By Susan Carey

As fish has such a small amount of connective tissue, it requires very little cooking. If it is overcooked, the flakes fall apart and the fibers become tough, dry and tasteless. There are several ways of cooking fish, but the cooking process should, in general, be short and gentle. Although fillets are more popular, most cooks agree that fish on the bone - as with meat - has more flavor.
Frying -
This is a popular method, and fish can be both shallow-or deep-fried. For both processes the flesh of the fish must be coated with egg and breadcrumbs, batter, flour or oatmeal - to protect the delicate flesh. Usually fillets of fish are cooked in this way. A vegetable oil should be used (if deep-frying, the oil should only be used for fish), but a combination of butter and oil is best and tastiest for shallow-frying.
Grilling -
This methods is used for whole fish, steaks, fillets and cutlets, particularly oily fish such as mackerel, salmon and trout. The flesh is usually scored with a knife (if the fish is on the bone) to ensure even and thorough cooking. The fish should be dotted with butter to prevent it drying out. The grill should be set at a moderate heat, rather than on high, so that the fish does not dry out. The smaller the fish, the higher the grill. Line the grill with foil so that the pan and the rack don’t have lingering fish flavors.
Baking -
Fish can be baked whole, brushed with butter or oil, and stuffed; they may be open or lightly covered with buttered foil for protection. They can also be baked in a liquid (milk, sauce, wine or stock).
Poaching -
This method ensures that the fish remains moist throughout cooking. The fish is cooked in a liquid, such as fish stock, wine, water or milk. which can be flavored with herbs, a little onion or lemon juice. The fish may be cooked on top of the stove in a pan or fish kettle, or in the oven. If the pan is not covered the fish should be basted frequently. The cooking liquid is usually used as a basis for the accompanying sauce.
Steaming -
The fish is cooked in the steam above a pan of simmering water. It should be placed between two buttered plates, or on a plate covered in foil to prevent the natural juices escaping into the water beneath.
En Papillote -
Fish, whole or in fillets or steaks, can be wrapped up in foil, greaseproof or cellophane with various flavorings (butter, lemon juice, wine, onion, garlic, herbs) and poached, steamed, baked or deep-fried. All the essential flavors and juices are retained making it one of the best ways to cook fish.

By Kelvin Ho Wee Min

Chicken is no doubt one of the most popular meats in our daily diet. However, how should one cook them so that they retain their juiciness and flavor?
Here are some tips to help you along.
1. Brining A Chicken Brining a chicken before cooking is one good way. To brine it, all you need to do is to soaked the chicken in a salt solution for about 1 hour. It is recommended that you leave the whole setup in the fridge during this time.
2. Selecting the Right Temperature When Cooking Chicken Generally, it is suggested that you cook your chicken at about 165 degree F. With the present Bird Flu concerns, this is a sound advice to follow especially when you have family members who have weak immune systems. This include children and the elderly. If you are cooking dry chicken meat, set the temperature to high and cook for about 5-10 minutes. If you are using a piece of moist chicken meat, go for low temperature and cook for about 10-15 minutes.
3. Cooling the Meat Should you need to keep away leftover chicken, be sure to do it very quickly, preferably in a container placed in an ice water bath. You should also choose not to keep any cooked chicken in your refrigerator longer than 3-4 days. This is of course done to ensure the quality of your food.
4. Cooking Chicken Differently Chicken can be cooked in different ways. It can be grilled,steamed, fried and barbacued. So do not restrict yourself to one way of cooking. You will be surprised with the different results as you experiment. One little tip for you. Most of the time, it helps to pound or cut the meat to similar thickness before you cook. This helps to ensure that your chicken cook evenly.
Conclusion
With these tips of cooking chicken, you should be able to dish out quite a few delicious chicken dishes from now on.

