How to cook like a TV chef

(ARA) – The sauteed John Dory with fennel confit you had at that fancy restaurant may have been fabulous, but you think you could never recreate it at home, right? While cooking may be an art, it’s not magic. With a few tips, the right tools and a few “insider” techniques, you can cook like the celebrity chefs you see on TV.

A fan favorite from Bravo’s “Top Chef: Chicago,” chef and restaurateur Richard Blais is known for his global ingredients and modern cooking methods. He offers his tips, tricks and must-have ingredients for at-home cooks to prep like the pros:

Get organized and keep a clean kitchen

A great shelving system is an easy way to get your kitchen space organized and make cooking a more enjoyable experience. “Many people don’t like to cook at home because it’s not always easy to find key ingredients and cleanup can be daunting at times,” says Blais. “It’s so important to be organized so you can find the ingredients you need and be meticulous about cleaning as you go — it makes a big difference and you can enjoy your meal even more knowing a sink full of dishes doesn’t await you when you’re done.”

The kindest cut

“You get more of a feel for what you’re working on when you’re working off a wooden board versus a plastic or aluminum board,” he says. Use separate cutting boards for meats and produce, and never put a wooden cutting board in the dishwasher or into a sink of water. Instead, scrub the surface with all-natural soap and hot water and let it dry completely.

The right appliances

Blais says the must-have elements in a well-functioning home kitchen include a handheld immersion blender and food processor. He recommends the LG gas cooktop, like the one he uses at home. The appliance features high performance and a center burner offering a powerful 19,000 BTU output (usually only seen in professional-grade cooktops), along with versatility, easy cleaning and a sleek look. It’s one of many built-in appliance options that individuals can choose from based on their cooking style and kitchen layout.

He also encourages home chefs to take advantage of the convenience of the microwave, which he believes may be the most underutilized piece in the kitchen. “Warm and reheat tender braises, use it for fruit purees and jams, and rest roasts in it,” adds Blais, noting that some new models now feature a warming lamp to keep dishes hot until mealtime.

Surf and turf

Blais goes on to note that high-powered gas cook tops are perfect for searing protein, advising home chefs to always start their meat or seafood by searing in a hot pan to get good browning and finish in a lower temperature oven.

Pantry staples

And what items are always on hand in the chef’s pantry and refrigerator?

* Seasonal vegetables

* Great olive oil

* Mild cooking oil

* Fresh herbs

* Sea salt

* Fish sauce

* Chili sauce or Sriracha (Thai hot sauce)

* Sherry and balsamic vinegars

* Mustard

* Mayonnaise

If you’ve got a great signature recipe you’ve created, Blais encourages you to seek celebrity chef status when you enter the LG “Taste of Something Better” recipe contest and cooking competition. For complete details and to enter your recipe, go to LGCookBetter.com between August 5 and August 31 and you could be selected to participate in the LG culinary cook-off taking place in September in New York City -- complete with an impressive suite of culinary prizes, along with a chance to compete in a global cooking competition.

Blais offers his signature “Blaised Beef” recipe and encourages all inspired home cooks to get into the kitchen and start making magic.

Blaised Beef
Serves two

Ingredients:

1 pound beef tenderloin, trimmed
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 sprig fresh thyme
2 cloves fresh garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons butter or bacon fat
Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Dry the filet with paper towels and season aggressively with salt and black pepper.
2. Heat olive oil in an oven-proof pan and sear the meat.
3. While browning all sides of the filet, add herbs, garlic and butter or bacon fat.
4. Baste the filet with the butter/oil mixture until all sides are browned.
5. Place pan in a 325 F oven and cook until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 135 F.
6. Remove from the oven and rest for 10 minutes.
7. Serve with roasted potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Nutrients, fats, sugars and more – it's all on the food label

(ARA) - To determine the freshness of a fruit or vegetable, a person might squeeze, smell or even sneak a taste at the grocery store. However, when it comes to packaged foods, many Americans find it difficult to evaluate the quality and nutritional value of food items sold in cans, plastic containers and paper boxes.

Seventy-eight percent of Americans want clearer to read nutritional information and ingredient lists on the back of food products, according to a recent survey conducted on behalf of Heinz.

"It can be very confusing to try and compare food products on the shelf," says Dr. Idamarie Laquatra, a registered dietitian and director of Global Nutrition at Heinz. "But label information and nutrition claims can be useful tools for shaping your purchase decisions."

To ensure that you’re a savvier shopper when selecting products that fit your personal nutrition goals, follow these tips from Laquatra:

* Know what's on the package: The nutrition facts label, which gives the serving size, calories and nutrients per serving, is typically found on the side or back of a package. The Daily Value percentages on the nutrition facts label are compared to nutrition recommendations for someone eating 2,000 calories per day. For example: a product listing fiber at 10 percent Daily Value means the product contains 10 percent of the amount of fiber needed by a person who consumes 2,000 calories. When reviewing a nutrition label, consider whether your nutrition needs are greater or less than someone who eats 2,000 calories per day.

