Simple Cooking Ideas

Fish steams with Chinese herbs are seldom eaten at home. Well, just try this dish and see how it tastes. Herbs used are Tong Sum, Yok Chuk, Pak ki, Kei Chee. Fresh and lively fish such as ‘talapia’ or any other fish of your choice can be used.

Ingredients:

500 gm talapia,cleaned
10 gm yok chuk, cut into 2 inch length
10 gm tong sum, cut into 1 inch length
10 gm pak ki
1 table spoon kei chee
3 red dates, cut into halves
1 liter chicken soup
2 tablespoon minced ginger
1 table light soya sauce
1/2 teaspon thick soya sauce
1 ablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoon cooking oil
salt and pepper to taste
a few spring onions and parsley to garnish

Method:

Run hot water over fish and set aside. Bring water to boil in a wok. At oil, minced ginger, light and thick soya sauce to fish. Put in the fish to steam at moderate heat. Meanwhile wash and boil the herbs with chicken soup for 20 minutes. Put in 2 tablespoon rice wine. Add salt and a dash of pepper to taste. Pour gravy on to the fish and continue to steam for further 10 minutes. Garnish to serve.

Have you tried making yoghurt at home instead of buying in the supermarkets? Yoghurt can be prepared from all types of milk. If you make from skimmed milk, it is lower in fat and colories but weak in flavour. Beside its nutritious value, yoghurt is marvellously versatile and adaptable food. it adds richness, flavour and appetising to many dishes.It blends well with cheese,eggs, grains, meat,vegetables and fruits. It is delicious when you flavour with syrups, nuts, herbs and spices.

Ingredients:

2 litre milk
4 tablespoon plain yoghurt

Method:

Place milk in a pot and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for three minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool to lukewarm temperature. Pour the yoghurt into a thermal pot and screw tightly. Allow to stand for 8 hours. You can eat it on its own, flavour with syrup, nuts or herbs and spices or use it in the preparation of food.

Note: Always set aside part of the yoghurt for the next batch.

Pickled papaya is an appetizer that goes well with curry, preserved eggs or add into salads and you can just eat it alone without accompanying any dish. Raw papaya which is just turned pinkish but not ripe yet is more suitable to prepare this pickle.

Ingredients:

1 raw papaya
2 red chillies
2 thin pieces ginger cut into strips
2 tablespoon salt
150 ml vinegar
salt and sugar to taste

Method:

Peel skin and slice the papaya thinly. Season papaya, chillies and ginger with salt and set aside for at least half an hour. Rinse papaya together with chillies and ginger strips. Squeeze out the water and set aside. Mix vinegar, enough sugar and salt to taste. Stand for half aday before serving.

With the stomach and other digestive organs in a state of perfect health, one is entirely unconscious of their existence, save when of feeling of hunger calls attention to the fact that food is required, or satiety warns us that a sufficient amount or too much has been eaten. Perfect digestion can only be maintained by careful observance of the rules of health in regard to habits of eating.

On the subject of Hygiene of Digestion, we quote a few paragraphs from Dr. Kellogg’s work on Physiology, in which is given a concise summary of the more important points relating to this:

“The hygiene of digestion has to do with the quality and quantity of food eaten, in the manner of eating it.

If the food is eaten too rapidly, it will not be properly divided, and when swallowed in coarse lumps, the digestive fluids cannot readily act upon it. On account of the insufficient mastication, the saliva will be deficient in quantity, and, as a consequence, the starch will not be well digested, and the stomach will not secrete a sufficient amount of gastric juice. It is not well to eat only soft or liquid food, as we are likely to swallow it without proper chewing. A considerable proportion of hard food, which requires thorough mastication, should be eaten at every meal.

Drinking Freely at Meals is harmful, as it not only encourages hasty eating, but dilutes the gastric juice, and thus lessens its activity. The food should be chewed until sufficiently moistened by saliva to allow it to be swallowed. When large quantities of fluid are taken into the stomach, digestion does not begin until a considerable portion of the fluid has been absorbed. If cold foods or drinks are taken with the meal, such as ice-cream, ice-water, iced milk or tea, the stomach is chilled, and a long delay in the digestive process is occasioned.

The Indians of Brazil carefully abstain from drinking when eating, and the same custom prevails among many other savage tribes.

Eating between Meals.
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The habit of eating apples, nuts, fruits, confectionery, etc., between meals is exceedingly harmful, and certain to produce loss of appetite and indigestion. The stomach as well as the muscles and other organs of the body requires rest. The frequency with which meals should be taken depends somewhat upon the age and occupation of an individual. Infants take their food at short intervals, and owing to its simple character, are able to digest it very quickly. Adults should not take food oftener than three times a day; and persons whose employment is sedentary say, in many cases at least, adopt with advantage the plan of the ancient Greeks, who ate but twice a day.

