How To Cook The Fish You Just Caught

A freshly caught fish can be cooked in a thousand and one ways. Any fisherman worth his salt has his own unique way of cooking a freshly caught trout, salmon or whatever fish he caught. So fisherman all across the country has been handed down methods of cooking fish. Here are some tips to get the best out of your fish.

1.Frying

Breading and frying a freshly caught fish is as good as it gets. The smell of butter emanating from the frying pan and the flair a fisherman puts in flipping his catch is worth its weight in gold, almost. For the novice fisherman, make sure that the butter is extra hot but not yet burning. Also, make sure that the fish is well coated in batter. Season your batter to your heart's content, salt and pepper never goes wrong. You may want to try other herbs and spices with the batter for a more delicious fish.

2.Grilling

At first glance, grilling would seem to be the easiest way to handle your fish. A newbie might assume that grilling fish is the same as grilling steaks or burgers. Unlike fowl or cattle, fish tends to secret most of its own juices when cooked. On a grill the delicious juice drips into the coals.

To prevent losing the moisture, first coat the fish with oil. The oil will seal a part of the moisture inside. Second, keep an eye on the fillets and turn them as soon as a cut would reveal that the fresh fish is cooked halfway through. After being flipped, watch the fish carefully. Remove the fish as soon as it is cooked through.

An option to basting the fish with oil is to wrap it in aluminum foil. The aluminum foil will keep the moisture and marinate the fish in its own moisture. Placing herbs and spices inside the foil with the fish enhances the grilling process and the fish itself.

3.Baking

Baking is the best option for the fisherman who does not want to watch over the fish during cooking. The fisherman can prepare the marinade and pre-heat the oven, then pop the fish into the oven for a predetermined amount of time. You may want to check on the fish from the time to time, ensuring that you don't overcook the fish.

Whatever fish you caught, a good recipe and proper cooking will for sure enhance the catch. Take time to prepare for cooking, a badly cooked fish will no doubt spoil your day. Remember the first rule of cooking, don't overcook your fish.

5 Reasons To Grow Your Own Fruit And Vegetables

Having your own vegetable patch or fruit garden was once commonplace, but fell out of favour as the food industry become more commercial and supermarkets began to take over. In recent years however, more and more people have started explore growing their own produce again. Here we give 5 reasons why you might consider starting your own kitchen garden.

- Freshness

Fruit and vegetables taste better and are healthier if eaten as soon as possible after picking. Most fruit you buy from supermarkets and the like is picked well before it is properly ripe, to extend shelf life, and this usually has an impact on flavour. Growing your own lets you taste the freshest possible produce as it's meant to taste.

- Quality

Commercially grown crops are often selected for their high yields, uniform appearance and long shelf lives rather than for quality and taste. When you grow your own, you can concentrate on the quality rather than the economics.

- Price

Much supermarket fresh produce is hugely overpriced, despite their advertising claims. Growing your own from seed is about as inexpensive as you can get, and even growing from small plants you buy is likely to provide you better food at a lower cost. With many plants, you can use the seed from one growing season to provide plants for the next - a self sustaining cycle that will cost you only time and effort to keep going.

- Provenance

More and more people have concerns about how our food is produced, with chemical pesticides and GM food a particular worry. With your own vegetable patch, you know exactly where your food is from and how it was grown.

- Variety

There are literally thousands of different varieties of fruit and vegetables, but supermarkets tend to concentrate on only the most profitable and easy to sell. This means that our choice is often limited to a few select varieties of apple, for example, rather than the hundreds of traditional kinds that exist. Growing your own lets you pick the varieties you like the most, and experiment to find new ones you'll rarely see on sale.

There is of course a downside to all this - it takes time and effort. In these increasingly busy times, we might not think we have the time to spare, but starting small with a few herb plants on your windowsill, or even the odd tomato plant, will give you a taste of growing your own and might even be enough to hook you into it for life!

