Easy Indian Cooking Tips

You may be a girl who has entered the kitchen for the first time after getting married. Or you may be a young student living alone, trying to grasp the basics of cooking. Or you may be someone who is not Indian at all, but wants to try cooking Indian food! Whoever you are, it may be a bit overwhelming when you first try your hand out cooking Indian. Rest assured, it will not be so difficult as time goes by and you get the hang of it. Rustling up an Indian meal is not time consuming, if you know your way around. Fresh ingredients form the basis of most Indian cooking and many households will cringe at the thought of cooking with anything that comes out of a can! Going to the local market for fresh vegetables, fruits, meat and fish is a ritual all Indians are fond of. This article will give you tips to cook Indian that will make you a happier cook.

1. Spices are an integral part of Indian cooking. Lots of spices and aromatics are used daily in the Indian kitchen. Without them, dishes would be bland and lifeless. So unless you have a basic understanding of spices, cooking will not be fun. But don't worry, it is really not as tough as it seems. In fact, you will be able to learn more about spices as you go about cooking daily meals. Turmeric, chillies, coriander, cumin, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and start anise are just a few of the spices used regularly. Apart from this, ginger, garlic and onions too are used. Different spices lend different flavors. Some are best used as a 'tadka' (a concoction of spices spluttering in hot oil or ghee) and some are used best when grounded or as a paste.

2. It is very important in Indian cuisine to have the pan hot and the oil hotter before putting in the spices or the vegetables. So turn on the heat!

3. We know that Indian spices smell awesome. But it would be a good idea to open the kitchen windows when cooking Indian food unless you want your nostrils to be invaded by the smell of strong chillie powder.

4. If a recipe calls for grinding spices like coriander or cumin, it is important that you roast them first in a pan before grinding. This will ensure that all the lovely flavors are released.

5. Use the pressure cooker as much as you can. It reduces the cooking time of meat, vegetables and lentils. In fact, some lentils will take hours to cook on the stove and so using the pressure cooker is just smarter. Take notice of the cooking times though.

6. When a dish calls for using curd or yogurt, it is a good idea if you can make it fresh at home. Store- bought yogurt just doesn't have the same taste or flavor as homemade.

7. Indian cooking relies on fresh ingredients. So as much as possible, avoid anything that comes out of a can!

How to Cook a Steak to Perfection - Five Tips

There are many ways to cook a steak but these five tips are a must for making a great steak. No one wants to buy an expensive cut of meat and then ruin it by cooking it until its tough and chewy. I know this has happened to me a few times and it is quite the disappointment. So to ensure you don't end up with some inedible piece of meat follow these tips to create a moist, tender and juicy steak. Let's learn how to cook a steak to perfection every time!

1. Always start with a quality cut of steak

Cuts such as prime rib or New York Strip are excellent choices. These cuts of meat from the loin and rib area are the most tender and tasty.

2. Look for lots of marbling in the steak

These are the white veins or lines you see in the meat. These veins will become liquid when heated and will help to tenderize your steak making it nice and juicy.

3. Don't cut the steak open to check for doneness

Cutting the steak while it's cooking will dry it out. You want the juices to remain trapped inside and cutting allows the juices to escape.

To test for doneness just press on the steak with your finger. You can learn how it should feel by using the "finger test". Press on the fleshy part your hand beneath your thumb this is how a raw steak feels. Now touch your baby finger to your thumb and touch that same area under the thumb with your finger; this is how a well done steak will feel. Now touch the finger next to your baby finger to your thumb and press again to see how a medium steak will feel. The next finger is medium rare and the last finger will be rare.

It takes some getting used to but it is the best way to test for doneness. If you really don't feel comfortable with this the next best method is using a meat thermometer as it will pierce the steak in a much smaller area.

4. Use a marinade

Marinating a steak gives it loads of flavour, more so than just sprinkling it with seasonings, it also helps to tenderize and this in turn keeps your steak juicy. Steaks can be marinated in the refrigerator overnight or for several hours before you plan to cook it.

5. Bring the steak to room temperature before cooking

The sudden and extreme change in temperature could cause it to turn out tough. Also, it is wise to let the steak rest for at least a couple of minutes after cooking or grilling to allow it to settle and become more flavourful.

