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leantimes · 5 years

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Cooking Lesson: The Anatomy of a Recipe

Cooking is the kind of thing that people aren’t always formally taught how to do, which leaves a lot of folks at a complete loss when they’re tasked with feeding themselves. In the interests of rescuing you from a life of frozen dinners, I’d like to impart some wisdom from the perspective of someone else who learned adulting through trial and error.

Now, none of these rules are set in stone, and you can play around with them once you get comfortable. But when you're looking through your cabinets, trying to think of things to eat, it can be extremely helpful to know, "What can I combine in order to make food happen?" It's what makes the difference between "food" and "a meal."

COMPONENTS OF A MEAL

More or less, a meal should consist of:

A protein source

A starch

One or two vegetables

Some seasonings

Maybe a little bit of fat to tie it all together

For health purposes, you’ll want to avoid the dreaded pitfall “starch with a side of starch” (guilty as charged) and aim for about half of the volume of food on your plate to be made up of vegetables.

CATEGORIES OF FOOD IN YOUR KITCHEN

Proteins

Meat, including red meat, fish and poultry

Legumes like beans and lentils

Soy products like edamame and tofu

Nuts and nut butters

Eggs

You can sometimes combine two protein sources. This is often a good idea if you have one strongly-flavored protein (bacon, ham, sausage) and one lightly-flavored protein (tofu, lentils). If you couple a flavorful-but-pricy protein with a cheap-but-filling protein, you can make a huge meal with very little cost (see: beans cooked with ham hocks and collard greens).

Starch

Rice

Pasta

Bread, including tortillas

Potatoes in all of their myriad forms

Polenta

Oats and oatmeal

Quinoa and any other exotic whole grains you want to experiment with

Starches often provide the bulk of a meal. They exist to serve as vehicles for sauces and seasonings, and they play well with proteins. If you're eating legumes, you'll need a starch in order to provide necessary amino acids to create a complete protein (aka, something your body can utilize). Also, they're delicious.

Vegetables

Greens like spinach, collards, turnips etc.

Summer and winter squashes

Brassicas like cabbage, broccoli and brussels sprouts

Root vegetables like carrots, turnips and sweet potatoes

Basically anything else you find in the produce section

If you need help eating more vegetables in your diet, try substituting your starches with veggies. For example, serve sauces over a heaping plate of vegetables rather than pasta or rice. You can also substitute the primary protein in a meal for a vegetable. For example, making a spaghetti sauce with mushrooms or squash instead of meat. Bear in mind, though, that vegetables tend to have few calories, so you might not feel full or satisfied if you load up on veggies alone. On the other hand, subbing out veggies for starch is a good way to cut your calorie count and lose some weight. That’s kind of the whole philosophy of a low-carb diet.

Fats

Oil - olive, corn, coconut, canola, you name it

Butter and butter substitutes (margarine etc.)

Lard and other animal fats

Cooking sprays

Mayonnaise and other spreads

You need fats for certain kitchen applications. They prevent foods from sticking when you cook them by providing lubrication between the food and the pan. They encourage browning and carmelization (aka, what makes food taste good). They add some extra flavor of their own. They make a water-resistant barrier to protect starches from breaking down and getting soggy. They conduct heat for frying and hold foods together for baking. Lots of vitamins are fat-soluble, so you need some dietary fat in order to access all the nutrition in your food.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

So, let's take what we've learned and apply it to the simplest food item imaginable: A sandwich!

Sandwiches are great. They're easy to make, easy to eat, and you can feed yourself with them even if you're not so great at cooking.

The necessary components of a sandwich:

Some kind of bread to hold it together: A pita pocket, a tortilla, slices of any kind of bread imaginable

Some kind of protein to put inside the bread: Lunch meat, hummus, slabs of roast animal, grilled tofu

Some vegetables: Lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, mushrooms, whatever

A fat to spread on the bread and keep it from getting soggy: Butter, mayonnaise, cream cheese, yogurt

So here's your homework for today. Go through your fridge and cabinets and pull out some likely ingredients. Classify each one as a protein, starch, vegetable or fat. Put them in discrete piles. Then assemble a sandwich (or multiple sandwiches!) from what you find. Note the results.

