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The History of the Fry Pan
Salads, Flavor Favorites
Even though salads have been enjoyed since ancient times, the variety can be both tempting and visually pleasing.
As we become more and more health conscious, salads become more popular, usually people think of vegetables when salads are mentioned.
However, there are numerous fruit salads at every family gathering and pot-luck in the country! Salads can contain anything from apples to zucchini and anything in between, just use your imagination.
Although lettuce has been the starting point for most salads, there are many other foods favorites you can start with:
*Watercress, cabbage or spinach
*Oranges, apples or grapefruit
*Beans or frozen peas
*Broccoli
*Potatoes
*Meats and seafood
Just about any food you can think of can be turned into a salad with a modest amount of creativity! You can create many kinds of salads:
*Jell-o salads with fruit
*Fruit salads with yogurt
*Green salads with every kind of vegetable imaginable
*Coleslaw
*Potato salad
*Tuna salad
*Chicken salad
Again, the varieties are endless, and the list can go on and on to eternity. One of my favorites includes a green salad with sunflower seeds or cashews, lettuce, tomatoes, celery, onions, carrots and ranch dressing.
With the dressings you can get just as creative, ranch, French, blue cheese and Italian are your basic dressings.
Now try some of these, mix a little concentrated orange or lemon juice to French dressing or mayonnaise for a delicious fruit salad dressing.
How about a dressing for grapefruit made with, sugar, pepper, paprika, dry mustard, grapefruit juice and catsup?
Add a little chili powder to concentrated juice, horseradish a cooked egg and mayonnaise for a spicy new taste.
Every nationality has their own favorite flavors in salads, get together with a few friends for a salad party; you would be amazed at the variety you will see.
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Efficiency will save you lots of time in the kitchen, to accomplish this, learn to do more than one thing at a time. Increased preparation time before cooking is another way to become a faster cook.
Read your recipe before starting, this will save you many headaches, like getting a dish ready and finding out you need bat wings and you dont have any! Just kidding, I dont stock bat wings in my kitchen either, but you get the idea.
Get everything you will need together, follow the order they are used in the recipe, this allows you to be sure that you have everything you will need. Once you are sure you have everything, measure out the ingredients according to the recipe.
Organize all of your ingredients on one side of the work area, as you use something, move it to the other side, lessens confusion as to whether you used it or not.
Use the cutting board for all of your non-meat items first, this avoids cross contamination. If you have to prepare the meat first, wash the cutting board thoroughly before using it for any other food items.
Keeping a sink of hot soapy water will help cleanup later on, just drop used utensils in the water and allow them to soak.
Sometimes it is better to use your hands to mix something than it is to use a utensil; it also saves time washing up later. I for one loved making mud pies when I was a child, the only difference is the mud is now hamburger and the crushed leaves are now herbs.
Salads are always mixed more evenly if they are tossed with your hands. Make sure to wash your hands thoroughly, inexpensive plastic gloves will help if you didnt like playing in the mud!
Coat measuring cups, spoons and molds with non-stick spray before putting anything sticky in them, the ingredients will slide right out. To prevent having to clean a burned on, sticky mess from your boiler pan, line the pan with foil and spray the rack with non-stick spray.
Re-sealable plastic is great for marinating and coating foods with flour or cornmeal.
Planning in advance can save you a lot of time in the kitchen opening up your evenings to spend more time with your family. |
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One of the most difficult things to learn about outdoor cooking is timing and heat control, this usually takes years of experience.
However, the beginner can use the counting method as a learning tool. After the briquettes have turned gray, (this is ash) then arrange the coals in the grill. Knock the gray off the briquettes,
it acts as insulation and the fire isnt as hot as it should be. Hold your hand over the coals at the same distance as the food you are going to cook, slowly count 1 barbecue 2 barbecue and so on, until you have to remove your hand, a count of three is medium heat.
To reduce the heat, remove some briquettes or cook the food further away from the coals, adding briquettes or moving the food closer to the fire will increase the heat.
Remember to tap the ash off the briquettes often to maintain your heat.
Other considerations in cooking your food are:
*Temperature:Cool temperatures and wind cool the food and slow cooking time.
*Humidity: charcoal absorbs moisture from the air and cooks slower on a damp day.
*Food temperature: colder food slows the cooking time.
Even the most experienced outdoor chef has to deal with flame-ups, as meat cooks the fats drip onto the coals causing flame ups.
To minimize this, trim as much fat off the meat as possible prior to cooking. A small spray bottle will help put these out, but dont drench the coals; it slows your cooking time, just spray enough to put out the flames.
Be sure to remove the meat before you spray the flames with water!
To get that great smoked taste, soak hickory wood chips in water, place the chips around the edges of the fire so they smoke rather than burn.
If they start to burn, remove them and soak again in water. If you like a heavy smoke flavor, reduce the heat and cook food longer, place the lid on the barbecue if it has one.
A little trick I learned about cleanup is to wad up aluminum foil and scrub the grill with it, this works great if you dont have the proper tools for cleaning.
Enjoy your barbecue along with friends and family, cookouts are fun for many occasions.
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