By Elsie Shan

A cooking recipe is a series of instructions on how to prepare a meal. It will list down the ingredients required as well as preparation instruction and other useful information to make your cooking a success. By following the instructions the cooking recipe, you will be able to come up with new dishes. Cooking recipes are used not only by novice but by professional chefs around the world.
In order to take full advantage of the cooking recipe, it got to be used in the right way. Many people do not know how to use a cooking recipe correctly. They usually jump right in and before you know it, faces problem with their cooking.
Browse Through The Cooking Recipe
The right way is to browse through the cooking recipe briefly from the beginning to the end. Familiarize yourself with the methods or processes involved and try to visualize it in your mind. After you have understood what is needed out of you do you start it. By taking this initial step, you will save yourself from trouble because you can give the recipe a miss if it’s too difficult to cook. It will spare you the embarrassment of failure. You will also be able to plan what to buy before actually starting to cook. Therefore it is important to browse through your cooking recipe before you actually begin cooking.
Preparing The Ingredients
After the preliminary reading of the cooking recipe you will have a general idea of how the dish is cooked and what ingredients to buy. Make sure that all the ingredients are ready before you begin your cooking adventure. It is very frustrating to realize that you have run out of the ingredients half-way through your cooking. You will loose all the momentum and enthusiasm once this happen.
You will also need to have the right type of ingredients. For example, if the cooking recipe says prepared mustard, do not assume that you can substitute it with dried mustard. They are two completely different ingredients and substituting one for the other will have disastrous effect on your cooking. Another thing worth mentioning is make sure you have enough of the ingredients. Double check to ensure that you have enough of everything before you starts to cook. Imagine what will happen if you don’t have enough flour when baking a sponge cake!
Have The Equipment/Utensil Ready
Just as important and often overlooked is to have all the equipment and utensils ready before cooking. If you do not have the equipment or utensil, try borrowing them from your friends. You might only need to use the utensil mentioned in the cooking recipe once and so it is cheaper to borrow. If your friends do not have the items you are looking for or if you foresee that you are going to use it more than once, then buy it. Also, check that the equipment or utensil is in working order before starting your cooking.
Conclusion
Cooking is great fun for many people. It can foster relationships and improve family bonding. In order cook great dishes, you must make sure that you have followed the cooking recipe closely.

By Echo Wang

When it comes to that time of year that everyone is looking forward to because of the delicious food that is served, there is always at least one person that is slightly tense about it and that would be the person who is going to be cooking a turkey.
Although it really is a simple job, a lot of people tend to get a little stressed out about cooking a turkey and it is not because it is a hard job, but because the turkey is the thanksgiving dinner and many people feel that if the turkey gets ruined, that thanksgiving is ruined. Even though that is not the case, a lot of people cannot get that thought out of their minds.
Remember, that cooking a turkey is not a hard job in itself and that is a fact but it is strictly the anticipation of whether or not it is going to come out right that is the problem. But when you think about it, your oven is actually doing more work than you are so when thinking about how hard cooking a turkey is, think about how much work your oven has to go through. All you really have to do is dress it and place it in the oven and the rest of the work from cooking a turkey is done by the oven while you prepare other things such as side dishes.
The Most Important Thing
Although messing up the turkey in that it came out a little dry or without a lot of flavor is heartbreaking to some; that is not the real danger to consider when cooking a turkey. When you are getting ready to begin cooking a turkey, you have to make sure that you have fully read over all of the instructions. By not following these instructions, you are either going to have a bird that does not taste all that great or you could end up giving your guests food poisoning.
When roasting a turkey, make sure that it has reached the proper temperature of 165 degrees by sticking a cooking thermometer into it. Any reading lower then that, you need to put it back in. All in all, when those few things are followed, cooking a turkey does not have to be anything to worry about or stress over. You can do it just as millions and millions and of people before you have done it. Cooking a turkey will soon become second nature to you and you will be a pro before you know it.

By Anne Clarke

These great steak cooking tips will help you cook the sort of steak that you thought only professional chefs could create!
• One of the most important steak cooking tips is to start out with a good steak in the first place! A poorly cooked steak that is of prime grade will still likely taste better than a low grade steak that is cooked well.
• Look for a steak with marbling throughout. This will ensure that it is flavorful and remains juicy.
• For a great steak, get a great cut of meat like top loin or filet mignon.
• Refrain from cutting open your steak to see if it is done! Doing so will release valuable juices.
o To see if your steak is done, touch it! A firm steak is well done, a springy steak is medium, and a soft steak is rare. The more often you cook your steak, the more obvious this will be.
o If you have a meat thermometer, use it! A medium rare steak will be about 145 degrees.
• Ditto on turning your steak with forks – you want to keep all of the juice and flavor contained in the steak. Instead of using a fork, use tongs (long-handled ones are best… then you do not have to get too close to the heat).
• Realize that if you have a large and thick cut of meat, it will continue to cook, even after you have removed it from the oven. Therefore, take it off a little early or serve them immediately!
• Do not be worried about cooking and serving a rare steak. Once you have browned all sides of the steak, you have effectively killed off any bacteria. This is because the steak can only be contaminated with bacteria on the outer service. Therefore, you simply need to make sure that the outside of the steak has been thoroughly cooked.
• Use seasonings and marinades to enhance the flavor of your steak, not to mask it. You may find that you do not need any seasonings beyond salt and pepper! A good steak will already be tender.
• When grilling, be sure that the grill is extremely hot. When it is very hot, it will sear the outside of the meat and lock in the juices. (For the same reason, preheat your broiler if you are cooking your steak in it).
• If cooking your steak in a pan, be sure to oil your steak rather than the pan.
• Once you are done cooking your steak, take it off the heat source and let it “rest” for at least five minutes. This will allow the juices to spread out.

