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Food articles including view about Indian cuisine are posted in this section

Lynene Birch from http://www.my-kitchen-appliance.com discusses the importance of reading reviews before buying Kitchen appliances, online or offline.

Kitchen appliances are a central part of most kitchens. They make life so much more simple in the kitchen. Not only are they safer, they speed up meal preparation time.

Because they are so useful, there are dozens of small kitchen appliance makers giving you hundreds of appliance choices to make. You can spend hours and days searching and researching different models and makes in the hopes of finding the appliance that is right for your needs.

When you set out to buy a new appliance for your kitchen, there are several important things to keep in mind. Space, cooking needs, and cost are at the top of the list of things to decide before you buy any appliance.

Of course matching your kitchen’s decor is also fairly important to some.With the space in most kitchen always limited, you need to think about both how much space you have for your new appliance, and also where that space is located. If the only space you have is directly under your kitchen cabinets you may not want to place a rice cooker there since it let of lots of steam causing water damage.

Location of your electrical outlets is also something to keep in mind. Any appliance you buy needs to match your lifestyle and eating needs. If you drink very little coffee, a one cup brewer is probably more reasonable than a 12 cup model. If you’re like me and enjoy an extra 5 minutes of sleep a timer on the coffee machine is a blessing.

Every person has different cooking needs. Simple think about your daily food habits and routines and get the appliance that suits you best. Finally, about price and how much should you spend. Well, that is entirely up to you. A $200 espresso machine may be great, but you can get nearly the same result from a cheaper model so if you’re on a budget…well you get the picture.

No matter what appliance you are looking to buy you need to decide if the benefits the more expensive models provide are worth the extra money. In many cases they are, but not all. If you’re in doubt, step back a second and think about what it is that you really NEED vs. what the sales pitch is trying to make you want.

In the end, the choice is always yours to make. With a little bit of fore-thought and reading some good reviews will get you well on your way. Add in a little thinking about your kitchen’s layout, your cooking habits, and lifestyle, you will buy the kitchen appliances that best suit your needs.

Author Bio: Lynne Birch writes on home improvement  selection of articles and reviews of kitchen appliances is growing daily.

Justin Brown discusses Successful Cooking Using Popular Terminologies

Cooking can be very satisfying, and learning about the different ways to cook and finding new; different recipes to experiment in the kitchen is exciting. This had led to a bunch of television programmes appearing and even more cookbooks arriving to offer chefs tips, advice, and recipes. However, a good starting point for many wanting to get into the kitchen and to begin putting recipes into practice is to know the different terminologies used with cooking.

Learning the different cooking terminologies is important as a dish may be prepared in a number of ways, and each of the preparation methods can result in varying flavours. Here are just a few of the terms cooking recipes may require you to perform:

Grilled

This is a more common term that many will already know, even if they don’t often cook. When a recipe requires you to grill a food item, it will basically mean that you need to cook over an open flame, whether it is by gas or charcoal. Obviously the most ideal place to do food grilling is over a grill.

Frying and Deep-frying

These are terms that are often confused, but they are actually quite different. Frying can be done using a frying pan and with oil or butter, whereas deep-frying on the other hand means that the food needs to be submerged in boiling oil until it is cooked. This can often be seen in fast food chains where the food is placed in a basket and submerged into the boiling oil, often to produce french fries, tender breaded chicken, and funnel cakes.

Sautéing

An alternative to frying is sautéing, to produce strong flavours from your food. To sauté food, cook quickly using a small amount of fat (oil or butter), and use a frying pan to receive best results when using this cooking method.

Broiled

When a recipe calls for the food to be broiled, it means that the food should be cooked by direct exposure to a flame or heat element. You may find the “broil” setting on many ovens, although it is important to place the food on the top rack when using this setting.

For those that cook and prepare meals regularly or just beginning to become interested in cooking, familiarize yourself with the many different preparation and cooking terms. At least learn the basic terms so that you can prepare the food in the way that the recipe intended, and also, before you start cooking a new recipe or dish, firstly read through the recipe instructions so that you know the cooking terms and exactly how to execute them. This is especially important if you are cooking to time schedule.

