New Zealand's Secret Ingredients Sea Salt And Honey

New Zealand is primarily known for amazing landscapes, beautiful beaches and lovable people. What may surprise home chefs is that this country down under is also famed for their sea salt and honey. The company PRI - Pacific Resources International is shedding a bright light on these natural ingredients, making them now known in the States.

This very Kiwi company was actually started by an American transplant in this wondrous land. David Noll, left four decades ago , just with his guitar and surfboard. It was going to be a short stay but he fell for Linda, married her and stayed. He founded Pacific Resources International in 1987. Four years later he introduced Manuka honey to the US. Manuka honey originates from the manuka bush which has healing properties, including antibacterial properties.It also lowers cholesterol as well as treating diabetes and curing sinus, ear and eye infections. .PRI is also known for their sea salt, harvested from the purer waters of the South Pacific.It's different from other salts because after it's been harvested, it washed in brine before it's stacked in large, snowy drifts. They're something of a landmark seen from the Blenheim-Christchurch highway. The company also manufactures all natural potato and sweet potato chips in such delicious flavors as paprika and rosemary and thyme, There is also one flavored with Marlborough sea salt too.

I love this brand! Sea salt is one of my favorite ingredients and what draws me is the texture along with the taste.PRI's flaky sea salt is so light and fluffy, It is heaven on tomatoes, giving the flesh a gentle crunch and a lighter saltiness than other sea salts.It is really the perfect salt to sprinkle on scrambled eggs or a salad and it would definitely be the perfect topping on brownies and on top of fudge frosting. Another favorite is the Mesquite BBQ salt , a perfect marriage of mesquite and the sea salt.I can see this dusting a grilled steak or even chicken.I also love their chipotle BBQ salt. This is a mixture of pure fire with salt and a whiff of sweetness.This is definitely getting added to my chili and sprinkled over chicken patties.  PRI's sweets have also captured my heart. Their Manuka honey caramels are the best caramels ever! They have a dusting of sea salt on them which makes a perfect foil to the honey caramel's creamy sweetness.Their dark chocolate mint and ginger discs are also wonderful snacks, .Flavored honey is enrobed in 99 per cent dark chocolate discs.They'd make the perfect Easter candy , having the extra bonus of the healing honey.

If you're looking for a fantastic sea salt and honey, look no further than PRI. They produce great salts and honey as well as potato chips that are not only good tasting but good for you. They have so many benefits as well as being a bonus addition to any kitchen.

The New Must Have - The Quarter Sheet Pan

Sheet pans are now  must have items.They're used for cooking whole dinners which unfortunately means overcooked meat or sides. However a smaller version is out , the quarter pan, and it's making waves in the home cooking society.

Melissa Clark wrote about them along with giving some good recipes in today's New York Times Food section.A sheet pan is ubiquitous kitchen necessity these days. Many home chefs swear by it , loving the fact they can cook any meat and veggies together. There's a problem with that. The meat , especially if it's a roast can take longer. Veggies then burn or dry out which ruins the meal. An easier solution would be having two separate pans in which the foods can cook at their different rates. Two different sheet pans means also taking one out when it's done and turning up the oven temp for the other , without worrying about over cooking. Also meat fat won't run onto the vegetables, making them safe for vegans and vegetariansThey're basically a thin but sturdy tray about 9 by 12 inches as opposed to the full sheet pan's 13 by 18 inches. Four can fit comfortable in any oven as well as the dishwasher. Another plus is they're only ten dollars so buy a couple and if you're worried about them not fitting, they're stackable. Again, they'll come in handy for the holidays when they're doing double duty as cookie sheets.

Ms. Clark gives two very tasty recipes. One is cumin roasted pork chops and Brussels sprouts. The chops are smeared/rubbed with a fiery sweet mix of cumin,brown sugar , black pepper and red pepper flakes. It should then sit for at least twenty minutes and then refrigerated up until overnight. The Brussels sprouts only have to be tossed with sage along with extra virgin olive oil with just salt and pepper. The other recipe is sausage with broccoli accompanied by homemade tomato sauce and ricotta. This is a little more labor intensive because you have to make the sauce on the stovetop. The meat and broccoli are cooked in a 450 degree Farenheit oven. The sausage should be laid out on the pan after its' been pricked with a fork (use the sweet or hot Italian kind). The broccoli is tossed with red pepper flakes for heat and bite along with olive oil. Flip the sausages and remove the broccoli after fifteen minutes of cooking. The broccoli is then tossed with sliced garlic. Return them to the oven for five minutes until the sausages and broccoli are browned and the second is tender. Serve with ricotta and tomato sauce. Ms. Clark recommends serving with a crusty Italian bread to sop up the sauces.