Simplicity in Diet.
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Taking too many kinds of food at a meal is a common fault which is often a cause of disease of the digestive-organs. Those nations are the most hardy and enduring whose dietary is most simple. The Scotch peasantry live chiefly upon oatmeal, the Irish upon potatoes, milk, and oatmeal, the Italian upon peas, beans, macaroni, and chestnuts; yet all these are noted for remarkable health and endurance. The natives of the Canary Islands, an exceedingly well-developed and vigorous race, subsist almost chiefly upon a food which they call gofio, consisting of parched grain, coarsely ground in a mortar and mixed with water.

Eating when Tired.
—————–

It is not well to eat when exhausted by violent exercise, as the system is not prepared to do the work of digestion well. Sleeping immediately after eating is also a harmful practice. The process of digestion cannot well be performed during sleep, and sleep is disturbed by the ineffective efforts of the digestive organs. Hence the well-known evil effects of late suppers.

Eating too Much.
—————

Hasty eating is the greatest cause of over-eating. When one eats too rapidly, the food is crowded into the stomach so fast that nature has no time to cry, ‘Enough,’ by taking away the appetite before too much has been eaten. When an excess of food is taken, it is likely to ferment or sour before it can be digested. One who eats too much usually feels dull after eating.”

Here is the easiest fast way to eat pizza by using cream cracker as the pizza base. This dish is best served just after preparation. You can reserve some pizza ingredients ready in the fridge so that your children can have a pizza at any time.

Ingredients: serves 4-6

3 tablespoon tomato paste
12 cream crackers
1 tin tuna, flaked
150 gm mozzarella cheese, or any cheese, grated
2 big onions cut into strips
2 tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 green or red capsicum, seeded and cut into strips
200 gm canned tuna

Method:

Spread tomato paste on the cream crackers. Arrange the onion slices, tomato slices, and capsicum strips on the cream crackers. Top with flaked tuna and cheese. Grill for 5 mins and serve at once.

Cereal is the name given to those seeds used as food (wheat, rye, oats, barley, corn, rice, etc.), which are produced by plants belonging to the vast order known as the grass family. They are used for food both in the unground state and in various forms of mill products.

The grains are pre-eminently nutritious, and when well prepared, easily digested foods. In composition they are all similar, but variations in their constituent elements and the relative amounts of these various elements, give them different degrees of alimentary value. They each contain one or more of the nitrogenous elements, gluten, albumen, caseine, and fibrin, together with starch, dextrine, sugar, and fatty matter, and also mineral elements and woody matter, or cellulose. The combined nutritive value of the grain foods is nearly three times that of beef, mutton, or poultry. As regards the proportion of the food elements necessary to meet the various requirements of the system, grains approach more nearly the proper standard than most other foods; indeed, wheat contains exactly the correct proportion of the food elements.

We frequently meet people who say they cannot use the grains, that they do not agree with them. With all deference to the opinion of such people, it may be stated that the difficulty often lies in the fact that the grain was either not properly cooked, not properly eaten, or not properly accompanied. A grain, simply because it is a grain, is by no means warranted to faithfully fulfil its mission unless properly treated. Like many another good thing excellent in itself, if found in bad company, it is prone to create mischief, and in many cases the root of the whole difficulty may be found in the excessive amount of sugar used with the grain.

To those who wish to try how to make some curry puffs on a Sunday or school holidays, why not ask the kids to help around too. Here is a simple way to make curry puffs. Get a packet of frozen pastry from the supermarket and thaw out well before using.

Ingredients:

1 packet frozen pastry, thawed
100 gm minced meat
2 potatoes, dice finely
1 big onion diced finely
2 shallots
1 sprig curry leaves
1 tablespoonful curry powder
salt to taste
2 tablespoon oil
enough oil for deep frying

Method:

Blend curry powder into a paste with coconut milk. Heat oil and saute the shallots. Add curry leaves. Fry until fragrant. Add curry paste and continue to stir-fry a minute. Add meat and onion. Fry for a minute and add the diced potatoes and salt to taste. Add little water or coconut milk and simmer till potatoes is soft and meat is tender. Cook till dry and dish out.

Knead dough lightly on a pastry board that has been sprinkle a little flour to prevent from sticking the board. Roll out pastry evenly and thinly. Place pastry cutter on the rolled out pastry and cut rounds of pastry. Spoon enough filling on half of the semi circle. Do not spread too near the edge. Fold over the other semi circle. Press the edges and seal tightly. Decorate the edge by twisting the edge with your finger tips.

Heat enough oil for frying. Slide the curry puffs into the oil and deep fry till golden brown. Do not allow the oil to be smoking hot.