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.

We’ve always been known for our love of food, but for most people, that hearty appetite comes at a price. With our increasingly hectic lifestyles, there’s hardly any time to exercise or get fit. Add to that the fact that Filipino cuisine tends to be high in fat and calories. Yes, it’s great food, but you have to admit it’s not exactly healthy.

But before ditching that adobo or taking out those South Beach cookbooks, here’s some good news: there is such a thing as low-fat Filipino food. In fact, you can make any dish diet-friendly with just a few simple tweaks-without giving up any of the flavor. If all that eating is taking a toll on your waist, start eating healthier with these tips and 1. Make substitutions

One of the secrets to low-fat cooking is replacing common ingredients with low-fat alternatives. Start with your oil: most people use regular cooking oil, which is made from animal fat and very high in cholesterol. Use vegetable-based oils such as corn, canola, sunflower, or if you can afford it, olive oil. When making salads, replace mayonnaise with mustard or vinaigrette, and use fresh instead of canned ingredients.

A common problem with substitution is that they don’t always work. You can’t expect them to taste the same as the original, but they don’t have to taste bad. It takes some practice and experience to know which ingredients will work together and which ones will not. Feel free to experiment-you’ll learn from your mistakes and get the hang of it in no time.

Fish is a favorite replacement for meat dishes. Try this low-fat recipe in place of steak and meat chops.

Grilled Tuna Steak

Ingredients:

4-6 fresh tuna steaks

1 bottle of Italian dressing

I heard something disturbing this morning. One of my girls told me that she was Googling recipes for Panipopo and came across some that called for store-bought, ready-made dough.. which you would then proceed to roll into dough balls…

NO!

NO NO NO!

Oh, and NOOOOO!

It’s not THAT difficult to make real Panipopo dough from scratch – the store-bought stuff is too generic and… just not right!

So don’t be lazy. I’ll walk you through it…

By the way,THANK YOU so much Auntie for entrusting me with your top secret recipe, but… um… you might wanna close your eyes now…because I’m sorry.. but if I don’t share, I’m scared a whole generation of people will think it’s okay to make Panipopos with store-bought dough balls… *sigh*…

Right. Let’s start from the beginning.

For those less fortunate out there who don’t know, panipopos are a Samoan dish usually eaten as a dessert or with a hot beverage, preferably Koko Samoa. Its name says it all:

Pani = bun (not ‘bread’)

Popo = Coconut, specifically mature coconuts that are ready to be ‘milked’ lol… Eh, you know what I mean.

So, coconut buns. Hot, steamy buns baked in a pool of sticky, sweet coconut cream sauce that you can use for further bun dipping… mmmm….

I’ve come across a few variations of the recipe. Some of them will call for eggs and milk, which results in a more ‘bread’ like consistency… I’m not a fan of that one because the bread then tends to soak up too much of the coconut cream sauce and get too mushy. But hey, if you like mushy, go for gold…

…and go to Google, cause this version (my Auntie’s recipe) produces a more, “springy” type of bun that’s still moist and spongy… and is way better.

Because I said so.

Okay, you’ll need these ingredients:

The Bun

Standard Flour
Salt
Butter
Sugar
Dry Active Yeast
(VERY warm) Water

The Sauce

Coconut milk or cream (pe’epe’e)
Sugar
Flour (for thickening)

The Cook

Confidence
Good reading skills
Faith in me
A sense of adventure

Don’t panic that I haven’t put any measurements up there. This recipe is flexible. Just pay attention.

Four cups of flour (and I’m talking about coffee mugs, not the measurement cups) will fill about two-and-a-half to three 15-1/2″ x 10-1/2 apas (pans). With around 24 buns a pan, that’s like 60 buns all up, more than enough for ‘cup teas’ at home.

The rest of the measurements will follow the number of cups of flour you use. If you use 4 cups flour, you’ll need 4 spoons of sugar and 4 spoons of yeast. If you want to feed the neighbours too and go for 8 cups of flour, then use 8 spoons of sugar and 8 spoons of yeast.

