes from here.

Stews are slow cooking mixtures of all sorts of ingredients. Most of us are used to beef stews, but lamb and pork can be used too. Poultry and bacon are delicious this way, and so are casseroles made entirely of vegetables which can accompany plainly cooked or cold meat. Fish is not often cooked in a casserole, but some thick, close texture fish like cod is very good like this.

Stew are usually made from economical custs of meat or from older poultry, as the tougher fibres break down during long slow cooking. it is important to seal the meat by lightly frying before stewing in liquid or else  all the flavor will go out into the gravy and the meat will be ragged.

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Stews can be made in variety of utensils, but the container must be strong and thick to withstand long slow cooking without burning. For oven use, ovenproof  glass or earthenware may be used which can go straight to the table. If you like cooking a lot of stews and casseroles, it is worth buying a cast iron casserole which can be used on top of the stove and in the oven. This will allow you to cope with the initial frying of ingredients and the later stewing, all in the same pan on top of the stove if you prefer, or in the oven. Most stews can be cooked entirely on top of the stove in an ordinary thick saucepan, but this must be watched carefully to prevent burning.

Sandwiches with fillings of meat, fish, cooked egg yolk or peanut butter freeze successfully. Omit cooked egg whites. Omit mayonnaise or salad dressing in large amount;  they often separate during freezing. Instead of using a dressing, spread bread with softened margarine to prevent sogginess.

Cream cheese or cottage cheese is often used instead of mayonnaise. Day old bread is best for making sandwiches. Storage time should be no longer than 3 months.

Salads that are usually frozen for brief periods in the ice trays of the refrigerator are best suited for freezing. Salads with a base of cream cheese, cottage cheese or whipped cream freeze well. Mayonnaise and salad dressings tend to separate during freezing.

When preparing a gelatin salad for freezing, decrease the usual amount of liquid by one fourth. Gelatin salads tends to get watery after freezing and thawing unless liquid is decreased.

Raw grapes and raw apples do not hold their shape in freezing. Nuts sometimes become bitter. Few vegetables salads are suitable for freezing. Storage time for salads is no longer than 1 month. Salads are generally better served before they are completely thawed.

Slow cooking is the basic requirement for making good stews. Stone pots were first used for cooking as far as 7000BC , but today there is a demand for a modern version heated by electricity. The low wattage of the electric slow cooker means that it uses only as little electricity as a light bulb and the cooker can be left to cook food while you are out. No stirring is needed and no moisture evaporates. The cooker has three settings, low, auto and high and the following recipes (Pork and Pineapple Curry Recipe and Chicken with Barbecue Sauce Recipe.) show how it can be used.