Tag: Food

August 16, 2016 Food, Weekly photo challenge

Entertaining with Cheese

How to entertain guests with a cheese platter?

There are innumerable ways to enjoy cheese, the best and simplest way is a sampling of cheeses on a platter with all the trimmings. An extravagant wedding reception, a fine dinner party or a buffet at a star hotel, a store opening or even a baby shower nowadays will definitely sport a cheese platter with a delectable variety on it. The mouth-watering savoury taste of cheese has made it the go-to appetiser.

Cheese
Cheesy, Close-Up, Colour, Cook

Cheese is more popular today than ever. Although at some point of time cheese did have its own course, today one can find that it is at 35,000 feet in first class cabins where it is served as a course on the menu. The relaxed formalities of today mean the cheese course at the dinner table is rather rare but has become popular during cocktail hour at parties.

Cheese platter

Cheese as part of the hors d’oeuvres course is wonderful and extremely practical, because, once it is served it does not require any further fuss or effort from the host or hostess. But if you do plan to serve a cheese platter for your party it is important to get it right. The most important detail when serving cheese is to serve it at room temperature. When slicing cheese, include both the heart and the rind so everyone can enjoy an equal share of the various flavours, though the way cheese is served largely depends on its shape and texture.

Round cheeses like brie and camembert can be served by cutting little wedges or triangles and emmental can be served by cutting it into thin slices. When making a cheese platter, you should present a variety of cheese- a soft cheese (brie), a hard cheese (an aged cheddar), and for the less adventurous include some mild cheese and for the adventurous include some kind of sharp cheese like blue.

You won’t be able to dictate how your guests sample your cheese selection, but a beautiful cheese platter presentation says everything about you as a host or hostess. Make sure you have plenty of small plates and cocktail napkins for guests to serve themselves along with a separate knife per cheese with plenty of fresh fruits like grapes and some dried figs or apricots along with a selection of fresh fine breads and crackers as accompaniments.

Emmental cheese
Emmental de Savoie. Pierre-Yves Beaudouin / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA 4.0

A simple tip when arranging a cheese platter cut just a few slices of bread at a time as bread can go stale very quickly, you could leave a cutting board and knife with the loaf for guests to help themselves. But this humble dairy product, made from pressed curd of milk, doesn’t just marry up with dips, crackers and fine wine.

Cooking with cheese takes it to a whole new level. Not just sprinkling some mozzarella over your pizza or some cheddar on your au gratin but try to include cheese in everything from your casseroles to sauces and salads.

But there is always the dilemma which cheese do I use? Some tasty trusty cheddar, ricotta, feta, goat’s soft cheese, hard cheese, or blue cheese…now that we can easily find hundreds of varieties of cheese at the supermarkets – well, they each lend themselves perfectly to being cooked in different dishes as per the demands of the recipe. Hard cheeses include cheddar, parmesan and Swiss. Soft cheeses include feta, ricotta and brie, while blue cheeses include Stilton, Roquefort and gorgonzola.

Cheddar cheese
sweet dreams are made of cheese Who am I to disagree? Travel the world and the seven seas Everybody’s looking for Cheddar Image credit- Robert Couse-Baker- flickr.com

Cheddar firm texture and sharp taste make it perfect for cooking in skillet recipes, casseroles and even savoury cheesecakes as well as desserts. The slightly tangy and sharp flavour of parmesan makes it a great combination with vegetables and tomato based sauces. The mild, sweet flavour and silky texture of Swiss would work well in a Quiche or pies or even in a fondue, thanks to its excellent melting capabilities.

Goat’s cheese, with its slight tangy and buttery consistency, is wonderful when cooked with lentils, or sprinkled over a risotto or with a beetroot or spinach salad. The super sharp, ripe taste of blue cheese works great in a lasagna with walnuts or a mushroom pasta bake or a delicious garnish with a pumpkin or broccoli soup. Different cheeses respond differently to heat, so before you go on a conquest of experimenting it would be better to try some tried and tested recipes first.

Then once you have mastered the tastes and textures you can go wild with all the choices but also remember everyone’s taste buds are different and unique, so you can’t go wrong.

 Cooking and serving cheese are Fun!.

How to entertain guests with a cheese platter?

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Recipes with Cheese
August 5, 2016 Food

Stuffed Vegetables

Stuffed Vegetables-title

Falafel stuffed aubergines, roasted ricotta and pesto stuffed tomatoes, minced meat stuffed whole cabbage, tuna and basil stuffed tomatoes, chicken enchiladas stuffed zucchini boats, Lebanese-style stuffed eggplants, roasted onions with curried rice – the ideas are endless, vegetarian doesn’t have to be just plain old vegetables, here is your chance to turn it up several notches.

Stuffed vegetables-stuffed peppers
Ardei umpluţi, stuffed peppers

Entertaining? Having a few guests over and few of them are vegetarian – that is enough to get most of us into a flutter and scramble for the pile of menu cards to order something or go through endless recipes wondering what to hustle up. You could try stuffing and roasting tomatoes, onions or peppers with a vegetarian ragout or some chopped sautéed mushroom and aubergines along with some flavourful goat cheese, herbs and spices.

