How Does Cooking Affect the Food We Eat?

Cooking is both an art and a pleasure however, when food is exposed to heat, its vital nutrients are destroyed. There are various methods of cooking and food preparation, and each one has a better way in preserving the nutrients of foods. Water-soluble vitamins such as Vitamin C and B group can easily evaporate during intense cooking.
The most efficient way of preserving the foods' nutrient content is steaming. Place the food like vegetables and fish above bubbling water, and let the steam cook the food in a few minutes. Steam dense vegetables for 5 minutes or less while steam the fish for 10 minutes. The vegetables should remain firm retaining their vivid colors and nutrient content after steaming, while the water-soluble B vitamins and essential fish oils are preserved in the fish.
Boiling does not substitute steaming as it destroys the nutrients and vitamins especially vitamin B and C. If there is a need for boiling, especially vegetables, do it in a limited time and with a small amount of water.
Cooking foods in a microwave preserves nutrients due to the short cooking time however, the kind of foods that is prepared for microwaving are usually the processed ready-to-eat meals. These kinds of foods are high in sugar, hydrogenated fats, and salt. These ingredients are susceptible to molecular changes and the shift in molecular structure leads to free radical damage.
If you like to make soup or stewed foods, this is also a preferable way of food preparation. Foods are usually cooked slowly at temperature below boiling point therefore vitamins and nutrients are not destroyed too much. The nutrients also are transferred to the water are served and eaten.
Frying foods is yet the most damaging as extreme heat destroys nutrients and oils contained in foods like fish and poultry. Water soluble vitamin B and C and fat soluble vitamin A, D, E, and K are lost during frying. This food preparation also creates free radicals that can damage the body and initiate cancer, premature aging and heart disease. Just the smoke from frying foods provides the risk of lung and throat cancer.
Stir-frying is a better alternative because the quantity of oil is small and the cooking time is faster than deep frying. Try to add a little water and soy sauce as the oil heats up so the steam will help the food to cook fast and stop the oil from burning.
Other popular food preparations are roasting and barbecuing. They preserve the fat content of foods as long as the temperature is not too hot however, 25 percent of water-soluble vitamins like Vitamin C and B are lost. The longer the food is cooked, the more nutrients are lost. Avoid to burn foods because they are carcinogenic and it damages cells when it comes in contact with the throat and digestive tract. A tip to protect against the damage by the free radicals due to barbecuing is to marinate the food with olive oil before cooking.

"On Food and Cooking" Cookbook Review - Harold McGee's "Science and Lore of the Kitchen"

If you've ever wondered what a scientist might say about food, here is your answer. Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen" is a 900-page behemoth filled to the brim with excellent information. Its charm is in its depth of knowledge but highly readable simplicity. This book has something for everyone, from the seasoned chef to the budding home cook.
The best place to start with this book is the final chapter, "The Four Basic Food Molecules" and the short appendix entitled, "A Chemistry Primer". For bakers especially, the information included here is essential. I know, I know, you're never supposed to jump to the end of a book before you finish it! But these two sections will help give you a solid foundation so that the rest of the book is a breeze (and a great joy) to read.
From there you'll find a world ready to open up to you, from how soy sauce is made to how egg whites turn stiff when beaten. This is not exactly a cookbook, but rather a reference for any cooking-related question you could ever dream up. Making your way through this book is like drawing back the veil on the wonders lurking behind the mundane in the foods we eat. If you are serious about cooking at all, or if you are just interested in learning more about your favorite foods, this book is a must-have. It is an essential reference, yes, but more than that, it is a fascinating and magical read.

Fast Food Recipes - Cook Fast Food at Home

Have you ever wished you could cook your favorite fast food items at home? Wondering how they make those dishes taste so good? Well fortunately, you can cook your favorite fast food recipes at home, and it's easier than you think! Plus, you can save money and calories by cooking these recipes at home instead of eating at your local fast food chain. Here are a few free cloned fast food recipes for you to make at home.
KFC Potato Salad
2 pounds russet potatoes
1 cup mayonnaise
4 teaspoons sweet pickle relish
4 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons minced white onion
2 teaspoons prepared mustard
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon minced celery
1 teaspoon diced pimentos
1/2 teaspoon shredded carrot
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon pepper
dash salt
Taco Bell Enchiritos
1 lb ground beef
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 tablespoon dried onion flakes
1 (30 ounce) can refried beans
1/4 onion, diced
1 (14 ounce) can enchilada sauce (La Victoria)
2 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1 (2 ounce) can black olives, sliced
10-12 flour tortillas (10 or 12-inch 1 pkg)
Wendy's Chili
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 (14 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
4 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 (14 ounce) can ranch style beans
1 (14 ounce) can pinto beans
1 (14 ounce) can kidney beans
1 (10 ounce) can Rotel diced tomatoes
1 (1 1/4 ounce) package McCormick mild chili seasoning
2 lbs ground chuck
There are hundreds more fast food recipes out there that you can cook at home. Many times you can reduce the calories significantly without harming that great taste you love! See the website below for tons more recipes!