* Seek out nutritious sources: Claims like “high in fiber,” “rich in calcium” or “excellent source of vitamin C” mean one serving provides at least 20 percent or more of the recommended daily amount of the specified nutrient. "Good source of" means an item contains 10 to 19 percent of the recommended daily amount per serving.

* Minimizing the bad stuff: "Reduced" or "less" mean that the item has 25 percent less of a nutrient, such as sugar or fat, than the usual product that doesn’t carry this claim.

* Tally the fat content: "Fat free" products must have less than half a gram of fat per serving. Products advertising that they are "low" in fat must have three grams or less of fat per serving.

* Look for allergens: Carefully read product labels on a continual basis to ensure that your favorite products remain free of allergens. Heinz has a commitment to using pure ingredient lists in its brands, which can help you to eat healthier without worrying about allergic reactions. For instance, a list of Heinz gluten-free options are available at www.heinz.com/health--wellness/focus-foods/dietary-preferences.aspx.

Just a little time spent looking at labels at the supermarket can make a huge difference in your diet. And, a little knowledge of what the labels are communicating can make all the difference in your well being.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

How to Freeze Peaches

by Rachel Paxton

When we go camping each summer, we like to stop at a favorite
local fruit stand and buy a 20-lb box of fresh peaches. After
enjoying some delicious peach milkshakes and making some peach
jam, I decided to freeze the extra peaches.

Peaches are very easy to freeze. If you have some extra peaches
and need to do something with them in a hurry, you can prepare
them for the freezer in no time.

Here is what you will need:

Peaches
Plastic freezer containers
Fruit Fresh
2-qt measuring cup

There are a number of ways of freezing peaches, but the easiest
way is to just pack them into freezer containers.

Four cups of peaches will fit into a 1-qt freezer container. One
medium peach is approximately 1 cup.

Choose firm, ripe peaches that haven't begun to spoil or turn
brown.

Peel and pit the peaches and slice them into the large measuring
cup until you have 4 cups. Slice just enough to pack into one
freezer container at a time to prevent browning. To peel the
peaches more easily, dip them into a bowl of boiling water for at
least 30 seconds and then dip them into a bowl of ice water. The
skins should slip right off.

After you have prepared the peaches, stir in 1 tablespoon of
Fruit Fresh. Fruit Fresh is a powder that preserves the color of
the peaches, keeping them from turning brown. You can find it
with the canning supplies at your local grocery store.

Next pack your freezer container and place the lid on top. Label
the container with the contents and date. Peaches frozen by this
method will last up to 6 months in the freezer.

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the author of
What's for Dinner?, an e-cookbook containing more than 250 quick
easy dinner ideas. For more recipes, gardening, organizing tips,
home decorating, holiday hints, and more, visit Creative
Homemaking at http://www.creativehomemaking.com.

Selecting and grilling the season’s freshest fish

(ARA) - There are few summer pastimes more honored than backyard grilling and entertaining. But before you fire up the grill for your next bash or weeknight dinner, you should learn how to properly select and grill fresh fish to perfection.

* Always seek the freshest fish in your local area. Ask your fish market or grocery if they receive their fish daily or what frozen options they recommend.

* Ask about the origin of the fish you're buying, and make sure it has been stored at about 28 F at all times.

* If a fish smells "fishy," don't buy it and don't eat it. Look for shiny skin and undamaged scales. Press firmly on the skin and make sure the fish regains its original shape quickly. Whole fish should have clear eyes, not cloudy.

Master Chef Tony Seta says the best way to grill fish is on a wooden plank, which imparts a smoky flavor and keeps fish from sticking to the grill.

If you're in the mood for a night out, Chef Seta recommends the fresh fish dishes at Bonefish Grill, such as Wild Alaskan Cedar Plank Salmon with a Chorizo Topping. Visit www.BonefishGrill.com to find the location nearest you.

Tips For Choosing Basic Small Kitchen Appliances For Your Home

Just as every cook needs a good spatula, you need the right basic small kitchen appliances as well. You can't begin to expand your cooking style and abilities without the basics such as a good mixer, blender and food processor.

When it comes to mixers, you have the option to choose either a hand mixer or a stand mixer. There are different types of hand mixers from just the simple two beater electric kind that perform basic operations in the kitchen like mashing potatoes to fancier versions that are intended for the serious cook. Stand mixers make mixing easy because you don't have to hold anything and many come with their own bowl that attaches to the base. Depending on your cooking needs, you can find them in the basic light-duty cooking to heavy-duty needs for once again, the serious cook.

Another small kitchen appliance that you may consider owning is a food processor. These handy machines make life easy for the chef who does a lot of chopping or slicing. Processors range from the small one or two cup varieties that do simple jobs like slice carrots to larger machines that can do everything from chop to puree to grating even the hardest cheese. The more complicated food processors can perform many more functions that chopping and grating however, so you have lots to choose from when shopping.

The one small appliance that most folks cannot live without is their blender. Able to do more than make smoothies, today's blenders are a staple in just about any kitchen. Some tasks that you can use your blender for are mixing salad dressings, blending soups, mixing delicious milkshakes, and my favorite: crushing ice for margaritas. Once again, like the other small appliances mentioned above, you have many options to choose from depending on what you want to accomplish with your blender.

