Having large family dinners can be a wonderful gift. After all, there’s nothing like the joy of sharing moments with the ones you love most. However, the larger your family is, the more that mealtime can be a daunting task. [Read more…]
3 Cooking Tips For People Suffering From Arthritis
When you have arthritis, it can make doing even the simplest tasks painful and almost impossible to complete.
One thing that can be particularly hard to do is to cook for yourself. But if you’re not living in an assisted living community and still need to feed yourself each day, you’ll need to come up with some way to prepare and eat healthy foods that will give your body the proper fuel and nutrition.
To help you see how this can be done, here are three cooking tips for people suffering from arthritis. [Read more…]
My Top 5 Celebrity Chef Tips
With all the celebrity chefs out there, it is easy to see how people can easily get confused as to what really works and what doesn’t work. Each chef has his own style, his own tips, and his own preferences. Who is to say that one is better than the other? I guess it’s all up to us to find out which tips we can use! In addition, one has to trust own’s own palate for ingredients and adjust recipes to make them your own! Copying from a book isn’t always the best solution, although one can never learn enough from these celebrity chefs. A perfect example for me is how I love Ajinomoto’s monosodium glutamate– simply for that extra natural flavor!
Anyway, here are 5 of the best tips that I have followed – and trust me, they work like magic!
Tip #1: Plan your meal ahead of time.
This is from chef Aaron Sanchez of the Food Network. Not only is he a hunk – he also knows what he’s about! He says that people who cook at home a lot should buy food on a weekly basis and do prep work as early as possible. For example, he says to peel potatoes the day before and keep them in the fridge (in water, of course). The next day, no need to go through the hassle of peeling taties!
Tip#2: Add pepper at the end.
I always did the opposite. According to David Kinch, this adds an acrid taste to the dish. I tried it and the difference was remarkable!
Tip#3: Make it simple when entertaining.
I hardly entertain, but when I do, I follow the Barefoot Contessa’s lead: keep it simple. Not only do you lessen the stress, you also get to focus on the flavors more!
Tip#4: Extra-virgin doesn’t mean extra good.
At least when it comes to olive oil – that’s what Tom Colicchio has to tell us. Yes, chef!
Tip#5: Buy whole spices.
Iron Chef Michael Symon knows all about spices and he’s right about buying whole instead of ground. The flavors are much fuller when you grind the spices yourself.
Anthony Bourdain’s Steak Tartare
Anthony Bourdain shares this recipe for Steak Tartare in Les Halles Cookbook. “Les Halles, the restaurant, was pretty much created to serve this dish,” he says. “The key to a successful steak tartare is fresh beef, freshly hand-chopped at the very last minute and mixed tableside. A home meat grinder with a fairly wide mesh blade is nice to have, but you can and should use a very sharp knife and simply chop and chop and chop until fine. The texture will be superior. And do not dare use a food processor on this dish – you’ll utterly destroy it.”
Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp Dijon mustard (28 g)
4 anchovy filets, finely chopped
2 tsp ketchup (10 g)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (5 g)
Tabasco sauce, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup salad (i.e., corn or soy) oil (56 ml)
1 oz Cognac (28 ml)
1 small onion, freshly and finely chopped
2 oz capers, rinsed (56 g)
2 oz cornichons, finely chopped (56 g)
4 sprigs of flat parsley, finely chopped
1 1/4 lb. fresh sirloin, finely chopped (560 g)
French fries, optional
4 slices fine quality white bread, toasted, quartered, for toast points
Directions:
Place the egg yolks in a large stainless-steel bowl and add the mustard and anchovies. Mix well, then add the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, and pepper and mix well again. Slowly whisk in the oil, then add the Cognac and mix again. Fold in the onion, capers, cornichons, and parsley.
Add the chopped meat to the bowl and mix well using a spoon or your hands. Divide the meat evenly among the six chilled dinner plates and, using a ring mold or spatula, form it into disks on the plates. Serve immediately with French fries and toasted bread points.
