This is a type of food I love—quick, aimed at instant gratification. It’s not always healthy, but it’s infinitely more satisfying than grabbing a slice of pizza on the way home or ordering in.

Ingredients

• 1 to 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 a crisp, tart apple (Cortland or Macintosh are good choices)
• 2 slices of your favorite bread
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup grated good-melting cheese
• Pinch dried sage
• Pinch salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

This great pizza recipe was developed by chance, but it's great for entertaining when you want a pizza that no one's ever had before and will be blown away by.

Ingredients

• 1 (1 pound) loaf frozen whole wheat bread dough, thawed
• 1/2 cup thousand island dressing
• 2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
• 6 ounces deli sliced corned beef, cut into strips
• 1 cup sauerkraut - rinsed and drained
• 1/2 teaspoon caraway seed
• 1/4 cup chopped dill pickles (optional)

Directions

Sometimes, it's nice to try something different from the usual mashed potatoes at holiday dinners, this au gratin is definitely a nice substitution for that.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• Chipotle Chile’s in Adobo Sauce (plus 1 tsp adobo sauce)
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (my attempt to thicken it)
• Olive oil spray
• 2 huge sweet potatoes, sliced 1/4” thick (I used a mandoline.)
• 1 large sweet onion, sliced 1/8” thick (Again, I used a mandoline.)

Directions

I was drawn to the raw foods movement by the book RAW by Roxanne Klein and Charlie Trotter. It’s beautiful cover beckoned to me from it’s well merchandised shelf. The forward and the introduction made the concept of eating raw foods sound positively enlightened. The section on local, sustainable farming and eating seasonally sealed the deal and I was ready to dive deep into raw cuisine. It seemed like the dietary path most aligned with what I wanted for myself and the planet. Then came the practical application of the concept, the recipes. The ingredient lists and the instructions (which called for a batch of something else on some other page, which in turn called for a half batch of yet another recipe) were overwhelming. The time and organization required to make the majority of the dishes was nothing less than shocking. My romance with raw food ended abruptly after a few ego-crushing attempts to make dishes that tasted, at best, mediocre.

Luckily during my enthusiastic first days of infatuation, my supportive husband loaded up our library card with books, new and old, on raw cuisine. Turns out the concept need not be as glamorous or challenging as keeping up with Trotter and Klein. It was really simple, eat whole, raw foods in their natural state. Easy. A quick review of how I was already eating, lots of salads, fresh veggies and fruits, had me thinking, “I’m half way there. A few changes and I can go raw- no problem.” I embarked on a two week raw adventure and, since I’m the only cook in our house, I took my family along for the ride. The raw cleanse was fantastic, we all loved the food. My husband thought we were “eating like kings”. My daughter was showing off our raw crackers and nut cheeses at school. I was feeling energetic and clear headed without coffee. A beautiful side effect of the cleanse was that the pesky little bit of cellulite on the back of my thighs that somehow hangs on despite regular exercise disappeared. That was it, I was sold.

Although I love my raw food results, I’m not going 100% raw. I’m not a believer in exclusive, restrictive diets and raw can definitely be both if you let it. Truth be told, roasted garlic and sautéed onions are just too delicious to exclude from my diet in the name of adhering to an absolute protocol. I love broccoli steamed, sweet potatoes baked, and a host of other cooked foods. Instead of being a purist, I see raw foods as a significant source of healthy dishes in my diet, a new culinary frontier that challenges my creativity, and a delicious way to eat more vegetables than I ever have. The pious can judge me for failing to go fully raw, and while they do pass me their portion of pan seared ahi. That’s right, I’m not even a vegetarian. Judge away! The bottom line is raw foods is not the path to health, it’s a path to health. Take from it what works with your body and carve your own dietary path through this life.

There is no doubt in my mind that raw foods are beneficial, that they are worth the trouble, time and expense. Raw food recipes perfect the art of getting more vegetables in our diets in more delicious ways than I ever thought possible. The most amusing part of my raw foods experience is seeing veggie-haters gobble up “neat balls” or BLTs made with eggplant bacon and ask for seconds without even knowing their whole meal is composed of all raw foods. Give raw foods a shot. If you want the full experience, try a week long or fourteen day raw cleanse. If you have a social life, a job, and a family that you cannot (and why would you want to) put on hold during your adventures in raw food, here are some tips.