Cooking Tips From Iron Chef Contestant Matt Stone

In my segment Beers with Brad, I enjoy a beer with some well known hospitality professionals.

This segment sees me interview Chef Matt Stone from The Greenhouse in Perth.

Matt is very confident and well accomplished for a Chef so young. His performance on Iron Chef against Neil Perry was certainly impressive.

Here's the interview we had over a pint of Coopers Pale Ale:

Q. What beer are you drinking?

A. Coopers pale ale my favourite beer.

Q. Why is it your favourite?

A. Coopers pale ale in Margaret River, if you're not drinking it as Settlers Tavern, you're not considered a local, and um, I've just been sort of sixteen hanging out in the pub and that's what everyone drank so that's what I drank, that's what my old man drank and we're lucky enough to have it on tap here so I'm pretty stoke with that one.

Q. Why has the Greenhouse been such a success?

A. The Greenhouse has been a massive hit in Perth in the last, well it's just two years that we've been open. I suppose we've really brought a point of difference to the hospitality industry not only in Perth but in Australia, with the..way we build our restaurants, the way we run our restaurants, through to the products that we serve, products that we source, and serve them on a plate, which here isn't really a plate, you know we've got lots of sort of quirky different things that we serve our food on... it's a very interesting place, it's very visual and ethically it's.. you know, it's where we think a lot of people should be heading, with not only hospitality but offices and just urban environments. We're up here on the rooftop where we.. have twenty four cubic metres of growing space in the middle of St Georges terrace in the city so there's no excuse that people can't be growing their own herbs, fruits, vegetables, whatever it may be, on their small terrace balcony or whatever it is in the city. Yeah, you know there's so many different elements that make up the Greenhouse and I think a lot of, a lot of our customers take it for different things, a lot of people use it as a cafe, a lot of people use it for..a night time cocktail bar,... lunches, that sort of stuff so we really appeal to a really broad market in a lot of different ways.

Q. Tell us a little about your background and how you got involved in cooking?

A. I started cooking almost ten years ago now. I left school really early down in Margaret River, school wasn't for me. I started cooking..in a pretty average cafe down there, washing dishes, really loved the environment, the atmosphere and the people. Went on to work at Leeuwin Estate winery which is an internationally acclaimed winery in Margaret River.. I worked there for about two years with some really good Chefs before moving up to Perth and working with David Coomer for about five years. I was originally a business partner and helped open Pata Negra on Stirling Highway Nedlands and then about two and a half years ago signed up for this gig and haven't looked back since.

Q. What's the most important thing you look for in a restaurant when you eat out?

A. When I'm looking for a restaurant to eat at? I'm lucky enough that I get to travel a lot through the East Coast and through Asia and Europe so and stuff like that so I'm probably a little more spoiled than some, but um. Here in Perth I mean it's quite hard, there's a lot of bad food in restaurants, there's a lot of produce going to waste in silly ways, but.. I suppose people that are really trying, people that have a bit of an ethos as to how they source their food, people that are creating cool fun environments, and I think that the Perth food scene is really kicking off, and the small bar scene is coming along nicely. There's a lot of development in the city so I suppose I'll keep my eye on that and see what's happening, but places like Rockpool come to town and spend ten million dollars on an amazing fit out and serve some of the best beef in Australia if not the world, so there's obviously those sort of draw cards but at the same time of got a couple of local restaurants in Vic Park, like the Prophet and Good One BBQ Restaurant that are cheap, cheerful and just awesome, you know, with mates and a couple of beers on the weekend and stuff like that, so it's a time and place thing, who you're with, what you're looking for, but.. I suppose at the end of the day if you're going to be serving... good food... being friendly as well..there's nothing worse than someone, sort of looking down at you and making you feel scummy for being in their restaurant, whatever, it's just you want a comfortable, friendly environment where everyone's cool, the food's cool and they're not trying to rip you off which is often the case in Perth.

