Hot Tomale!

Archive for July, 2007

There are few of life’s little pleasures as beneficial or fun as cooking. The ability to take separate ingredients and turn them into something beautiful is just one of those things that can never be matched by most other activities. You get to manipulate, touch, and choose what will go into your meal; making easy Mexican food is just one of those little pleasures that make any meal choice better, healthier, and much more zesty!

Can anyone make this wonderful cuisine? The good news is – yes! Easy Mexican food is just that: simple. There does not have to be anything difficult about making this cuisine for your own. You will even be surprised at how good the food will taste your first time around.

Many people are choosing to switch to making easy Mexican food because it is so simplistic, but the number of reason people choose this exquisitely beautiful cuisine is that it is good to eat and healthy. Whether you are on a low-sodium diet, fat-free diet, or even a diabetic diet, this is a cuisine that can be easily tailored to meet your needs.

Choosing the best in foods for your family, your friends, and/or your guests will often lead you to the best foods on the planet. Each dish will be exquisitely prepared and presented at your table with all the love and compassion you can muster in a dish of beautiful enchiladas or burritos. Whether making tacos, enchiladas, or another dish, you will find authentic Mexican cuisine offers you a delicious alternative to the greasy, fast food present today in our bustling society.

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. Finding healthy alternatives that will appeal to our senses is important. Children have been raised on a mix of fast food and packaged foods often because children live in a household where two parents work. However, in the time it takes to make a prepackaged meal, you can have a home cooked meal that is delicious, beautiful, and healthy on your table. What is that worth to you? What is it worth to your children?

Enrolling in a cooking class is one of the best ways to improve your culinary skills. Whether you are a seasoned professional, or just starting out, every one can benefit from cooking lessons. You may be able to find a culinary school in your neighborhood to help expand your outlook on food and how it is prepared. You may want to take just one class on a new dish or technique. There are many specialty shops that offer creative cooking classes and on occasion your local upscale grocery store may even offer them.

Cooking classes are a great way for you to learn to enjoy food. I am not just talking about eating the food, but the time and thought that goes into creating a dish or a meal the proper way. Our society has recently become focused on fast food. We have lost the art of cooking. Remember the way your grandmother’s food tasted? You could taste each and every ingredient that she used, and once you were finished, full or not, you wanted more. That is because there were no microwaves or frozen dinners or thawing out your meat before you are ready to prepare it.

When I was just married, many moons ago, I had really no idea which spices I needed to have to start up my healthy, tasty, nutritious cooking. Over the years, I have learned cooking with healthy recipes and this is what I have come up with as most necessary to start healthy cooking.

Remembering that spices have a shelf life, like any other food, you are able to tell by the flavor and color if the spice is old, and should be replaced generally every spring. Many of my spices don’t last nearly that long, as I use them far before they would get old.

BASIL
Fresh basil is used best for salads and pesto. Dried basil is best used for slow-cooked dishes such as crockery pot dishes, stews, soups, and even casseroles.

India – long identified for its spices more than anything else, still stands as a signal post for all that relates to spice today. In the past, many a country gave in to the lure of spice and did their best to invade this country. It is this very lure of spice that led to the discovery of the Americas as well. Rather than go into the ‘spice’ history, I have decided to do a short article on some of the major spices of India with a few relevant details.

Spices, something that none of us can go without these days, have ruled over the minds and hearts of men and women for quite a while now. Even today, spices would be perhaps one of the foremost things that most of the world would associate with the sub-continent.

Here is my list of some of the top 10 spices from India.

1. SAFFRON :

Saffron is one of the most delicate spices in the whole world. It is derived by drying the stigma of the flower Saffron Crocos . This spice is used both as a coloring as well as a seasoning agent. This spice is also one of the most expensive ones and is valued greatly for its coloring abilities more than anything else.

If you are attracted to the thought of pursuing a culinary career, you may be interested in attending cooking school. Although it is not strictly necessary, a culinary arts degree is a major asset to those interested in pursuing cooking as a career. The degree will show potential employers that you are serious about your career. Even more importantly, your education will prepare you for the real-world challenges that you will face in a professional kitchen. If your goal is restaurant management or ownership, look for a program that combines classroom instruction in the business aspects of running a restaurant with hands-on experience in the kitchen. If your desired career is within the kitchen, consider a cooking school that offers a shorter program with an intensive focus on the practical skills necessary to become a chef.

Kitchen Facilities: It is critical that the cooking school you select offers kitchen facilities that mirror what you are likely to encounter in a professional kitchen. During training, you should use the equipment that is generally used by professional chefs. Every piece of equipment you use, from knives to blenders, will have an effect on the final product that you are able to prepare. Be sure to tour the kitchen before deciding on a cooking school.

Mexican cuisine is a style of food that began in Mexico, and is widely known for its vibrant flavor and amazing decoration. Rice, beans, tortillas, and a wide variety of spices are commonly used in many Mexican dishes, along with beef, pork, chicken, and a range of different peppers. Mexican recipes vary from region to region, but many of the same original ideas are still seen all over the globe today. Mexican cuisine is typically cooked in large amounts of grease and fat, making it one of the most fattening styles of food in the world.

Although authentic Mexican food can be unhealthy, there are many great recipes available for healthy Mexican meals. One ingredient that can easily be replaced is grease, which is usually a staple when making dishes prepared with tortillas. Many Mexican recipes involve frying tortillas, such as taquitos, tacos, and even tostadas. While the fried tortillas are usually the main portion of the dish, using oil to prepare them adds unhealthy fat and caloric intake. One alternative would be using soft tortillas, such as making soft tacos rather than frying the tortillas. There are also several recipes that involve tortillas without being fried, such as quesadillas or baked tortilla chips.

Be careful about the meat you eat in Mexico, it may be human. A chef in Mexico killed his drinking buddy and used the corpse to make tamales. The chef cut up the body and seasoned it with herbs before frying the body to make tamales.

Carlos Machuca, a 56-year-old tamale chef, was arrested in his home after police received an anonymous tip. The police entered his home to find a dead body which had been mutilated on his floor. The police found body parts cooking on the stove. Tamales is a mexican dish made of chopped meat, herbs and peppers all wrapped in cornhusks and fried. Carlos Machuca used his friend’s body parts for the meat.

The police believe that Carlos stabbed his friend through the heart during a fight then tried to dispose of the body by using it as an ingredient in cooking tamales. The chef may have sold some of these tamales to customers. This would have been an ingenous way to dispose of the body as the evidence of the crime would have been consumed by the chef’s patrons. Had it not been for an anonymous tip this creative chef may have gotten away with murder.