For more information on cooking, we encourage you to visit the cooking school recipes website. JustinBrown has put together some great, informative articles for those wanting to find out more.

Liz Canham discusses how Indian cooking in Britain fares….

In a traditional Indian home, the wife and mother does not go out to work. She stays at home and spends her days making sure that there is wholesome and tasty food ready for her family to eat whenever they may want it. If there are other older women in the household such as aunts or a grandmother, they will help too.

An Indian girl will start learning to cook at a very early age and will be expected to help her mother with the household catering and cleaning too. At her mother’s side a daughter will learn how to grind spices, how to mix them to make various masalas and exactly when and how to add them to individual dishes. She will learn how to make various types of bread - chapattis, rotis, parathas and more. She will learn to make several dishes at the same time, no Indian meal consisting of only one dish, and she will learn the art of producing the crispest deep-fried onion bhajis and pakora. The girl’s skill in the kitchen can make the difference between her finding a husband or not.

There’s no getting away from it, delightful though Indian cuisine is, producing a meal is a complex and time-consuming business, even for the most experienced Indian housewife.

That’s the traditional way. However, in modern-day India and in Britain, where many Indian families have made their homes, life is quite different.

These days, Indian women often do not have the luxury of staying at home all day. They want or need to go out to work. Indian girls brought up in Britain see other girls of their age going shopping, to parties, to visit friends, to school, to college and ultimately to work and they don’t want to stay at home with their mothers, slaving over a hot stove. On top of that, they don’t want to lose the culture and flavours of Indian cuisine.

What to do then, when Indian cookery does not provide a quick answer to providing a meal? Vicky Bhogal has found the answer. In her book, Cooking Like Mummyji, she explores the culinary problems of a modern Indian girl living in Britain and provides an interesting answer.

I suppose we would call this fusion cooking as it is a mixture of the flavours of India and the simplicity of British family food and the results are great tastes produced in the minimum of time. I particularly recommend Fishcakes with Bite and for Sunday lunch with a difference, Green Masala Roast Chicken - absolutely delicious.

Liz Canham is the webmistress of Asian Food and Cookery and Travellers’ Tales.

Makar Sankranti traditionally coincides with the beginning of the sun’s northward journey called uttarayan when it enters the sign of Makar (Capricorn) on the 14th of January every year. This day is considered to the most auspicious day for Hindus when days and nights are of equal length.

Update Jan 8, 2008: Links updated at the end of this post  and 3 Sweet Pongal Recipes posted here

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Read this article posted on our Food and Health Articles page on Why bananas are an excellent source of energy….

If you want a quick energy booster, there’s no better snack than a banana. Bananas have three natural sugars; sucrose, fructose and glucose-combined with a fiber, a banana gives an instant and sustained boost of energy. Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90 minute work out.

Unripe bananas contain resistant starch, so called because it cannot be digested by the small intestine-which then ferments in the large intestine, often causing wing. Because ripe bananas are very easily digestible and rarely cause any allergic reactions, they are a popular solid food for babies.

More……..

Can flowers be eaten? You bet!..or so says this article by Amamnda Baker. An interesting read, before you start cooking flowers for food!.

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Eating Edible Flowers
By Amanda Baker

After a family member’s recent stay in the hospital, you find yourself with a whole houseful of flowers. You’ve heard of using flowers to decorate dishes or for use in recipes. However, before you go plucking the petals off the flowers in those arrangements, there are a few things that you need to know.

Flowers that are said to be edible are only edible if they are either grown organically or treated with organic pesticides like those used on fruits or vegetables. Flowers that are from florists, nurseries or garden centers are grown for decoration only. They’re usually chemically treated either by fertilizers or pesticides. They aren’t safe to be eaten unless you know for certain that they’ve been maintained organically. Do not eat flowers growing on the side of the road! The chemicals used to maintain roadside conditions are deadly and the emissions from cars contaminate the flowers growing there. Your safest method is to grow the flowers yourself, so that you know with a complete certainty what’s gone into growing the flowers.