Sheet pan dinners are the recipe of choice nowadays. Make it easier by using two quarter sheet pans. It gives  a tasty full cooked meal with two perfectly cooks dishes.

Your Sauce Guide

Pasta with sauce is one if the simplest and possibly the most delicious dishes to make. What create a memorable bowl is the sauce itself. Whether it's the springy basil or a rich marinara , what goes on your spaghetti or lasagna  is the the ingredient that makes it.Yet don't get stuck in a rut. There are so many different kinds out there. You can have one type of pasta three different ways and each time it will be unique.

If you're a novice home chef, you may want to stick to the easiest.which is burro or butter. This is simply melted butter , either warmed in the microwave or in a saucepan over a low flame. Some add fresh parsley and/or onions but that's up to you. Just plain butter is good, especially if it's Kerrygold, Pasta con burro is a late night treat, especially at all night trattorias where young Italians go after the movies. Another no fuss sauce is aglia olio.This is a little more involved but worth it. It's thinly  slicing six (!) garlic cloves and sauteing them in half a cup of olive oil. (I  actually use a little more than half a cup). Peperincino  or red pepper flakes are added for heat and bite. Again using these are a matter of taste.If they're too fiery just sub in a grind of fresh black pepper. The pasta and the sauce must be cooked at the same time. If not the garlic will burn and will taste bitter.A cup or more of the pasta water also has to be added , mostly to thin out the sauce and add some salinity to it. This sauce should be served with spaghetti, but it also works with rigatoni and penne too.

Tomato sauces are any pastas best friend. You can make them over a stove pot or in a crockpot.I prefer the last because the slow cooking lets all the flavors meld together and gives it a richer, deeper flavor.The basic sauce calls for first sauteing sliced garlic  then adding tomato sauce and paste. Chopped onion give it that unique, fresh flavor while dark honey gives the entire sauce a certain mellowness.The last is up for debate. Many home and professional chefs will either add refined white sugar - no - or grated carrot - acceptable. I've added sugar to mine when I didn't have honey and it just gave the sauce a kind of candy like taste. Dark honey is is the best. It has more flavor - and more nutrients than light or golden honey. Bolognese sauce is the same but ground beef is cooked first with the garlic. Some Neopolitan chefs throw in ground pork. For a leaner sauce, try ground turkey. One of the hardest and most complex is pesto. Some think this is just  ground basil but it's so much more.. It ground basil leaves blended with walnuts and pignoli or pine nuts.. Only the best olive oil is used (Bertoli is recommended) and all the ingredients are put through a food processor or blender. Parmesan cheese is then added later. It's the only sauce that isn't cooked.It's not only good with pasta but also excellent with chicken and grilled steak.

There's a whole range of pasta sauces to try. Vary it with a traditional Bolognese or a simple aglia olio. It's a great way to expand your palate and sauce knowledge.

The Perfect Diabetes Cookbook

It is hard to plans meals.It's even harder when you have a condition like diabetes. Luckily there's a new cookbook out there to help plan meals . This is a boon for those who have to search for meal ideas or are frustrated by the usual recipes. These are light in calories and rich in taste.

Linda Gassenheimer and The American Diabetes Association wrote this fascinating  The 12 Week Diabetes Cookbook.Ms. Gassenheimer has a website , Dinner in Minutes along with the cookbook No Fuss Diabetic Desserts. along with several other cookbooks.that center around one pot dishes, chicken and smoothies. Her book is  down to earth and it feels like a friend giving kitchen advice. The introductory chapters are howtos on how t shop, along with weekly budgets and the ingredients and gadgets you need. There is a shopping list with the must haves such as meats and seafood, bakery, condiments, produce, and staples. The book isn't divided into chapters but into weeks. What I like about it is how the cost is also included in the recipe. The most a meal can cost is around  $9.23, most are the cost of a fast food meal. Every week starts off with a shopping list for the week. This is perfect for those who want to do their food shopping in one fell swoop.The recipes also have a helpful hints section and a countdown of what to do. I would have liked to have seen dessert recipes too, because this is as just as important as the main meal.