Not every sandwich combination will taste good, since some flavors don't play well with each other (a topic we can discuss in another lesson) but this will generally help you experiment and keep from starving.

#food #cooking #How to cook #adulting #cooking lessons

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044-eu · 4 years

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Parmesan recipe with variants

Parmesan does not indicate a particular dish but a certain way of cooking. It was born in southern Italy, especially in Sicily and Campania, but known today throughout Italy and also in the world as one of our typical dishes. The most famous parmesan is the one with aubergines and it is with this that we start our roundup of the many variants of this dish.

Eggplant parmesan

Let's start by preparing the aubergines, a rather long process if we want them to lose that bitter taste they have. So the day before, we shave and affect our aubergines in to discs of about one centimeter and put them in layers in a bowl with coarse salt between layer and layer. At the top we put a weight so that the aubergines are compressed and lose as much water as possible. The next day wash the eggplant discs well under running water to remove all the salt and dry them well. Now they're ready for our recipe. Ingredients for 4/6 people eggplant parmesan 4 medium-sized fresh aubergines 400 grams of mozzarella 1.5 litres of tomato purée 130 grams of grated cheese (parmigiano reggiano or parmesan padano) 1 shallot plenty of oil to fry coarse salt kg 1 fresh basil salt and pepper just enough olive oil just enough a few tablespoons of flour. Eggplant Parmesan Preparation after we have prepared our aubergines as already explained and after washing and drying them, they flour lightly and fry in plenty of seed oil until they turn golden. Remove from the oil and pass them on paper towels to remove the excess oil. In the meantime we go to prepare the sauce by chopping the shallots very fine and making it brown in olive oil. Just golden add the tomato purée, salt and pepper, a few fresh basil leaves and cook for about ten minutes or until thickened. Slice the mozzarella. Everything is ready now for our parmesan. Take a baking dish and after pouring a drizzle of oil on the bottom put a couple of tablespoons of our tomato sauce. Place the aubergines on top until the surface of the baking dish is covered. Now a nice sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese and a layer of mozzarella. We continue to add layers in this order until the end of the ingredients. In the last layer put on top of the aubergines only the tomato purée and a lot of grated cheese. Place in the oven already hot at 180 degrees for about 35/40 minutes. Serve as soon as it is removed from the oven.

Zucchini parmesan

This parmesan is a variant of the most classic eggplant parmesan, but in my opinion lighter and more digestible. Required for 4 people: 6/8 Medium-sized courgettes 400 grams of sliced mozzarella grams500/600 of tomato puree 1 egg a few basil leaves grated cheese just enough half small red onion salt and pepper seed oil to fry courgettes olive oil for gravy Parmesan cheese Preparation of zucchini parmesan After washing and cutting the ends of the zucchini, they are cut into thin strips and fried in plenty of seed oil. Once fried, absorb the excess oil with paper. Prepare the sauce now. Brown the half finely chopped half onion in a saucepan with a little olive oil, add the tomato purée, salt the pepper and basil leaves and cook for about ten minutes. Now prepare the beaten egg with a little salt and pepper. Cut the mozzarella into thin slices and start to put in a saucepan, on the bottom of which you will have distributed a couple of tablespoons of tomato sauce, the zucchini strips to cover the surface of the casserole. On top, put the slices of mozzarella in a layer and a few tablespoons of tomato purée. Now a couple of tablespoons of beaten egg and on top a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Continue to make the layers until the end of the ingredients. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 180 degrees and cook the parmesan for about 35 to 40 minutes.

