Wednesday 28 December 2011

How To Cook Eggplant Parmesan Sandwich

If you make the recipe before – Potato and Fried Eggplant Pastelon - and you have leftover fried eggplant, what do you do with it?Make an eggplant sandwich! But what would make the ultimate eggplant sandwich – an Eggplant Parmesan Sandwich!
Eggplant Parmesan Sandwich
Whole wheat hoagie bread bun
2-3 fried eggplant slices – check out this recipe on how to batter and fry the eggplant
2-3 fresh mozzarella cheese slices
Grated Parmesan cheese
Tomato slices
3-4 Lettuce leaves
Egg-less mayonnaise
1. Spread the mayonnaise on both bread halves.
2. Stack the fried eggplant slices, sprinkle some grated Parmesan, mozzarella slices on the bottom half.
3. Place in a toaster oven or broiler for a few minutes for the cheese to melt a little.
4. Add the tomatoes and lettuce. Top with remaining bread slice… (like I need to tell you how to build a sandwich, huh?)
5. Press sandwich for all the ingredients to come together.
This is how I made this sandwich when I was veeeeeeery hungry the other day. But now thinking about it, it would really make it an Eggplant Parm sandwich if I had added a bit of tomato sauce before adding the cheeses. In this case, the tomato and lettuce would be optional.

Friday 23 December 2011

How To Cook Ancient Roman Honey Cookies

Every year for my Latin class in grade school, we had a (semi-traditional) Roman Banquet. I chose to bake sesame cookies fairly consistently for two reasons. First, they’re extremely easy and require few ingredients, and second, they’re delicious – the perfect combination of cookie and biscuit. Yet another reason to admire the Romans.
This morning, after waking up late and enjoying my first free day in a while, I decided to revisit this wonderful snack. Since the cookies are sweetened with honey (they’re not overly sweet), I can completely justify eating them with breakfast.
The dough takes about ten minutes to make. Chill it in the refrigerator for about an hour, then bake for another ten minutes.
Ancient Roman Honey Cookies
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
1/2 cup sesame seeds
Instructions:
In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
In another bowl, combine butter, honey and eggs with an electric mixer until well combined. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Cover and chill the dough about 1 hour or until firm.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease two baking sheets. Form chilled dough into 1-inch balls and place balls on prepared baking sheets.
Flatten each ball slightly. Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove cookies from baking sheets and roll in sesame seeds while still warm. Cool on a wire rack.
After searching a bit online, I found the recipe above from The Sacramento Bee, which is very similar to the recipe my Latin teacher gave me years ago. The only change I made is to brush the cookies with a bit of melted butter before dipping into the sesame seeds. If you don’t want the extra butter (even though they taste great…), just roll the cookies in sesame seeds before you bake them (they won’t stick without butter once they’re cooked).
Particularly if you’re in the mood to make fun shapes (see picture above), the recipe above will make about 40 cookies. Make all 40, though, because they’ll be eaten quickly!
I’d love to hear from any Latin students/parents of students about ancient Roman festivities taking place in schools. Feel free to leave a comment below!

Tuesday 20 December 2011

How To Make Mixed Berries Broiled with Cream Salad

I’m not that good at making desserts, whenever I prepare a meal I put all of my efforts and time into the appetizers, main meal and side dishes that just thinking about making dessert leaves me exhausted. Also I’m more into the salty tasting stuff than the sweet stuff, this doesn’t mean in any way that I don’t enjoy something sweet, I am completely envious and impressed with my friends who make awesome looking desserts and by some of the desserts I see on other blogs, some look so good and beautiful that it almost seems a sin to eat them. I probably eat fruit or chocolate or ice cream at least once a day, and I’ve been known to grab a spoon and a jar of nutella and almost finish it, but unlike Nicolas and the boys I can’t bring myself to eat bread and nutella, I have to have cheese or something salty with my bread. Of course I can’t just say “no desserts”, especially when I have a 5 year old whose main incentive for behaving throughout the day is knowing that the reward will be a dessert (surprise me he says when I ask him what he wants for dessert and yes I know that bribing kids with food and candy is probably wrong and but I still do it), so I know how to make a few desserts and most of them are very easy and simple and I am trying to be more creative and experimental in the dessert (which means there have been a few disasters but at least they contain sugar so they are still consumed). This dessert of mixed berries with cream is very easy and can be almost entirely prepared in advance; the final assembly and broiling can be done right before serving. The finished dessert looks somewhat like a crème brulee but the filling does not contain eggs and is extremely simple to make, and the best part is that they taste delicious; I overfilled my ramekins with the cream mixture which caused them to overflow while broiling and gave them that messy look. The quantities in this recipe are for 6 people or 6 ramekins.
Ingredients:
4 cups of mixed berries
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup heavy cream
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 tbs sugar + 6 tbs sugar for topping
Preparation:
Mix together the yogurt, cream, vanilla and 2 tbs sugar until well mixed.
Place the berries in ramekins or small oven proof containers; arrange the berries in a way that small spaces are left in between to allow the cream mixture to seep through.
Spoon the cream mixture over the berries (if you don’t want them to overflow while broiling don’t overfill them).
Pre-heat the broiler and place your oven rack as close to the broiler as possible.
Sprinkle with 1 tbs of sugar per each ramekin.
Place the ramekins on a cookie sheet, this makes it easier to put them in and take them out of the oven, and broil until the sugar begins to caramelize, about 6-8 minutes (depending on your oven).