Although a flower may be edible, it may not be palatable to some people’s tastes. What might taste good to you may not taste even slightly appealing to someone close to you. Also keep individual allergies in mind before testing out a recipe. A little consideration goes a long, long way and could save you a trip to the hospital.

Before cooking with or eating edible flowers, remember to only eat the petals. The pistils and stamens of a flower should not be consumed. Until you’ve tested the effects of a single flower, it’s best not to ingest large quantities of any blossom, no matter how safe it may seem at the time.

Some of the most common flowers said to be edible are apple blossoms, carnations, chrysanthemums, dandelions, geraniums, marigolds, honeysuckle,pansies, tulips - even lillies and roses! There are so many more edible flowers out there, and recipes are available all over the internet. There are also cookbooks devoted solely to using these beautiful blooms.

So, the next time you’ve got some freshly cut flowers serving as a centerpiece for your company, you might want to reach up and have a little snack - as long as no one is watching!

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Author Bio-Amanda Baker writes for All Things Pondered

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More Articles like these on Indian food Kitchen

I found a nice article on dieting and starving to shed those pounds. This article by Teresa King Points out on what is fat and what is not…Read on
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WHAT is Too Fat?

by Teresa King

In this day and age, it seems that more and more women and young teens are starving themselves to be in the current “skinny mode”. Why is this happening?

In this overly commercially orientated world, with skinny models all over the world, and people trying to emulate that “look”. I am quite sure it started with Twiggy, in the 1960’s. I think Twiggy was smart. She looked at her skinny little frame and realized that she was not like most girls, so instead of hiding herself she flaunted it.

Hence, comes skinniness, and billions of dollars are spent each year while women, young and old, try to stay thin.

Health is going down hill. Years ago women had a bit of meat on their bones and were beautiful. Now, they have dry skin. No extra energy. And, in my opinion look like skeletons.

It is one thing, to keep yourself, in shape, by exercising and keeping yourself toned up. It is quite another when you are starving your body, and robbing it of proper nutrients.

One thing that a lot of people are not aware of is what happens when you don’t eat enough calories. Your body, a wonderful machine, was built for starving times and feasting time, as food was scarce sometimes and abundant at others. So, when you don’t feed your body, your metabolism says “oh, dear, here comes starving times.” And, it promptly slows down. Hence, starving and slow weight loss. So what does a person do. He/she eats less calories, and on goes the cycle.

Now we come to the “Yoyo syndrome” heavy, thin, heavy thin, heavy thin, and guess what happens? It gets harder to get the weight off each time. Why is that? Because your body is confused. I was starved, I must slow down. I am getting fed, I must store for starving times. Hence the “Yoyo syndrome.

Now, what is too fat? Too fat is when you are carrying too much fat, and it is hard to move. Hard to breath. Too fat is not because at 5′4 inches you weigh 140 lbs, and the Twiggy friend weighs 115lbs. Each person has a different bone structure and some people have more muscle than others. And, yes, muscle weighs more than fat. Hence a person at 140 lbs may actually have less fat then a person who is the same height at 115 lbs.

If after reading this you still think you are too fat. Or, if you are really too fat. Then the best diet is to exercise, cut down on junk food. Eat healthy foods such as fruits and veggies, whole grains, etc. Drink lots of water. Do not STARVE yourself. Try to get off hydrogenated fats. (And, this will take some reading. You will be surprised how much hydrogenated fats are in packaged foods) your body needs oil, just like a car. It is just some oils are better for you then others. Hydrogenated fats are not needed.

Think build health. Get proper vitamins (all natural are best!) In this day and age there is no way you can get the vitamins you need in the food you are eating. Unless, you watch every single bite, and read a tremendous amount of literature to learn and do so, plus growing your own food, so you know where it is coming from. Do not go hungry. If you want to lose weight don’t stuff yourself. Eat frequent small meals, so you never get those out of control binges that low blood sugar causes. So, there you have it in a nutshell.

As you build your health you can smile at that mirror and accept your rosy cheeks, glossy shiny hair, soft skin, and an amazing abundance of energy. So what if you weigh more than you think you should. You are you. Accept yourself. Good luck!
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Copyright Teresa King
Visit Teresa’s site at: Tips for Top E-books

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