About the author: Andrea writes for the Recipedia Food and Drink Glossary which you can find at

How Does A Refrigerator Work?

In the summertime, have you ever gotten out of a swimming pool and then felt very cold standing in the sun? That's because the water on your skin is evaporating. The air carries off the water vapor, and with it some of the heat is being taken away from your skin.

This is similar to what happens inside older refrigerators. Instead of water, though, the refrigerator uses chemicals to do the cooling.

There are two things that need to be known for refrigeration.
1. A gas cools on expansion.

2. When you have two things that are different temperatures that touch or are near each other, the hotter surface cools and the colder surface warms up. This is a law of physics called the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Old Refrigerators

If you look at the back or bottom of an older refrigerator, you'll see a long thin tube that loops back and forth. This tube is connected to a pump, which is powered by an electric motor.

Inside the tube is Freon, a type of gas. Freon is the brand name of the gas. This gas, chemically is called Chloro-Flouro-Carbon or CFC. This gas was found to hurt the environment if it leaks from refrigerators. So now, other chemicals are used in a slightly different process (see next section below).

CFC starts out as a liquid. The pump pushes the CFC through a lot of coils in the freezer area. There the chemical turns to a vapor. When it does, it soaks up some of the heat that may be in the freezer compartment. As it does this, the coils get colder and the freezer begins to get colder.

In the regular part of your refrigerator, there are fewer coils and a larger space. So, less heat is soaked up by the coils and the CFC vapor.

The pump then sucks the CFC as a vapor and forces it through thinner pipes which are on the outside of the refrigerator. By compressing it, the CFC turns back into a liquid and heat is given off and is absorbed by the air around it. That's why it might be a little warmer behind or under your refrigerator.

Once the CFC passes through the outside coils, the liquid is ready to go back through the freezer and refrigerator over and over.

Today's Refrigerators

Modern refrigerators don't use CFC. Instead they use ammonia gas. Ammonia gas turns into a liquid when it is cooled to -27 degrees Fahrenheit (-6.5 degrees Celsius).
A motor and compressor squeezes the ammonia gas. When it is compressed, a gas heats up as it is pressurized. When you pass the compressed gas through the coils on the back or bottom of a modern refrigerator, the hot ammonia gas can lose its heat to the air in the room.

Remember the law of thermodynamics.

As it cools, the ammonia gas can change into ammonia liquid because it is under a high pressure.

The ammonia liquid flows through what's called an expansion valve, a tiny small hole that the liquid has to squeeze through. Between the valve and the compressor, there is a low-pressure area because the compressor is pulling the ammonia gas out of that side.
When the liquid ammonia hits a low pressure area it boils and changes into a gas. This is called vaporizing.

The coils then go through the freezer and regular part of the refrigerator where the colder ammonia in the coil pulls the heat out of the compartments. This makes the inside of the freezer and entire refrigerator cold.
The compressor sucks up the cold ammonia gas, and the gas goes back through the same process over and over.

How Does the Temperature Stay the Same Inside?

A device called a thermocouple (it's basically a thermometer) can sense when the temperature in the refrigerator is as cold as you want it to be. When it reaches that temperature, the device shuts off the electricity to the compressor.

But the refrigerator is not completely sealed. There are places, like around the doors and where the pipes go through, that can leak a little bit.

So when the cold from inside the refrigerator starts to leak out and the heat leaks in, the thermocouple turns the compressor back on to cool the refrigerator off again.
That's why you'll hear your refrigerator compressor motor coming on, running for a little while and then turning itself off.

Today's refrigerators, however, are very energy efficient. Ones sold today use about one-tenth the amount of electricity of ones that were built 20 years ago. So, if you have an old, old refrigerator, it's better to buy a new one because you'll save money (and energy) over a long period of time.

