Cooking | The People's Cafe

August 9, 2010

Cooking Lesson: Seasoning Cast Iron Like the Pros

Filed under: Cooking Lessons — Tags: Cast, Cooking, Iron, Lesson, Like, Pros, Seasoning — @ 10:22 am

In the days before we had non-stick cookware, we had the next best thing – seasoned cast iron cookware. While non-stick cookware has certainly outdone cast iron cookware in the non-stick category, cast iron pots and pans are still favored by many chefs, including the professionals because of their durability and ability to retain flavor.

But, if you’re not lucky enough to have a hand-me-down from Grandma, you may find yourself confused about how to become a cast iron chef. Have no fear – you can learn to season cast iron cookware with the pros and keep them in great shape for years to come.

Seasoning New Cast Iron Cookware

The process is actually quite simple. When done correctly, your pans will last a long time and may even become your own hand-me -downs in the future.

1. Heat your oven to 300 degrees.

2. Coat the pan with lard or grease. (Be sure that you do not use vegetable oil or commercial cooking sprays. While they may seem easier, they will not only cause your cookware to be seasoned incorrectly, but they will also leave a sticky film on the outside of the cookware that is impossible to remove.)

3. Place the pan in the oven on the middle rack and allow it to bake for 15 minutes.

4. Remove the pan and pour out any excess grease or lard.

5. Put the pan back into the oven and bake for another two hours.

6. Repeat as needed

Many cast iron enthusiasts will swear upon repeating the seasoning process several times before ever using the cookware the first time. Each time you season the cookware, the seasoning bond becomes stronger. Many people will recommend that the first few times the cookware is used it should be used to cook greasy foods (bacon, fatty meats, etc.) to again strengthen the seasoning bond.

Re-seasoning Cookware

If you find that you seasoned the pan improperly the first time, or if food starts to stick to the pan after a period of time in use, you may want to re-season the cookware.

1. Wash the cookware thoroughly with a steel wool pad (doing this while the pan is warm and still safe to touch is best).

2. Make sure the pan is fully dry (use a towel if needed).

3. Follow the seasoning steps above to re-season the pan.

Cleaning Your Cast Iron Cookware

To make your cookware last the test of time, be sure to take proper care of it. Remember the creed of every enthusiast of cast iron – no soap and no steel wool. Soap and steel wool will cause a breakdown in the seasoning bond and should not be used to clean your cookware on a regular basis. If you’re baffled at this moment, have no fear. Cleaning cast iron cookware is a breeze.

1. You’ll need to rinse your cookware while it is still hot. If food is stuck to it, then scrape the pan or pot as needed.

That’s it! Remember not to store food in your cast iron cookware because it may attach a metallic flavor to the food. In addition, store your pans with the lids off to prevent moisture from accumulating and rusting from occurring.

Now that you know the ins and outs to cast iron cookware, you can start creating your own family heirloom – as well as some great food!

For more Free Resources www.dishadvice.com

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August 5, 2010

We All Need Help With Healthy Cooking

Filed under: Healthy Cooking — Tags: Cooking, Healthy, Help, Need — @ 9:38 am

For years now it is a hot topic and you can’t avoid it even if you want to. There will always be a newspaper, magazine or television show that has an item about food and healthy cooking. More en more people are becoming aware of what they eat every day. The main reason for this is that people want to lead a long and healthy life. A problem is that most of them could do with a little help when it comes to cooking healthy and nutritious food. You don’t have to worry that eating this kind of food will mean that it will all be tasteless or even taste bad. If you would even take some of the help and advice available you would not even notice a big difference between the good and bad ingredients.

It is not so hard

You will soon find out that cooking food in a healthy way is not difficult at all. The easiest thing to start with is making sure that the items that you buy do not have to much fat on them. Never be ashamed to ask for help, you would ask for it when you try a different cuisine so look at this in the same way because it is a new cuisine. Don’t worry about the food being bland, it will not be, there are going to be a lot of new flavors to discover even if that means using a lot less sugar and fat. Help for cooking healthy comes in different forms ,you can find it through the internet but also as close as the doctors office. Once you start cooking in this new way you will at some point wonder what all the worry was about.