Thursday 15 December 2011

Traditional Green Bean Recipes

Green Bean recipes that you can make quickly and easily and they are delicious, too. Use those garden veggies for two different cucumber salad recipes. One uses cucumbers, tomato, bell pepper and onion, a perfect garden salad. The other is similar yet very different. Another popular garden vegetable is green beans. So we offer a green bean salad recipe, too. In a saucepan with a small amount of water to steam, place the green beans and salt. Cover and cook 7 to 8 minutes until crisp tender. Immediately drain and rinse in cold water. Drain from cold water once cooled. If you are looking for how to cook fresh green beans, there are many different ways to do that. For example, you can steam them, you can make green beans almondine, you can add them to many different soups, you can stir fry them, you can make many different tasty salads with them. There are tons of different dishes that you can create!

Perhaps the most important ingredient in traditional Greek dish is olive oil. Indeed, olive oil is used frequently and is usually derived from the many olive trees that populate the region. The distinctive flavours of Greek cuisine owe much to olive oil, but many other ingredients are important in this country's cuisine. The main grain utilized in Greek cuisine is wheat, and perhaps the most popular bread from Greece is the pita bread. Today, the pita bread has become a mainstay of North American supermarkets as it can be used for everything from traditional Greek kebabs or for dipping with the delicious yoghurt, cucumber, and garlic dip known as tzatziki; but is also a popular option for an updated version of the sandwich. In fact, Greek food often includes distinct flavourings to other Mediterranean dishes. Oregano, mint, garlic, onion, dill, and bay leaves along with common herbs and spices such as basil, thyme, and fennel are often noticed in many Greek dishes. Still, the tastes and styles of Greek food will surely vary by region, and you may notice that dishes from northern Greece are flavoured with sweet spices such as cinnamon and cloves.

Many typical Greek dishes will offer a combination of these vegetables with a protein. Fish, poultry, rabbit, pork, and beef are all widely used proteins in Greek food. Indeed, one of the most popular dishes in Greek cuisine is souvlaki: skewered, seasoned, and grilled meat (usually chicken, pork, or lamb). Of course, no Greek meal would be complete without the very popular Greek Salad. Greek Salad usually includes largely chopped onions, green peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers finished with delicious Greek olives, a light vinaigrette, and feta cheese. Despite common ingredients, there are a wide range of regional dishes that make Greek food especially difficult to define. This is a delicious salad that can also be served as a vegetable dish. The asparagus add a nice fresh taste to this and just a little crunch. I sometimes cook my own candied walnuts, and they come out excellent! But I usually buy the candied walnuts I add to this salad, it makes the preparation process a lot easier.

Monday 12 December 2011

How To Cook Spare Ribs ?

Summertime is here and you're ready to do some grilling outside. There are many varieties of food, that can be cooked, such us chicken, fish, meats or spareribs. If you like hot and spicy food, this recipe is for you. Hot and spicy or tender and sweet, it doesn't matter; learning how to cook the best spare ribs you can is a skill that your friends and family will savor whenever they sit at your kitchen table. While pre-made sauces are good, the best ones are made right in your own kitchen with fresh ingredients you choose yourself. Now, coming up with a winning recipe isn't always easy, but if you take the time to scour the internet looking for a good base and then experiment a bit with your own tasty additions, you will be well pleased with the final result.

