What is Kale and Why Would I Want to Cook with It?

Saturday, July 19th, 2008

This is something that many cooks of all levels of experience ask themselves, but if you do a little bit of investigation, you’ll find that there are plenty of things that you can do with this highly versatile leafy green. When you eat kale, you are in good company.

Kale was the most commonly eaten green vegetable in Europe until the seventeenth century. There is actually evidence that kale was cultivated and used in the fourth century BC in ancient Greece. It was a popular addition to the British Victory Gardens of World War II and people are rediscovering the versatility and delicious flavor of kale nowadays.

If you can go long periods without cooking, you have probably had the unpleasant experience of opening up your refrigerator and finding that your vegetables have turned brown and soggy. Luckily, kale freezes very well, and gets a sweeter taste after being exposed to a frost. If you have fresh kale, especially if you have the very tender shoots, add them into your salads. Some ideas for a kale salad include using roasted nuts, strong peppers, and peanuts, all to emphasize the strong, almost smoky taste.

If you want to know how to cook kale, the good new is that cooking kale is easy. It is also optional because kale tastes great raw too. If you like cooked vegetables, you might like to try a southern African recipe in which the kale is boiled with ground peanuts and coconut milk and served on top of flatbread or rice. This is a very good way to enjoy a tasty vegetarian treat, which is both delicious and healthy.

Kale is frequently combined with ground, sliced meat, such as ground beef, or spiced sausage, in European kale recipes. It can be mixed with broth, olive oil, and potatoes and served as an accompaniment to the meat. A milder vegetable might not be able to stand up to the strong meat flavor but kale does the job excellently because of its strong, rich flavor. Something else you can do with kale is to cut it up and add it to stir-fries, something that is popular all over the world.

If you want to stir fry kale, add some Japanese shiitake mushrooms to the mixture. Remove the stems of the kale and cut the leaves into large parts. Heat some oil in a wok or large frying pan and gently fry the garlic, mushrooms, and anything else you want to add. When these ingredients are tender, add the kale and season with pepper, soy sauce, and sesame oil and you will have a delicious, healthy meal within minutes, which is great served with some noodles or rice.

Kale is very underrated but you can see now that it can be used in many different recipes. So why not buy some kale the next time you shop for vegetables and discover its unique taste for yourself!

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Cuban cigars and delicious food

Saturday, July 19th, 2008

If you enjoy eating, you might want to try a Cuban cigar at the end of your meal. I guarantee it will be an experience you will not soon forget. I first had mine at an Italian restaurant after some delicious pasta in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Now I don’t know if it was the Cuban cigar or the waitress who was ready to rock the boat with me, but it was definitely an amazing experience.

Smoking Cuban cigars after a meal wasn’t always in fashion. The gentleman who discovered this great pleasure though needs to given the Nobel prize for helping the rest of the world discover the pure joy of smoking a Cuban cigar. Now what you have to decide is where are you eating? Is it a picnic or is it a dinner for two with that special lady in the red dress?

In this article I would like to focus on the type of food that will go best with your Cuban cigar. Yes a nice satisfying cigar after a good meal can make your night complete or top off that big lunch. Some people even have breakfast cigars like something very light on the palette such as a Fonseca.

The thing is you can always enhance your own lunch, dinner or breakfast by simply having a nice cigar at the end. Their are some rules as you don’t want to smoke cigars while you are eating. This will literally destroy the taste of food and the drink that you might be consuming.

If I smoke before, it must be accompanied with a nice drink. Scotch totally works in this scenario and you can even have some light wine. Moet is a very good choice as it’s light and goes very well with a medium to light cigar.

I remember going to a staff party in Vancouver and smoking it on my way to this Italian place. I guess you can say it was a before meal cigar. Cigar dinners are something that lots of people are finding new and definitely fun. It’s a great way to get people together and keep the party going.

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Gourmet Cooking: Teach Yourself the Basics

Friday, July 18th, 2008

Gourmet cooking may seem like something that is beyond the sphere of the everyday cook, but this is far from the case. There are several gourmet cooking techniques that you can implement to improve your overall cooking skill.

One path to developing these skills is to sign on for a gourmet cooking class. The downside is that many of these courses can be quite costly, and you might not have the time in your schedule to make it to all the classes.

The question remains then, how does one make gourmet cooking approachable so that you can apply it into your everyday meals?

Well, there are a few things you can do and if you read on hopefully you can pick up a few tricks to implement gourmet cooking into your everyday routine.

First off, you must plan this in a practical way. Gourmet cooking does not necessarily imply costly, out of the ordinary, or uncommon ingredients. Gourmet cooking actually entails employing the freshest ingredients of the finest quality.

A good way to approach gourmet cooking is to take a look at everyday spices. An example would be garlic. A gourmet chef would never use garlic powder, bottled garlic, or any other type of garlic that isn’t freshly chopped. A gourmet chef would also never use dried and bottled herbs. Instead, fresh herbs from the produce section of the grocery store would be used.

In the case of some ingredients, they will be more expensive. But you will come to realize that the price difference is not excessive, and it is still much cheaper than going out to eat. Once you become familiar with gourmet cooking, you will lose the desire to want to eat out. You’ll be able to make perfectly delicious dinners in your own kitchen. This way, you’ll have even more opportunity to make meals for you and everyone else.

The quickest and easiest way to incorporate gourmet cooking into your everyday cooking routine is to improve the overall quality of the ingredients that you are putting into your meals. Then you will have to learn how to cook the ingredients correctly.

The best way to do this is to look through cookbooks. With these, you can learn the basics and learn at your own pace. Your local library should have many books dealing with cooking that you can use.

Your cookbook should deal with the basics, including what type of knife you should use for various tasks, how to prepare chicken stock, and the process for clarifying butter. These are all fundamental cooking techniques that can often seem unattainable because they are considered to be gourmet.

Before long, you’ll realize that gourmet cooking is a skill that anyone can learn. All it takes is some time and effort.

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