By John C McRae

Easy recipes for dinner do not mean that you and your household have to eat insipid boring food. With careful planning and preparation you and your family can relish meals that are not only full of sustenance but also extremely tasty.
Here is how a busy parent or partner can provide easy recipes for dinner which will be relished and appreciated.
It is nice to be able to dine out but in these harsh economic times a lot of of us can’t afford to waste money on take away food.
You need to plan your weekly menu. From that plan it is comparatively easy to develop your shopping list so that when you attend the food market you know exactly what you need to purchase. This means that you will not begin a recipe and find you do not have the necessary ingredients to complete it. You may want to refer to your favourite recipe books or simply search for recipes on the World Wide Web.
Whether you want to eat chicken, meat, vegetarian or fish you will find a great deal of choices. It could be a stir fry or a broil or even a risotto, pasta, salads , or a curry. They are all in those places, it is only a matter of looking for for them.
When planning you will discover that a lot of meals can be prepared in advance so that when meal time arrives it is only a matter of completing the final cooking or even merely heating up what you already have cooked.
Crock Pot cooking allows you to simply turn on the timer and the rest looks after itself. It merely makes life easier. This is one area where it can be cooked earlier and reused later in the week. A different item that can be pre-prepared is a casserole. Simply cook them on the weekend and place them in the deep freezer. They are ready to heat up once you arrive home from work at night. You will be able to prepare more than one at a time.
On a weekend our family loves to enjoy a Bar B Que meal. What could be easier. Simply light up the fire and unwind with family and friends around the grill. The conclusion to a perfect week of stress free cooking and meal preparation.
I hope that you have found the above to be of some benefit and thank you for reading the article.

20 Ways to Add Personality and Punch to Your Cooking!

Source : “http://www.buttermilkpress.com”

Let’s get right to it!

1. Add Sour Cream to your mashed potatoes.

2. After icing your cinnamon rolls, dust the tops lightly with cinnamon.

3. Always use special napkins - use seasonally-appropriate patterns and colors. If your family has a favorite sports team, serve their colors on the days they’re playing. If you are NASCAR fans, by all means, go with your driver’s colors on race day!

4. Never underestimate the elegance of candles. They set the mood and add mood to your setting.

5. Use freshly-grated Parmesan and leave the cans on the shelves.

6. Serve only coffee that has been freshly-ground and freshly-brewed. Top this coffee off with a dollop of whipped topping, and if you’re really feeling “high brow”, fresh shavings from a block of chocolate.

7. Use REAL crumbled bacon on top of your salads and baked potatoes. Leave the plastic containers of wanna-be bacon bits on the shelves beside the Parmesan.

8. Speaking of salads, add crumbled feta cheese to your tossed salads. You’ll never want salads without it again!

9. Never, ever, under any circumstances - make salsa without fresh cilantro. If your store is out, drive to the next store. If, three stores later, you still haven’t found any cilantro, skip the idea of salsa all together! Yes, it’s that important.

10. Add zip to your loaf of French Bread. Spray, or brush, the top of the loaf with olive oil. Then sprinkle on dried red pepper flakes and dried onion flakes. Bake as usual.

11. Get a rounded ice-cream scoop of ice cream, roll in crushed nuts and serve on top of a plate that’s been swirled with caramel or chocolate syrup. Then squeeze more over the top.

12. Do the same as above, but use coconut in place of the crushed nuts. This time, place the balls of coconut-covered ice cream on top of slices of pound cake. Now, pour some pineapple bits, juice and all, on top of the servings.