The number one reason for starting this new way of cooking is of course because or your own health but also the health of the people you love like friends and your family. After only a couple of weeks you will see and feel the results of your healthy cooking. You will start to feel lighter, more relaxed and better about yourself. And you will be amazed that just looking at what you eat and acting upon it has such big impact on your life and health.

What good does it do

Before you start with healthy cooking is always nice to know what good it does for your body. Healthy food will lessen the chance of having high blood pressure and could even help in getting you pressure down without the help of any medication. It can also prevent getting diabetes by bringing you weight down. Not being to heavy also helps you from not getting a lot of weight related health issues.

Remember that healthy cooking is not about leaving things out of your old diet but about adding or replacing your regular diet with other ingredients that can enrich your overall experience of the food you eat. And if you know that such a small change can mean a lot to the way you lead the rest of your life you know that asking and getting some help with that is nothing to be ashamed about.

Kenny Vanderburen loves to write about his one passion, cooking. If you want to know where there are outdoor cooking grills for sale take a look at his website. When Kenny is not in the kitchen or writing articles he is probably behind his computer to look for a website that have information about a outdoor cooking camp table.

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July 18, 2010

Vegetarian Cooking Fun – Some Simple Ideas

Filed under: Vegetarian Cooking — Tags: Cooking, Ideas, Simple, Some, Vegetarian — @ 11:32 am

We all know that vegetarian cooking is healthy but can something that is good for us also be fun? I want to show you that heatlhy vegetarian cooking can be fun to do and fun to eat.

When we are cooking for children it can be important to be able to make food fun. Even if we want to prepare a meal for ourselves or friends it can add lot to meal if we can make it fun.

Perhaps the most obvious way to make a vegetarian meal fun is to barbecue. A cook out will always be fun, even when it rains. But can vegetarian food be barbecued? The answer to that is yes.

Many vegetables can be grilled on the barbecue. Fresh corn cobs barbecue well, as do peppers. These can be laid directly on the bars of the grill. Tomatoes should be pierced with a sharp knife first to prevent them exploding. Vegetables such as potatoes can be wrapped in aluminum foil and cooked more slowly at the edge of the grill. The same technique can be adopted with many other root vegetables.

Baked carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes are all delicious done in this way. You can coat them in oil first, add some thyme and garlic cloves and wrap them up in foil parcel. You may like to add some balsamic vinegar to get a really rich taste. Younger palates may prefer a honey glaze.

Instead of burgers and other meat products you can make burgers out of cooked beans. Simply mash a selection of different coloured beans such as cannellini beans and kidney beans and form them into patties. A little egg may be used to help them hold their shape. They can be seasoned with salt and pepper, fresh herbs, chopped onion, garlic and chilli.

Cook them briefly on either side until they are brown and serve them on a bun with tomato relish and pickles. You may use a bought burger bun, but it also possible to make bread over a barbecue. simply wrap some bread dough around a stick and place it over the grill. It will rise and cook into a sort of curly bread stick. Children love doing this.

Even if the weather is too bad to cook out of doors making bread must rate as one of the most fun ways to cook vegetarian food. An afternoon spent in the kitchen with the smells of new baked bread counts as one of life’s great experiences.

Add a simple vegetarian salad or a soup and you have a complete meal. Add a bottle of wine and you have a supper for friends.

What about desert? Always remember that chocolate is a vegetarian food. A fondue of cheese sauce and a selection of fruits, cakes and biscuits to dip into it will make the perfect end to a vegetarian meal.

Abhishek is really passionate about Cooking and he has got some great Cooking Secrets . up his sleeves! Download his FREE 88 Pages Ebook, “Cooking Mastery!” from his website http://www.Cooking-Guru.com/770/index.htm . Only limited Free Copies available.