Potato parmesan

In this recipe there is also béchamel sauce, to make it at home I refer you to my recipe of baked lasagna where I explained the procedure. If you don't feel like doing it, you can find it ready in every supermarket. Potato Parmesan Ingredients kg 1 of potatoes with yellow paste 500 grams of béchamel sauce 150 grams of cooked ham 300 grams of provola or caciotta-type cheese salt, pepper and parmesan cheese just enough. Potato Parmesan preparation Cook the whole potatoes in boiling water for about 10 minutes. Drain the potatoes, remove the peel and cut them into fine rounds. In a baking saucepan, scatter a couple of tablespoons of béchamel sauce and make a layer of potatoes until covering the entire surface, a pinch of salt and pepper. Put a couple of tablespoons of béchamel sauce over the potatoes, over the cooked ham and sliced provola. Continue to put the ingredients with this order until the end of the ingredients. At the last layer above the potatoes put a nice layer of béchamel sauce and a nice sprinkling of grated cheese. Bake already hot at 180 degrees for 50/55 minutes. Serve after a few minutes.

Pumpkin parmesan

This tasty variant of parmesan is a purely autumnal recipe. Pumpkin Parmesan Ingredients for 4 people Kg 1 of pumpkin flesh 250 grams of cooked ham 250 grams of scamorza or provola salt, grated cheese just enough Pumpkin Parmesan preparation for 4 people In the meantime we go to prepare the pumpkin, which must be cut into slices of about one centimeter high. These slices should be baked for about 10 minutes in a baking pan with parchabouts and a splash of olive oil. Now in a baking dish where you will have passed a few drops of olive oil, place the pieces of pumpkin until covering the entire surface, continue the layers with a slice of cooked ham and slices of provola or scamorza, salt just enough and continue to make layers as mentioned until the end of the ingredients. On the last layer put only the provola and the grated Parmesan cheese. Inform to oven already hot at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes. Another variant of pumpkin parmesan, eliminates the cooked ham and puts in its place a layer of béchamel sauce. It's more delicate, but also very good.

Eggplant parmesan with yogurt and pine nuts

For this recipe you need to prepare the aubergines the day before. They are cut into slices about 1 centimeter high and layers are formed in a bowl of eggplant slices and coarse salt. Put on a weight so that the aubergines lose all the juice they have and thus leave at least one night. The next day wash the aubergines in plenty of running water trying to remove all the salt, dry them well. In this recipe the eggplant slices should not be fried but grilled in the oven for a few minutes. The parmesan will be lighter. Aubergine Parmesan ingredients with yogurt and pine nuts 4 or 5 long treated eggplants as I wrote above 1 jar of Greek yoghurt or gr 150 or so 50 grams of grated Parmesan cheese 300 grams of tomato purée 1 tbsp parmesan for yogurt cream 30 grams of pine nuts oregano salt and pepper just enough At this point in a buttered baking dish put a couple of tablespoons of tomato purée and place over the aubergines until covering the entire surface, continue with the layers , eggplant, tomato purée, salt and oregano and a sprinkling of parmesan until the end of the ingredients. Prepare the yogurt cream now, stirring the yogurt with two or three tablespoons of parmesan and a pinch of salt. Pour the cream over the eggplant parmesan that you have already prepared and put it in the oven already hot at 180 degrees for about twenty minutes. After this time put the pine nuts on the surface and put back in the oven using only the grill for another ten minutes. Serve hot.

