วันพุธที่ 2 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2551

Home Grown Vegetables

Author: Scott Jarvis

My closest friend has always had a green thumb and though we share just about all common interests until recently we differed on home gardening. I had never really given any type of gardening any thought and had always viewed her passion for this as a waste of time. Things changed recently however when I found out that I could save quite a bit of money by growing my own vegetables.

Being a vegetarian my diet consists mostly of earth grown foods and with the price of veggies rising and becoming over inflated my girlfriend approached me and told me that she was going to begin growing her own vegetables both to save a few dollars and to get a better quality product. I was interested though my motivation was solely saving money. I found myself dreading working in her indoor garden but I was surprised at how much fun I was having.

Perhaps it was because I was spending more time with her and perhaps it was because I was learning something new but I began looking forward to the three days a week that I was spending in the greenhouse. As I began to get a hold on gardening and working with different types of soils and plants, I was surprised to find there was so much more to it than simply throwing seeds into the ground and watering things.

Several of her grow lights went out within my first couple of visits. I didn’t think these lights were important but my assumption was quickly refuted by my girlfriend when she explained that these types of lights are designed specifically to help plants grow. I actually spent one day of my first week hunting down specific types of commercial lighting for the greenhouse. The lights she wanted were fairly expensive but we went halves on the cost as I felt as though we were becoming partners in gardening.

Once the new lights were installed we got back to the ground work. Three weeks later I was pleased to see the bell peppers I planted on my own begin to sprout. It was at that point that I admitted to both myself and my girlfriend that I was enjoying doing garden work. Not long after that the rest of our first batch of vegetables sprouted and some even ripened and were ready to be eaten.

I’ll say this about growing your own food. It’s hard work and it takes time to grow these things however the flavor and even the size of the vegetables far outclass anything you find in the store. In addition to this, home grown vegetables contain no unnatural preservatives and go into your kitchen fresh; no weeks of shipping are involved. This experience leads me to believe that I will never buy vegetables from any store again.

For those of you who have never eaten anything homegrown, you need to at least once. Once you decide to go this route you’re in for a treat and I can guarantee that you too will begin growing your own vegetables. Before I became a vegetarian I had eaten a steak that came from a cow raised by my friend. This was much like vegetables in that the homegrown food was far better than any store bought product. Though it takes care and effort to grow your own food, the work is worth it. Your body and your bank account will thank you for it!

Luscious Chocolate Cake Recipe

Author: Paul Zayer

Resistance is futile! It is indeed hard to resist the sweet smell of chocolate cake, especially when the aroma is linked with nice memories.

My mom is a very open person, and always willing to share. Not only is she generous with her advice, but she will share with you all the things that she experienced. she is always willing to explain sewing, cooking, or advanced mathematics. There is one thing, however, that she guards jealously. It is her biggest secret, and she had promises that she will carry to the grave. And that is her chocolate cake recipe. So far, we tried everything to to get it from her.

This is not just a normal chocolate mix cake recipe. This is seriously gourmet. It is not a simple chocolate cake recipe, either. Chocolate cake is normally very easy to make, but hers demands all day and all night. She is literally in there for 12 hours at a time, slaving away on the perfect chocolate cake. But it is wonderful. It is priceless. It is the most delicious cake that I have ever ate. I could do anything to get that chocolate cake recipe.

The thing is, my mother isn't all that into chocolate in general. She never makes chocolate brownies. When she goes to a restaurant she won't even order a chocolate brownie. But that chocolate cake recipe is her favourite thing in the world. Every holiday she cooks it, and each time we ask for more. Nobody ever gets sick of it. Even my friends, strict vegetarians who will only eat vegan chocolate cake recipes usually, will make an exception for her delectable chocolate cake. It really is that good.

The truly sad part is that, since I first tasted that chocolate cake, I will not eat any other sort of chocolate desert. Even the finest German chocolate cake recipe leaves me unsatisfied. Part of it is that my dear mother made it. She spends so much time on it, and clearly wants us to like it so much, that it is hard to resist. I don't know if I would like it quite as much if it were someone else who made it, but even so I would like it still. After all, she has won several cookingcontests with her chocolate cake recipe. She has only participated a handful of times, but every time she has entered the same recipe, and every time she has won. It was no use to try to sneak in the kitchen. Until I left the room, she just refused to go on with her cooking. I hope some day she will share the recipe with us.

Tastety American Chinese Cuisine Fried Rice

Author: m.jeya

Fried rice is a common staple in American Chinese cuisine, especially in the westernized form sold at fast-food stands. The most common form is basic fried rice, often with some mixture of eggs, scallions, and vegetables, with chopped meat (usually pork or chicken, sometimes beef or shrimp) added at the customer's discretion. Even kids will love this quick and easy fried rice.