Healthy Food Preparation and Cooking

When you go about making dinner for your family or yourself you probably don't look at your food as toxic or unhealthy for you. You think that your vegetables should be healthy and anything you cook will have one of the food groups that you need for the day.
Well this would be true if we didn't eat food that has been grown in chemicals and then cooked to death so any nutrients left in the food were now completely gone. This is why I do promote eating as much organic and raw food as you can. It delivers the most nutrients to you in the way it was meant to be delivered.
But if you are buying from the grocery store and cooking your meals you may want to think about just a few things while you are doing it.
A lot of your vegetables are grown in mass quantities and grown with chemicals to get the best crop they can get. They are making money from it you know. So make sure to wash or peel you vegetables and fruits in order to remove agricultural chemicals, germs, and molds. Waxed foods, like eggplant, apples, turnips, and cucumbers, should be peeled. Wax is put on after the fruit or vegetable is grown so the pesticides and fungicides are stuck under the wax.
If you cannot peel your food make sure you wash them and scrub them. There are also some vegetable cleaners out there that you can buy. Even my grandpa who came from an age of real natural farming would tell us to make sure to wash our vegetables and fruits thoroughly.
With lettuce and cabbage make sure you compost you outer layer of them and only start eating the inside layers. You can also rinse these briefly in a vinegar solution to lower bacteria levels.
Raw food is not only highly nutritious for you but whenever you choose to eat raw food instead of cooked or processed you get better nutrition and less toxic exposure.
You need to cook your food lightly because food changes when it's cooked. Therefore you are losing the nutrients that you had before you started cooking and you are possibly changing them into something unhealthy.

Make Chinese Food - Easy Delicious Chinese Cooking at Home

Chinese food is one of the most delicious types of cuisine available to enjoy today. The wonderful thing about this food is that it tastes so good and is very easy to make. Chinese cuisine is a great addition to include to any family's homemade meals. Chinese cooking is actually super easy to learn with the right recipes and knowledge. Many of us love to visit our favorite Chinese restaurants or Chinese buffets and enjoy this mouth-watering cuisine. Just think of the great Chinese dishes many of us are so used to enjoying.
I know as a kid we always went to our favorite Chinese restaurant and ordered our favorite selection of items, which often included, wonton soup, egg rolls, shrimp fried rice, steamed white rice, plus two or three other main dishes. Just think of the scrumptious Chinese recipes you've enjoyed in your favorite restaurants in the past. From stir-fried beef with broccoli to sweet and sour pork, from General Tso's Chicken to Moo Goo Gai Pan, the list goes on and on of the great dishes available in Chinese cuisine. There is such a wide variety of options in Chinese cooking - that's what makes it so enjoyable!
Other great aspects about cooking Chinese are the healthy benefits this food offers. Very often vegetables are balanced with entrees and fried dishes come with steamed dishes or soups. The majority of people believe that a Chinese cuisine is healthy and well balanced. 
There are also so many interesting methods of cooking great this type of cuisine. The various cooking techniques include boiling, poaching, steaming, deep-frying, roasting, stir-frying, sautéing, braising, flavor-potting and smoking.
The different types of Chinese food that we love to enjoy include the following: crab, cabbage, carrots, duck, tofu, cucumber, bean sprouts, bamboo, eggs, chicken, beef, glutinous rice, mushrooms, ginger, watercress and sesame oil.
There are also several different styles within this cuisine. They include Mandarin cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Szechwan cuisine and Hunan cuisine. Each of these cuisines has its own unique style and come from the four major regions of China. For instance, Cantonese is more mild and the most popular type of Chinese cuisine in the United States, while Szechwan is much spicier in taste. Mandarin food consists of many breads and noodles and Hunan food has more oil in it and is often richer in taste than Szechwan food, but may also be spicy or sweet and sour in flavor.

