Chef Foundation

Buying cookware depends upon the cook and how much cooking is done. Should the cookware be top of the line or run of the mill average? When buying cookware ask what is the cooks favourite style of cooking; broiling, baking, that sort of thing. A pot of homemade soup or a homemade desert trumps a sandwich any day, so if you are buying cookware for your favourite cook or for yourself consider a few basic things.

Make sure non stick coatings are not toxic there are already too many things on the market not good for the body. Be sure the cookware is easy to clean; cooking can be work, make the cleaning as easy as possible. What type of heat distribution does the cookware have? Will the dishes the cook enjoys making require deep frying? Will the cook make dishes broiled or otherwise? Everyone loves the smell of great cooking but wonderfully flavoured dishes are better in well balanced cookware.

Copper cookware is extremely popular, but great stainless cookware can be bought with a copper bottom. The even transfer of heat is great with copper cookware and the copper bottom cookware. Copper cookware is wonderful to cook with. This set of great pots and pans does not come cheap. Many good cooks enjoy copper cookware; the heat distribution of this beautiful cookware is fantastic. Cooking in the Sauce pans and Roasters give leeway for extensive creativity. Deep skillets are a must when buying cookware. You never know what you might like to cook in them. Always make sure cookware has tops that fit and handles that are not hot to the touch.

Great cooking utensils do not always cost a fortune. Think of the wonderful dishes your grandmother made with some interesting looking cookware. But one thing was available in your grandmothers day cooking elements with good heat distribution and practiced know how. Cooking was not a hobby but a way of life, cooking many of the same dishes over and over; often needing to make very plain dishes taste fantastic.

A nice set of stainless can create a stir in the kitchen, Dutch ovens and Sauté pans sitting in your kitchen ready to cook up hundreds of things. Pull out a beautiful set of pots and pans and you feel you are the Martha Stewart of the Kitchen World whether you can cook or not. Whether you get to be a great cook or a cook who makes a mean meatloaf the fun is in the trying and using great cookware.

It really isn’t difficult to find good simple low-fat recipes. In fact you only need a little common sense to modify just about any favourite recipe so that it has less fat (and/or less sugar) in it.

For example, if you are making something with beef mince in it, you can start by using the highest quality mince with a very low fat content. If a recipe calls for butter you can reduce the fat content considerably without compromising on taste just by using a dairy blend which combines butter with canola oi

Sugar can be replaced by a low-calorie sweetener that’s used spoon-for-spoon or cup-for-cup in the same way as you would use sugar. Of course you can use other types of artificial sweeteners as well but something like Splenda is the simplest option and has a very natural taste compared to some others. It’s also possible to use natural ingredients like apple sauce and apple puree for sweet recipes in place of sugar.

Light evaporated milk is a very good substitute for cream, as is low-fat plain yoghurt and low-fat sour cream, depending on the recipe. There are so many low-fat alternatives on the market these days, it really isn’t difficult to considerably reduce the amount of fat in so many recipes – without necessarily using those that will ruin the taste altogether. Cheese that is reduced in fat content by even 25 per cent will help but it still tastes perfectly acceptable. You can find low-fat versions of almost any dairy product you might need. Even condensed milk comes with reduced fat content these days, so you can even make an indulgent slice with less fat in it if you crave a little bit of something very special. If a recipe calls for coconut milk you can buy that with reduced fat too. Of course there are plenty of tasty low-fat milks on the market too. It’s not like the old days when the only low-fat choice was skim milk and you might just as well use water. Just using low-fat milk instead of full-cream milk in your recipes will make a significant difference.

Adding plenty of veggies to some meat dishes – such as spaghetti bolognese, burgers and meatloaf – will make them go further, and a regular portion size will not only be more nutritious but will naturally have less fat content as well. This is also a great way to encourage children to eat veggies. My five-year-old son just loves these family favourites even though he is not fond of eating veggies on their own. In this day and age, where childhood obesity is a huge issue, it’s vital to use whatever means we can to encourage our children to develop good low-fat eating habits.

