Saturday, February 10, 2007

Low Fat Salmon Recipes

by: Hans Dekker
Finding delicious has just become easier since you found our website. There are many wonderful low fat salmon recipes that will please your palate plus the palates of your dinner guests or family.

This first low fat salmon recipe uses yummy ingredients such as low or non-fat sour cream and low or non-fat mayonnaise to create a delectable creamy salmon recipe that is perfect for any occasion.

For this recipe you will need:


2 pounds of salmon filets,
¾ cup of low or non-fat sour cream,
1/3 cup of low or non-fat mayonnaise,
2 tablespoons of all purpose flour,
2 tablespoons of lemon juice,
8 ounces of low or non-fat cream cheese,
1 minced clove of garlic,
1/3 cup of your favorite white wine,
salt, pepper, and paprika to taste.

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash the salmon and pat it dry with a paper towel.

Use a non-stick spray such as Pam and spray your 9x13 inch baking dish. Place the salmon filets in the baking dish with the skin down in a single layer. In a medium size bowl, blend together the sour cream, mayonnaise, flour, lemon juice, cream cheese, garlic, and wine until smooth and well blended.

Now, with the back of a spoon spread the mixture over the salmon. Sprinkle with the salt, pepper and paprika to your liking. Do not cover and bake for around 20. You can use a meat thermometer to ensure your salmon is done and not overcooked. The internal temperature should be 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The salmon will still cook once you remove it from the heat source. Do not go by color alone.

You can also prepare low fat salmon recipes on your grill or barbeque and create some wonderful low fat sauces to enhance the flavor of your salmon.

A great sauce to serve along side grilled salmon is a low fat lemon dill sauce.

For this sauce you will need:

2 tablespoons of non-fat mayonnaise,
2 tablespoons of lemon juice,
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard,
¾ teaspoon of dill weed,
salt and pepper to taste.

Blend together all ingredients with a wire whisk and refrigerate until ready to serve.

About the author:
Hans loves seafood and is author of
Seafood Recipes at Steaks-Guide.com

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Friday, February 9, 2007

Edith's Cake That Thrilled the French

by: Janette Blackwell
Twenty-three chefs who cooked for world royalty and heads of state (The Club des Chefs des Chefs) were, during their 1987 visit to the U.S., wined and dined with the best our finest chefs had to offer. What impressed them most? Lunch at an Amish farm in Pennsylvania, where they ate homegrown new potatoes, string beans with cream sauce and corn, charcoal-grilled chicken, and baked ham, washed down with homemade root beer and peppermint tea, served by the family in a barn lined with handmade quilts.

They were stunned. Happily so, it seems. The chef for the president of France said, “Cooking has evolved so much. Nobody presents the true product as it is, and all of a sudden we were presented that.”

But the desserts impressed them most. Especially one they couldn’t name. One they described as a light “pain d’epices” (spice cake) with a layer of chocolate filling. Gilles Brunner, chef to Prince Rainier of Monaco, was so taken with the cake, which he described as a chocolate gingerbread, that he tried to get the recipe. His request was refused.

The Amish family did not want their identity revealed, which refusal greatly hampered efforts to identify the cake as well. Research by Phyllis Richman, then food editor of the Washington Post, seemed to show that the mystery dessert was Amish applesauce cake with chocolate frosting, and the Post printed a version of it contributed by Betty Groff, a cookbook author from the Pennsylvania Dutch country.

Which applesauce cake turned out to be pretty much what our family had been enjoying since my father married Edith Kennedy in 1977, and which Edith’s family had been enjoying long before that. Her daughter, Lorenelle Doll, who gave me the recipe, says that it was a favorite of my father and Lorenelle’s husband Arnie. (So far as I know, Edith didn’t actually feed any to a French chef.)

I like to think Edith’s version is better than Betty Groff’s, because that recipe says to “frost with vanilla or chocolate frosting if desired.” Whereas Edith’s gives a recipe for chocolate frosting MADE WITH BUTTER. And in my view the humblest frosting made with butter is better than the fanciest frosting made without. I’m not implying that Edith’s frosting is humble. It isn’t. It’s purely wonderful, as is her cake.

Edith Kennedy Glidewell went to be with her Lord in March 2002, but before that she gladdened many hearts in many ways, this applesauce cake not the least of them.

EDITH’S APPLESAUCE CAKE

Cream together 1/2 cup room temperature butter or shortening and 1 cup sugar. Add 1 egg and beat together. Mix in 1-1/2 cups applesauce.

Sift together 2 cups flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. soda, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. allspice, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp. cloves. Add to applesauce mixture, along with 1 cup raisins and 3/4 cup chopped walnuts.

Lightly oil a 9" x 12" pan and dust with flour. Add the cake mixture and bake at 350 degrees 50 to 60 minutes, until the top of the cake’s center springs back when touched. Frost with chocolate frosting when cool.

Chocolate Frosting: Combine in a heavy saucepan or double boiler 1 square baker’s unsweetened chocolate, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter, and 1/3 cup milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and cook 1 minute. Cool and beat until the frosting has a satin finish.

About the author:
Find Janette Blackwell’s storytelling country cookbook, Steamin’ Down the Tracks with Viola Hockenberry, at http://foodandfiction.com/Entrance.html-- or visit her at http://delightfulfood.com/main.html
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Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Weird Foods Of The World - Chinese

by: Colette York
I have eaten some weird and wonderful dishes around the world but some of the more interesting concoctions have been served up to me in China.

A particularly interesting delicacy I ate some years ago consisted of Cow's bronchial tubes - the airways between the cow's lungs and windpipe (gruesome!) in a light white wine sauce.
The appearance of a plate full of macaroni, the taste of nothing but the white wine sauce and the consistency of over-cooked calamari, you could describe this dish as the original Chinese chew recipe!