Ms. Gassenheimer has a wide range of recipes and is big on repurposing the meat. Pork tenderloin is made Monday night and remade as pulled pork on Wednesday. All meats and seafood figure largely in the weekly meals. There is a tasty lemon pepper salmon and linguine with Italian salad. Red meat lovers will enjoy the spicy coffee rubbed steak along with Mediterranean steak with minted couscous.
Italian, Mexican, and Chinese food are also represented. Home chefs can prepare healthier versions of shrimp and mushroom pizza and the vegetarian Mexican Fiesta Bowl,chock full of avocadoes, black beans, corn  and tomato. Stay home and cook Mu Shu pork wrap with stir fried bok choy. Filipino and Indian cuisines are also in here to vary up the cooking.There are plenty of homey recipes too, perfect for a chilly night in. Try turkey pot pie or meat loaf with orange flavored barley. Another great aspect is that there's no fancy ingredients or spices. Everything is affordable and familiar and easily found in any supermarket.

The 12 Week Diabetes Cookbook is a great cookbook for chefs, following a specific diet. It is varied but not extravagant. This is the perfect book for those watching their diets and budgets.

Kitchen Clean

One of the most annoying aspects of a kitchen is it's forever dirty and messy. Stoves get used every day as do plates . However thanks to old fashioned cleaning methods and new fangled gadgets, the most used room in the house can always be sparkling and bright.

Everybody has to do dishes - whether by hand or by dishwasher.  It helps if you have a dish detergent that gets rid of grease and sauces along with leaving a gleaming finish. For dishwashers many opt for Cascade ,  while others are looking into more natural types such as Seventh Generation.The last has no dyes or fragrances, perfect for those who have allergies. For those who aren't as lucky to have a dishwasher, there's Dawn dish soap. This is a favorite of mine (and yes, I still wash  dishes by hand.I have the old fashioned notion that hand washed dishes and pans are somewhat cleaner) I like the way it thoroughly rids surfaces from chocolate to  tomato sauce.It's also gentle on skin which is important during these raw winter days.It cuts down on chapped skin, Dawn is so mild that it's been used to clean birds that have been unfortunately victims of oil spills Another plus is that it comes in a wide variety of scents, from lavender to a refreshing waterfall scent.For those who do their own manicures, wash hands in Dawn before putting on  nail  polish. It gets rid of any  body oils and makes the color stay on longer.

Vinegar is a time honored classic , used for more than one hundred years. It's is wonderful on windows, cutting through soot and dirt.White distilled vinegar can get rid of any stain  - no matter how greasy or grungy. The insanely fun gadget Angry Mama below) uses it to clean the interior of

 the microwave. I bought her at What On Earth, a neat catalog company that specializes in the fun and the fantastic. Vinegar and water are poured into her body. and then heated for seven minutes in the microwave. This produces a potent steam that comes out of the holes in her head.From there the moisture is wiped away, along with grease or food particles with a paper towel. The vinegar also deodorizes the microwave, taking away any lingering odors. Let the liquid cool and it becomes an excellent cleaner for the stove top.

It pays to have a clean kitchen. There's nothing more disgusting than a grungy one,. Luckily there are so many soap, cleanserss and gadgets that can help.

Impromptu Cuisine

Inspiration is all around if you're a home chef. A bag of frozen veggies could turn into a salad. Leftovers can be elevated to a tasty meal.It just takes  creativity and the willingness to try to make a delicious meal.

This happened to me tonight.It was just going to be a simple cup of soup for a Friday night. However the leftover soy chicken strips from the other night looked too beckoning. I decided to crisp them up in margarine with a heady dash of Sylvia's lemon pepper seasoning.This is a great seasoning to have around.It elevates the real thing and the faux poule too with a rich ,lemony flavor and a hint of salt.The flavoring would be good on barbecued chicken too. What goes with lemon chicken?  Any kind of veggie.I opened my freezer to find Stop & Shop's frozen broccoli. I had been saving the package for a broccoli salad but saw it and thought why not make it now. These are steamed florets so they needed some oomph.All it took was a toss in olive oil flavored with minced garlic. It turned into the perfect hot salad, amped up by a good sprinkle of sea salt and freshly ground pepper. What started out as a blah idea for a Friday supper turned into something much better and much tastier.I just looked into the fridge, assessed what was there and let creativity take over.. It's amazing how the fridge can act as a canvas.