There are dozens of varieties of fried rice, each with their own specific list of ingredients. Fried rice is a popular component of Chinese cuisine and other forms of Asian cuisine. . Fried Rice or Vegetable Fried Rice is a popular north Indian dish. Its main ingredients are rice and vegetables like carrot, beans and Capsicum .It is quite a healthy dish. It is widely preferred by youngsters in the modern world and used to eat in all age of peoples.

This Indomunch fried rice dish combines the nutty flavor of fried rice with the fresh taste of bell peppers, baby peas, and other vegetables. This fried rice dish is actually a lot simpler than most of us perceive it to be. Fried rice is cooked on a high flame, and the trick is to cut the vegetables small, so that they do not remain raw inside. It requires vigorous stirring though

Vegetable Fried rice is what all of you must have cooked and eaten at home or in restaurants. It's a really simple dish to make, and healthy too because of all the veggies that it has. I describe my recipe for making Vegetable Fried Rice which goes extremely well with my Veg Manchurian Gravy recipe. This dish combines the nutty flavor of brown rice with the fresh taste of bell peppers, baby peas, and other vegetables. This recipe for fried rice with veggies will remind you of the fried rice served at Chinese restaurants. Please purchase online www.indomunch.com in Newyork city.

วันเสาร์ที่ 29 มีนาคม พ.ศ. 2551

Indian Favoites Chicken Lallipops

Author: vmbjohn

Been kicking this recipe around for some time as an alternative to Buffaloe Wings. Some recipes call for the wing but I think Im going with Drumsticks being more meatier and less time consuming.One recipes calls for corn flour and I am not too sure if I can find it in the local store.Anyhow cut the skin around the top of the leg and pull the meat down.Then you are ready to bread,fry and cook.Im thinking of frying and I will marinate first with some soy and Thai Chilli Sauce.Sounds good to me.

These lollipops are an absolute blast to eat. Granted, they are very labor intensive to prepare, but when it is all said and done, the sheer fun of eating these tasty creations makes it worthwhile. Since the meat is bunched down in a tight ball, it is exceptionally more tender and juicy than the average fried wing, and the right sauce put it over the top. While these are labor intensive, they are fun to eat and can easily impress your guests.I used a jar sauce for simplicity, and you can use BBQ, hot sauce, or any of your favorite wing sauces.

To make these, cut and roll the meat down on the bone, and once there, give it a good squeeze and pull to form a nice ball. Next, fry them for 8 to 10 minutes and drain on paper towels. Finally, dip each into a bowl of sauce to cover and then bake at 350 degrees to set the sauce and make it sticky/yummy.

This week I had to rush over to Chicago to help my sister who was quite ill. After a couple of days of good rest she was feeling back to her old self again. To cheer her up I decided to make her favorite chicken lollipops. This is the first dish she eats when she visits India and oders it every other day from our neighborhood store "Tasty Bites". This Indian influenced chinese dish is very very popular in India. The original idea for this dish came from our friend Amit who made this once for us and it was delicious. I din't have his recipe so I searched online and combined a couple of recipes to make this dish and it was perfect. Although making the lollipops can be a pain, once in the groove you can get it done quite fast. Makes a really popular appetizer with kids and adults. Ready you are Chicken lallipops Please visit in the site www.indomunch.com for extra details.

Fried Calamari

Author: vmbjohn

Start by cleaning the Calamari. Holding the body in one hand gently pull on the tentacles to remove the insides, then remove the quill from inside the body cavity, finally peel the skin away from the outside of the body. Once the inside are out you can cut the head away from the tentacles The remove the mouth positioned at the base of the tentacles. Now wash the tentacles and body under cold running water.
Once they are cleaned cut the body into rings about 1/4 inch wide.

The tentacles don't need any further cutting. Now prepare the marinade in a bowl. Put the olive oil and add the marjoram, parsley, a clove of garlic crushed a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well and then add the calamari, mix again and then set in the refrigerator to marinate for 1 hour. Stir it occasionally. Heat your frying oil and prepare a plate with rice flour. Remove the calamari rings a few at a time, let them drip off, dredge them in the rice flour, shake off the excess and then fry them. Fry them until they start to turn golden brown and then place them on paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

Calamari need to be either cooked quickly on high heat, or cooked for a long period on a slow simmer. Anything in between can lead to a chewy result. Fried for just under a minute in hot oil as in this recipe results in tender, crispy rings of calamari. Use your favorite dipping sauce to serve, although I like to use a simple tomato sauce spiced up with a pinch of red pepper flakes. If you have never cleaned squid before, you might find their appearance a bit intimidating, however they are actually quite easy to clean.

To clean the squid, first pull out the tentacles and head. Set these aside. Remove the cartilage that runs down the back, and anything that is inside the tube. Run under cold water. Pull off the two wing pieces, and remove the skin. Slice the cleaned tube into 1 inch rings. Take the tentacles and cut off the head just below the eyes, and discard this. Remove the hard beak inside.

