A Good Hot Broth

With the temps reaching staggering record breaking lows, it's time to reach for a bowl or cup of hot , steamy broth. It's not only great for warming up, it's perfect for revitalizing . Any broth is chock full of  vitamins and nutrients and can be customized to suit any one's tastes. It can be eaten as a light soup or substantial snack.

It was the subject of an article by New York Food section great, Julia Moskin in today's Food Issue. Broth is the perfect meal for January ,It's a light clear respite from the last of the holiday food plus being a great meal for dieters. Broth is also getting its' due thanks to the Paleo Diet. One recommended dish is the Bone Broth, basically the same chicken or beef stock chefs and home chefs have been using for millennia.Like other trendy foods of late it has a foot in the mystical past as well as one foot in the now of good for you nutritional foods such as yogurt and quinoa.Broth can also have some medicinal qualities as well.The author of Nourishing  Broth, Sally Fallon Morell, has found out that broth served as a kind of medicine for centuries, settling both nerves and stomach problems. The ancient Jewish physician, Maimonides proclaimed that chicken soup was an excellent soup and medication. Caribbean islanders have cow foot soup for breakfast to aid ailments and provide fortification for the day. Stock actually does have health benefits.It aids in reducing inflammation as well as digestive problems.

The best stock or broth is made with a lot of bones. The French tend to delineate theirs. There is everything from light veal to dark veal and raw chicken to roasted chicken. Home chefs don't have to be that fussy,In fact a mixed broth of chicken and beef tastes delicious. Broth making is an arduous affair that can take an entire day and night to make, First is the roasting process. Ms. Moskin uses a recipe borrowed from Mario Canora, a chef at Manhattan's Brodo Restaurant. Chef Canora is know for his tasting sampler of different ones. He recommends using beef shanks and oxtails brushed with a tomato paste and slow roasting them for half an hour to forty five minutes. They are then transported to a 12 quart stock pot and are completely immersed in cold water and  apple cider vinegar.Chopped onions along with herbs such as flat leaf parsley and oregano are also added. Shitake mushrooms are also thrown in for earthiness. It's up to the home chef however to add what they like , as far as extra veggies and spices. Simmer overnight for three hours. If you're using knucklebones , then it has to be overnight for about nine or fifteen hours.. The newly made broth can be used immediately or frozen for later use.

Broth is the perfect meal for these freezing temps. A cup of fresh made is a good light lunch ,packed with nutrition and taste. Have a bowl or cup of your own making and enjoy.

Cold Temps Hot Cheeses

Cheese is one of those foods that's enjoyed all year round.It's especially good in the winter, when it's heated up.The taste becomes more intense and almost buttery in flavor. It's texture is a perfect meld of creaminess and crustiness. The best part is that it requires minimum ingredients and preparations.

One of the easiest is a simple grilled cheese. Like French toast , every home chef has his or her own way of making it. One way is just placing a slice of any cheese on plain white bread and baking for five to ten minutes in a toaster oven. The best bread for this is Pepperidge Farm sandwich bread.It has a nice sweet, homebaked taste that works well with the cheese's sharpness. You can vary both. A grilled rye topped with Swiss is nice variation. Italian bread dripping with mozzarella makes for a nice lunch.Serve with a cup of heated pizza sauce for more flavor. The diner classic The Happy Waitress is the ultimate grilled cheese. This is an open faced sandwich first layered with two layers of  bacon slices and  a generous amount of fresh sliced tomatoes.The extra baking really crisps up the baking and the three flavors together are just perfect. You can also go the French route by making the bistro favorite croquet monsieur. Gruyere cheese and wafer thin ham is placed upon slices of white bread and fried in butter. You can add sauce but it also tastes great without it too.

Fondue is the ultimate winter cheese dish. This does require a fondue pot (now on sale during the January white sales) but you can also use a sauce pan as well.The  best cheeses for it are a mix of Swiss and Gruyere but you can cook all of one or the other.White wine is added along with a dash of cherry brandy or kirsch . The bread used is almost always a stale baguette  cut into cubes.Boiled potatoes and cubed apples are also dipped into the sauce. Another tasty dish is also Swiss, raclette .This is a cow's milk, sort of resembling mozzarella in look and texture(it can be bought in the US  at Trader Joe's). It has a mild flavor  and is very soft.It is cooked on a special raclette grill that sort is like a large waffle maker. The cheese is placed on it and diners can scrape the cheese off with bread,potatoes or gherkins. In fact raclette comes from the French word racler to scrape.This is a party dish and is great for a  small dinner party of four or six.

The temps are falling.It's the perfect times for a hot , cheesy dish. You can choose the all American grilled cheese or the fun and sophisticated raclette. Any hot cheese plate is perfect for these frosty, chill days and nights.