You with me so far?

Cool.

Here’s how we do it. Watch:

The Flour Mixture

First, dump our flour (let’s say its 4 coffee mugs full) into a bowl. Toss in a ‘pinch’ of salt – half a teaspoon is good if the word ‘pinch’ makes you nervous.

See that block of butter there? It’s been sitting at room temperature for a while, so it should be ‘softened’ now. Since my hands are always clean, I’m gonna break off some of that butter (maybe start with about 50 grams which is like a quarter cup, but YOU Google the conversion)… and I’m just gonna rub that butter into the flour.

MILI Mili mili mili mili mili mili mili… ma koe MILI Mili mili mili mili mili….

What I want is a consistency that’s crumbly but kinda ‘silky’ at the same time, so I might need to work more butter into the flour, but make sure it doesn’t get too greasy.

When the mixture is just right, I make a well in the middle of the bowl and chuck in my 4 heaping spoons of sugar… don’t get too fussy about the spoon measurement here. With practice, you’ll figure out how sweet you like your buns to be, and the sugar is more for yeast development anyway.

The Yeast

Okay, now it’s time to grab another (smaller) bowl for the yeast. Apparently, yeast works better in either a metal or glass / ceramic bowl, so try to avoid plastic. Plastic is never good.

Anyway, since we used four cups of flour, we’re going to put 4 heaping teaspoons of active dry yeast into the second bowl. Get the tap to run REALLY warm, but not too hot, and pour maybe 2 cups of that warm water over the yeast. Use your hands or a spoon to break up the yeast and stir till its fully dissolved – add more warm water if necessary to do that.

This yeast water (which should be milky grey in color and smell like yummy bread now) goes into the flour mixture, in the well you made with the sugar.

Mix-Up Mix-Up

Grab that long wooden spoon your mum reserves for special hidings and ‘fold’ together all the ingredients now, scraping the flour from the sides of the bowl into the middle, then up and over again till everything is combined nicely. Keep that tap running, cause you’ll need to mix in more warm water in order to get the perfect consistency…

When it’s ready, your mixture will look like a really thick, sticky pancake batter. It should be fairly solid, but if you shake the bowl a little, the batter should ‘jiggle’…

Okay, now cover that bowl with a damp dish towel and put it in a warm, dark place to rise for an hour.

The Dough

When you come back to it, the dough should be double its size with lots of little holes in it. Your whole house should be smelling like home baking by now.

It’s time to knead the dough, which means you just dump a lot of fresh flour on a counter-top (I like to spread it out like a thick white blanket) and turn the holy, sticky dough out onto it. Then, working from the edges of the flour ‘blanket’, I fold the new flour into the sticky stuff and flatten and squeeze and knead until you can form the dough into a smooth, round shape that’s got a little bit of flour dust on the outside.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Do NOT knead the dough for too long. You need to stop working it while it’s still relatively soft when we squeeze it. We want buns, not bagels… or teething rings…

Okay, cover the dough and let rise again for another half hour.

The Buns

When you come back, preheat the oven to about 200 degrees (on a NZ oven ), THEN…

…cut the dough into chunks (about half a fist size), roll into thick ‘strings’, and tie each into a knot. This shape helps the coconut cream sauce to flavour more parts of the bun, but if you have trouble with it, you can also just roll a boring dough ball. Up to you.

[If you find that the dough is still pretty sticky when you come back to it, go ahead and knead it again with a little more flour... just till it's dry enough to work with, but still soft and spongy.]

Fill each pan with the buns, leaving enough space between them to allow for more dough rising and to let coconut cream sauce in.

After you’ve done all the buns, let them sit for a bit cause we need to do the coconut cream sauce.

The Coconut Cream Sauce

Fresh is always best, right… So if you’ve got a coconut tree somewhere, get somebody to climb it. If not, then the best coconut cream you can buy is in a carton, made by these guys ==> KARA

Otherwise, you’re going to have to settle for canned coconut cream. Ala’s make a pretty okay canned pe’epe’e.

