Gourmet Articles

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Peter Lenkefi @ Wednesday, 25th January 2006 @ 12:26 AM

Heat 1 tsp. corn oil in a skillet and fry 1 small mackerel until it flakes apart easily. Remove and cool. Pour 1/2 cup hot water into the pan and scrape the brown bits into it. Remove the bones from the fish and mix with the juice. For dogs, serve in pieces with kibble; for cats, grind with the pan juices As a pet owner, no doubt you want to give your dog or cat the best care possible. And caring for your pet means feeding him the best diet you can. Animals, because t... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Peter Lenkefi @ Tuesday, 24th January 2006 @ 6:18 PM

3 c Ketchup 2 tb Worcestershire sauce 1/4 c Sugar 2 tb Chili powder 1/2 c Tarragon Vinegar 1 tb Cayenne 1 ea Medium onion, minced 1 tb Garlic salt Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Stir frequently. Allow to cool down to room temperature. Brush the mixture on the pork during the final phase of cooking; if ... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Michael Sheridan @ Tuesday, 24th January 2006 @ 10:30 AM

Let's take a look at one of the most basic forms of cooking - immersing food in hot water. Yes, I know. That includes simmering as well. But I want to look at boiling, some of the different foods involved and the ways in which they are treated. Boiling is really divided into two separate methods. One is to place the food in cold water and gradually heat it to boiling point, the other is to bring the water to the boil first before adding the food. The first method might ... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Peter Lenkefi @ Tuesday, 24th January 2006 @ 9:51 AM

-Waldine Van Geffen VGHC42A 6 lb Back Ribs; Cut in small 1 1/4 c Ketchup -serving pieces 3/4 c Water 1 sm Onion 1/4 c Honey 1/2 ts Salt 2 tb Worcestershire Sauce 1/2 ts Pepper 4 ts Lemon Juice Mix all ingredients except ribs. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Prepare a charcoal grill, and co... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Peter Lenkefi @ Tuesday, 24th January 2006 @ 9:00 AM

-----------------------------------BRINE----------------------------------- 1/2 c Salt 1 ts Celery salt 1/3 c Sugar brown 1 c White wine 1/2 ts Maple flavoring 1 tb Pepper 1 ts Onion powder 3 c Water Place turkey in brine for 8 to 12 hours. Remove from brine. Rinse and air dry for at least one hour. Open upper and lower body cavities to expose tomore...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Peter Lenkefi @ Tuesday, 24th January 2006 @ 7:01 AM

Barbecued Chicken #2 Stephen Ceideburg 1/4 c Hoisin sauce 3 lb Chicken, cut into 8 pieces, 1 tb Cider vinegar -skin and fat removed, or: 1 tb Unsulfured molasses 8 Skinless chicken breasts or 1 ts Reduced-sodium soy sauce -thighs 1 ts Chinese chili paste with 1/3 c Tomato ketchup -garlic Precooking the chicken in the microwave or gent... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Jerry Powell @

Chop, chop, chop! No kitchen is complete without a set of cutlery. When it comes to cutlery for your kitchen, you have lots of choices. But the most important thing to have is a Chef’s knife. A high quality chef’s knife will cost you at least $50, but plan on spending $75. All that chopping is bound to cause some damage. Next you will want a cutting board. Like cutlery, there are many choices but if you want the board to last, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind. Cutting boards c... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Peter Lenkefi @

2 1/2 ts Salt 3 Broiler-fryers chickens; 2 Garlic cloves; crushed -(about 2 lb each), cut in 3/4 ts Dry mustard -half 1/4 ts Coarse black pepper Salt and pepper to taste 1 1/2 c Orange marmalade 1 c Butter or margarine 3 tb Lemon or lime juice 1/3 c Lemon or lime juice 3 tb Butter or margarine 1 tb Italian seas... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Victor Holtreman @

Sometimes I just have to shake my head... I was driving down the street when a spied a Burger King about a block away. It had one of those signs where they can promote a particular item or special, and this is what it had written on it: "Ultimate Double Whopper: Eat Like a King!" Right, I thought... more likely it should have read "Eat Like a Pig!". I came home and decided to look up the nutritional (Ha!) info on this kingly bit of food and here's what I... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Lee Dobbins @