Most of the appliances here can be purchased in a variety of colors to match your kitchen decor. You can spend a little or a lot and get as many bells and whistles as you desire. With the right appliances and tools in your kitchen, you can become a super chef and be able to whip up tasty dishes for your friends and family in a heartbeat.

Become a 'Quick and Easy Family Recipes' member and get access to family-friendly and seasonal recipes, meal planning tips and much more...for free! http://quickandeasyfamilyrecipes.com/

Quick and easy family recipes that are perfect for on-the-go families...who want to save time and money.

Do you want 'family approved' AND 'budget-friendly' Quick and Easy Recipes?

Homemade Chocolate Ice-Cream - A Quick & Easy Recipe

This is a very fast and simple recipe for ice-cream, which I invented when I misread an old Mary Berry recipe – I accidentally missed out the egg yolks, but the end result still tasted good. The reason why it’s so easy is that it doesn’t involve making a custard, as most ice-creams do. The secret to making good ice-cream is basically a matter of getting a decent emulsion of fat and water. I think that this recipe achieves that partly by having a higher fat content than other ice-cream recipes I’ve come across – so beware, large quantities will cause your waistline to expand!
This recipe also has the advantage that it’s safer than other “no-cook” ice-cream recipes I’ve come across, because there are no raw eggs in the recipe (dried egg white is pasteurised), so it can be safely served to children, pregnant women, the elderly and immuno-suppressed, who must avoid raw eggs.

However, like properly made ice-creams it is rich with no detectable ice crystals in mouth feel. The trick is speed – you really can’t afford to pause or loose focus when mixing the ingredients together, or the ingredients will separate, and the egg whites lose their aeration.

It’s also important to have your ingredients at the right temperature. Bring the cream almost up to room temperature by taking it out of the fridge about an hour before starting to make this recipe, or the contrast in temperatures between that and the chocolate can cause the chocolate to re-solidify in lots of little flakes in your recipe (If the container holding the cream still feels cool to the touch, then it’s too soon to start making the ice-cream).

It is possible to make this recipe without an ice-cream maker, but it is a lot more work – you will need to take the carton of ice-cream out of the freezer every ten minutes and give it a vigorous stir with a fork, over a period of about an hour or two, until it is completely set through.

I have used dark chocolate, but the finished product has a milk chocolate flavour, because of all the cream in the recipe. You can use milk chocolate, but I feel that the chocolate flavour then tends to be overly subtle in the finished product.

INGREDIENTS

160g (5.5oz) Dark Chocolate
2 dried egg whites, reconstituted according to packet instructions
175g (6oz) caster sugar
500ml (17 fl oz) single cream (18% fat cream)
250ml (8.5 fl oz) double cream (48% fat cream)

METHOD

Take the double & single cream out of the fridge to warm up. Make sure your ice-cream maker is ready to use, and have all your equipment handy (you don’t want to have to break off in the middle of making this to rummage in a drawer)

Melt chocolate by the usual method in a pyrex bowl over simmering water, or in a double boiler. When it has melted, add the double cream to the chocolate in the warm bowl, and stir well. Then add the single cream, continuously gently stirring the mixture until it is perfectly even.

Then whisk the egg whites until stiff (and about double the volume) using an electric beater. This will take about 2 minutes. Then add the sugar, little by little, continuing to whisk while doing so.

Then whisk in the chocolate and cream mixture, again, a little at a time, whisking continuously. Put the mixture straight into the ice-cream maker, and follow the manufacturer’s instructions to freeze the ice-cream.

Once frozen, if you are not eating the ice-cream straight away, then put immediately into a container, and put it in the freezer. The recipe makes about 1.5 litres of ice-cream. The ice-cream will tend to become more solid in the freezer as time goes on, so if it remains in the freezer for more than 4 hours, you will need to remove the container from the freezer and put the container in the fridge for about 20 minutes to let it soften very slightly before serving.

You can make this recipe with any type of chocolate that takes your fancy, but you may want to reduce the sugar content down to about 140g for milk chocolate or 120g for white chocolate to avoid the sweetness overwhelming the flavour of the chocolate. Of course, you can also add other ingredients such as small pieces of fruit, flavourings like mint or citrus oils, spices, caramel sauce, or confectionery pieces to ring the changes. However, if you are adding large quantities of fruit, you will need to use a higher fat cream to avoid getting lots of large ice crystals – I suggest that in this case you use entirely double cream, rather than a mixture of single and double cream. However, be careful with double cream and ice-cream makers – on occasions when my attention slipped, the cream whipped itself into butter, which had a most peculiar texture when eaten!

For an 80g serving (about 2 scoops), fat content is 21g; calorie content 270kcal.

Joe is a keen amateur confectioner, and runs an online Chocolate Delivery service, http://www.chocolate-now.co.uk/ with her husband Nigel. You can find more of her chocolate recipes at chocolate-now.co.uk/recipes.