Hijacked By Google

For all my readers, Google has hijacked my account for no reason at all.I'm am writing g this on my phone which is impossible to type on.This may takes months and possibly even a decade to fix.I will try to give you quality entries although it will be extremely difficult.Please stand by. Liz

Winter Foods Cabbage Season

One of the brightest culinary spots in winter is cabbage.Its bright green leaves are a nice changefromall the canned veggies.Like those other winter foods, oranges and tangerines, it's full of Vitamin C and other good things.It can be eaten raw or cooked.Either way it's full of freshness and flavor. There are several different types of cold weather cabbage.they have smaller heads and are harder than the ones Grown in the summer.One of the most popular is the light green Danish Ballhead.This is mild tasting, perfecting for making sauerkraut and introducing kids to cabbage. creamy white Bentley is another winter variety.You can keep it for weeks without worrying that it will go bad.Most people know the January King, with it's flattened shape and deep purple marking on it's veins.A popular one in Northern Italy and my kitchen right now is the Savoy.It's cheerful yellow color is beckoning and it has an almost sugary taste.Any cabbage is chock full of beta carotene and Vitamins A and C.It's good to incorporate it in your diet now in the midst of cold and flu season.Cabbages also are full of iron and magnesium.It also becomes a pro biotic if fermented as in dishes like the traditional German sauerkraut and the Korean Kim chi. Cabbages are also easy for the novice home chef.They can made into salads and can be cooked into simple stir fries and braises. One of the best recipes is Cole slaw. this is a simple dish of shredded cabbage ,carrots and a mayo dressing.This is the most traditional, and the one everyone tends to make.Yet Cole slaw can be turned into something fun and zingy side dish, perfect with all those football party ribs and wings. Sub in oil and apple sider vinegar.Instead of carrots try wafer thin slices of Granny Smith apples(use a mandolin for this last), You could also create a Mexican influenced one with slivered jalapeño and garlic. cooked cabbage is wonderful.Wilting cabbage is easy.Take any kind ,cut into manageable pieces and then sauté in a blend of olive oil and butter( you can use margarine but it won't add to the veggies's flavor).Garlic and sea salt can be added for more flavoring. One of the best winter dishes is the Piedmontese pas coi.Translated from the dialect as not fish, (although the name could come from the shape or the way the cabbage leaves look kind of scaly after cooking and pickling).The leaves are first parboiled and then drained .This makes them more malleable to work with.Fill them with uncooked polenta and a small knovpb of butter.They are then rolled ,sort of like the Greek dolmades or grape leaves and tied with sturdy thread .They are they fried in olive oil until they turn brown. After this place them in a cassarole dish and purr a pickling brine over them.The brine is made from red wine vinegar and the herb savia.They're left to pickle for a few hours before eating. Cabbage is one of the best winter foods to eat.It's healthy and delicious, along with being veratile.Buy a head of it today for a tasty side whether cooked or made into a salad.It's a winter treat.

Winter Foods Part One - Citrus

To the uninformed , as well as those who don't often frequent their supermarket, winter can seem like a bleak time. There are no fresh fruits or vegetables.If you do want them, then you have to settle on either canned or preserved. Not true.There are plenty of them to enjoy and incorporate into New year's diets.Citrus fruits are popular right now. They're everything a summer fruit is, versatile, good for you and most importantly delicious.

This is the time of the year to get your citrus fix.Oranges are out in abundance right now.The most common is the Washington Navel.This bright globe originated in Brazil and now is grown in Southern California. This is a versatile orange.It is great to turn into  juice  which can be a refreshing beverage along with being the base of a great salad dressing.Any navel orange is a great snack too. It has a nice sweetness without it being too cloying. Another good orange is the blood orange. The flesh is a beautiful shade of ruby.It's grown mostly in Mediterranean climates to achieve that amazing jewel toned flesh.The juice makes for a tasty glaze, especially for salmon. Blood orange juice is also the main ingredient in Italian orange sodas (although you can make your own , using it and club soda). Seville oranges are also in supermarkets right now.They're most famously known for being turned into marmalade(which you can make yourself) and can also be known for twisting the classic lemon merengue pie into an orange one.

Tangerines are also out in force right now. These are wonderful carry along snacks for school or the gym because of their small size.They are  They usually come out around Thanksgiving but are still in stores in February.They should be deep orange in color and spotless. Brown spots are not a good sign, usually meaning an older fruit.They are great paired with chicken in a light salad and their juice makes for a good marinade.Tangerines are surprisingly good  with pork chops as well.A sunny, tropical sauce includes them and flaked coconut drizzled on the meat and then baked.Cole slaw also benefits from the sweet sunniness of tangerine juice..Use both it and the zest for a zingy side salad, perfect for the Super Bowl. Mandarin oranges are really tangerines and , again these are the perfect snack.For a real surprise use tangelos, a hybrid of the tangerine and grapefruit. They have a mild , sweet flavor, perfect for those who love a less intense tasting juice and are super juicy. Try the Mandarins with lamb or as a refreshing sparkler with seltzer.Tangelos  can be used to rub over chicken and even turkey  for an unexpected burst of flavor.

