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Archive for October, 2007

How to Cook a real Crispy Duck

If you’re like me you love the skin on the outside of duck, if it’s crispy. The texture of the meal can totally be changed with a crispy skin.

The secret is to make sure the duck is scored across the front and salted heavily.

This helps dry up the skin and makes for a super crispy skin. You will not be the only one that enjoys this Crispy Duck Recipe, but everyone else at your dinner table.

Take the duck that you’re going to use for your main dish make slits in the breast with a knife and poke with a fork. Salt the breast heavily use your discretion and taste. You can use this method for any recipe you can think of.

Just use the cooking instructions from the recipe you are using. Place the bird breast down on the baking pan and cook like that for about ¾ of the total time that the recipe says to cook it for, making sure to drain the fat from the bird, usually by sticking it with a fork under the wings and legs.

One of the most exciting things you can learn at a cooking school is how to cook ethnic food. Ethnic food is a delicious treat, a break from the usual fare, and most people have at least one or two favorite ethnic cuisines. Unfortunately, ethnic restaurants can be expensive, especially if you would like to enjoy your favorite ethnic food more frequently.

The solution is, of course, to learn how to make your own ethnic food. Buying an ethnic cookbook and diving right in is overwhelming for most people, however: Cookbooks do not always do a very good job of explaining how to prepare a dish, as well as what goes into it. A better approach is to take classes at a cooking school. You will learn to not only prepare your favorite ethnic food, but also all of the little tricks of the trade that will make it look and taste more authentic.

Here is a sampling of ethnic foods that you can learn to make at your local cooking school:

When it comes to delicious meals, you can have healthy too! Today more than ever, delicious foods are geared at providing healthy benefits in a scrumptious dish that will be a favorite for years to come. Fried chili chicken is a delicious blend of healthy chicken spiced to perfect without the unnecessary additions of added fat or sugar.

Instead of depending on additives that enhance the flavor of the meal, this is one meal that takes simple ingredients and makes them into one dish easy to fix and enjoyed by everyone. Take a closer look at why this is a favorite in my house!

Fried Chili Chicken

Ingredients:

2 tbsp flour
¼ tsp cayenne
1 tsp chili powder
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp salt
4 chicken breasts, cubed
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
¼ cup chili powder
1 tbsp hot New Mexico chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
20oz can pinto beans, drained

Directions:

In a plastic bag: mix the flour, cayenne, chili powder, cumin, oregano, garlic powder, and salt and toss together. Add the chicken cubes and shake until evenly coated with the spice mixture.

There are many cooking schools out there, advertising their degrees in colorful brochures, energetic commercials, eye-catching advertisements, and comprehensive websites. But you may question whether a culinary degree really right for you. In fact, you might be surprised by the many ways in which an education from a culinary school can improve your life, at home as well as in your career.
A cooking degree can help you get a job. Perhaps one of the most obvious benefits of a cooking degree is to beef up your resume. A degree will improve your chances of getting many culinary or related jobs, everything from chefs to restaurant reviewers to food advertising specialists. Managers want these jobs to be filled with employees who really know the culinary arts.
A culinary education can help you qualify for a better job. You may have been bucking for a promotion with no luck. Getting an education from one of the top cooking schools shows your employer that you have the ambition and sense of responsibility necessary to perform a more difficult job. A degree can also help you pass over the unskilled positions altogether, hiring directly into upper level positions that fit your level of education.
More qualifications mean more money. Tell potential employers that you are worth it. Studies have shown that entry-level employees entering the work force earn more, on average, when they have a degree. Getting a degree from one of the top cooking schools allows you to increase your earning power by improving your credentials.
A better understanding of food and nutrition will help you feed your family. Your family benefits from your culinary education, too. Balanced nutrition is difficult to achieve, but extraordinarily important for good health, particularly in growing children. Most cooking schools will teach you the basics of nutrition, such as the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients our bodies get from food, as well as how to combine different foods to create a healthy, balanced meal.
Knowing how to cook well will help you save money. Convenience foods and eating out are the two major drains on your food budget. With a culinary education, you won’t need to rely on convenience and pre-packaged meals in order to eat well. You will be able to make meals from scratch that are better, healthier, and less expensive. And when you get the hankering for five star foods, you won’t have to pay restaurant prices for it, you’ll be able to make it right in your own kitchen.
Learning how to cook well can help you feel better about yourself. Self-confidence is a precious thing, and a culinary education can give it to you. Don’t be ashamed of your cooking skills, or lack thereof, any longer; go to school and learn how to cook in a way that you can be proud of. And if cooking has always been one of your passions and the job of your dreams, then make that dream a reality with a culinary degree.
While an education from one of the top cooking schools can’t give you everything you’ve always dreamed of, it can at least help you out a little along the way. So if you are asking yourself whether or not you should get a culinary education, perhaps the answer should be that you really don’t have anything to lose from the experience.

Written by Andy West our expert of the day.

As they say, the greatest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Is it any wonder why most women painstakingly toil and learn the art of cooking? Hence, most people who know how to cook would normally teach the others who do not know. They started having some sessions with every dish being taught every time the supposed to be teacher to his or her supposed to be student. As the time went by, this kind of teaching the others how to cook had been an invigorating activity. And so, gradually cooking schools were built, maybe with those who first taught cooking.

I. Culinary Schools – A Brief Rundown

Since its inception and practice, cooking schools had continuously provided their students, first, with the basics of cooking. Thereafter, they advanced to the next level until their students had the confidence to progress their learning on their own. The first sessions of classes in cooking schools before are not as organized as it is today. Nevertheless, the growth of the cooking schools can be traced back to the very first informal session they had before. Since then, cooking schools gradually develop into a more organized way of teaching somebody how to cook.

My friend gave this top low fat chicken recipe and recommended me cooking it. This dish is amazing! Not too spicy, not too bland, just right and perfectly complemented by the bread and cooling yoghurt. I’m sure you will definitely be serving this dish again.

Ingredients of low fat chicken recipe #1 (serves 4):

500g chicken fillet, cut into 2cm dice

3 tbs (1/4 cup) flour, seasoned with salt and pepper

1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil

2 onions, sliced

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp sumac

3 tbs (1/4 cup) sultanas

1 cup (250ml) chicken stock

50g toasted pine nuts*

3 tbs (1/4 cup) chopped fresh coriander

Juice of 1 lemon, plus wedges to serve

Couscous, Greek yoghurt and Lebanese bread, to serve

Methods of low fat chicken recipe #1:

Toss chicken in the flour. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large fry pan over high heat until hot, then cook chicken in batches until golden and set aside.

With nearly 28 states, more than 50 languages and hundreds on ethnic groups located in different parts, India surely can be named country with most diverse cultures. Every state has its own history, traditions, culture and of course food. Every state have its own style of cooking, every home differs in way of preparing a certain dish making taste of Indian cuisine even more diverse. Surely, we are here to talk about Indian food, incredibly famous through out the world.

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Indian food? Hot, spicy, oily, rich on fat, difficult and time-consuming to cook, etc…

Indian food, though hugely popular all around the globe, is highly misunderstood and has plenty of hidden facts that world needs to know about. Most of Indian kitchens have their own secret recipes, ingredients or way of preparing certain recipes which makes the dish complete unique in itself. Only that unifies Indian cuisine is spices that bring them their characteristic fragrance and flavor.