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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