13. Serving Italian food? Softly play Italian music in the background.

14. Invest in several sets of dishes, as many as your budget will allow. Match the “mood” of your meal you’re serving with the “mood” of the dishes you’ll be serving it on. For example, if you’re serving seafood, either a “Lighthouse” dish pattern, or blue dishes would be perfect. Asian food is great on black or floral dishes. Hamburgers? Red, white and blue!

15. When making grilled cheese sandwiches, use a thin layer of cream cheese alongside your typical slice of cheddar. Serve with a knock-out salad or your favorite soup.

16. Set aside a Saturday for Candy making. Try out fudge, taffy and even molded candies. If you have someone in the kitchen with you, it’s even funner. If not, at least you don’t have to share your spoils!

17. Make a tradition out of trying a new, challenging bread recipe on the first Sunday of every month (or any day of your choice, of course!) Start out with the basic loaf, then move on to Sourdough, Wheat, Irish Bread, French Bread, Twisted Loaves, etc.

18. Place sprigs of parsley on special dishes. Your family will appreciate the extra-special thought and it looks really pretty!

19. Buy thick “Texas Toast” for making French Toast. Prior to dipping into the egg bath, cut a slit in each of the bread’s corners, fill each with 1 Tablespoon of softened cream cheese. Prepare as you normally would. Serve with syrup, a dusting of powdered sugar and a few fresh, plump strawberries. Delicious!!!

20. When serving Refried Beans, warm a small amount of Sour Cream until it has the consistency of whipping cream. Top each serving of beans with a teaspoon of the sour cream and top with chives or diced green onions.

Remember: Cooking is an art, so get creative and have fun with it!

Courtesy of ARA Content

(ARA) - The holidays. A time for loads of family, gifts and good cheer. Unfortunately, the holidays also can be a huge headache when it comes to cooking a holiday dinner for a house filled with people. Plus, you’re probably sick to death of turkey and wish you could serve something a little different to your holiday guests. Here’s the thing: you can!

They call me the Naked Chef because I like to prepare easy, no-fuss meals. I reckon the same should go for holiday meals. The perfect holiday dinner can be prepared pretty easily, without a whole lot of extra steps — especially when you have the right range to work with. Lucky for me, Amana has given me one of their new ranges, and it works just great. You should see it — this range is the largest one for its size on the market, with 5.22 cubic feet of capacity — which is large enough to let me prepare an entire holiday meal at once. It’s the size of Royal Albert Hall! On the outside, though, it’s a standard 30-inch range so it fits perfectly in your kitchen with no problem. It’s also easy to use, which is terrific when your kitchen is crazy and overflowing with holiday guests. The U-shaped EasyRack oven rack keeps you from getting burned when taking out a pizza pan or cookie sheet, while the self-cleaning oven makes clean-up a piece of cake. There’s also a warming drawer where I can heat up plates before serving the great meal. Brilliant.

Here’s one of my favorite holiday meals. It’s got it all — a nice piece of pork, loads of veg and a tasty dessert. Thanks to my Amana range, I cooked the entire thing at once . . . and it was delicious.

Pork Loin with a Great Herby Stuffing

This pork recipe is great for holiday entertaining. You can serve it as a conventional roast, or let it cool, slice it and serve it as part of a buffet. Here’s what you’ll need.

Serves 8-10

1/2 a pork loin, preferably the rib end, off the bone

1 small handful of rosemary leaves, picked

3 heaping teaspoons of fennel seeds

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 pound, 2-ounces sourdough or rustic bread

2 red onions, peeled and finely sliced

1 small handful fresh sage leaves, ripped up

1 handful of pine nuts

Extra virgin olive oil

4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place your pork loin in front of you and score across the skin with a sharp knife about 1/2-inch deep and about 1/2-inch apart. Using a mortar and pestle, pound up the rosemary and fennel seeds with a tablespoon of salt — bash the mixture up until really fine and then rub it into all the score marks on the pork. Remove the crusts from the bread and slice it up. I like to toast the bread in a toaster or on a griddle until lightly golden, as this gives the stuffing a really fantastic smoky flavor. While the bread is toasting, slowly fry the onions, garlic, sage and pine nuts in a little olive oil for 10 minutes, until the onions are sweet and soft. Season with salt and pepper, add the balsamic vinegar and put the mixture in a bowl. Rip your bread into pieces and add to the bowl. Squash everything together, really squeezing the onions into the bread. Have a taste — it may need a little more seasoning. Put to one side and allow cooling.