Q. What's the best way to get started as a Chef/

A. To get started as young Chef, I suppose there's a lot of really good programs in place in high schools these days, there's a lot of students doing pre-traineeships and stuff which wasn't available when I started cooking, I didn't really hang around school long enough to do that anyway, but um, that sort of stuff is really great. I mean I'm not a qualified Chef on paper, essentially so I've never finished an apprenticeship, I suppose it's just having a passion and a love for food, being willing to give up a lot is a big one. Being a Chef you've got to give away your weekends and nights, I basically don't surf any more which I used t do every single day, obviously I live in Perth so it's kind of hard but I just don't have time. So it's a lot of sacrifice but at the same time if you're really in to it it's a really rewarding job to do, but.. just hard work and just read lots and lots of books.

Q. How long does it take to become proficient in the kitchen

A. To stand your ground in the kitchen, I mean the apprenticeship now has been reduced to three years, which I'm quite skeptical on to be perfectly honest, I've got a couple of kids, newly qualified Chefs and there still at the same level as the younger apprentices... it takes a lot of experience. I was in the kitchen for about six years..well it was even seven years before I..stepped up to a senior role. It takes a lot of time, a lot of hard work but like anything if you stick at it you'll definitely get there and it's a matter of working with the right people as well.

Q. If you had one secret to cooking good food, what would it be?

A. The secret to cooking good food..keep it simple, use..nice produce to begin with and don't mess around with it too much, you don't have to... I mean I have the utmost respect for people like Heston Blumenthal and Feran Adria for the food they do I think it's absolutely amazing but it's not food you're going to cook at home, it's not food we can execute in restaurants here in WA especially, Australia..We have amazing produce, we have great producers and just fantastic food around us we don't need to do much with it..I think it shows a lot of confidence as a young Chef to just char grill a piece of beef and serve it with a chunk of lemon and some broccoli... to me stuff like that, that's delicious that's what I want to eat but I suppose it takes a whole new confidence to be able to put that on a plate and serve it, which is what we do here at the Greenhouse... at first it was up and down but now we've sort of stuck to our guns and it's been really well received.

Q. What are some of the problems that young Chefs experience when they start out and what's your advice to them?

A. Problems with young Chefs? I suppose the biggest thing..for me also is just the hours you have to work it's really draining. You're on your feet for..between eight to twelve hours sometimes often without a break..you're lifting heavy bags of flour, you're going up and down stairs it's quite a physically demanding job and I suppose once you can get over that barrier you're half way there but unless you're at the top you're always going to cop stick from everyone the whole way down and that's..just the way it is and I suppose it's not near as bad as it used to be... it's just the hierarchy sort of system which I try not to have in our kitchen but inevitably it sort of does happen so you've just got to have thick skin and stick through it.

Q. Which Chef has had the most influence on your career?

A. The Chef that's influenced me the most in Australia would definitely be Neil Perry... he's opened some amazing venues... of different calibers..steakhouses... amazing Chinese style restaurants... also though he's had a lot of failed restaurants so..he's taken the good with the bad but he's come out on top and he just does amazing things with food. He really takes the Australian approach to food he's not necessarily mixing cultures on one plate but he's knowledgeable on a lot of different cultures, Australian produce... I've admired him from when I first started cooking and I'm now lucky enough to be sort of friends with him, hang out with him, have dinner every now and then..I really sort of looked up to him.

Q. Which cook books do you recommend?

A. Yeah we're constantly reading cook books..it's sort of hard for me now to keep motivated and keep creating new dishes obviously because I'm at the top so I'm constantly teaching and same with my sous chefs as well so we're constantly reading books, at the moment we just got Philippa Sibley's dessert book which is..Philipa Sibley is... probably the most amazing pastry Chef Australia has ever seen. Here and Donovan Cook had Est Est Est in the nineties in Melbourne which really set the bench mark for fine dining food in Australia at that time. Also momofuku, David Chang in New York..He's got a really cool restaurant doing some really cool, not necessarily fusion but sort of Korean American sort of food... which is cool... we just got the Cumulus inc book..which is a restaurant I eat at every time I'm in Melbourne again the serve food..similarly to how we do, very simple using great produce... Constantly we're in book shops buying new books, reading, we might not even read the book we might just flick through, flick through see a picture and that's enough to trigger an idea... I think as a young Chef reading is probably one of the most important things you could be doing.