The real key to a successful raw diet is to keep it simple. Save the challenging recipes for special occasions and learn how to make everyday meals special with easy, time saving tricks.

If done well, you will spend less time and money on your raw meals than you do on a Standard American Diet (which raw foodists refer to as SAD). Processed foods, meat and dairy are expensive compared to in-season vegetables and fruits.

You will need to spend more time planning meals and be more organized, unless of course you outsource that to menu plans, which are fabulous for saving time, money and trips to the store. If you are serious about going raw you can even hire a raw foods coach.

You won’t need to eat as much as you normally do. At first we overate and felt uncomfortably full. Be aware that the food is more nutrient dense, you’ll need less to feel full. Eat, chill out and chat a while, then eat more if you are still hungry.

Try new things! Before our adventures in raw food we never ate beets, kale, chard, and a host of other nutrient rich foods that we now enjoy on an almost daily basis. Raw recipes boast delicious ways of incorporating foods that are generally unpopular. If you discount recipes whenever you see a vegetable that you normally don’t enjoy, you will miss out on massive dietary benefits.

Don’t feel pressure to go raw and stay raw. Try it out and see what works for your body. After our raw adventure we stuck with about an 80% raw plan with great results in energy level, appearance and over-all health.

Joy Houston is author of The Delicious Revolution, and a life long student of healthy cooking.

Her books http://www.healthyfoodscookbook.com and website http://www.thedeliciousrevolution.com, offer recipes for the practical application of current health news. It’s not enough to know what foods are good for you, you need delicious ways to prepare them so you consume them regularly.

Her recipes are quick, easy and presented in a very entertaining style. She offers time and money saving meal plans and easy-to-follow instructional videos.

With some of the highest culinary accolades being won by chefs in Wales currently, Welsh cuisine is finally getting the recognition it deserves. With the likes of Stephen Terry, Bryn Williams, Hywel Jones and Aled Williams excelling in the Great British Menu over the years, representing Wales and achieving much praise for their use of the highest quality Welsh produce.

The diversity of the landscape in a relatively small area makes Wales very food friendly. Due to the location of Pembrokeshire, it too offers such a variety of produce. With farmland and miles of coastal water, meat and fish are both of such high quality. The highly revered and sought after “Sewin” or as many know it, sea trout can be found off the Pembrokeshire coast. Chefs and critics are going mad for this game fish at the moment beating Scottish salmon hands down. Luckily there are some fantastic restaurants in Haverfordwest and St Davids that pride themselves in cooking the very best produce this region offers. From the scallops to sewin, welsh lamb to beef.

And because of that so fertile landscape, it’s not hard to realise the most famous of Welsh produce is its meat, most notably and famously, lamb. The vast coastal areas give Welsh lamb a distinct taste from the salt marshes on coastal farms and the lush meadows inland.

Pembrokeshire is so proud of its produce that a Pembrokeshire Produce Mark has been set up. The Produce Mark allows shoppers to instantly see if the product has been made, grown or reared in Pembrokeshire. It also applies to hospitality establishment showing any of the produce used on menu that comes from Pembrokeshire.

Let’s not forget cheese. Welsh cheese can rival any French offering. As with Welsh meat, the quality of Welsh cheese is largely due to the landscape and farming practices. From Caerphilly to the wide variety of mature cheddars, Teifi to Llanboidy and Llangloffan cheese, the heritage of Welsh cheese production dates back hundreds of years. And what could be a better accompaniment than leeks with cheese. Chefs in Wales know exactly how to show off Welsh produce through classic combinations. With restaurants St Davids and in Haverfordwest offering a great choice of all these fantastic foodie delights.

“A variation on the classic chicken and dumpling casserole, this flavorful main dish shows its Hungarian roots with colorful paprika used to season a sour cream sauce.”