Anyone can create a meal like this.Leftover London Broil can be chopped up and added to an already mixed salad to make it more substantial. Add a mushroom gravy to the slices and serve over rice for another hearty meal. Chicken can be repurposed into a yummy Mexican dish with the help of a home made mole sauce.I like the idea of frying it up into crispy pieces and flavored with spices.I could have used a mix of rosemary and garlic too for a Mediterranean vibe. Sliced grape tomatoes would have been added for color and kick.Tomatoes are another ingredient in creating an impromptu meal. Slice them and then saute them in a mix of butter, olive oil, and garlic.Cover with breadcrumbs and more minced garlic and you have the mouth watering tomatoes Provencale.They are also good in a lunchtime pain bagnat,, the Southern French sandwich.This could be an impromptu meal , because besides tomatoes, it also has hard boiled eggs, any veggies and tuna stuffed into an oiled loaf of French bread.If you don't have tuna, sub in anchovies.Serve with a good red wine for a truly Gallic feel and end the meal with grapes.

Impromptu cooking is a fun way of testing a home chef's creativity. It makes you assess what you have and  the possibilities. It just takes a spark of creativity to make a meal with what you already have in the kitchen and the fridge.

One Ingredient , Two Recipes

One of the best aspects of any food is its' versatility. It's a bonus if a home chef can prepare it a
variety of ways. One day it can be a roast, another day ot can be used in a salad. Salmon is this ingredient..It can be prepared in a plethora of different recipes with different ingredients each time.

Salmon was the subject of a new series by master chef and baker, Yotam Ottolenghi for yesterday's New York Times Food section. Its' theme is taking one ingredient and preparing two ways. One is a quick one that can be whipped up in a trice while the other is  a more involved recipe, reserved for speecial occasions and holidays/The first installment is about salmon and Chef Ottolenghi goes to the tips of Europe. One is from  Norway, the other from Sicily.The first is a laxpudding, a homey mix of salmon ,cooked with potatoes and dill. This is the more elaborate recipe that also has saffron and anchovies along with five egg yolks (!) and half a cup of heavy cream.It's an elaborate recipe that uses up a pound of  skinless salmon fillets and five ounces of thinly cold smoked salmon. A custard has to be  made using the yolks and cream along with cornstarch ,lemon zest and almost two cups of milk,.The spinach is fried with basil as the potatoes are oven baked on a parchment paper lined pan.The two salmons are also mixed together The gratin is then assembled by layering all these ingredients ,starting with the potatoes followed by the spinach and then the fish. The egg custard is poured on top of this and baked for 25 to 30 minutes. A sauce of fried capers is then drizzled over the finished bake.\

The other salmon recipe is an easy cook. It's a quick pan seared fillet and a cooked relish  made with typical Sicilian ingredients of currents, olives and pine nuts. Pan searing it is the best way to appreciate the salmon' flavor. The recipe starts with soaking the currents for twenty minutes and then setting them aside. its then onto the salmon. Rub the fillets with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and a good grind of fresh pepper. leave it to marinate while making the relish. Heat half a cup of olive oil and fry the celery and pine nuts in it.Turn off the heat to avoid burning and add the capers and their brine. Also add a generous pinch of saffron ,its' water and  olives. The salmon fillets should be heated in a tablespoon of olive oil over a medium high heat until the oil starts to shimmer. . This means it should be cooked right before the oil starts to smoke. The salmon is placed skin down in the pan and fried until the skin is crisp. Flip and then repeat on the other side. divide the fish onto four plates and  serve with the warm relish spooned on top. Celery leaves can be scattered on top for decoration.

These recipes highlight  salmon prepared two different ways.. The gratin would be a perfect meal for guests or even for a dinner party. The pan seared one can be used as an easy week ay meal after a hard day'of work . Both are perfect in bringing out the fish's sweet brininess and delicate flavor.