How to Teach Your Children About Healthy Eating

Preparing healthy meals for children can be difficult especially nowadays when there are so many temptations around. Research shows that over 76 percent of children don't eat enough fruits and vegetables. Learning how to cook healthy for kids means making meals that are full of fresh, nutritious ingredients and have a great taste. Childhood obesity and juvenile diabetes are on the rise, so now it is more important than ever to teach your children about the benefits of eating healthy.

Talk with Your Kids

Encourage your kids to eat healthy and choose the right foods. Children will develop self-esteem as they learn to feed themselves. Learning about the benefits of a balanced diet will help your child develop lifetime habits and stay healthy. Good nutrition helps children avoid food borne illness and provide them with the energy and nutrients they need to active.

Give Them a Choice

Children are more likely to eat foods that they select. Ask your child: "Would you prefer spinach or cottage cheese tonight?" Kids are picky eaters and getting them to eat a well balanced diet can be challenging. If you force your child to consume certain foods that he doesn't like, he won't understand the importance of eating healthy and do exactly the opposite.

Use Healthy Substitutes

Think about the meals that your child loves the most and try to make a few simple changes to your recipes. Use pureed starchy vegetables or mashed potatoes instead of cream for soups. Replace full fat cream cheese with low fat cottage cheese. Use rice milk instead of whole milk. Add lean prosciutto or turkey bacon to your child's meal instead of regular bacon.

Be Creative

Prepare healthy, colorful meals that children will eat without making it an exhausting chore. For example, you can make a fruit salad, but add some maple syrup and cut the pieces very small. Peel oranges and remove the seeds. Use a cookie cutter to give sandwiches interesting shapes. Have a contest of how many fruits and vegetables in different colors your children can eat in one day.

Cook with Your Kids

Bring the kids into the kitchen. Use colorful recipe books for encouraging them to prepare healthy meals. For packed lunches, involve them in the planning and preparation. Have the children help as part of weekend meals. Preparing meals together is a great way to give your kids positive messages about nutrition.

Why Convection Cooking Reigns Supreme Over Conventional Cooking

You already know that your conventional wall oven or free-standing stove uses radiant heat from the top and bottom burners in the oven to cook your food. The results are often uneven cooking and browning - more so depending on how much food is in the oven and its positioning on the internal racks.

With a convection oven, you have a fan located at the back of the oven with the sole purpose of circulating hot air around your food to distribute the heat evenly. The fan, depending on model and manufacturer, reverses direction for optimal distribution of heat and air circulation. The frequency of directional changes by the fan is based on the convection cooking mode. Some modes will reverse frequently while others not at all. Again, this depends on the model of your convection oven and its manufacturer.

Why Cook Convection?

Models with a Convection Baking Mode allow you to put more than one rack of food in the oven resulting in even baking on all racks in about the same time as one rack cooking in a traditional oven.

Most convection baking requires a temperature reduction of 25°F for optimal performance. Some oven models auto-adjust the temperature. For example, if you have a recipe that calls for baking at 350°F and enter that into the control panel, the oven will auto-adjust the temperature to 325°F for convection cooking.

Advantages over a Traditional Oven

Because a convection oven or convection features circulate air, evenly distributing the heat, you can cook more food in the oven at one time. This comes in handy if you're cooking biscuits, appetizers, cookies and other finger foods for holidays, general baking or special events.

Foods cook faster. Evenly cooked meats and poultry are uniformly browned and the juices sealed in for more flavorful, moister food. Foods do not have a tendency to dry out as often seen with conventional cooking.

Because you can cook larger amounts of food in less time, you naturally save money as well. A shorter cooking time with the ability to cook more food saves you energy and utility costs.

Sizes to Accommodate All Kitchens

A Convection Cooking Appliance will cost you more money upfront than a traditional oven and not everyone can afford to get the full oven. There are others who a challenged by limited counter space or small kitchen.

Manufacturers have taken this into consideration by providing convection cooking features in various lines of microwave ovens, countertop ovens and toast oven/broilers so the benefits can be enjoyed by all who want to cook convection.

Taking The Mystery Out Of Convection Cooking Times

The General Rule

Most convection oven baking requires a 25°F reduction in temperature over a traditional recipe bake temperature. This will not apply if you are using a halogen and/or infrared oven as these technologies do not cook food the same way as a pure convection bake setting.