Ingredients

• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 1/2 pounds bone-in chicken pieces, with skin
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sour cream

Directions

Here are a few simple cooking tips that you might find handy when you do cooking. Preparing ingredients are sometimes tedious work – Just like washing vegetables, peeling prawns, washing shellfish, dressing the sirloin and so forth. If you know what’s best for yourself in the kitchen, you might be able to run away from certain fuss by using these food techniques:

1. Salt your water when you’re hard-boiling eggs The trick to easy-peel hard boil eggs is actually adding in salt to lukewarm water, turn on the fire and start cooking the eggs. When your water is boiled, turn down your fire to simmer. Constantly check your eggs for cracks – Too hot of the water will crack your eggs (and if you want to save gas by putting in hot boiling water to boil your eggs, you might just crack a lot of them if you’re boiling in a chunk); salt your water by adding in around 1 handful of salt to 5 liters of water. The salt will lengthen your boiling time but it’ll make your life 100 times simpler.
2. Keep your knife hot when you’re slicing ‘vulnerable’ food items The trick to making the perfect slice for eggs or cheesecake (and some chocolate products) is to keep your knife hot, not warm. Stainless steel do not keep hot temperatures well, and looking at your thin chef knife, it won’t keep it for long either. Clean your knife, dip it into hot boiling water for a while or put them over naked fire then make your incision – You’ll notice that it makes a very clean cut.
3. When you slice eggs, keep the yolk on top Hard-boiled eggs are best sliced (usually into half) from their yolk section first. Always look for the yolk, then make your incision there. Slicing too far away from the yolk makes it hard for you to aim well – Also makes your egg portions uneven. In certain cases where you can’t see the yolk or it’s already out in the open, just follow No. 2 and do it your way.
4. Use egg whites to ‘smoothen’ your chicken If you’re marinading chicken, you can also add egg white into your marinade and keep them inside. For example, one whole chicken (portioned into 8), and one large egg white. After cooking the chicken, you’ll notice the skin is actually smoother.
5. Italian sauces are best left for a day before consumption Many homemade Italian sauces are great – Even better if you ‘age’ them for a day. As liquid evaporates from your sauces (giving you a more focused and intense flavor) and/or incorporates with other ingredients using its naturals, these sauces will not lose its flavor for a day but gives you a bigger punch the next day. Best few examples are basic tomato sauces, pesto and stocks like Velouté (white stock – Can be vegetable, fish, shellfish or chicken) or (X – can be any vegetable) Concasse.
6. For a better Parmesan, let it ‘sweat’ Many cheeses cannot be done this way, but for the special Midori brand Parmesan Cheese in a block, (found in Jusco & Cold Storage and sometimes Tesco) cheeses can be left to sweat and made better. Here’s how you do it – Open the packaging but only remove the top part. Leave it outside on your dinner table (under 20+C room temperature) and make sure it has no contact with sunlight and rodents. Keep it that way for 2 days – Now taste it. It’s different.
7. Let your Chinese Celery and/or Coriander live longer Putting them in your fridge alone (with paper or plastic wrap) will kill them fast. Get a small ‘deep’ tupperware or even a Milo tin, add water in it, and let them sit inside (with roots below). This will lengthen their shelf life.
8. Remove chicken skin with one incision and one pull If you need to remove the main chicken skin from your whole chicken, do this: Use a sharp knife and turn your chicken breast-side-down. Make a straight vertical incision along the ‘backbone’ of the chicken, then tear the chicken skin apart. This should remove most of its skin (except for the wings).
9. Non-stick a pan with food ingredients or few techniques Heat/Temperature control is your best technique. If you need your pan to be non-stick (but it’s not labeled or sold as non-stick), you can do a few things – Heat your pan thoroughly before cooking (dry), fry a full egg before cooking, cook a stick-able ingredient until the surface is cooked before touching it (with high enough heat), oil your pan and heat the oil (then remove it and place it in another container) before cooking and fry beansprouts or coconut husks before cooking.
10. Remove the ‘new’ smell from your Pan or Wok You can try this few ingredients. Don’t bother washing it too many times to rid the smell because some ‘cheap’ pans don’t work. You can try heating the pan to the maximum then pouring hot oil into it and throw away, fry beansprouts or coconut husks, leave it heated under hot charcoal for 30 minutes, make a simple ‘stew’ and throw them away. All of these works, but if you’re still getting the smell, then you know that pan won’t last long.