To say there is no fresh fruit to enjoy right now is a lie. Any fruit section in any supermarket right now is bursting with orange  globes of color and flavor. Enjoy them for a healthy and varied diet right now.

Food Trends Predictions And Hopes For 2015

Every new year brings predictions and hopes. The culinary world is no different. There are expectations and trends that will shape and polarize 2015. What will they be?Will they be successful or fizzle out? Just as with the world anything is possible.

One of the most talked about trends to be is the Nordic Diet. This is replacing 2014's Paleo diet which was the cave man diet, which has periods  of starvation along with feasting on meats and root vegetables. The Nordic Diet is a bit more kinder.It is basically the foods the Vikings ate over a thousand years ago with  the inception of canola oil or rapeseed oil, rapeseed being common in Scandanavia. Meats include everything from cod to moose, however free range chicken is also allowed on meat days. Foods should be foraged and moss along with edible barks and twigs are allowed. Root veggies such as carrots and turnips along with berries like strawberries and blueberries are extras. Another trend that will be welcomed, is the death of hipster artisanal foods. The hipster movement is dying and with it all those annoying trends like make your own bacon, pickles,Amish food and make anything in a mason jar.

2015 has a lot of exciting food trends.I'm excited about Brusselkale, a hybrid of two very good for you foods. Imagine kale in miniature with a peppery taste.There is also lollipop kale which will definitely be made into neat little appetizers. Pistachios are another hot trend in the making (obviously those Stephen Colbert commercials paid off for the National Pistachio Council).Right now you can buy them dipped in rich dark chocolate for a sweet and healthy snack. You'll be seeing them on pizzas as well as in guacamole and pesto sauces.Bitter foods are going to be another culinary must have. Think tart and earthy like broccoli rape or stout.Fermented foods are also going to be getting a shout out this 2015. Sauerkraut and yogurt will be bigger than usual although there is a reason for this. Both are probiotic which aids both in digestion and eliminating harmful bacteria.

This is only day one of the new year yet trends are forming and gelling. It should be an interesting 2015, with pistachios and sauerkraut vying with moose and berries.  What will your trend be this year?

Lucky New Year's Foods

New Year's Eve and Day bring about a cornucopia of culinary traditions.All over the world people eat a variety of different dishes, from cookies to fish for luck. Cakes are baked with coins or prizes that may or may not predict their eater's future in 2015.The luckiest foods are the circular ones .They represent continuity and wealth.

The New York Times Food section highlighted this in their last issue of the old year. David Tanis  covered the classic Hopping John in his A City Kitchen column. The bean dish ,made with black eyed peas is both African and Sephardic based. Sephardic Jews ate them for Rosh Hashana centuries ago and they brought the dish to America. Most Americans know them from the South, first brought to Florida from the Caribbean, I usually like them plain with salt and butter but home chefs can follow Mr. Tanis  recipe. This involves ham hocks and collard greens. The last gives extra luck to the dish because of the green color.You can use hamhocks but you can also use bacon or even a meaty ham. The beans should be soaked overnight in cold water to help them cook faster.(although if you're in a hurry just use the canned , presoaked ones).He also recommends added red pepper flakes but just salt and pepper is fine too, although just omit the salt because the ham will add saltiness too.

To end this meal, think a sweet but healthy cake.Recipe For Health , Martha Rose Schulman, brings a Tuesday Science Times sensibility to the Food section. Her recipe is a yummy walnut apricot bundt cake. it is a golden ring , symbolizing prosperity , and eternity.It is also a promise to eat better, being made with whole wheat flour and sweetened with honey.It is moist and dense without the usual bundt cake's heaviness.Orange flower water can also be added but it's not needed. , walnuts, the perfect superfood are another healthful ingredient along with boiled dried apricots.Eggs, buttermilk and butter are also added to give it richness as is baking soda and baking powder. This is a great cake , not to end a New Year's Eve party but one to start the day . It's is a great breakfast, cake, according to Ms, Schulman, especially if it's  cut in thick slices although wafer thin slices can be cut if you have a lot of guests.

Make healthy , and lucky foods to ring in the New Year. Black eyed peas  is the luckiest and the best for you. Follow up with a healthy  bundt cake, full of goodness and promise.