If you want some good low-fat recipe books though, you really couldn’t find anything better than a series by Annette Sym, an Australian business woman who developed her own recipes when she lost 35 kilos some years ago. Her first book of recipes proved such a hit that she has gone on to produce four more. The series is called “Symply Too Good to Be True” and the books are full of great simple recipes accompanied by gorgeous photos that will make your mouth water with anticipation. These were developed by simply modifying favourite recipes according to common sense, along with a little research and experimentation.

Weight Watchers recipe books are always a great addition to a low-fat recipe library too – and they bring out several new books each year. Most of the recipes are simple enough for most cooks to try and use ingredients that are easy enough to acquire. At the same time they are very appetising and innovative.

Besides, the internet is an amazing source of recipes of every kind – so there is no doubt anybody could find a wealth of great low-fat recipes by doing a simple Google search.

Lentil Tomato Soup is delicious and filling and very easy to make. Green vegetables make this soup a powerhouse of nutrition. Be sure not to overcook the lentils, as they can get rather mushy.

After you stir in the tomatoes, let the soup simmer for 20 minutes if you have time in order to allow the flavors to blend a little more. And feel free to double the recipe and keep some in the fridge for a day or two, as the soup will get even better over this time.

This lentil tomato soup recipe makes 3-4 servings, depending on how much of a hunger you’ve got going…

Lentil Tomato Soup Recipe Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil 1 medium onion, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 cup white wine (or apple juice instead) 1 Tbsp each of dried basil, dried oregano, and dried marjoram or 2 Tbsp each of fresh basil, fresh oregano, and fresh marjoram 4 cups water 1 cup lentils 1 can diced tomatoes 1 cup spinach OR kale OR chard OR another green sea salt Lentil Tomato Soup Recipe Directions
Heat a large soup pan on medium heat. Add the olive oil and saute the onions and garlic until translucent (not browned). Pour in the wine and allow it to bubble to deglaze the pot and burn off the alcohol. If using dried herbs, stir them in now, followed by the lentils. Pour in the water and boil for 30 minutes or until the lentils are softened. Stir in the tomatoes and sea salt and leave for 10 or preferably 20 minutes. Stir in the greens a few minutes before serving so they wilt. If using fresh herbs, stir them in now. Optionally garnish this lentil tomato soup recipe with fresh herbs or a roasted nut or seed and enjoy.

Everyone knows that a slow cooker is a great way to make hearty stews. However, there are many more slow cooker recipes that you may not be aware of.

For example, a slow-cooked chicken curry is a deliciously spicy treat. All you have to do is add the meat, vegetables, spices and sauce to the cooker before you go to work, and you can come home to a wonderful curry. All you will need to do on your return is cook some rice or heat some naan breads to serve with it. What is particularly good is that curries are amazingly versatile. For this dish, for example, you can swap the chicken with other types of meat, fish, or extra vegetables for a vegetarian alternative.

Desserts can also be prepared using the slow cooker. One option is to slow cook chunks of fresh pineapple for 4 hours, along with ginger, cinnamon and brown sugar. This method makes the pineapple wonderfully soft, and will melt in the mouth when served with exotic coconut ice cream.

Of course, most people use their slow cooker primarily to make soups or stews. After all, it is a great way to use up any spare vegetables, along with tougher cuts of meat that need a long time to cook. Adding the stock, meat, vegetables and herbs to the slow cooker before you go to work means you won’t need to think about cooking after a hard day in the office. Instead, you will be able to open your door to delicious cooking smells, and the prospect of a freshly prepared meal with minimum effort. And that really is a great way to relax.

There are numerous recipes that can be adapted for larger numbers of guests, taking all the stress out of hosting a dinner party. This means you can concentrate on what is important – spending time with your guests and ensuring they are enjoying themselves.

A classic chili is simple to prepare and very popular – the perfect dish to satisfy hungry guests. Just remember to wash your hands after chopping chili peppers.