11. Getting ‘rust’ marks out of your pans and woks Chinese woks are famous for this, especially when they are old. You tend to leave your wok to hang (with some water intact) and you come back and find your wok has rust marks. You can use a few methods to combat this problem: After washing your pan/wok, use a kitchen towel and some oil then rub enough oil on it – This will enable water to not oxidize the metal surface of your pan/wok. Alternatively, you can also heat your pan/wok to the maximum, and then leave it to cook (do not let it come in contact with water. Wash before heating your pan/wok.
12. Don’t store shellfish into the fridge Storing shellfish into the fridge is the wrong way to go (applies for freshly live ones). What you can do is wash them under running water for a while to remove the dirt, place them in a container (without covering) then get a wet kitchen cloth and cover them. Make sure they’re in room temperature and is not kept for more than 1 1/2 days. Do this for live clams and local mussels (Malaysia).
13. Don’t use mayonnaise straight from the tub/container Commercialized mayonnaise taste absolutely ridiculous if you’re not challenging it with another strong-tasting ingredient. What you can do to ‘tame’ its flavor is to add in milk, salt & pepper, whisk them well to a thinner texture. If you’re adventurous enough, take a small portion of mayonnaise and add in a few more ingredients. You can add garlic, tomato/chilly sauce, Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrins), Maggi Seasoning Sauce, Jalapeño juice, Pickles, cream, sugar, brine, onions, carrots, cabbage or anything you can find in the fridge. Its tastes are subjective, so be careful.
14. Test your knife with a tomato Want to know how sharp is your knife but do not know how to test it? Here are a few simple tricks for you to test them out: Slice a not-so-young-and-fresh (when pressed is quite soft) tomato, and you should be able to slice it without putting pressure on your knife blade. Another way is to slice big, yellow/red onions. If you cry fast, then it’s either your techniques or your blade. Another great way of testing is to slice plastic. Extremely sharp knives slice plastic bags almost too easily – Without even having to add any pressure. Simply move it along the plastic bag and see if it goes through.
15. Don’t wash freshly harvested mushrooms Washing freshly harvested mushrooms can be disastrous (to its natural flavors). If you’re looking for hygiene, PICK IT FROM A MORE HYGIENIC PLACE or get it from Tesco. Either way, they work better. If you’re not particular, simply use a pastry brush and brush off its sand. For certain mushrooms like fresh button mushrooms, peel their ‘outer’ skin before cooking. You can use that skin for your chicken stock.
16. Keep cockroaches away with this leaf Use ‘Pandan‘ (or called Screw Pine) leaves to keep cockroaches away. They work extremely well. Pandan/Screw Pine leaves has hundreds of usage in thousands of recipes and home-uses.
17. Reheat your bread in the microwave oven with some water Put in your bread and a microwave-oven-friendly bowl or glass filled with water in the microwave oven and give it a quick 20 second high heat. This will not make your bread lose too much of its moisture.
18. Make your banana grow naturally juicier What you can do is to hang your bananas – Using a string or a hook, hang the banana on its comb and let it sit on air – This will give your banana a juicy boost and also make it brown evenly. Placing it on cold surfaces will blacken the skin (in one area first then spread to more later) faster. Bananas are naturally ‘bomb-smoked’ first in the farm before it goes on sale (to enable boost and uniform ripening), and when it’s done that way, your bananas don’t taste as good as natural ones.
19. Keep your rice from rodents and stick-free When you’re keeping uncooked rice, leave a few pieces of dried chilly in the container your store your uncooked rice. This will keep insects and rodents away. Besides, adding fresh dried chilly into your rice cooker will also make your cooking easier – The rice won’t stick to the bottom. Make sure you don’t cook the dried chilly (or make it come in contact with oil) first or it won’t work.
20. Naturally cook your ingredients a few times faster If you’re adventurous enough, you can try packaging (in a plastic bag) a few unripe apples and some chilly. Put in 4 apples to 4 pieces of red chilly. Put them in a bag together and place it in the fridge. You’ll notice that the chilly ‘reactions’ actually ‘cook’ the apples faster. Although this is not entirely ‘proven’ scientifically to many Chef’s knowledge, it does work in certain cases.

