About cooking

From my kitchen to yours

 

 

 

 

Methods of cooking:-

From my kitchen to yours

Cooking enhances the taste of raw food, but it can also destroy the nutrients present in the food. How can the nutrient value of any food item be maintained of enhanced during cooking?  Food can be cooked using various methods like streaming, boiling, roasting, frying, stir-frying, sautéing, frilling, baking and microwaving. Ingredients can also be prepared before cooking by sprouting, parboiling, fermentation and parching.  Different foods require different methods of cooking. One can bake a cake but fry a pancake. One can also bake a cake in microwave oven. No one would like streamed samosas, because they taste best fried, but you could bake them and yes, we love steamed, boiled, fried, stir-fried, sautéed, grilled, bake and pressure-cooked.

 

From my kitchen to yours

Steaming:-

Steaming is one of the best ways to cook food especially when you want to skimp on your calorie intake. Steamed foods retain nutrients, flavor, color and texture and can be prepared without butter, oil or salt. Steamed foods are naturally moist and tender. Infect, all foods can be steamed successfully. Steamed foods are definitely lower in calories and fat than the same food either stir-fried or grilled. Hence, steamed foods are a boon for those on a restricted diet. India idles and dhoklas are very popular steamed snacks, so much that there are special cookers available for these.

Baking:-

Baking mean cooking in dry heat in the oven, for example cakes, biscuits, casseroles, meat and vegetable preparations. The temperature of the oven can be altered, depending on the dish, usually between 150c and 250c. Barbecuing/bandore There is nothing more delicious than the smell of the food cooking on the barbecue. Though this requires special equipment and space, it is worth it simply because meats, vegetables and fruits cooked in different marinades enhance the flavor. In India, bandore cooing is similar to barbecuing. Bandore cooing also required one to marinate the raw food in a mixture of herbs, spices and yogurt that give it a distinctive red color.

 

Balancing:-

Fruit and vegetables are often balanced when they are fresh. This involves putting them very quickly in boiling water and then in iced water to stop the cooking process. The food can then be frozen, thus preserving the vitamins and color. Vegetables such a spinach or cabbage are often blanched, as this takes away the bitter taste which can sometimes be found in these foods. Tomatoes, peaches and almonds are much easier to peel when they have been blanched.

Frying:-

Not the healthiest way of cooking food, frying is the only way to prepare crisp chips; fish coated in batter, or vegetables, frying is also a quicker way of cooing. The oil must be heated to a high temperature and then the food added. Shallow frying is used for fish dipped in breadcrumbs, fried egg, pancakes and dosas. Deep frying is best way of cooking chip and batter coated food. The food should be bloated on absorbent paper before being served, thus taking away a little, but not all of the unhealthy oil. Fried food should be crisp on the outside and soft in the inside. This is achieved by heating the oil to the right temperature too hot and the food will burn, too low and the food will be soggy. Margarine or butter is not suitable of frying.

Grilling:-

Grilling is the healthier alternative to frying foods. The food can be seasoned or basted with a little butter before it is grilled. This method is not as much used as it should be.

Roasting:-

Meat and vegetables are cooked by roasting teem dry or in a minimum amount of oil, in an oven on an open fire or in a thick bottomed pan. It differs from frying, because only a little oil or fat is used and the food is then left in the oven to cook, either quickly at a high temperature (over 200 c) or slowly. Roasting gives the food a crisp outer coating.

 

From my kitchen to yours

Microwave cooking:-

Microwave ovens use microwave radiation to penetrate the food. The radiation agitates water molecules in the food, creating friction and heat. This energy then spreads throughout the food by condition and by convection I liquids. It is a faster method of cooking but has its downside the food does not brown or become crisp like it does n normal sautéing or roasting.

 

From my kitchen to yours

Stir Frying:-

Made popular by Chinese, stir frying is a method of frying uniformly sized pieces of food, quickly, with a small amount of fat over very high heat. Vegetables remain crunchy with their natural juices sealed in.