Insert your knife into the eye meat of the pork loin and make a cavity for your stuffing. Pack in the stuffing, then roll the pork over and tie it with a few pieces of string. Place the pork on a roasting pan and cook in the oven for just over an hour, until crisp and golden or until pork reaches 160 degrees.

Now, as your pork begins cooking, you can prepare these terrific veg dishes. Once you’ve prepared them, pop them in your range alongside the pork and allow everything to cook at once.

Stir-fried Savoy cabbage with garlic and Worcester sauce

This is a really simple and amazingly tasty thing to do with a Savoy cabbage. Worcester sauce (pronounced Wooster in England — don’t ask me why!) is worth looking for. You can find it in the States, but if it’s not in a store near you try using a strong spicy steak sauce instead.

Serves 4

1 head of Savoy cabbage

3 tablespoons of olive oil

2 cloves garlic

2 teaspoons of Worcester sauce

Cut your cabbage in half and cut out the stalk. Place the halves cut side down on a chopping board and slice the cabbage up as finely as you can.

Heat a large flat low-sided pan or a wok and add the oil. When the oil’s hot, add the garlic, fry for a few seconds until it turns light brown. Add the shredded cabbage and stir-fry for a minute coating all the pieces of cabbage in the garlicky oil.

Add the Worcester sauce, lots of salt and freshly ground black pepper and continue to stir-fry for another minute or two until the cabbage has wilted slightly and soaked up all the lovely sauce, but it should still have just a little crunch.

Wicked roast vegetables

Roast veg has never been so good! If you can’t find parsnip, try using wedges of pumpkin instead.

Serves 4

4 medium size potatoes

2 carrots

2 parsnips

2 red onions

A handful of garlic cloves

Some rosemary sprigs

Olive oil

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Peel or scrub all the root vegetables and cut them in half, lengthways. Put the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with salted water and place on the heat. Peel the onions, cut them into quarters and toss them with the carrots and parsnips in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Season well with salt and pepper and spread out in a roasting tray. Cover tightly with foil and place in the pre-heated oven.

When the potatoes come to the boil, carefully lift them out and place in a colander to drain. After the vegetables have been in the oven for 30 minutes, take the tray out of the oven and take the foil off. Add the potatoes, garlic and rosemary and shake everything around a little. Return to the oven without the foil and roast for another 30 minutes or until cooked through and crispy brown.

Baked Pears Stuffed with Almonds, Orange and Chocolate in Flaky Pastry

Last, but not least, the holiday dessert. Here’s one your guests will come back for next year.

You’ll need:

Serves 4

4 perfectly ripe pears

1-1/2 ounces blanched almonds

5-1/2 ounces butter

1-3/4 ounces sugar

Zest of 1 orange

Seeds of one vanilla bean

1-1/2 ounces best-quality bittersweet chocolate

16 sheets of filo dough, defrosted if frozen

Carefully peel the pears and carve out each core from the bottom. This will give you a hole about 1-1/2 inches deep. Put the pears to one side.

Put your blanched almonds into a food processor and whiz up until really fine (or bash with a rolling pin). Put them in a bowl with 5 tablespoons of the butter, the sugar and the zest of the orange. Add the vanilla seeds to the bowl, then mix everything up until nice and smooth. Bash up the chocolate into small pieces, adding these to the mixture as well. Divide into 4 balls and put to the side.

Melt the rest of the butter in a little pan for brushing onto the filo dough. Dampen a clean dish towel and wring it out — use this to cover the unused filo dough so it doesn’t dry out. Working with one piece of filo dough at a time, spread it out in front of you and brush the sheet with melted butter. Lay the next sheet of filo dough on top and repeat until you have four brushed layers of filo dough. Cut the layered pastry down to an 8-by-8-inch square.

Take a pear and one ball of almond mix and fill the hole in the base, packing the excess filling around the base of the pear. Place in the middle of the filo square, then gather up the pastry around the stalk and pinch tight. You can leave it looking nice and rustic and flopping all over the place, as this will look really good when it’s cooked. Repeat this process with the other pears. Brush the outside of the pastry with any remaining melted butter, then bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 25 to 30 minutes, until the pastry is golden and crisp. Serve with the rest of your lovely holiday meal.

Visit www.amana.com for more practical appliance solutions from Amana.

Courtesy of ARA Content

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Courtesy of ARA Content