Von Cook is the Chef de Partie and writer of Food Central, a busy kitchen in Malaysia cooking for Royalties. Von Cook has ventured to almost everything of 10 Head Chef’s 20 or more years of food and cooking experience and is sharing his food knowledge now with you.

Visit Food Central at http://foodcentral.wordpress.com/

When we talk about food seasoning, we always refer to common food seasoning like salt, pepper, chicken powder, monosodium glutamate (MSG) or Ajinomoto (it’s a brand name), white pepper, fish stock powder, etc. However, there are always ways to enjoy hot & cold, sweet and savory foods without the need to actually use these seasonings. Especially salt, when there are much health concerns about it.

Food Central is trying to keep up with its Food Alternative usage by applying methods like Flavored Sugar & Salt and Flavored Oil as we mention of, plus other methods we use to reduce usage of common seasonings. Today, Food Central would like to introduce certain metrics and methods of Food Alternatives available in the kitchen that you can use other than just your regular salt. Besides, these tips rocks – And our customers really love them.
Seasoning Alternatives

1. Cheese Cheese is one of the common seasoning alternatives we use. Instead of sprinkling some salt into our salads or pasta, we use grated cheeses (higher in sodium content). Also, be aware that certain cheese may only contain its flavor – Parmigiano Reggiano in powdered form has less sodium content. As an alternative, always ask your dairy supplier about these stuff.
2. Anchovies Anchovies are one of the best sources for salt – And they provide the ‘feel’ of meat in your dishes. If you’re using canned anchovies, be aware that they might not be as salty as you deem it would be – So look at the Sodium content at the can label. If you’re using dried ones, don’t soak them in the water or wash them too long – They will lose a lot of their sodium. Consider one wash and take them for a deep-fry, then pound into pieces.
3. Dressings & Condiments This can be mayonnaise or your favorite thousand island sauce, tomato & chilly sauce, thai sauce, mixture of cream and teppan sauce, fermented shrimp paste and grinded chillies, garlic + coriander + grinded chillies, basil leaves + onions + grinded chilly, etc.
4. Acid-based items For example lemon juice and olive oil, balsamic vinegar, bloodorange or the infamous Apple Cider vinegar. Mix this with your salads, marinade your meat items, cook them in your soup, mix them with No. 3, cold-cook your fish (Civishi), cold-cook your prawns, etc.
5. Canned/Packed items Canned items can vary from pickled items to infused with herb foodstuff like tomato and garlic, and pickles like stuffed olives or, you can also try cream cheese – They give you an extra bang of the richness of cream and cheese.
6. Pickled Vegetables A great example for pickled vegetables is kimchi. Kimchi gives a spicy, sour yet cheese-influenced power of knocking your tongue out. Others can be Szechuan, pickled white cabbages, sauerkraut and so forth. Use them to accompany your steaks, baked chicken or even salads.
7. Packed Nuts Packed nuts may contain a little salt, and if you toast then grind them well, they can give you a strong, coffee-influence ass-whooping flavor to your meats, salads, pasta and also fried rice. If you need more kick from the sodium, consider sprinkling them over your foods without grinding.
8. Stock Powders Beef stock powders, chicken stock powders, fish stock powders, and so forth. Some come in cubes, some come in powder or granules. No matter what, this can actually enhance the taste of your cooked ingredients like pasta, soups, salads, rice, appetizers and so forth without having the need to add more salt in – There are no more usage for that with these stock alternatives. Keep in mind that this applies only to salt alternative – And they contain a small amount of MSG mixture, so use cautiously.
9. Spreads Spreads make great use in substituting common food seasoning to raw items like bread, desserts or pastry items. Simply handling a good Danish butter for your puff pastry, margarine for your bread and jam mix for your pastry items will diminish your need for additional sugar. Also, some spreads that you buy may contain high amounts of sodium, so be aware and keep an eye on the label.
10. Smoked meats Smoked meats can contain very high sodium content – Almost 3-4 times higher than a regular ‘seasoned’ meat. This is good when you need to add into salads, breads, or maybe just a plain accompaniment. Alternatively, you can also mash these up for stuffing, roll them into roulettes to accompany cold items. By all means, this is a very good way not to use excess sodium in your food and also serves as an alternative.

Von Cook is the Chef de Partie and writer of Food Central, a busy kitchen in Malaysia cooking for Royalties. Von Cook has ventured to almost everything of 10 Head Chef’s 20 or more years of food and cooking experience and is sharing his food knowledge now with you.

Ingredients

• 1 onion
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1-6 potatoes (more if you want heartier soup leftovers may be used)
• water
• small bunch of parsley or dill or both to taste may be dried
• 1/3 cup flour
• bay leaf

Directions

Ahh... have yourself a glass of butterbeer. For those who aren't Harry Potter fanatics, you must be imagining a big mug of beer with a block of butter bobbing up and down. It's the popular wizarding beverage that Harry, Hermione, and Ron drink at The Three Broomsticks and The Hog's Head.

Ingredients

• 1 cup light or dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 6 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup heavy cream, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon rum extract
• Four 12-ounce bottles cream soda

Directions