When convection baking, items will generally have shorter cooking times and since the TEMPERATURE is lowered for convection baking, the baked items will need the full recommended amount of time to cook correctly.

For example, if you have a sheet pan of chocolate chip cookies, you would normally bake them at 350°F for about 12 minutes.

In convection baking the chocolate chip cookies would have a convection bake time of the same 12 minutes only at 325°F. The even heat distribution provided by the convection cooking technology provides you the benefit of baking more sheets of chocolate chip cookies at one time and in that 12 minutes than what you would have been able to bake using a traditional oven.

Convection roasting on the other hand does not require a reduction in temperature but will cook and brown your foods faster thereby reducing your cooking time by up to 30%. In convection roasting, follow the recommended traditional oven setting but reduce your overall cook time by 30%.

So to summarize, convection bake at a 25°F lower TEMPERATURE, convection roast at a 30% lower COOK TIME. Again, this does not apply to microwave, infrared or halogen cooking because these technologies are for speed cooking. You should always check your food for doneness at the least recommended cook time to ensure proper internal food temperatures.

Tips for Convection Thawing and Baking

When thawing frozen uncooked or previously cooked food, a good practice is to allow about 5 minutes of thaw time for each pound of frozen food. Let say you are thawing a 3 pound chicken and at 5 minutes per pound, your convection thaw would be 15 minutes for the chicken.

Don't use plastic containers straight from the freezer to convection thaw. Only defrost long enough to remove the frozen food and place it in an oven-safe or microwave-safe dish.

Using margarine will affect your convection bake performance. Traditional recipes for baking include high fat products like butter which is about 80% fat. When you decrease the amount of fat in a recipe, it may not give you the same results because fat cooks faster.

You have the potential to ruin a recipe for cakes, pastries, cookies or pies if you use low-fat spreads. The lower the fat content, the more noticeable the convection bake outcome.

Federal standards require products labeled as margarine to contain at least 80% fat by weight. Many of the "heart healthy" or low-fat spreads have less fat and more water. When you have higher moisture content, the texture and flavor of your baked goods will be impacted.

FAQ About Convection Cooking And Why It Trumps Traditional

Convection Cooking Tips

    When using dark or matte finish bakeware, you will get darker browning on your food surfaces. For optimum results, use silver-colored or shiny aluminum cookware.
    Do not use aluminum foil to line your cookware in convection cooking. This reflects heat away from the food and may add to convection oven cooking times.
    Using pans with low or shallow sides will allow air to better circulate around your food for better browning.
    Heat resistant paper and plastic containers that you can use in a traditional oven can be used in convection cooking.
    Uniform air circulation in a convection oven allows you to cook multiple racks of food at the same time. Convection cooking times may be slightly higher but still faster because you are able to cook more food at one time.
    It is generally recommended that a convection oven be preheated for convection baking, however, preheating is not required for roasting meats.
    When cooking with multiple pans, like loaf pans, leave 3-5 inches of space between pans for the air circulation needed in uniform cooking.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Can you use glass bakeware in this oven?

The general rule of thumb when using glass bakeware in any type of oven is to reduce the oven temperature by 25°F. However, in a convection oven, where temperatures are already reduced by 25°F it is not necessary to do this twice. Glass bakeware will perform as well in convection cooking as it does in a traditional oven.

Do pizza stones work in this type of oven?

If you have a baking stone or pizza stone it can be used successfully in a convection oven. Convection cooking technology is the uniform distribution of heat around your food for even cooking and browning, however, the bottom browning of a pizza crust can be further enhanced by using a pizza stone.

Are special pans required to cook convection?

The short answer is no but some types of cookware will perform better in a convection oven than others. For example, because convection cooking circulates heated air around your food, lower-sided baking pans will work better than their higher-sided counterparts.

Do I need to baste my food?

If you're cooking, for example, a whole chicken or a roast in a convection oven, it is not necessary to baste the food. Convection cooking will quickly seal in juices and the uniform heat distribution will brown your food eliminating the need to baste.

Does high altitude affect convection cooking temperatures?

Typically when cooking with convection, recipe recommended temperatures are lowered by 25°F. When you live in a region with a higher altitude above 3,000 feet, traditional cooking is often increased by 25°F. So, in the instance of high altitude cooking with convection, no adjustment to temperature should be made.