Okay, pour two cans or a 200ml carton of pe’epe’e into a container, work half a cup of flour and water into a runny paste and dump that in there as well, then top up with more water until we have enough sauce for all the pans. We should be able to fill the pans so that the coconut cream sauce covers at least half the height of the buns.

[EDIT: While the buns are cooking, check to make sure the sauce doesn't reduce too much. You may have to add more sauce so that there's plenty for dipping, but add it early enough so that it has a chance to come to the boil before the buns are ready. Let's just say raw coconut milk, if you drink enough of it, can make a great laxative.]

But before we start pouring though, we need to sweeten the coconut cream sauce. You do this according to your own tastes, but remember… for some reason the cooking process gets rid of some of the sweetness, so just make sure you add enough sugar into the sauce so that it’s couple notches SWEETER than you think it should be.

Bake in the Oven

RIGHT! So the oven is hot now, the buns have risen just a little bit more in their pans, and you’ve got a container (jug? pitcher? large bowl?) full of sweetened, thickened coconut cream sauce. The only thing left to do is pour the sauce into the pans, chuck them in the oven, wait maybe 20 – 30 minutes for the sauce to come to a boil and the tops of the buns to become a golden brown, and take the pan out and mmmm…… But wait, there’s a LITTLE bit more…

While the buns are cooling, you might want to brush sugar water over the tops to prevent them from getting dry.. but I think covering the apa with tin foil (only after they’re out of the oven) or a damp cloth will do the same thing.

Eating Panipopo

Congratulations!! We’ve just made AUTHENTIC Samoan Panipopo. You can burn your mouth on them now, I know you want to… but I like panipopos best after they’ve been sitting… marinating… for maybe an hour after they came out of the oven.

Serve them in a shallow bowl, spooning more sauce over them for extra dipping, and with a hot cuppa something nice to drink on the side.

They’re also GREAT the next day, even if you have to heat them up (for less than a minute) in the microwave.

Ia. Ua uma upu.

To get started, this recipe is really easy and so tasty!

Honey

Making wedding cake recipes from scratch is not that difficult. Take it from me. I have been doing this for over 25 years now. The very first of my homemade wedding cakes was a carrot cake recipe and it was from scratch. Homemade wedding cakes are the best. The only time I EVER used a mix was in a high volume situation. It was exclusively the white wedding cake recipe that was slightly time consuming, and the chefs insisted upon my using their mix. If you have ever worked in a professional kitchen then you know how those head chefs can be at times, it is more about saving money and time, but for me it is so much more about quality. I did manage to sneak in all of my homemade fillings though.

Whether you are a professional pastry chef or an amateur baker making homemade wedding cakes for friends and family, these tips may help.

Tips

Try to stick with a simple homemade recipe such as one that does not require a lot of fancy steps. A dump cake recipe is a good choice. I know it does not sound so delicious but dump recipes basically have one requirement and that is that all ingredients get dumped into the bowl at once and mixed. And that is it. What could be easier than that? One of my best and most frequently requested cake is chocolate buttermilk dump recipe. Have all of your ingredients measured out and at room temperature before you start the process of putting it all together. Making a wedding cake if taken in steps is just a matter of multiplying your favorite homemade recipe and baking them off in larger pans. Fill the cake pans 1/2 to 1/3 full. You can fill a pan a little more if using a lighter batter a little less when using a heavier batter. This is the part that you will need to judge as you gain experience. Always grease, flour and put parchment or wax paper along the bottom of the pans. Always let the cakes cool completely before covering and storing. You will need cardboard circles to put under each cake for support when lifting and moving the cakes. You need to decide how many layers your cakes will be before baking, you can bake each layer separate or cut your cakes in half to make two layers. (It depends on how deep your pans are and how much you fill them as to how many layers you get out of each cake.) For wedding cakes I prefer using a two layer cake with one layer of filling because it keeps the cake a little more stable. But you will need to figure out your preferences.