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Stay Healthy in a Limited Budget

conomic depression is telling on all but even during this lean phase, we should learn to live wisely. Limited budget does not mean that you have to cut down on nutrition; all you need to do is act wisely. On an average, around 49% Americans eat outside food which, in fact, is a major cause of your money depletion. Calculate the amount spent on food purchased from vendors or restaurants and you shall see how expensive it actually is when compared to home-cooked food.

Most of us hardly want to make an effort to cook our own food but at the end of the month, we repent why we spent so much on the pizza, the roasted turkey, or the risotto. Besides, there is another trauma lying in wait- obesity. Outside food does no good to keep your body weight in check or offer balanced nutrition. On the other hand, people often buy chips or colas when they do not want to indulge in expensive restaurant dishes. What they don't realize is that a one dollar chips gives way to thousand dollars expense in the form of weight gain, cardiac diseases, and heart problems.

Still wondering? It's time to hit the grocery stores and do some cooking!

Clinical nutritionists suggest a way out to keep you healthy within a limited budget. Instead of buying ready-made food, go to the grocery store every week and buy foods that promise a balanced diet instead of mere carbohydrate-rich food. Foods high in fiber content are ideal as they take longer to break-down and thus make you feel full. Such foods include sweet potato, bean, lentil, tomato, or broth-based soups, lettuce, mixed greens, and brown rice. Buy the veggies in bundles instead of pre-cut to minimize cost. Buying brown rice of the long kind is more affordable.

One of the healthiest options is to buy seasonal fruits during the fall. Seasonal fruits cost much cheaper and are rich in vitamins and anti-oxidants. Grocery stores also keep cut fruits packets that you can consume as snacks. Bringing your own lunch to office saves on calories as well as dollars.

One very basic thing that people often overlook is drinking adequate amounts of water. Do not confuse thirst for hunger; the next time you feel hungry, drink water first. The last but not the least- always plan your shopping trips and meals ahead of time to ensure you do not end up eating or spending more than required. Do not let the economic depression cast its ugly eyes on you. Be wise and stay healthy!

How to start cooking successfully.

Cooking is not magic. It is either art or science depending on what suits you best. If you are creative and/or artistic, then cookery can be an art. If you are methodical and like rules and order, then cookery is a science. Whichever, you decide it is, you can do it by following a few rules. (These rules must apply even if you are artistic - perhaps they are even more important. How to start cooking successfully. The first thing you should know is that cooking has a language which you must learn. (This applies to most things you try). Get a good old fashioned cook book and you will find a list of meanings in the front - what a teaspoon or tablespoon means in terms of weight, likewise fluid ounces etc. It will also sometimes tell you how to boil, simmer, braise, roast or bake. It will also have conversions from Gas to the two electricity scales. The more modern cookbooks by T.V. chefs will nor have this information. You need a basic old fashioned one!

Starting to cook.

If you have never cooked before, choose a recipe which is simple. Once you have mastered this you can start to separate eggs and make meringues etc. Before doing anything, read the recipe through - twice. Make sure you understand it. If in doubt about what a term means, look it up. Don't guess - it will possibly be wrong - and important. Next assemble your ingredients. At this point you should measure the amounts you want and put them on plates or cups. Always weigh and measure everything, don't guess. If it turns out well, you can duplicate it. If it doesn't taste exactly how you want, make a note to increase or decrease the ingredient which makes the difference. (Usually salt or sugar, but sometimes other ingredients such as flour).

Once you have mastered the basic recipes such as scrambled eggs on toast, take the next step, try omelettes or soufflés. Much the same ingredients - just different (and more difficult) ways of coking them. For more details go to www.chef-123.com.Don't be fooled, nobody makes a perfect dish the first time they try it, it takes practice and although often the dish does not turn out the way it should it will usually be edible.

Once you have become proficient with some recipes, try changing them slightly, so they become your own. Change flavourings and see how you like it. Sometimes it will be good, sometimes it will not work. Again, always measure and keep a note of what you do so that you can duplicate a recipe if it works.