Stuffed bhendi or lady finger- stuffed vegetables
By Deboli Dutta (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Indian cuisine can be so diverse you can easily find different variations of recipes for stuffed vegetables from coast to coast and north to south.  You can find recipes for stuffed bhindi or stuffed tendli or even stuffed potatoes but the most common recipe found is for stuffed green peppers. Green peppers or capsicum are stuffed with paneer, prawn balchao, onions and potatoes seasoned with garlic, spices, lemon juice or even minced meat and either browned on a tawa or fried on a pan or even baked in an oven until the peppers are soft.

Stuffed peppers are also a traditional part of Spanish cuisine, especially from the region of the Basque country. The fillings vary from manchego cheese  to beef or cod in béchamel sauce.

Stuffed peppers-stuffed vegetables
Peppers Red Filled Minced Meat Paprika

You can also find more than just one stuffed pepper dish in Mexican cuisine- you have the stuffed poblano peppers with cheese or minced meat, covered in egg batter and fried which is often served with a sauce. The most popular dish is jalapeno poppers, which are jalapeno peppers which have been hollowed out and stuffed with a mixture of cheese, spices and potatoes or ground meat and then deep-fried.

In Guatemala, the pimento pepper is stuffed with shredded pork and vegetables, covered or dipped in egg batter and fried, served with a tomato sauce or in a hollowed bread bun.

Recipes for stuffed peppers can be found in most east European cuisines as well as in American cuisine.

In American cuisine, the classic stuffed pepper consists of a stuffing of ground beef, rice, tomatoes, cheese and seasoned with paprika and parsley. In countries like Romania and Hungary, the stuffed peppers are generally stuffed with minced beef or minced pork and rice but the difference being that they are served with a sour cream sauce.

Ratatouille- French cuisine-Stuffed vegetables
Ratatouille is a traditional French Provençal stewed vegetable dish that originated in Nice.

In French cuisine, stuffed vegetables are the typical fare from Provence the region that hugs the Mediterranean coastline in the south of France. Vegetables, olives and olive oil are all used in abundance in Provence.  The Provence sunshine helps provide a rich variety of vegetables so making stuffed vegetables or legumes farcis is traditional and typical. Provencal solution of combining imagination with abundant local ingredients with abundant local ingredients to produce an interesting, low-cost, healthy and delicious meal.

So let your imagination run wild and start cooking up a storm with some vegetarian and or meat combo stuffed variations.

You may like to read recipes with stuffed vegetables

July 21, 2016 Food, Weekly photo challenge

Details You Need To Look At While Cooking

Cooking is an art, technology, and craft of preparing food for consumption with the use of heat.  Across the globe, there are various techniques used from grilling food over an oven fire to gas stoves, to baking in various types of ovens which reflect the unique environmental, economic, cultural traditions and trends.

Go green with organic vegetables- Details of cooking ingredients.
Ecologically grown vegetables.

In cooking, you require Details about the ingredients used in a dish and the method of cooking to make that delicious meal. Ingredients comprise usually of  vegetables, fruits, grains, and nuts as well as herbs and spices come from plants, while meat, eggs, and dairy products come from animals. Mushrooms and the yeast used in baking are kinds of fungi. Cooks also use water and minerals such as salt. Cooks can also use wine or spirits.

Ingredients that occur naturally contain various amounts of molecules called proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. They also contain water and minerals. Cooking involves a manipulation of the chemical properties of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, water, vitamins and minerals.

All cooking ingredients are measured with Metric style measuring cup set. It is an important utensil in the kitchen. The typical cooking measuring cup sizes are 1 cup, ½ cup, 1/3 cup, ¼ cup and 1/8 cup and in the case of typical spoon sizes, 1 tablespoon, ½ tablespoon, 1 teaspoon and ¼ teaspoon.

Nasi Lemak - Cooking details while preparing this dish
Nasi Lemak
Image courtesy- traveldelight.biz

There are various methods of cooking since antiquity – baking, roasting, frying, grilling, barbecuing, smoking, boiling, steaming and braising. A more recent innovation is microwave. Various methods use differing levels of heat and moisture and vary in cooking time.

These major hot cooking techniques comprise of
•  Roasting – Barbecuing – Grilling/Broiling – Rotisserie – Searing

•  Baking
Baking – Baking Blind – Flash baking

•  Boiling
Boiling – Blanching – Braising – Coddling – Double steaming – Infusion – Poaching – Pressure cooking – Simmering – Smothering – Steaming – Steeping – Stewing – Vacuum flask cooking

•  Frying
Fry – Deep frying – Hot salt frying – Hot sand frying – Pan frying – Pressure frying – Sautéing – Stir-frying

•  Steaming
Steaming is usually done by boiling water continuously, causing it to vaporize into steam; the steam then carries heat to the nearby food, thus cooking the food. It is considered a healthy form of cooking, holding nutrients within the vegetable or meat being cooked.

• Smoking

Smoking is the process of flavouring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or smouldering material, most often wood.

Similarly, there are temperature charts for details on cooking meats, poultry, eggs, leftovers, and casseroles.

A delicious meal prepared with details of cooking.
Chinese Prosperity Food with Salmon Photography: ProjectManhattan (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

 

Cooking has been around for centuries and everyone is connected to it in some form or the other from bringing friends and family together or planning to make a fulfilling home cooked meal instead of ordering one.