The Food Cooking Show Fascination

The premise is simple. Take a chef, put him or her into the kitchen and watch them prepare their signature dishes. You might think that this would be boring after a bit but the public has proven this wrong.
Food cooking shows are the "in" thing right now. We love the idea of making food and combine it with reality television and suddenly we come back week after week to see what happens next.
Fox Network has uncovered a phenomenon with the cursing antics of Chef Gordon Ramsey. We cringe at his explosive attitude yet are somehow sympathetic at his attempts to turn would-be chefs into professionals.
We might not want to put ourselves on the line of fire but we love watching other contestants wither under his furious stare and tirades. Our kitchens may not be stocked with fois gras but we still take something away from each episode.
Food Network has a reality show titled "Who Wants to Be the Next Food Network Star" where amateur and professional cooks alike are given tasks to perform that somehow weed out the would-be television chefs from the rest.
We root for our favorite contestants as the season progresses until only one contestant remains. He or she is then given a food cooking show of their very own.
What is the fascination with meal preparation shows? Perhaps it is the ease at which dishes are prepared. It might be the professional cookware and charming personality of the hosts.
Some of the most popular meal preparation show hosts is not formally educated at cooking schools. Thus they give us hope that anyone can prepare delectable dishes from the comfort of their own home.

Hand Blender - Benefits of a Hand Blender

A hand blender or hand mixer can be an essential kitchen helper if you spend any amount of time making food from scratch. Hand mixers come in a wide variety of different types and styles, and so the key to getting the most out of such a kitchen appliance will be to find one that meets your basic needs and provides the level of functionality that you are looking for. Consider that some of these handheld devices provide basic mixing capabilities while others offer additional attachments that lead to other kitchen uses as well.
A hand blender providing the functionality that you seek will be powerful and versatile, taking care of a wide variety of different jobs within your kitchen. This type of automatic mixer should fit comfortably in your hand, and it should have perfect balance allowing it to complete desired tasks adequately without difficulty on your behalf. Some of these handheld devices offer a pair of metal whisks, which are designed to complete a multitude of kitchen tasks including beating egg whites, mixing desserts, whipping cream, mixing cakes and so on in order to create fast, easy and airy results.
Some hand blender devices have dough hooks that are capable of preparing bread dough, yeast dough and related mixtures. Kneading doughs like these are achievable twice as quickly as if done with your hands, but with the same quality of results. Stick blender attachments are also often included, allowing you to increase the functionality of your handheld device including the blending and pureeing of sauces, soups, homemade mayonnaise, drinks, milkshakes, baby food and much more, either directly in the bowl or pan, or even in a glass. If you make your own milk shakes, smoothies or similar flavored drinks, a kitchen handheld blender will make your life much simpler.

Organic Dried Sage - Wonderful Ingredient for Cooking Morel Mushrooms

Spring Time in North America can only mean one thing for lovers of Morel Mushrooms; it's time to get excited about the prospect of the "hunt" and the delight of preparing and cooking morel mushrooms for family and friends. There are not a lot of secrets with this mission but there are a few tips that can make a difference between bland or grand!
Finding or "Hunting" for Morel Mushrooms starts with understanding how they grow. The morel, like many of its mushroom cousins, is as mysteriously unique as they are delicious. Mushrooms are not vegetables and in fact they are not even plants. They do not require either soil or light to grow. All that they need is some form of decaying organic matter like wood or decaying leaves, so begin the "hunt" in areas where you have moist sandy soils and a bed of that good old rotting stuff at work. Identifying the morel is the easy part. The black morel is most prized but they can also have a yellow to light gray shade of color.
The most distinguishing feature is in the shape of the cap and the cap is honey combed and pitted in design. If you find one that does not have pits or cavities and it looks smooth and shiny, pass; these are false morels. Finding the Morel is a little more of a challenge. If you can, it's best to hunt with someone who has experience in identifying and harvesting this wonderful organic food. Also when you pick them take care to preserve the habitat. Don't pull them from the ground. The best way to pick the morel is to cut the stem or twist it so you leave the base in the ground. Old time "shroomers" will also tell you to carry your morels in a mesh bag, which also allows for the morel spores to be layered back on the forest floor as you continue with your walk and hunt.
Preparing your morel mushrooms for cooking is a little different than with other types of mushrooms. Most mushrooms, like crimini or chanterelle are so porous that if they are soaked in water they will quickly absorb it and get soggy. That why most good cooks suggest the best way to clean mushrooms, without sacrificing their taste, is to clean them using minimal water, preferring to wipe them with a damp cloth or paper towel. Although morel mushrooms don't collect much dirt growing in the areas of organic matter they are found, they do need to be soaked, to kill off any insects or other organic matter that may be attached. A bath in a bowl of salt water will do the trick.