Finishing your Dish.

It has become more important to present your dish so that it pleases not just your taste buds but also your eye and sense of smell. For more details go to www.july4-recipes.com. It has been proved that people who have no sense of smell do not enjoy food as much as those who have this sense. Therefore if a dish looks good you are more inclined to expect to enjoy it and are more likely to try it. This is where creative people find it easier to produce an enticing dish than those less artistically inclined.

One last thing, cooking should be enjoyable. If you like what you are doing, it will show.

Lunch at work

Food Creations

Chinese Super Store Items Dare to eat ........ ?

Who Says Vegetables Have To Be Boring?

Eat your veggies - especially your lettuce. But don't confine yourself to iceberg lettuce or salads! Darker greens have about the same number of calories and carbs -very low! - but pack a lot more punch in the vitamins and other nutrient categories. By substituting radicchio, watercress, escarole or spinach for the iceberg lettuce, you add vitamin C, riboflavin’s, manganese and other essential vitamins that aren't present in lettuce. Try them braised, steamed or grilled for something a little different from the usual salad.

Here are some recipes for greens that will tickle your taste buds and make your heart happy!

Wilted Spinach Salad:

The onions take on a natural sweetness that contrasts with the tangy yogurt and the bite of the spinach. A family favorite that's low in calories and high in important nutrients.

Here’s what you need:

2 cups spinach leaves
1 medium onion peeled, sliced
2 tbs. olive oil
1/2 cup plain yogurt

Sauté onions in olive oil till transparent. Add spinach and toss in pan to coat with oil until leaves are barely wilted. Stir in yogurt while the spinach is still warm. Eat hot or cold. Only 50 calories per serving!

With this recipe, you’ll get: protein, calcium, vitamin c, manganese, iron, vitamin B12, vitamin A, selenium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, beta carotene, vitamin K, ALA.

Grilled Radicchio:

Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce add spice to heart-healthy radicchio without adding much in the way of calories.

1 head radicchio
1 tbs. olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbs. Dijon mustard
A splash of Worcestershire sauce

Combine all ingredients except radicchio in small bowl. Cut head of radicchio in 1/4 inch slices. Brush cut side with marinade mixture. Grill over hot coals till browned. Only 25 calories per serving!

With this recipe, you’ll get: magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin E, foliate, vitamin K, beta carotene.

Spinach, Mushroom & Anchovy Salad:

Anchovies are one of the best sources of omega 3 fatty acids AND they're low in calories. Simple to fix and delicious for dinner, on its own, or with a bowl of chunky pasta.

6 cups spinach leaves, loosely packed
1 2 oz can anchovies in oil
10-12 small mushrooms
Juice of 1 lemon

Wash and dry spinach. Drain anchovy oil into sauté pan and warm. Add anchovies and gently stir over heat till anchovies are dissolved in oil. Slice mushrooms thickly and add to anchovy oil, sautéing till browned. Add spinach, tossing with oil and anchovies till just wilted. Spritz with squeezed lemon. Only 50 calories per serving!

With this recipe, you’ll get: magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin E, foliate, vitamin K, beta carotene, niacin, thiamine, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, omega 3 fatty acids, riboflavin, and calcium.

Walnut & Raisin Greens:

Get even more essential fatty acids and antioxidants in this great tasting warm salad.

6 cups greens, loosely packed (spinach, collard, turnip will all work well)
2 tbs. walnut oil
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Chop greens and place in shallow bowl. Heat walnut oil slowly over low heat. Mash garlic cloves and sauté in walnut oil till soft and browned. Add raisins and toss, and then add walnuts and heat through. Pour over greens and toss to coat well. Only 150 calories per serving!

With this recipe, you’ll get: magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin E, foliate, vitamin K, beta carotene, niacin, thiamine, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, omega 3 fatty acids, riboflavin, and calcium.

by Kirsten Hawkins