Traditional Food

Archive for September, 2009

Product Description
Home cooks and professional chefs alike have come to rely on The Best American Recipes as an indispensable resource whenever they need dazzling results, brilliant simplicity, and can’t-fail recipes. Compiled by two of the culinary world’s most respected professionals, The Best American Recipes brings together coveted dishes and kitchen secrets from the widest possible range of food writers and luminaries, from Alice Waters to Marcella Hazan. To create this book, edi… More >>

The Best American Recipes 2005-2006: The Year’s Top Picks from Books, Magazines, Newspapers, and the Internet

Perhaps you have eaten Mexican food in a top quality Mexican restaurant or even in a Mexican home. If you have, maybe some authentic Mexican cookware or utensils were used to make the dishes. Mexicans use a range of different cooking methods, including baking, slow roasting and deep-frying and they have unique pots and pans for these methods. Mexicans like to use plenty of fresh produce in their cuisine, including spices and herbs, so you will find sharp knives and a mortar and pestle in any Mexican kitchen.

Some Common Mexican Cooking Pots

Ollas, also known as Barros, are deep clay cooking pots. They are perfect for simmering beans, stew or soup and clay is a great medium for cookware because it distributes the heat evenly to avoid burnt spots. Barro means clay or mud and olla means pot. These cooking pots are fine to put over a direct flame all day long.

Clay can be sensitive to temperature changes so you need to warm it gently before using it to prevent it from cracking. One excellent reason for cooking in clay pots is that it gives the food a slightly earthy flavor.

Comals are used in Mexican cookery and these are big, round griddles made from cast iron, clay, or aluminum. Modern ones normally have a non-stick finish and they are used to roast chilies and warm tortillas.

A cazuela is used for simmering mole and other sauces. This is a large, round clay dish, which is between five and seven inches deep. The outside might be painted in bright colors and the inside is glazed. A cazuela has handles so you can put it over an open fire.

A tortillero is a Mexican tortilla press with two wooden discs or round plates. You put a ball of masa between the plates and press down to make a tortilla. These machines used to be wooden but are normally cast iron now. You can get cheap aluminum ones too but these break easily.

Popular Mexican Cooking Utensils

You will find a metate y mano in most Mexican kitchens. This concave dish is the size of a platter and made of stone or rock. It will have three short legs and sit on the table or three long legs so you can sit up to it on a chair. There is a big, round stone, which you roll on the surface to mix together or grind the ingredients.

A molcajete y tejolote is a mortar and pestle, which consists of a small stone, clay, or wooden bowl with an elongated cylinder or the same material, rounded on both ends. The end of the cylinder is used in a circular motion to grind the item in the bowl, to pulverize it.

The Mexicans love hot chocolate and they use a wooden whisk called a molinillo to make the top frothy. The molinillo is spun between the hands and some are plain but others are highly decorated. The molinillo is a small yet fascinating part of Mexican food culture. You can make Mexican food without having the equipment but using it can be fun and it looks good displayed in the kitchen.

Learn tips and advice on how best to roast vegetables in this free video lesson on Italian cooking.Expert: Judith Amdur Bio: Judith Amdur is passing down family recipes and is proud to share this classic Italian meals. A passion for cooking for thirty years, you will learn her secrets. Filmmaker: Nili Nathan

Did you know that traditional Japanese cooking is one of the healthiest in the world? This is why the Japanese have a low rate of diseases, especially those which pertain to the digestive system. More and more people are trying to learn the art of traditional Japanese cooking not only because it is healthy, but also because it offers an exciting and refreshing taste.

What constitutes a traditional Japanese meal? If you often visit Japanese restaurants, or has been invited to the home of a Japanese national, you might be familiar with the most basic of their food: miso soup is always served first; a warm soup to whet your appetite, you can add vegetables into the soup to make it even more healthy. It is rich in vitamins and minerals, and its rich taste makes it complement any type of Japanese food. Best served when hot, miso soup is a traditional Japanese food that has passed the test of time.

To make the miso soup, you will need three cups of dashi and a quarter of a cup of miso; a cubed slice of tofu that is one inch long and half inch wide, and two teaspoons of chopped green onions. Place the dashi in a saucepan and wait until it almost boils. The miso should be in a sieve, dipped in the dashi until soft, and slowly pushed out of the sieve, until dissolved completely. Add the tofu last, and serve with green onions.

The best thing about traditional Japanese cooking is that it is very simple, and yet very healthy and tasty. Japanese food usually includes rice, which is a staple, sushi, vegetables, fish and other meats. Noodle soups can also be part of a Japanese meal. As can be seen, a traditional Japanese meal is a well-balanced and tasty meal to be enjoyed by the whole family.