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July 15, 2010

Easy French Cooking Lessons: Learning To Become A Great French Cook In Just A Few Weeks

Filed under: Cooking Lessons — Tags: Become, Cook, Cooking, Easy, French, Great, Just, Learning, Lessons, Weeks — @ 11:27 am

In this time of economic hardships not all of us can afford to go to a fancy restaurant for dinner. If you are one of those people who are cutting back on your entertainment expenses and is planning to reduce your number of visits to the restaurant this holiday season, you should consider getting some easy French cooking lessons and learn how to cook some really delicious food.

Just think about how much money you can save if you cook your own food and hold dinner parties at home instead of going to the restaurant during the holidays. No, you do not have to go to a culinary cuisine school to learn a few easy French cooking tricks. You can easily pick up a few easy French cooking lessons online. What is interesting about these easy French cooking lessons offered online is that you do not have to leave home just to attend classes.

Instead of taking your car from the garage and drive to school, you can just drag your laptop to the kitchen and learn some easy French cooking tricks right there in your own kitchen. Since you are working in the comforts of your home, you can wear anything you like and do whatever you want on the side while you are waiting for your food to cook.

Learning to Cook French Foods

Before you start working on some easy French cooking recipes, you need to buy some tools to work with. Although your existing kitchen tools and utensils are very useful, it is still better to get the appropriate French cooking tools if you want to cook some mouth watering French food. No, there is no need for you to invest in those expensive state of the art cooking tools.

There is no point of wasting so much money on those expensive tools when you can get some tools of almost the same quality for cheaper prices. Once you have the right cooking tools, you may not start with your easy French cooking lessons. To make things easier for you, you might want to start with making sauces.

Remember that the secret of great French cooking is in the sauce. Once you have mastered the art of making great French cause, you may now move on to more complicated food preparations. It will probably take more than one attempt on your part before you can get perfect French food but if you keep at it, you will eventually learn the art of French cooking.

If you love this article, you will also love another article written by this article’s author on top freezer refrigerator and counter depth refrigerator.

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July 2, 2010

Everything About Gourmet Cooking Revealed

Filed under: Gourmet Cooking — Tags: About, Cooking, Everything, Gourmet, Revealed — @ 12:34 pm

People often think that gourmet cooking consists of a series of elaborate dishes of the kind that can only be found in top restaurants. It is thought of as a kind of cooking that is difficult to do and just as difficult to eat.

Gourmet cooking is felt to be something best avoided by the majority of people because it is too expensive and surrounded by social snobbery. Gourmet cooking is for the rich and those who have more money than sense.

That image of gourmet cooking dates back to the nineteenth century when French chefs dominated the industry. The best restaurants and the richest households employed French chefs.

Those chefs were trained in a rigorous system that aimed to keep professional secrets within a tightly knit group. The chef’s livelihood depended on maintaining his craft exclusivity. Equally his employer’s status depended on the exclusivity of the chef.

Today cooking is much more democratic. Few young chefs today would tolerate the kind of ritual humiliation that apprentice chefs suffered in old fashioned kitchens. Television chefs have demonstrated their skills before a wide public and college courses offer intensive training in arts once the preserve of elite kitchens.

As more people dine out on a regular basis the snobbery once associated with restaurants has become a thing of the past. The restaurant that allows its waiters to be rude to the customers will soon go out of business.

The food that is considered to be gourmet food has also changed. In the past the idea of gourmet food was to get as far as way as possible from peasant food. Today the same peasant dishes are likely to be on the menu of top restaurants. Simplicity and natural taste is everything. The rich sauces and elaborate dishes of old style gourmet food have been swept away.

A simple bruschetta made of a slice of bread covered in tomato sauce and toasted could be considered gourmet food. Yet a few centuries ago the same food would have been eaten by poor people.