So, with many soup, main course and dessert slow cook recipes available, this really is one of the most versatile appliances in the kitchen.

Now you’re in the know, you’ll be able to use your slow cooker to its full potential, instead of simply concentrating on making stews with it.

Chicken breasts are possibly the planet’s most liked meat and the reason for this is perhaps its soft texture and adaptable nature that allows it to suit lots of cooking techniques. Its unproblematic to incorporate chicken-breasts into more or less all dishes – one can bake, grill, fry or boil them with ease.

The flexible character of chicken breasts enables it to be used easily in almost all recipes – be it quick & easy or exotic and complex recipe. However you must know that if you don’t remove the skin then the chicken is twice as fatty and therefore it’s ideal to remove the skin before you commence cooking. It’s also an actuality that lean chicken is more nutritious because it has lots of Vitamin A and Vitamin E aside from possessing lesser cholesterol and fat.

Tips on cooking chicken breasts:
1. Chicken or in general any meat must ideally be heated to a temperature of 165 deg since this assists in removing any all the bacteria and makes the chicken pieces devoid of food transmitted disease.

2. If stored in warm places the taste and odor gets worse and can even result in spoiling the meat, so stack it in the coldest section of your refrigerator and this applies to both the cooked & marinated chicken.

3. Uncooked chicken should be dealt carefully and you should not hold other food items while you are in contact with raw chicken. When you are through, clean your palms thoroughly.

4. Soft & moist breast pieces taste best, but cooking them for too long can make them hard and dry.

5. If you utilize moist mode cooking, do so with low heat and cook for longer periods. In case you like roasting, sauteing, baking or grilling then do so under high flame for short intervals. Grilling ought not be done for more than 20 minutes and the pieces ought to be frequently turned all through that time to stay away from burning them.

6. Here is a small secret. If you like the pieces really soft and juicy then dip them in salt water solution for close to 45 minutes prior to cooking.

Soup is an easy dish to make and the fact that there are four ingredient soup recipes means that absolutely anyone is capable of making a tasty soup with ease, even a beginner home cook.

If you have the choice of opening a can of soup or creating a simple four ingredient soup, which do you think will be the tastiest? A canned soup often contains about twenty different ingredients but a lot of these are colorants, preservatives and fillers, so making your own soup is a healthier choice as well as a more economical and more flavorful one.

Some chicken soup recipes and other types of soup recipes are based on canned soups and you will use a canned soup as the base ingredient and add water, vegetables, fish or meat, and herbs or spices to finish it off.

However, there is a lot to be said for making soups from scratch and making soup is so easy that you really do not have to use a canned soup in the recipe. The following recipe for four ingredient chicken soup proves first of all that crockpot soups are extremely flavorful and secondly that you do not require lots of ingredients to give your soup flavor.

How to Make an Easy Crockpot Chicken Soup

This recipe has only four ingredients but the long cooking time, which is typical of crockpot cooking, means that all the flavors from the chicken and vegetables are extracted and the soup has plenty of flavor without requiring a lot of ingredients to be added to it. This chicken soup recipe makes enough soup for four servings.

You can, of course, add more ingredients if you want to. Celery is good in this four ingredient chicken soup, for example, and you might want to add some tomato paste, herbs, or spices. Alternatively, you can wait until it is cooked and then just add salt and pepper. Sometimes it is nice to eat a plain soup because you can really taste the wonderful pure chicken flavor.

You will need:

4 boneless chicken breasts 2 sliced onions 2 sliced carrots 1 pint chicken or vegetable broth
How to make it:

Arrange the vegetables over the base of the crockpot, and then add the chicken and broth on top. Cover and cook for nine hours on low or four hours on high. If you are cooking the soup on high, add another half cup of water. Remove the chicken breasts, shred them with a fork, and return the chicken to the crockpot.

To serve this soup, you might need to season it a little with salt and pepper. You can also add some cooked noodles or pasta shapes if you like, else enjoy the soup as it is, with some crusty bread or garlic bread on the side.