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Scouse is a Northern European dish made famous by sailors from Liverpool, England. The dish was known first as Labskause or Lobscouse and eventually became scouse. It was a cheap and simple stew to make and the sailors who ate it were called Scousers. Like many stews, scouse includes onions, carrots and potatoes, but it is slightly different because it is made with lamb meat. An advantage of scouse is that it can be kept for several days, making it handy for leftovers.
The Caribbean is one of the most beautiful regions in the world, with constant sunshine, sandy beaches and pleasant local residents. The region is also very diverse, due to centuries of migration from across the world including Africans, Asians and Europeans. These settlers influenced the culture and, unsurprisingly, the way food is prepared. What Caribbean cooking has in common, is the use of fresh ingredients, which ensures that dishes are delicious, regardless of their influence.
Various cooking methods produce different results. Choose your approach based on what type of food you are cooking and how you want your meal to taste.
While you may be confident knowing how much food to plan for your family of four, things can get confusing when you're hosting a meal for a large group. If you host a buffet, you'll need more food than at a sit-down dinner, as guests tend to serve themselves larger servings and sample more items. When in doubt, round up to ensure you don't run out of food. After you've planned out the menu, total up the quantities of appetizers, main dishes and side dishes. The total should be about one pound of food per person.
A food mill is a kitchen tool that uses a crank system to mash and strain soft foods. Food mills allow cooks to produce foods with a perfectly smooth consistency. While food mills are useful, they are also perceived by many cooks as superfluous; food mills can be bulky and expensive, and have limited uses. Fortunately, there are a number of alternatives to food mills that can be used as substitutes.
Mexico is a country full of history, color and traditions. Its food is reflective of the people who have harvested the land, and cooked food over open fires in ceramic ware. Mexican cuisine has produced exceptional rich and spicy dishes that are known throughout the world. Due to the increasing demand of Mexican foods, most supermarkets now carry many of the ingredients required to cook authentic Mexican dishes.
Conveyor ovens are gas-fired or electric ovens that move the food through the oven on a metal conveyor belt. They include fans to circulate the hot air, guaranteeing an even and consistent amount of heat applied to each dish that passes through them. (reference 1) These ovens are common in pizza restaurants, where they allow pizzas to be consistently and quickly cooked with little attention. Moving beyond pizzas, it is possible to use a conveyor oven for any recipe that requires baking.
Spain conquered Mexico in 1521. With the Conquest came profound changes in the political, economic and religious life of the average Mexican. The Spaniards also introduced food to Mexico that changed societal structures, commerce and diet. While once seen as exotic, pork, olive oil and sugarcane are now commonplace ingredients in Mexican dishes.
There are many popular local dishes in Acapulco, Mexico, that make use of local resources such as seafood, vegetables and spices. We may recognize some of the names: tortillas, enchiladas, tamales. However, the taste of authentic cuisine served in Acapulco may be a world away from the Mexican food we're familiar with in the United States.
Acapulco is a vibrant seaport on Mexico's southern Pacific coast. It is located in the state of Guerrero, although much of the area considers Acapulco its own state due to the vast differences in culture and cuisine. Acapulco's proximity to the Pacific Ocean means the region has developed a cuisine steeped in the fruits of the sea. The city is famous for several seafood dishes; however, traditional Mexican food has also influenced it and can be found all over the city.
Discada cooking is a style of cooking used in the Southwestern United States and Mexico. Discada is named after the traditional disk used for frying the food. The disk is used like a Chinese wok and was fashioned out of farming disks. Discada uses a lot of heavily-spiced meat that is stir fried with other ingredients and served over tortillas.
Food mills grind soft, cooked foods into purees, similar to the way grain mills turn wheat into flour. A food mill requires no electricity and can be used to make homemade baby food or smooth sauces. With just a few cranks of a handle, you can have an array of sauces and purees to enjoy without using a food processor or blender.
A colander is useful in the kitchen for separating food from water or other liquids. Its bowl shape and tiny holes allow food to remain in the colander while the liquid drains below. Colanders are easy to use with both hot and cold items. Draining hot liquids, however, will require a few extra safety precautions. Do not attempt to drain soft or mushy food as it may seep through the colander holes. Two common foods used in colanders are pasta noodles and vegetables.
Mexico's rich culinary traditions date back to long before the Spanish conquistadors' arrival in the 16th century. There remain considerable regional variations to the cuisine, but several ingredients and cooking methods are typically Mexican. Chillies, limes, beans, chocolate and avocado are popular components of many a Mexican recipe: tomatoes were introduced to the rest of the world from Mexico; and indigenous corn continues to be favored over wheat for traditional tortillas.
Mexican soups, stews and beans are traditionally cooked in earthenware pots. The cazuela is a pot that flares out along the rim and has a handle on each side. The olla is taller and narrower than a cazuela. Using an earthenware pot for your favorite Mexican recipe is different from using a metal pot or pan, and care must be taken to handle it properly.
Lovers of Mexican foods enjoy it for its flavorful kick, use of fresh aromatic ingredients and colorful presentation. Mexican cuisine incorporates the cooking of ancient Aztec and Mayan Indians with ingredients and cooking techniques that originated from all over the world to create its unmistakable flavor. Many would like to learn to cook Mexican food, and find themselves better equipped once they understand some basic Mexican cooking facts.
Not only can a hot box keep cold food cold and hot food hot, but it's an alternative to using regular stoves or ovens. A hot box can be used in combination with a stove top and cooking container, and it can often lower your monthly energy costs. Building a hot box is quite easy, and you can construct one with things found in almost any household, such as cardboard boxes, towels and newspapers.