The key thing in gourmet food today is the quality of the ingredients and the integrity of the final dish. If the bread is made with unbleached flour without any of the additives ususally found in commercially made bread, allowed to rise slowly and baked in a wood fired oven then you are off to a good start. The sauce should, of course, be freshly made not out of a far. It should be made from tomatoes with the best flavour not the tasteless varieties that are usually found on the supermarket shelves. It should be well seasoned with garlic and fresh herbs.

A dish prepared in that way will be something out of ordinary. It will justifiably rate as gourmet food although it is, in itself, very simple and demands no special skills to make it.

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Healthy Cooking – Best Way To Add Years To Your Life

Filed under: Healthy Cooking — Tags: Best, Cooking, Healthy, Life, Years — @ 9:34 am

Healthy eating habits can only assist one to live longer and healthier. There are many ways one can get a glimpse or in-depth knowledge about healthy cooking. This is indeed very important and the many cooking colleges all over the world have understood the importance too that they have inculcated a special syllabus relating to healthy diets in their training course for chefs.

People around the world are encouraged to keep their minds open to learning healthy cooking techniques. Keeping to a diet that has various healthy dishes that can be easily cooked and served is important, it is also important to have a change in the diet every day. Contrary to popular belief a healthy diet is not tasteless and free from oil. Every thing is good if taken in moderation. Too much of anything is bad. If these people who complain of the boredom of a healthy dies were to have a variety of foods to choose from the boredom will vanish and so will their complaints – and also their medical problems or most of them.

A cook must have an imagination that is coupled with intelligence in order to create clever and tasty dishes for people who need to be on a strict healthy diet. If the chef is creative enough he will use sour cream in dishes requiring it with a healthier ingredient – non-fat yogurt. This does not change the tastes of the dish but it does reduce the fat content making it a healthier food to eat. Then there is the salad that is doused with some salsa instead of the heavy cream dressing. This way you are not only saving big on fat deposits but you are also adding a bit of spice to the salad.

Creating healthy food can be very exciting if you are creative and know where the calories and fats are hidden. An intelligent chef will be able to experiment and discover newer dishes that are tasty and fun to eat – not to mention healthy. If you mix some French’s mustard bottle and mix it with some soy sauce you will be making yourself a fat free salad dressing all can enjoy. This dressing is something so simple to make that anyone can make it is a matter of minutes and serve.

Eating healthy food is the best gift you can give yourself and family. Try to cut out as much fat and oils as possible and include more vegetables and green in place of meats and canned food. In the long run you will be able to compare your health with that of the fat guzzling neighbors and see the difference in just a few days.

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June 22, 2010

Vegetarian Cooking Classes – 3 Ace Institutions

Filed under: Vegetarian Cooking — Tags: Classes, Cooking, Institutions, Vegetarian — @ 11:36 am

While once there was a time that being a vegetarian or a non vegetarian was a matter of religion, with the changing times, the people decide their option as per their free will rather than mere religion. In this scenario, those who enjoy cooking, it is a must for them to know more about vegetarian cooking.

Learning any new art is no joke, but with the right guidance and congenial environment, this task becomes indeed very easy. Here is the description of some known and successful schools or institutions that teach vegetarian cooking.

Please note that while all of these are well known for their services, choosing among them should be done on the basis of your individual & personal needs.

1. The School of Natural Cookery

This institution offers classes for vegetarian cooking in groups of individuals, classified on the basis of their needs. Those who want o learn cooking as a hobby or for their household needs, the apt course is – Language of Cooking Courses.

