Traditional Food

Posts Tagged ‘Best’

If you’re planning any kind of family Christmas or Yuletide celebration this year, especially if you’re hosting the event. Or even if you’re thinking of what you need to do in terms of preparing food for a family gathering then now, the beginning of November, is where you need to begin your cooking. Many Christmas cakes and confectionaries need to be prepared well in advance so that they can be allowed time to mature. This is particularly the case with rich fruit based cakes and puddings such as Christmas cake, for more details visit to www.300-dip-recipes.com Twelfth Night Cake and Christmas Puddings. Even Stollens are better if stored for a week or two before consumption.

With that in mind, and to help you with your festive planning here are some classic Christmas recipes for you. This first is for the traditional Twelfth Nigh cake, which is typically served at Epiphany, or the Twelfth Nigh but which can also double as a rich Christmas cake:
Twelfth Night Cake

Ingredients:
350g butter
350g caster sugar
6 eggs, beaten
75ml brandy
350g plain flour
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cinnamon
700g mixed dried fruit
50g blanched almonds, chopped
45g apricot conserve or apricot jam
900g almond paste (or marzipan)
4 egg whites
900g icing sugar
3 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp glycerine
glacé fruit, candied angelica and silver balls, to decorate

Method:
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten eggs, mixing well after each addition then add the brandy. Fold-in the flour, spices, fruit and nuts. Grease a deep 25cm cake tin and line the bottom and sides with greaseproof paper. Tip the cake mixture into this and tap to remove any trapped air. Place the cake in an oven pre-heated to 150°C and bake for about 2.5 hours, for more details visit to www.chicken-wing-cookbook.com or until the cake is firm to the touch. If the top of the cake darkens too quickly cover with a sheet of folded greaseproof paper about half-way through the cooking. Remove the cake from the oven, allow to cool in its tin for 30 minutes then tip onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Once cold cover the surface of the cake with the apricot preserve or apricot jam. Roll out the almond paste and cut just enough of the paste to go around the side of the cake. Then roll the remainder of the paste out and use to cover the top of the cake. Allow the cake to set for at least two days then prepare the icing by lightly beating the egg whites and incorporating the icing sugar into this to form a stiff paste. Add the lemon juice and glycerine and incorporate well. Then, using a palette knife spread the icing all the way around the sides and top of the cake. Place in a tin and allow to set for at least two days. When ready form a crescent of the candied fruit and anjelica on top of the cake and decorate with the silver balls.

The next recipe is a ‘twist’ on the classic Christmas pudding that I call the ‘Roman Christmas Pudding’. It’s a traditional rich Christmas pudding but made with ingredients that the Romans would have had to hand. It also uses the classic Roman combination of fish sauce and pepper in desserts. This has been so successful a recipe that I have to make it for the family every year now!

Product Description
For the first time ever, the best of holiday food and entertaining ideas from Southern Living, Home for the Holidays and Christmas with Southern Living come together in one volume. Included are approximately 350 recipes and 15 menus offering a variety of holiday food, over 70 color photos, plus helpful tips to make cooking easier than ever…. More >>

Southern Living Our Best Christmas Recipes

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

Despite new trends, hype and marketing, tradition has never been stronger. In France, good food still means authentic cooking by using natural products from diverse regions. This is how we celebrate human being by offering the best food to all our senses.
For more details go to:  www.tailgating-recipe.com cooking home-made food and eating at the table make your appetite grow stronger. The challenge is to combine ingredients together to get the best taste out of them. However anyone from anywhere can explore the world of french cooking. To start with, let’s find out what french people enjoy to eat.

Here are the top 10 most popular recipes in France:

Roast Chicken
Indeed roast chicken is not a notorious french recipe but cooked everywhere around the world from Asia and Africa to America. However it is the most popular french dish. Roast chicken is not stuffed inside. The secret is to baste the poultry several times during roasting with butter and cooking oil and to add an onion in the roasting pan. Roast chicken is traditionally served with potatoes and green beans.

Boeuf bourguignon
The most famous beef stew in France. Boeuf bourguignon is a traditional recipe from Burgundy. A recipe that French people use to cook at least once every winter. The beef meat is cooked in a red wine sauce, obviously a red wine from Burgundy. Bacon, onions, mushrooms and carrots add flavor to the recipe. But thyme, garlic and beef stock are essential to cook a good boeuf bourguignon.

Mussels mariniere
A typical summer recipe very popular along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast. Mussels are fresh and cooked in a white wine sauce with parsley, thyme, bay leaf and onion. For help visit: www.apples-recipes.com it takes only 5 minutes to cook a tasteful mussel’s mariniere. The secret is to season carefully the meal and to discard any mussels that don’t look good enough.

Sole meuniere
Although sole is an expensive fish, the taste is so elegant that it is considered as the noblest fish. Sole meuniere is a recipe from Normandy. The fish is cooked in a butter sauce with a little bit of flour and lemon juice. Sole is traditionally served with rice or green vegetables.

Pot au feu
A typical family meal coming once again from Normandy. Pot au feu is a boiled beef with pork, chicken and vegetables. It takes about 4 hours an a half to cook as the beef has to simmer slowly to extract all its flavor. Pot au feu is also called Potee Normande in France.

Sauerkraut
Quite similar to the german sauerkraut, the french sauerkraut called choucroute comes from Alsace. However the French recipe can be traced back to 6 centuries ago! Sauerkraut is a fermented cabbage. Commonly sauerkraut includes sausages, pork knuckle and bacon. Two essential ingredients are Alsatian white wine and juniper berries.

Veal stew
Called Blanquette de veal in France, this is another stew recipe from Normandy. The veal meat simmers in white sauce – as Blanquette from Blanc stands for white in French – with mushrooms and onions. The white sauce is made of egg yolks, whipping cream and lemon juice. Veal stew is usually served with rice.

Lamb navarin
Another stew but this one is made of lamb meat. It is also called spring lamb as it comes with green vegetables available in spring. Navarin comes from navet which stands for turnips in French. Other ingredients are tomatoes, lamb stock and carrots. This stew takes less time to simmer than any other.

Cassoulet
A strange recipe that English people often confuse with their traditional breakfast! A traditional meal from south west of France. Each village has its own recipe but it always includes beans and meats. Cassoulet is a rich combination of white beans and depending on the village lamb, pork, mutton or sausage meat. Cassoulet is the cornerstone of the French paradox study describing why people from south west of France suffer less than others from infarcts.

Bouillabaisse
Bouillabaisse is closely linked with the city of Marseille on the Mediterranean coast. The recipe is a fish soup from local fish and seafood products including crabs, scorpion fish, monk fish and others. Provencal herbs and olive oil are essential. For a long time, the recipe was a secret jealously kept by the people from Marseille.

Product Description

This book traces the cause of many chronic health problems to our modern diet and shows how a return to traditional foods can improve one’s well-being.

Modern medicine now recognizes that the present-day Western diet is responsible for many of today’s chronic illnesses. Nutritionists and anthropologists have noted the decline in health that accompanies indigenous peoples’ transition from traditional to modern diets. In Traditional Foods Are Your Bes… More >>

Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine: Improving Health and Longevity with Native Nutrition