A conveyor oven is a long oven with a chain-driven conveyor belt inside. The food is placed at one end of the conveyor belt and is carried along inside the oven until it reaches the other end. Foods that are cooked to a certain amount of time and foods that do not need tending while baking are ideal for conveyor belt cooking.
Calculating the amount of food for meal preparation can be a tricky business because appetites vary considerably, and we tend to eat larger quantities of some foods than of others. In addition, our objectives when calculating how much food to prepare can vary according to the situation, whether you are trying to steer your family toward healthier eating habits, or whether you want them to feel completely satiated. Fortunately, there are certain benchmarks and guidelines you can use to effectively calculate food quantities for meal preparation.
The scale dates back almost 10,000 years. It was traditionally used to measure precious metals, but today, food scales allow cooks to accurately measure any ingredient for cooking. The most common uses are for weighing meats or baking. However, volume can easily be measured by weight.
Many of the tools used in the traditional Mexican kitchen would be familiar to cooks in pre-Colombian times. While a modern appliance like a blender might make a reasonable substitute for an ancient tool like the molcajete, the Mexican mortar and pestle, it cannot give sauces the texture that the time-tested original does. That is the reason these ancient tools have endured--they help create textures and flavors that are intrinsic to Mexican cuisine. Another plus is they are wonderful to look at, so don't keep them in the cupboard, display them in your kitchen.
Chile is a 2,653-mile-long, narrow strip of land in South America, nestled between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Because of its long coastline, it is known for its wide variety of delicious seafood. Grapes grow plentifully in the fertile volcanic soil, producing wine rivaling that of California and the Mediterranean. With influences from Spain, Germany, England and the Arab countries, Chile has a rich and lively cuisine, but aside from seafood, very few foods can call its own.
When you think of Mexican cuisine, images of tacos, quesadillas, tortillas and salsa come to mind. Mexican food is considered by many as a spicy, greasy cuisine, the enemy of any person with a tender tummy. But more than spicy food originated in Mexico. It has a rich history and many variations.
The spice traders who have come through Ethiopia since the 1400s have influenced Ethiopian cuisine by introducing nonindigenous ingredients such as chili peppers and ginger. Indian spices have also been introduced, and thus Ethiopian cuisine today involves bold spices and flavors. The mix of Christian and Muslim people there also influences Ethiopian food in that vegetables are a large part of the cuisine, and pork is not used. Rather than utensils, Ethiopians use injera, a pancake-like food, to pick up their entrees. Below are instructions on how to make injera and wat, the national foods of Ethiopia.
Egyptian food has followed an evolutionary course that began in ancient times. Beer and bread were important foods for the common man in the time of the Pharaohs, but a balanced diet included vegetables, beans, farm animals and fish. Over centuries, with exposure to other cultures, Egyptian food became a complex interplay of ingredients and spices. Hot spices like peppers are generally not used. Cumin, coriander, garlic and onions are essential flavors. Mediterranean, Arab and African influences are evident in Egyptian cuisine.
Like all places, the food in Belize reflects the products which are found or easily grown nearby in combinations which have been influenced by the unique Belizean cultural blend of Maya, Caribbean, and Colonial British. Red or black beans and rice cooked in coconut milk are prominently featured on practically every plate, and form the foundation of the Belizean diet. Add to this, stew chicken or sea food just pulled from the water, fried plantains, sizzling fry jacks or Johnny cakes, hot conch fritters and cool potato salad and you've got yourself a genuine feast. Wash it all down with…
Haiti is a poor country located in the Caribbean Sea and is populated by people from varying cultural backgrounds. Haitian cuisine is influenced by African, Spanish, French and native cooking traditions. Because many of the people rely on basic food staples instead of luxury imported ingredients, Haitian food is made with locally grown food that can feed and sustain many family members. Get familiar with Haitian food and you'll soon learn to appreciate the special blend of flavors that have evolved from this culturally rich nation.
Champurrado is the name for the Mexican version of hot chocolate, not to be confused with what some call Mexican hot chocolate. Real champurrado is not spicy but sweet, it is also thicker than normal hot chocolate due to the use of masa. This drink is traditionally served with breakfast and especially holidays like Christmas morning accompanied with tamales, Dia De Los Muertos, but it can be enjoyed for any celebration, or even on a cold day. Children love this as do adults. You can add whipped cream, mini marshmallows, ground cinnamon, or chocolate shavings to top it off.
While most people are familiar with Mexican tacos, enchiladas and tortillas, the wide variety of Mexican desserts is less well-known. The Mexican dessert repertoire includes cakes, puddings and cookies. Fruit and chocolate are also commonly served.
The kitchen in the colonial home was the center of all the activities. Here, women did their cooking, children played and read by the light of the fireplace, residents kept warm on cold fall and winter days and family members often slept in front of the hot embers. In fact, it is not much different than today, where people often congregate in the kitchen rather than in the formal livingroom or dining room. People loved being by the food hundreds of years ago, and they still love it today.
Learn the recipe guidelines and basic tips for steaming vegetables and steam cooking food in this free how-to video on steam cooking basics.
Enjoy eating nutritious meals by cooking with unprocessed food. Because processing often adds preservatives to foods and can make preparing meals quicker, you must buy unprocessed foods frequently and store them properly if they're to stay fresh. And you must plan enough time to cook these foods.
Cooking emergency preparedness foods is not that different from everyday cooking. It does take some imagination and planning, and it can go a lot faster than normal meal preparations. You can prepare nutritious, sustaining meals no matter what the situation.