We start with a food processor, where you have to process the following ingredients: garlic, ginger, onion, chili and you have to add soy sauce in the mix. When you have processed it to a paste, use a separate cup and include the other ingredients: 3 tablespoons of lime juice, 1 brown sugar and peanut oil. Stir well with adding some pepper and salt. Don't overdue it, as some people like to have less salt or pepper on their spareribs. When you have the mix ready, take the spareribs and place them on a preheated pan. Recommended is a non stick pan with a lid to cover it and have more heat going to the spareribs. Add the mixture you have made before with the spareribs and after it starts to boil, make sure you change it to a lower heat, stir occasionally for about 25 min. You can also add some water, if it gets too dry.

Who would have thought that learning the tricks to cook the best spare ribs would be that easy? Well, it is. Now you have no excuse but to fire up the grill and get cooking. In our zeal to whip up a good-looking and lip-smacking dish, many a times we tend to cut short some basic principles of cooking. Finally take the spareribs and use the low to medium-hot coals to cook them on your grill. Use the same sauce while cooking the spareribs to bast them for another 20 to 25 min. Enjoy the unique hot and spicy taste of the summer spareribs. Most of the parts on lotus plant are editable. For example, the flowers are used for garnish, large leaves are used to wrap food, roots are used to as vegetables to make soup or stir fry and seeds are used to make paste.

Thursday 8 December 2011

Spring Rolls - A Quick And Easy Dish

Spring rolls make a quick and easy dish to prepare for any occasion. Fresh shrimp Vegetarian spring roll is available in NYC Indomunch restaurant. Tasty Vegetable Spring Roll can be served as starters for your guests. Some spring roll wrappers are made out of rice or are wheat-based. Spring Roll are available from most Chinese food restaurants, it is a very useful and very tasty for all of the peoples. Beef and Jicama Spring Rolls are another version of spring rolls, with different fillings. In Vietnam, Bo Bia is usually made by street vendors, selling in the food cart similar like Mexican burrito in the US. When I was young, between classes, we would come pick up some snacks during the break. There was some 'mini' food cart strategically positioned on a busy street corner, hand rolls and money were exchanged and here we went happily with our favorite food snack.

In a small skillet or saucepan, combine the sausage with water to reach halfway up their sides. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook until all liquid has evaporated. The sausage will soften and pump up. Transfer them to a cutting board and slice each sausage diagonally, creating long thin slices. Place on a plate and set aside. In a wok or large skillet, heat up 2 tbsp of oil and drop in 1/2 green onion and garlic. Stir fry until fragrant, then add the shrimps, saute for about 30 seconds. Place on a plate and set aside. Bake spring rolls on the lowest oven rack for 15 to 20 minutes, turning once, until lightly browned. Serve with plum sauce if desired. Vegetable Spring Roll Recipes selected by the collective taste buds of the masses from Group Recipes. The style of spring rolls, also called fresh rolls, is super easy and quick to make. Spring rolls are fried pastries that can be found in several American countries.

To serve the roll, set out all components on the table, including separate plates of sausage, shrimps, egg strips, sauteed carrot and jicama, lettuce leaves, mints, rice paper and a bowl of dipping sauce. Boil a kettle of water, and pour it out into a bowl for dipping rice papers. The traditional spring roll with some new addition. Spring rolls are fried pastries that can be found in several American countries. The Perfect for snacks, buffets, starters and light lunches. These spring rolls are a real treat for any occasion. And they can be oven-baked so they are more healthy, as well as being packed with vegetables a really tasty way to get your five a day! Spring rolls are perennial favorites and the home-made variety is unbeatable. Serve as a starter for a special meal, or as a supper dish for friends, with Spanish rice. The first vegetable spring roll featured fresh vegetables from the harvest; meat was added later. We ordered a variety of your starters recently for a special family occasion.