This course is further divided in to three major chunks. These are as follows:

i. The Knife Skills Section

This is the preliminary section of learning. Comprising of the primary elements of cooking, here the focus lies on the vegetables, whole dish grains, vegetable proteins, Japanese knife skills, sauces, improvisation, etc. A major part of this class aims to teach the candidate ‘language of cooking’ with out any recipes.

ii. Making the Meals

Once you have understood the basic language of cooking, here comes the recipe part. In these classes the person is made to cook the complete meal that is from soup, vegetable proteins & improvisational desserts to the balanced meal.

iii. Ethnic Cooking

In the third phase of learning vegetarian cooking, the individuals are taught various cuisines like Asian, Mediterranean, American, etc. These are specialty classes and so they are limited to an extent. These classes also feature the following:

a. Living Foods Seminar: This deals with cooking the raw vegetables.
b. Cooking From Inside Out: This is the party that explains tasting balanced meal, improvisational cooking, & learning to the technique to choose the healing foods.

c. Garnishing & Sculpting of Fruits & vegetables

2. Natural Gourmet Institute

This institute offers a rather wider variety of vegetarian cooking. Their list comprises of varied specialty classes for one & all individuals. For instance:

a. Food specifics
b. Age specifics
c. Pastry & dessert making
d. The offerings of Ayurveda: This is a basic summer intensive course that is scheduled for around two weeks.
e. Cooking techniques
f. Ethnic & regional cuisines
g. Fermented & cultured foods
h. Fish
i. Macrobiotics
j. Managing the individual’s medical condition
k. Market tours
l. Medicinal mushrooms
m. Quick and easy preparations
n. Raw foods
o. Seitan
p. Tempeh
q. Weight loss.

The newest among them all is the pastry & dessert making seminar. It enlists the newest & the best vegan ways that involve chocolates. Using the experiential taste of chocolate, it teaches you the real cool vegan desserts, that are build in one’s own frozen vegan style along with the classic summer fruit and gluten free desserts. Liberating the baked goods, this type of cooking allows for some great summer vegan dessert tastes and the perfect vegan pies.

3. Compassionate Cooks

This institution offers vegetarian cooking learnings in simple & easy means to follow. Their classes are especially designed with exclusive ease featuring the following:

a. Simple recipes
b. Sharing the food history & stories
c. Eating good food samples

These classes also offer the following varieties of diet program:

a. Low-Cal
b. High Flavor
c. Demystifying Tofu and Tempeh
d. Hearty Homestyle Italian
e. Simple Japanese Cuisine
f. Taste of Thai
g. Mexican & South Western
h. Burgers and Backyard Bites
i. Mediterranean Menu
j. Chinese Delights
k. Satisfying Soul Food
l. Thanksgiving for Birds
m. A Healthy Holiday Feast

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June 20, 2010

Cooking Lessons

Filed under: Cooking Lessons — Tags: Cooking, Lessons — @ 11:07 am

You have foodstuff, but you do not know that from them to prepare? Daily dishes have bothered and it would be desirable a variety?
The recipe-book will help you!

The food wins first place in human life. After all the food is one of bases in a life of people as an energy source for organism ability to live. Before the use in food food products usually prepare. Practise and сыроедение, that is the use of food without any preliminary culinary processing.
The great Russian scientist And. P.Pavlov in the works specified that the human body to be in close interrelation with an environment, continuously influencing the central nervous system.
One of the major factors of an environment is the food which passes in the internal environment of an organism and participates in all vital processes. The food influences a condition of the central and peripheral nervous system, and through it and on all organism.
For correct catering services it is necessary to define value for the person of separate food substances and distinctly to imagine requirement for them. cooking lessons cooking lessons
As it is known, fibers make a life basis as each live cage, each fabric of an organism consists mainly of fiber. Therefore continuous receipt of fiber is absolutely necessary for an organism. To the fibers possessing high food value, fibers of meat, fish, milk, eggs, and also fibers of some vegetables (a potato, cabbage) concern. On аминокислотному to structure to more valuable from groats it is necessary to carry fibers of oat groats, rice, buckwheat groats; millet, semolina, pearl barley the fibers, different smaller nutritiousness contain. So, food value of last groats can be increased at the expense of meat, milk, and also various vegetables.
Fats and carbohydrates are the main energy sources and define, basically, caloric content of food. Besides, carbohydrates and fats carry out protective functions concerning fiber as at their sufficient maintenance in an organism less squirrel collapses. In a human body fats can be postponed not only at their surplus in a food but also when the food includes superfluous quantity of carbohydrates.

cooking lessons

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June 12, 2010

Campground Cooking E-book.