Olives have been eaten and the oil used since biblical times but it wasn’t until recently that they have enjoyed so much press due to their cardioprotective properties. About 1/3 of the olive is monounsaturated fatty acid, commonly refereed to as “the good fat” which is thought to lower cholesterol levels and help prohibit the buildup of plaque in the arteries. Olives are grown mostly in the Mediterranean countries where they are a large part of the diet. Studies have shown that people... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Jerry Powell @

A friend of mine once told me there is more to the culinary life than chile peppers. He might be right, but he keeps telling me this over my diner table, so go figure. The habanero chile (Capsicum chinense Jacquin) is the most intensely spicy chile pepper of the Capsicum genus. Unripe habaneros are green, but the color at maturity varies. Common colors are orange and red, but white, brown, and pink are also seen. Most habaneros rate 200,000-300,000 Scoville heat units (SHU), with... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Michael Sheridan @

Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, I still see recipes that insist you should cook meat at high temperature for the first twenty minutes or so to seal it and then lower the level for the rest of the cooking time. This has become the fashionable way and I’m not sure why. Maybe it has something to do with a lack of time in an age when both partners tend to work for a living. What I am certain about is that this is not the best way to treat a prime roast. Nor does it ‘seal’ ... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Peter Lenkefi @

3 tb Catsup 3 tb Brown sugar 2 tb Vinegar 1 ts Salt 1 ts Lemon juice 1 ts Dry mustard 2 tb Worcestershire sauce 1 ts Chili powder 4 tb Water 1 ts Paprika 2 tb Cooking oil 1/2 ts Red pepper Combine all ingredients in a quart jar; shake well and refrigerate until ready to use as a basting sauce... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Peter Lenkefi @

Making your own herbal concoctions for medicinal purposes is really not that difficult. And since the best herbal preparations are those made when the plants are fresh, the better off you are to grow your own herbs and make your own preparations. But even the best plants can be ruined if you use the wrong kind of process in preparing your remedies. Your choice depends on the parts of the plant to be used, the form in which the remedy will be taken, and the desired result. more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Michael Sheridan @

It's a sad fact that these days it has become almost essential to marinade most cuts of meat, unless you intend to casserole them. I'll go into why that is the case a bit later on, but for the time being let's just examine why we use marinades at all. Principally there are two reasons. One is to add flavor, and the other is to tenderize. Usually, we are trying to do both. It's worth bearing in mind that marinating is a cooking process, even though heat ... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Michael Sheridan @

In any number of cookbooks and recipes you will find advice on which herbs go with what. I’m not going to take that route. While there certainly are marriages that are tried and tested, such as tomatoes and basil or lamb and rosemary, the reality is that the use of herbs is every bit as much a matter of personal taste as any other aspect of cooking. Consequently, what I want you to do is to sample as many herbs as you can and try to marry up the flavors with th... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Peter Lenkefi @

Filling 1 crumb or baked pastry 8-inch pie shell, cooled 1 can (14 ounces) Borden Sweetened Condensed Milk 1/2 cup ReaLemon Lemon Juice 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel 2 egg yolks In medium-sized mixing bowl blend together Borden Sweetened Condensed Milk, lemon juice, lemon peel and yolks until thickened. Turn into pie shell. Meringue 2 egg whites (at room temperature) 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 1/4 cup sugar In small... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Michael Sheridan @

The great English cook Prue Leith once famously remarked “life's too short to stuff a mushroom”. I feel pretty much the same way about peeling a grape. However there may come a time when you want to do such a thing and it’s handy to have a simple method standing by. Not that peeling a grape is all that difficult, just tedious. You simply do it. The same cannot be said of such things as peaches, apricots and even small pickling onions. The trick in each case is to use hot w... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Peter Lenkefi @

4 eggs 1/4 cup margarine 1 cup white sugar 1/2 cup flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 2 cups milk or half and half 1 cup coconut 1 teaspoon vanilla Place all ingredients in blender at one time and blend until mixed together. Pour into a buttered 10-inch piepan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour. When done, crust will be on bottom, custard in the middle, an coconut on top - right where they belong. ... more...

Food and Drink » Gourmet | By Ethan Frost @

More than likely, you've seen a hookah in your lifetime. However, unless you're a regular at a hookah bar, you've probably forgotten all about it. Do you still think you've never heard of a hookah? Think back. Way back. There you are, lying on your bed, while your Mother is reading the fantastic tale of a little girl in a land of pure imagination. If you guessed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you'd be wrong. No, this book was written nearly 100 years before Roald Dah... more...