Cooking RecipesSimple and Easy Cooking Recipes

In a number of the recipes reference is made to filleted fish. Many fishmongers will fillet it for you, but if not it is quite easy to do it yourself. You must, however have a really sharp knife. To fillet fish make a definite slit down the center and round the edge of the whole fish, insert the knife at the tip by tail and with your left hand begin to lift the flesh while the knife, held in your right hand, cuts the flesh away from the bones. Continue slowly like this. A little salt on the tip of the knife often helps.

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Bacon, ham and sausages should look moist and not too dry. Bacon may be blanched to remove excess of salt before adding to other dishes. Do not confuse ham and bacon. They have been cured in entirely different ways, giving quite distinct flavors. The hams of the pig are simply the legs which are cut off and are dry cured individually. While the various ham have their own methods of curing they are, unlike bacon, generally unsmoked. It takes from 3-5 months to cure a ham. At the end of that time a perfect ham has a faint green mould, known as the ‘bloom’. Never take this off until you are ready to cook it. Read the rest of this entry »

As you learned in your schoolbooks, there are literally hundreds of varieties of tea. The quality varies according to the soil, climate and altitude n which it is grown and the age and size of the leaves when they are picked.

The tea you buy is a delicate blend of some 20 to 30 varieties, carefully selected by expert tea tasters to maintain in high quality of color, flavor, aroma or body of each brand.

Despite all these varieties, tea ca be classified into three broad types: black, oolong or green.

Black tea undergoes a special processing treatment in which the leaves are allowed to oxidize. This turns the leaves black and produces a rich brew. Over 97% of the tea consumed in the United States is the black type.

Oolong tea is semi-oxidized. It leaves are partly brown and partly green. It brews light in color, and a growing number of Americans have come to prefer its delicate flavor.

Green tea is not oxidized, so the leaves remain green. The brew is pale green in color.

Automatic: Follow manufacturer’s directions for selecting grind of coffee, measuring and brewing the coffee and holding the coffee at serving temperature. Special grinds of coffee are available for automatic coffee makers.

Drip: Measure cold water into kettle and heat to boiling. Meanwhile, preheat coffeepot by rinsing with very hot water. Measure drip grind coffee into cone holding filter paper or into filter section of coffeepot, depending on the type of drip pot used. Pour measured fresh boiling water into upper container; cover. When dripping is completed, remove  upper container and filter section and simply pour the coffee.

Vacuum: Measure fresh cold water into lower bowl and heat to boiling. Place filter in upper bowl; add fine or drip grind coffee. Remove boiling water from heat; reduce heat. Insert upper bowl with a slight twist. Return to heat. Let water rise into upper bowl; stir. Remove from heat. Coffee should return to lower bowl within 2 minutes. Remove upper bowl and serve coffee.

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It is hard to make a bad cup of coffee if you remember these following steps:-

1. Start with a coffee maker that is thoroughly clean. Wash after each use with soapy hot water and rinse well with hot water; never scour with an abrasive pad. When washing an automatic coffee maker, follow the manufacturer’s directions.

2. Always use fresh coffee and freshly drawn cold water. Never use hot water, especially in automatic coffee makers; it changes the percolating time. Keep your coffee tightly covered, air dries out coffee and causes it to lose flavor.

3. Serve steaming hot coffee as soon as possible after brewing. If necessary to let coffee stand any length of time, remove grounds and hold coffee at serving temperature over very low heat. Keep coffee hot but do not boil.

While preparing for canning use ascorbic acid and citric acid mixtures according to the manufacturer’s instructions or add 2 tablespoons each salt and vinegar to 1 gallon water. Drop apples, apricots, peaches or pears into the solution as they are pared, cored, peeled or pitted. When using the salt vinegar water mixture, do not leave fruit in longer than 20 minutes. Rinse the fruits before packing.

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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.