Food for Thought: Get to know your salt
Tip of the Week: Kitchen salts differ in texture
While there’s not much difference in the chemical makeup of kitchen salts, there are differences in texture.
Table salt: This salt’s fine granules dissolve quickly, so it is often used in baking. Because of its fine grain, a single teaspoon of table salt contains more salt than a tablespoon of kosher or sea salt.
Sea salt: Sea salt is harvested from evaporated seawater and receives little or no processing. Its coarser texture provides a crunch and hint of briny flavor when added on top of foods.
Kosher salt: Containing no preservatives, it can be derived from either seawater or underground sources. It’s particularly useful in preserving, because its large crystals effectively draw moisture out of meats.
-- Food Network, www.foodnetwork.com
Easy recipe: Garden Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 pound Russet potatoes, pared and quartered
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 teaspoons butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash ground white pepper
2-3 cups cooked mixed vegetable such as carrots, green beans, celery, onions and cabbage, finely diced
Directions:
Boil potatoes about 30 minutes or until tender. Drain well. In mixing bowl, combine hot potatoes, milk, mayonnaise, butter, salt and pepper. Whip 1 minute at low speed then 1 minute at high speed until potato mixture is smooth. Add cooked vegetables; keep warm until served. Makes 6 servings.
-- www.potatoes.com
Did You Know?
A new study suggests that eating a small piece of chocolate every day may reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke.
Would You Buy It? Mac Snack Wrap
Details: It's the taste of a McDonald's Big Mac, but in a lighter version. The half beef patty, cheese, pickles, onions, lettuce and special sauce are wrapped in a flour tortilla. Each one has 330 calories and 19 grams of fat. (A Big Mac has 540 calories and 29 grams of fat.)
Suggested retail price: $1.49
Comments: It replicates the flavor of the Big Mac, but isn't as filling. "If you had a craving for a Big Mac, this would satisfy it." "I like the lightness of the tortilla." "It could be a snack, or it could be a light meal."
Would you buy it? Yes
-- State Journal-Register
Food Quiz
All of the following are examples of “soft-ripened” cheeses except:
A. Brillat-Savarin
B. Brie de Meaux
C. Bucheron
D. Caprice des Dieux
(www.funtrivia.com)
Answer is at bottom of column
Wise to the Word: Shandy
Short for "shandygaff" in Germany, this is a brewing process mixing beer with soda or lemonade. It started in a Munich beer hall in September 1922. Franz Kugler's beer supply was running out but 13,000 cyclists were in town and thirsty. He diluted his beer with lemonade and claimed to have created a special blend.
-- The Repository
Number to Know: 4.9
Grams of protein in one large raw oyster mushroom – calorielab.com
The Dish On …
“Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals” by Jamie Oliver
Cooking good food from scratch is a skill that can save you money, keep you healthy, and make you and your family and friends happy.
Jamie Oliver picks a whole load of meals that we all love to eat and breaks them down to make them as simple as possible. There are plenty of clear instructions and step-by-step pictures, so whether you're an accomplished cook or a complete beginner, you'll be able to enjoy cooking and achieve great results in the kitchen.
Oliver believes the food revolution is all about people learning how to make a recipe, then teaching that recipe to their friends and family ... if enough people do this, pretty soon everyone will be cooking.
From the Beer Nut’s Blog: Surprised by a beer
It doesn’t happen too often that a beer surprises me.
But I recently picked up a bottle of Beer Here’s Dark Hops ale from Denmark. Based on the name and a funny tagline that said “Hops were harmed in the production of this beer,” I expected a big, hoppy double IPA.
Sure enough, the smell was big and hoppy. Then I poured it -- and that’s where the surprise came in. It wasn’t an IPA, double IPA, or even a hoppy barleywine. No, this was a stout – an extremely dark stout.
I’ve never smelled such strong hops in a stout; it was good, but definitely different.
To read more from the Beer Nut, visit http://blogs.townonline.com/beernut/
Food Quiz Answer
C. Bucheron
GateHouse News Service