Place the cleaned calamari in the freezer for 5 minutes before cooking. Put 2 inches of oil into a pot, and heat to 375 degrees F. Mix the flour, cornmeal and spices together in a plastic bag. Drop in the calamari and shake well to cover with the coating. Drop the calamari into the hot oil, and cook for just under a minute, until they are golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve with your favorite dipping sauces.

A great way to serve fried calamari, is to put a handful on top of a dish of spaghetti already dressed with a good spicy tomato sauce. If you prefer a crispier crust to your calamari, dip them in beaten egg before dropping them into the coating. Ready you are Fried calamari Please visit in the site www.indomunch.com for extra details.

Fritters Vegetable Pakota

Author: vmbjohn

Pakotas are an essential item of Indian festive food. They can be made with almost any vegetable (commonly bell pepper, cauliflower, eggplant, potato, or spinach; your veggie club president makes some mean tofu pakotas with extra-thick tahini sauce -- Vijay). This is also a nice way of getting people to eat vegetables they don't normally like.

Pakota needs to be deep-fried which means big dangerous pots of hot oil. These pakotas are flat, however, which means they can be fried in a frying pan with about three centimetres of oil in it. This is marginally less hazardous and has the added advantage that the temperature of the oil is easier to control. As with all deep fried food, these pakotas can be a bit greasy, but there are steps you can take to cut down the greasiness. The first thing is to use a light oil. Corn oil is fairly heavy and clings to things and generic 'vegetable' oil is usually the worst of all. Sunflower oil is much lighter, as is grapeseed oil or peanut oil. The second thing you can do is lift your pakotas directly onto some absorbent paper when you take them out of the pan. Build up layers of pakota sandwiched between sheets of paper. This will keep the pakotas hot as well as absorbing most of the oil from them.

You need gram flour for this recipe - that's flour made from chick-peas. You'll get it in the health-food shop, but if you're lucky to live near a shop stocking imported Indian food, get it there. The quality will probably be better and it will be fresher. While you're there, pick up a load of spices too. You'll also need some kind of spoon with holes in it for lifting the pakotas out of the oil.

Heat up the oil in a wook or deep-frying pan. In the meanwhile, make a batter by mixing together the flour and all the spices. Then, add enough water to make a thick batter. It should be of a consistency that will thinly coat the vegetables. The oil is ready for frying when batter drops quickly crisp and crackle in it. You should coat the cut vegetables in the batter, and then slip them into the oil (don't slam dunk them, as this will cause your oil to splash and burn!). Don't do too many at a time; make sure the vegetables have enough swimming space. Ready you are Vegetable Pakota Please visit in the site www.indomunch.com for extra details.

Luscious Chocolate Cake Recipe

Author: Paul Zayer

Resistance is futile! It is indeed hard to resist the sweet smell of chocolate cake, especially when the aroma is linked with nice memories.

My mom is a very open person, and always willing to share. Not only is she generous with her advice, but she will share with you all the things that she experienced. she is always willing to explain sewing, cooking, or advanced mathematics. There is one thing, however, that she guards jealously. It is her biggest secret, and she had promises that she will carry to the grave. And that is her chocolate cake recipe. So far, we tried everything to to get it from her.

This is not just a normal chocolate mix cake recipe. This is seriously gourmet. It is not a simple chocolate cake recipe, either. Chocolate cake is normally very easy to make, but hers demands all day and all night. She is literally in there for 12 hours at a time, slaving away on the perfect chocolate cake. But it is wonderful. It is priceless. It is the most delicious cake that I have ever ate. I could do anything to get that chocolate cake recipe.

The thing is, my mother isn't all that into chocolate in general. She never makes chocolate brownies. When she goes to a restaurant she won't even order a chocolate brownie. But that chocolate cake recipe is her favourite thing in the world. Every holiday she cooks it, and each time we ask for more. Nobody ever gets sick of it. Even my friends, strict vegetarians who will only eat vegan chocolate cake recipes usually, will make an exception for her delectable chocolate cake. It really is that good.

The truly sad part is that, since I first tasted that chocolate cake, I will not eat any other sort of chocolate desert. Even the finest German chocolate cake recipe leaves me unsatisfied. Part of it is that my dear mother made it. She spends so much time on it, and clearly wants us to like it so much, that it is hard to resist. I don't know if I would like it quite as much if it were someone else who made it, but even so I would like it still. After all, she has won several cookingcontests with her chocolate cake recipe. She has only participated a handful of times, but every time she has entered the same recipe, and every time she has won. It was no use to try to sneak in the kitchen. Until I left the room, she just refused to go on with her cooking. I hope some day she will share the recipe with us.