Another time I was served with a plate of vermicelli with 20 or so delicately arranged deep-fried crispy scorpion complete with sting!

The trick to eating this particular delicacy was to convince myself it was nothing more than a prawn and all I had to do was to pick it up with my chopsticks and slip it into my mouth.
Actually once I had said to myself “it’s a prawn, it’s a prawn” 20 times this was not such an ordeal and basically the texture was, well, just crisp! and the only taste was of the oil it had been fried in, not so much of a Chinese chew, more of a Chinese crisp!

But Cow’s bronchial tubes and deep fried crispy scorpion are not the most gruesome dish I am aware of.

I say aware of rather than ate because even me with my cast iron constitution couldn’t stomach what I am about to describe to you. Anyway I am not sure if it’s just a popular folklore or if people really did this. I am sure it must be illegal now, if its not it should be!

Legend has it that, particularly in the southern parts of China, people had a specially designed ritualistic table with a hole in the centre, just big enough to take the upper part of a Monkey’s head.

Apparently the ritual consisted of capturing a live Monkey and securing it with it’s head wedged up in to hole in the centre of the table. The next step in the ritual was to trepanne the top of the live monkeys’ skull off and pour boiling water into the Monkey’s brain.
People sitting around the table would then proceed to eat the braised Monkey brain with chopsticks directly out of the Monkey’s skull.

I did warn you it was gruesome – it can’t possibly be true, can it?

Fortunately the dishes that we are more familiar with are not quite so outlandish and use much more traditional ingredients. There are many easy Chinese recipes on the Chinese food menu, just as well really because I don’t know about you but I think I must be part Chinese as I love the food and all about the place.

About the author:
Colette York loves all things Chinese but especially Chinese food and loves nothing more than cooking a delicious Chinese recipe. Come to http://www.chinese-foods.organd sample some delicious tastes.
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Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Vegetarian Gourmet----Meatless Makeovers

by: Cathy O
Three years ago I decided to go "meatless." It wasn't a difficult decision as I wasn't a voracious carnivore to begin with, however there were a few dishes that I missed that contained meat and wondered how I was going to live without these favorites.

Rather than resign myself to the notion that these dishes could never be converted over to a meatless status, I decided to pull myself up by my vegetarian bootstrings (cotton, of course), and see if I could find a way to convert these meat-ies to meatless.

The first was my Grammy's recipe for American Chop Suey, actually, almost everyone's Grammy made this or some variation of it. I tried different ways but this one comes the closest:

Meatless American Chop Suey

1 vidalia onion chopped
1-2 tbsp. butter
1/2 pkg Quorn (brandname) veggie grounds frozen
2 cans Campbells Tomato Soup
1 tblsp. catsup (yes catsup, you can't really taste it, it just adds a rich color to the sauce)
sea salt and pepper to taste

1 lb of your favorite fancy pasta in its rigati form, that means with lines, or something like like gemelli or rotini

Melt butter in a medium sized skillet over low heat. Add vidalia onion and gently saute until translucent. Add frozen Quorn grounds and heat till thawed. Add 2 cans soup and cook over low heat for 5-7 minutes. Add catsup salt and pepper and cook an additional 102 minutes.

Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Drain thoroughly and add sauce to pasta. Stir to incorporate completely. Serve. Serves 4-6 people as a side.


This next one is an adaptation of a Greek-Middle-Eastern recipe for Dolma. I loved this dish as a youngster summering on Cape Cod. A wonderful Lebanese family "turned me on" to this dish and I have finally found a way to make it meatless and spectacular!

Veggie Dolmas

1 jar of Grapeleaves in brine

Filling:
2 cup basmati rice cooked
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup of pine nuts ground
1/2 cup quorn grounds thawed
2 tbsp. dried mint (or 1/4 cup fresh mint chopped fine)
1 tbsp. dried parsely (or 1/4 cup fresh parsely chopped fine)
1 tsp dried oregano (or 1/8 cup fresh oregano chopped fine)
1 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp pepper
1 small can tomato paste

Juice of 2 lemons


Remove the grape leaves from the jar, rinse and unfold carefully and rinse again. Lay paper towels and pat dry. Gently remove any stems that are still on the leaves.

In a large bowl mix the filling ingredients together till they are well incorporated.

Carefully separate a few of the leaves and line the bottom of a 1-2 gallon stock pot.

To roll take a leaf, place 1 heaping tsp of filling in the center of the leaf about 1/2 inch up from the bottom edge. Fold 1/2 inch up over the filling, fold each side toward the middle, then beginning at the bottom again roll the whole package up till you have a 1-2" "log.

Continue with the rolling process till you use up all the filling.

Line the rolled leaves up in a circular pattern in the stock pot till all are in. Pour the juice of both lemons gently over the rolled leaves. Place a dinner plate on top with a stone in the middle to keep in place. Gradually add cold water till it just covers the leaves.

Bring contents to a boil then reduce and simmer for abount 1/2 hour till tender. Drain water by holding on to stone to keep plate in place and gently pour out cooking water. Leave plate on till almost cool.

Remove plate and serve with plain yogurt, yummy.

These can be frozen in 1-2 serving sizes for later. I like to do it this way then microwave them for a minute and a half for a quickie meal.




About the author:
Cathy O is a successful author who provides information on gourmet gift baskets, gourmet food, and gourmet recipes. "In addition to being a freelance writer, I also dabble in Aromatherapy, Herbalism and painting when I am so inspired. Living in the Lake region of Western Maine has been of tremendous inspiration to me and I am proud and happy to call it home."
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