five olives

Do you know that your bacon and egg breakfast, glass of milk at lunch, or hamburger for supper were all produced with U.S. corn? Corn is a major component in many food items like cereals, peanut butter, snack foods and soft drinks. There are two the most popular variety of corn today-white and yellow corn. Sweet corns are classified by the percentage of sugar in their kernels. Sweet corn has 5 to 10 percent. Sugar-Enhanced 15-18 percent and Super sweet 25 to 30 percent.

• To buy a fresh sweet corn, make sure it has tightly closed hulk that keeps the seeds within at maximum freshness. Feel the top from the outside of the bulk to check out whether the cob is completely filled.

• Don’t salt the water you boil for corn because salt toughens the skins of the kernels. For super sweet corn the briefer the dip into the boiling water the better.

• Cook corn on the cob with the husks on. The husk increase the flavor and steam the corn rather than boil it.

• If you prefer to use a steamer for cooking the corn, don’t cook long. It make take 5 to 10 minutes to ears to heat through, though the length of the time may vary.

• If you grilling the corn, don’t soak it in cold water, because that steams the corn on a grill. Either grill the corn in the husks, or grill the nude ears directly over the heat. This will caramelize the sugar in the corn and give it a n excellent taste and color.

• Roasting corn in a hot oven is better than using oven broilers. If you roast the ears in their husks, you are steaming the kernels. It takes 6 to 8 minutes to get the corn hot all the way through.

• If you are cooking one or two ears, microwave ovens do well with the corn. To keep the corn kernels from drying out, cook the ears with the husk on and at the highest setting, or simply cover kernels with a plastic wrap.

Most sauces use a high-calorie base of butter, cream and meat fat. But if you are dieting and want to reduce calories, it is easy to converted those sauces into low-calorie ones. Add wine, or sherry to accentuate the flavor of the dish, or simply choose a different cooking method.

Wine sauce
Heat a small amount of oil or butter in a saucepan and add an equal amount of flour. Cook 2 minutes to form a thick paste. Pour in 1 cup of your favorite wine, and cook until alcohol has cooked off and sauce looks like heavy cream. Good with stir-fried chicken or broiled beef.

Deglazing sauce
Deglazing captures the rich flavor of wine and turns it into a sauce without adding fat. Once the poultry or meat is completely cooked, remove it to a platter and keep warm. Add directly to the pan juices in the roasting pan about the same amount of dry wine and bring to a boil. Boil rapidly at high heat until reduced to half the original amount.
This cooking method called reduction: pan juices are cooked at high heat to evaporate the excess liquid and concentrate the flavors.

Stir-frying brings out the full flavor of a saute without the high calories of other frying methods. Less oil is needed due to quick cooking. Stir-frying is usually done at high heat in a wok, because it conducts heat quickly and evenly along all surfaces. Well-seasoned woks require only a little oil to prevent food from sticking.

During stir-frying you should toss the food using a wooden spoon or spatula.
Heat a small amount of oil and 1/4cup of wine or sherry in the wok or skillet. Use high heat when stir-frying. Then add the strongest-flavored vegetables (such as onions) and quickly toss with the cooking liquor to coat completely. Add other vegetables when the onions soften.

If you stir-frying vegetables with meat or fish, cook the meat or fish first; then remove from heat while vegetables finish cooking. Finally, season the stir-fry. The successful stir-fry has a bright appearance, a crisp texture, and plenty of seasoning.

The most important fact in choosing fish is freshness. A fresh fish will not smell fishy; a fishy smell means improper handling. A fresh fish has a mild odor, firm flesh, clear eyes, pink gills and shiny scales. When you buy steak or fillets look for flesh that is not yellow and brown around the edges. If you buy frozen fish make sure you don’t buy anything that has been defrosted for more than two days. It is better to buy frozen fish and defrost it at home.

There are two categories of fish: lean and oily. Lean fish has a mild flavor, white flash and contains 5% or less fat. Sole, flounder, turbot, cod, Pollack, sea bass, rock fish, snapper, drum, bass are examples of lean fish.

Oily fish contains 5 to 50 percent fat. Their flesh is usually richer and stronger and have less white flesh. The oily fish are swordfish, salmon, tuna, trout, and catfish.

Steaks are cross-sections cut from a whole fish. To cut a steak use a large, sharp knife cut off the head just behind gills. Slice the fish into steaks of the desired thickness, usually between 1 and 1 1/2 inches.

Fillets are long pieces of boneless fish. To fillet a round fish, make a slit along backbone from head to tail. Then cut behind gill. Hold the head, insert knife between fillet and ribs. Slide knife along ribs, cut down the fillet. Pull fillet free and sever skin at the anal fin. Repeat the process on the other side of the fish.

When you are cooking every day you might run out of interesting recipes. These days markets offer a huge variety of vegetables. Among them are vegetables that you have never tried or considered to try. Sometimes I want to eat something new but have no ideas how to cook it, or serve it, or store it. Well, sometimes it worth to spend some time and find out. It may be very surprising to discover that you can change the flavor simply by cutting and cooking vegetables in a different way. Did you know, for example, that you can add extra sweetness to the carrot by cutting them in small pieces and frying in a pan with a spoon of both butter and water? Do you want less oil in your eggplants? Easy- just grill them and you will get rich, caramel-like taste.

Because of this variety of vegetables it is very important to plan your menu before you go to the market. First of all, you need to know how to choose fresh vegetables. Then you might want to learn what vegetables can be prepared and served together. Usually vegetables are served hot or warm, so you cannot cook them ahead of time, so you might need some extra time before serving a meal. The best to manage this problem is to pre-cook vegetables. It easy to do to almost all vegetables no matter how you do it - cut them in small pieces, or big chunks, or even to cook the whole vegetable. Just cook them in boiled water, but make sure to stop cooking as they begin to feel tender when pierced with a fork. Then drain them and put into cold water; drain again and store.
If you need to serve them warm, you can melt a butter and then add pre-cooked vegetables. Stir and mix them until hot. Another way to reheat vegetables is to plunge them into a simmering water and let them stand for a while. But if you have a upcoming party, think of the vegetable recipes that taste best at room temperature or chilled.

For those who are watching calories or cholesterol it is possible to make vegetables taste good without butter, oil or spices. Cook you favorite vegetables with care and not overcook them, it might have undesirable effect on the taste.
Another method of cooking for dieters is stir frying of meat and vegetables. Use a big frying pan or wok over a high heat and vegetables will cook quickly while retaining their natural color and flavor. Once you learn how to do stir-frying, you will figure out what flavors you want to add and what combinations you like the best.

More and more often people of all ages consider eating fresh, raw vegetables. Delicious party appetizers may be appreciated by your guests. that even dieters can appreciate. You can serve raw vegetables as a salad or as a basket with different whole raw vegetables. Add fat free sauce or law-calorie dressing and you will be amazed how many people enjoy them!

Below you can find vegetables that are delicious when eating them raw.

Baby carrots -just serve them with any kind of your favorite dip.

Cabbage-cut in half. Break off chunks to eat.

Cauliflower-cut out core. Break off flowerettes to eat.

Cherry tomatoes-dip with stems.

Green beans-snap off ends and remove string.

Green peppers-cut vertically down to stem in 8-12 section.

Mushrooms -trim stem ends. Eat small mushrooms whole. Cut large into 6 pieces.

Radish-cut off root end but leave some leaves for dipping.

Turnip-peel and cut, add some sauce or dip and serve.