Artichoke parmesan

First we have to clean the artichokes and this is a rather long preparation. In the meantime we prepare a bowl with water and lemon in which we will wash our artichokes once cut. This is to prevent them from turning black. Cut the top of the artichoke at least 2/3 centimeters and remove even the hardest outer leaves until you get to the heart of the artichoke. Also cut the stem leaving only 3 or 4 centimeters that you will go to clean to remove the hard parts. Cut the artichoke, which is already cleaned externally, and we go to clean it internally of what is called a beard, remove it with a knife and throw it away. Now our artichokes are ready to be cut into strips and then passed in the water and lemon and then dry. Artichoke Parmesan Ingredients 8 medium artichokes 300 grams of mozzarella 500 grams of tomato purée 60 grams of grated Parmesan cheese 1 garlic clove a few leaves of sage and basil 1 sprig of rosemary seed oil to fry artichokes white flour to flour the artichokes to be fried Artichoke Parmesan Preparation In plenty of boiling oil, fry the artichokes, cut into slices after passing them inthe flour. Remove the excess oil with paper towels. Salt lightly. Now let's get the tomato purée ready. Put a few drops in a saucepan and fry the crushed garlic (which we're going to remove when it's golden) the sage and rosemary. Season for a few minutes then add the tomato purée. Cook about thirty minutes adding a little water at a time if the sauce should withdraw too much, a little salt and when the sauce is almost ready add the basil leaves and remove from the heat. Meanwhile, finely slice the mozzarella. Now we can start making parmesan cheese. In a buttered dish, put a layer of tomato, then a layer of fried artichokes, then again tomato and on top of the sliced mozzarella. Continue with the layers until all the ingredients are finished. On the last layer a nice sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese. Place in the oven already hot at 180 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve hot.

Carrot parmesan

Carrot Parmesan ingredients for 4 people kg 1 carrots 500 grams of chopped tomatoes 150 grams of cheese like scamorza or caciotta 80 grams of grated Parmesan cheese pepper, salt, oregano just enough olive oil Carrot Parmesan Preparation Wash and peel the carrots, cut into slices. Meanwhile, prepare the peeled tomatoes in to pieces adding salt pepper and oregano. The preparation is very simple. Make layers with the carrots, peeled tomatoes and sliced cheese. For the last layer on top of the carrots, put plenty of grated Parmesan cheese. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving. This parmesan is also delicious cold and consumed the next day.

Pesto Parmesan

Recipe that does not include tomato, but is flavored with pesto with Genoa (for those who want to make pesto to Genoa at home I refer you to the recipe of baked lasagna, where you will find the ingredients and the recipe to do it) In this case the aubergines should be cut into sauces of about one centimeter and treated as usual, that is, the day before put them in a bowl with coarse salt and leave them with a weight over them throughout the night so that they lose all the water and that flavor Bitter. Once the aubergines are prepared, we go to prepare the parmesan: Parmesan ingredients with pesto 2 eggplants 100 grams of pesto to Genoa 2 mozzarella, milk, finely sliced 30 grams of grated Parmesan cheese butter just enough Salt Parmesan preparation with pesto Cook the eggplant washers in the oven or on a grill for about 20 minutes. Salt lightly. In a buttered dish, put a first layer of eggplant, then a layer of pesto with Genoa and one of sliced mozzarella. Don't use salt here as the pesto is already tasty enough. Make layers until the ingredients are exhausted and on the last layer sprinkle abundant parmesan cheese. Place in the oven already hot at 180 degrees for 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted. Serve warm. Read the full article

#cook #English #italy #kitchen #potatoes #recipes #sauces

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whittlebaggett8 · 5 years

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This $110 electric grill cooks pancakes, steaks, and just about everything else to perfection and with ease, Defence Online

Insider Picks writes about merchandise and products and services to enable you navigate when searching on the internet. Insider, Inc. gets a fee from our affiliate companions when you get as a result of our back links, but our reporting and suggestions are generally independent and objective.

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The unit can lay flat and make a ton of food stuff for families, or smaller foods for solo dining.

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Amazon

The Calphalon Even Sear Indoor Electrical Multi-Grill ($110 on Amazon) can make a ton of scrumptious bites from pancakes to steak with relieve.

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Read additional: 30 appliances and resources that we swear by in the kitchen, from a $6 fish spatula to a $350 Dutch oven

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You can effortlessly cook dinner pancakes and steaks with relieve.

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Macy’s

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The post This $110 electric grill cooks pancakes, steaks, and just about everything else to perfection and with ease, Defence Online appeared first on Defence Online.

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