Filed under: Cook Book — Tags: Campground, Cooking, Ebook. — @ 1:19 pm

Campground Cooking E-book With Over 200 Fun & Easy Recipes For Your Rv And Grill.
Campground Cooking E-book.

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June 8, 2010

Five Reason Why Cooking Classes Are an Ideal Gift This Holiday Season!

Filed under: Cooking Classes — Tags: Classes, Cooking, Five, Gift, Holiday, Ideal, Reason, Season, This — @ 11:14 am

One of the very best gifts to give for the holiday season is one that not only comes from the heart, but is creative and truly meaningful. With many of us on budgets this holiday season, we are searching for gifts that not only fit the budget but will have a long-lasting impact and benefit to the recipient. In addition, so many of us are watching what we eat and focusing on our health. How can you address all of those challenges in one gift?!

Jet-Chef.com has the perfect gift-giving solution: Cooking Classes! The Jet-Chef.com directory has a fantastic directory full of diverse caterers and personal chefs who can offer the perfect holiday gift to you and your loved ones!

1. Cooking classes are an amazing gift to give to a beloved spouse, significant other or other loved one. You can choose a cooking class that they can enjoy for themselves, but even more importantly, you can choose a class that you can share with your spouse or significant other. In this way, you can both savor not only the food that you will create as a loving team, but also savor the togetherness of the experience! Think of the many romantic evenings in the years ahead that can benefit from learning how to cook some fantastic meals!

2. Cooking classes can be set up for larger groups as well. Cooking classes for a larger group is a way to get friends and family together. Ring in the New Year by learning a new cuisine to enjoy with friends! Getting the family together can be complicated with so many busy family schedules. This is the perfect opportunity to slow down, get a special date on the calendar and have the entire family together for cooking fun! This is a perfect gift solution for executives and their executive teams. What better way to build team-work and morale than to prepare and cook a meal together!

3. Cooking classes can be planned for and with kids. What better gift to give to your children or grandchildren than learning the love of cooking? Cooking is fun, it is creative, and it is a great way to spend precious time together. An added benefit is your ability to sneak in some healthy eating in all of that fun and helping to teach your kids health eating habits early on!

In addition, your not-so-young kids will benefit! Cooking classes are a perfect gift for college students, or young adults transitioning into the real world. They need not survive off of their microwave; they can learn how to create healthy, innovative meals that not only address their budgets but also their desire to eat a variety of foods!

4. Cooking classes are a great way to introduce new cuisines to your kitchen, to your table, and to your palette. Using different spices, cooking with foods that are unfamiliar, or discovering locally grown, organic elements would make for amazing culinary lessons. Does your loved one have food allergies, food sensitivities, or special dietary needs? Cooking classes can help them find creative ways to make wonderful meals while adhering to dietary considerations!

5. Cooking classes help you to learn how to do something that you find intimidating in the kitchen. Learning how to bake that killer crusty bread, how to make the perfect pie crust, how to make dumplings for that chicken soup recipe your grandmother passed down to you…what is it that you find daunting? You will find the perfect cooking class to overcome your fear of the paella pan or how to get that perfect frosting on your next cake!

For these reasons, and so many more, cooking classes are the ideal gift, and visit Jet-Chef.com today to find the caterer, personal chef or other service provider that will work with you. Cooking classes are truly the gift that keep on giving, and a personal gift that people will enjoy and cherish for a lifetime.

Are you interested in being a part of the Jet-Chef.com success story? Log on to Jet-Chef.com today and get your listing started, or contact us for more information. Visit the Jet-Chef.com Blog, email Jet-Chef.com at info@jet-chef.com, or call us toll-free at 1-877-774-1255!

Jet-Chef.com is an innovative, online “find-it-fast” directory for caterers, personal chefs, restaurants and other service providers to advertise and market their services to the private jet and jet charter industry.

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