Cooking Food

People all over the world eat cooked food, but people in different countries cook their food differently. Most people in this country like to eat meat, fish and vegetables cooked, but there are some people who like to eat raw fish. With the expectation of some vegetables and fruits, most of the food eaten is cooked to a greater or lesser degree. The reasons for cooking food are:-
1. To soften the food so that it can be more easily digested.
2. To improve the flavor of food. The flavor of the meat and fish is greatly improved by cooking.
3. To improve the appearance of food, as uncooked meat or fish is objectionable to some people.
4. To kill germs so that the food is safe to eat.
5. To vary the flavor of the food. Different methods of cooking and the addition of different ingredients and flavoring give a wide variety of flavors to food.
There are many methods of cooking food as below:-
Boiling
Food is cooked in boiling liquid tell tender. Vegetables should be put into boiling water and boiled quickly, while meat should be put into cold water and brought up to the boil when making soup, or put into boiling water for stews. When boiling meat, the temperature is lowered to simmering point as soon as the water boils, otherwise the protein in meat will harden and will be difficult to digest. Fish is put into boiling water and simmered till cooked. If it is allowed to boil all the time the fish will break up. Boiling food to cook it partly is called parboiling. Slow boiling so that the liquid bubbles slowly all the times and only a little steam is given off is called simmering.
Stewing
This is long, slow cooking in a little liquid. This is a good method of cooking, as cheaper and tougher pieces of meat can be cooked with other ingredients to make them and better flavored. Stewing should be done in a pan with a lid, as foods become tender more easily in a closed pan where the steam cannot escape too easily. It is also an easy method of cooking as very little attention is required when the food is slowly stewing.
Steaming
Food is cooked in steam from boiling water. Only tender bits of food should be steamed. It is a slow method of cooking but it makes food easy to digest. Delicately flavored foods are best steamed as no flavor is lost during cooking, so the food retains all its own flavor. Steaming can be done by the following methods:-
1. In a steamer which sits over a saucepan of boiling water. Steam rises from the boiling water and passes through the steamer to cook the food.
2. In a frying pan of boiling water. The food is put in a steaming tray which rests on a stand in the frying pan. A well fitting lid covers the tray and steam from boiling water cooks the food. This method is faster than the first method.
3. In saucepan with a tight fitting lid.
a) Food is placed in a bowl or basin which stands in a saucepan of boiling water that comes up to half way up the side of the bowl, or placed on rice which is about to cook.
b) Food is placed on a plate and is covered with the saucepan lid. The plate is placed on top of the saucepan which is half filled with boiling water.
Frying
This is a very quick method of cooking and is the most popular method of cooking in this country. There are three methods of frying:-
1. Dry frying where no oil is used at all as in frying peanuts or coconuts. The food is put into a clean, dry frying pan and is stirred over a slow fire until the food is evenly browned and cooked.
2. Shallow fat frying where a little oil is used to prevent the food from sticking to the frying pan, as in frying eggs, pancakes or vegetables. When vegetables are fried, they are tossed in a little fat which is absorbed by the vegetables. This method of cooking vegetables is also called sauteing.
3. Deep fat frying where food is cooked in at least 2" of hot oil. There must be enough oil to completely cover the food when the food is first put in. This method of frying is used for curry puffs, fry chicken and many other dishes.
Grilling
This is cooking food directly over hot charcoal or under the electric or gas grill, as in cooking barbecue chicken or making toast. This is a very quick method of cooking and only very tender pieces of good should be cooked by this method.
Baking
This is to cook food in the heat of an oven as in baking cakes, pastries, biscuits and bread. The hot oven heats up the air inside it and food is cooked by the hot air. Care must be taken to cook the food thoroughly without burning it.
Roasting
This actually means cooking over the open fire, but with the introduction of the oven, it has now become very much like baking, except that fat is added to prevent the food from drying and burning and also to improve the flavor.