Monday 5 December 2011

Kung Pao Chicken Is Not Only Popular With Chinese

Kung Pao chicken is not only popular with Chinese, also it is liked by many people from other countries. This dish is available in almost any Chinese restaurant. In China, some restaurants' business is totally depended on this dish. In authentic Szechwan restaurant, it is not difficult to find some Chinese Americans who just back to China for this dish. You should see the power of this dish. Why Kung Pao chicken is so attractive? What is the secret recipe of this dish. In this article, I would like to share the secret recipe of this dish. If you begin with the side of a chicken, or probably numerous breasts or thighs, you can boil these areas of the chicken, including some vegetable chunks and a bit of spice to them. When they are almost totally cooked, just add rice to the h2o, and when the rice is accomplished, you have a chicken and rice meal that is healthful and that your family members will enjoy. The spices to add would be chopped onions, garlic, celery, carrots, and maybe some dried oregano, parsley, thyme and basil.

There are so numerous fantastic factors you can do with chicken. You can really have chicken dishes up to three instances per week, and your household will not even recognize, due to the fact you will be using different straightforward chicken recipes all the time. Authentic Kung Pao chicken has the same taste as lichee. Firstly, you will feel sweet and sour, then salty and hot. You know that some good things cannot use the language to describe. After eating authentic version of this dish, you would not wonder why this dish has a long standing reputation. rofessional chefs in Chinese restaurants often repeat this procedure for three times. The purpose of this step is to avoid sticky when frying chicken meat. After that, pour small quantity of oil into the pot and put some peppercorn, dried chilies into the pot, then add the chicken meat into them, stir them evenly.

As one of the most famous traditional Chinese dishes, Kung Pao Chicken is a typical Szechwan dish made with peanuts, diced chicken and chili pepper. This dish is very popular in USA and many European countries and it is often used as the test item in the professional chef test to evaluate the skill level of a chef. This dish was not famous then. When Ding was served as the governor of Szechwan, he improved his dish with chili pepper since all the local people liked dishes with chili pepper. As a result, the original version of this dish combining spicy flavor formed. All his guests loved the new dish very much and it became more and more popular among local people. Pour small quantity of oil into the pot, and put some red peppercorns into the pot when the oil is hot. Then put several dry red chilies in the wok. Add some garlic and ginger pieces. After the scent comes out of wok, it is time to put chicken meat into mixture.

Thursday 1 December 2011

Different Kinds of Noodles

There are lots of kinds of noodles and you could use any of them in a soup recipe, depending on what kind of soup are making and what other ingredients you are going to use. For a traditional chicken noodle soup recipe, for example, you might choose egg noodles but you could substitute another kind of noodles if you wanted to. A great thing about noodles, there not only very tasty but it's also really easy to varies noodles with meat, fish, vegetables and different kind of sauce. This way you can great very nice meal with only a few ingredients.Normally Noodles are boiled but sometimes, a noodle recipe might demand them to be fried in oil until the noodles are crispy. Noodles cook a lot faster than pasta because the substances and because they're a lot smaller than the regular pasta.

Noodles are made from wheat flour and egg and these are yellow and thick. You can find them vacuum-packed or fresh in Asian grocery stores. Ramen noodles are the Japanese equivalent to Chinese egg noodles. "Ramen" actually means Chinese noodle. Ramen noodles are thin and you need to keep them in the refrigerator until you use them. Egg noodles are very popular and they feature in a lot of Asian recipes, as well as in soups like chicken noodle soup. Egg noodles can be dried or fresh, round or flat and thick, medium or thin. They have to be cooked in boiling water. If you are making a chicken noodle soup recipe or something similar, use fresh egg noodles rather than dried ones for the best results. Rice stick noodles are flat and translucent. You can use them in salads or soup recipes and you have to soak them in warm water before using them. Fresh rice kinds can be thick or thin and they are steamed and oiled, then packaged. Do not refrigerate fresh rice or they will become hard. Dried rice vermicelli are thin and white. They are good at absorbing flavors from other foods.

Wheat flour noodles like udon noodles are Japanese in origin and these need to be boiled, and then added to soup recipes. Soba noodles can be made with buckwheat or wheat flour. Mung bean thread vermicelli are also known as glass noodles or cellophane noodles and these are made from mung beans. They need to be soaked and drained before being added to recipes. One of the noodle brands is Konjac noodles. Konjac noodles are made from nature soluble fiber and this can help in shedding fat. As you might have noticed, people today are very much concerned about their weight and looks. It is true that weight and looks play a crucial role in one's personality and these are important for your life and also, matter a lot in your diet. These noodles are lucid and gummy with no discernable taste. However, tastes and flavors can be added as per the persons' requisite. These noodles can absorb any flavor and taste as they are made in such manner that they can even absorb sauces as well.