Why buy from the store when you can make your own fresh muffins?

1 cup milk 2 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoon margarine 1 envelope active dry yeast 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 3 1/2 cups (about) all-purpose flour Cornmeal

Scald the milk and stir in the sugar, salt, and margarine. Cool to warm (105 – 110 degrees F). Measure one cup of warm (same temperature) water into a large warm bowl. Sprinkle with the yeast, then stir until yeast is dissolved.

Stir in the milk mixture, then stir in the whole-wheat flour and 1 1/2 cups of the all-purpose flour. Beat with a spoon until smooth. Add enough additional flour to make a stiff dough.

Turn out onto a floured board and knead two to three minutes, or until the dough can be formed into a ball (note: dough may be sticky). Put the dough in a greased bowl, turning over to grease all sides. Cover and let rise in a warm place one hour, or until doubled in bulk.

Punch the dough down with lightly floured fingertips. Divide the dough in half. On a board heavily sprinkled with cornmeal, pat each half into a half-inch thickness. Cut with a three-inch cookie cutter and put about two inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Let rise in a warm place a half hour, or until doubled in bulk. Cook on a lightly greased medium-hot griddle or skillet until well-browned on both sides, about ten minutes on each side. Cool on racks. To serve, split muffins and toast. Makes about eighteen muffins.

By: Terry Morgan

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Anchovies are a small sea fish found in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. They grow to about 3 inches long. Anchovies are related to the herring. Those found in the Atlantic tend to be slightly larger than the Mediterranean variety.

In Southern Italy and Spain they are often cooked fresh. if you are visiting these areas fresh anchovies are worth looking out for in restaurants and cafes. Fresh anchovies are often served grilled like sardines. They are good for barbecues. You can also bake them in the oven.

In Italy they don’t clean the fish but it’s probably a good idea to do so unless your guests are used to eating them that way. They are served with a rich garlic and tomato sauce.

Fresh anchovies are hard to come by unless you have a good fishmonger nearby. You will most often see them in preserved form because the season is short. Anchovies can be packed in salt or olive oil. In that form they are exported all over the world. Preserved anchovies have become a vital ingredient in most Italian cooking.

When anchovies they are salted they must be cleaned and gutted as soon as they are caught. They are allowed to dry before being layered in large round tins with salt. The tins are stacked into towers which are called seasoning towers. Weights are placed on top of them. They are left like this for up to two months. During this time the fluid in the fish is forced out and replaced by salt.

Anchovies preserved in oil must be treated differently. Fresh anchovies are immersed in brine for two months. After that they are washed in more salt water, cleaned and filleted. The two tiny fillets are then packed in jars or tins of olive oil.

Both types of preserved anchovy can be bought in small tins or jars as well as loose from the delicatessen.

Anchovy paste is often used in Sicily to flavour pizza. It has a less fishy taste than anchovies preserved in either salt or olive oil. You will find anchovy paste sold in tubes. Generally speaking it is less useful than the other types of preserved anchovies.

When you use anchovies it is best to soak them for about ten minutes first to remove some of the salt. That way you get more of the flavour of fish and less of the salt taste.

Anchovies and hard boiled egg yolks mixed with a little red wine vinegar made a great sauce for bland foods. You can use this anchovy sauce on cold meat or fish.

In Venice they have a dish of fresh beans served in anchovy sauce. In Naples they like to eat linguini in anchovy sauce on Christmas Eve. You simply have to cook some garlic in oil then stir in the anchovies until they dissolve. Add a bit of pasta water and the sauce is made. Just pour it over the pasta.

Try anchovies in a simple dish like artichokes with anchovies. Steam some artichokes in about half an inch of water. When they are almost cooked remove them from the pan and add the soaked anchovies. Cook the anchovies, stirring all the time, until they have dissolved. Return the artichokes to the pan for a few minutes so that they can soak up the sauce.

Serve this as a side dish so that your guests who think they hate anchovies can try just a little. This dish will surely change their minds about anchovies. Any bad memories they might have of nasty salty litte fish on their pizzas will be forgotten. Just let them taste the authentic flavour of anchovies in Italian cooking.

By: Abhishek Agarwal

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Malaysia is situated in south east Asia and is rather unusual in that one part lies south of Thailand on the south east Asian peninsular, with Singapore at its tip. This is where the capital, Kuala Lumpur, is to be found. The other part lies across the South China Sea and forms the northern one third of the island of Borneo, surrounding the Sultanate of Brunei.

Malaysia has a mixed history which reflects in today’s cuisine.

In the 15th Century, the southwest (April to October) and northeast (October to February) monsoons brought the ships of the Arabs, Indians and Chinese who traded in spices, silk and precious stones. Many of the traders remained behind and married local women. A slow conversion to Islam began, which meant that pork was excluded from the Malay diet.

The 16th Century saw the arrival of the Portuguese, who brought chillies with them, the Dutch and the British, all of whom remained for some time to rule the country.

During the late 18th and 19th centuries, Great Britain established colonies and protectorates in the area and brought in more Indians and Chinese to work in the tin mines and rubber plantations. Many of these Asians stayed too and from all these influences, current day Malay cuisine evolved.

Originally, Malay cooking consisted of fish flavoured with shrimp paste, pepper, ginger, turmeric, lemon grass or tamarind. Rice was always a staple in this area and being a major part of Indian and Chinese food too, remained as central to the diet. Muslim Malays excluded pork and Indian Hindus excluded beef but delicate Chinese flavourings, Indian spices and herbs from South East Asian made an appearance.

Nasi means cooked rice in Malay and Nasi Goreng, that well known Indonesian dish, is cooked rice, usually fried with flavourings for breakfast. For special occasions it has a fried egg on top. But I digress, Malay Nasi dishes include Nasi Kander, much influenced by Indian cuisine and consisting of both fish and meat curry, rice and hard boiled eggs. This dish used to be bought from an itinerant salesman who carried his wares in baskets suspended from a pole over his shoulder (kinder means shoulder in an Indian dialect). A bit of everything would be placed on a banana leaf and the sauce dripped over the hard boiled eggs.

The Malays adopted some Indian recipes and in return the Indians started to add galangal, lemon grass and coconut to their food. Then came the food of the Nonyas which resulted from the marriage of Malay men to Chinese women which introduced Chinese seasonings such as star anise and salty soy sauce.

The resultant cuisine is a pleasant mix of hot and spicy with mild and perfumed.

By: Liz Canham

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Chinese cuisine has always been a worldwide favorite. No wonder Chinese cooking schools are in great demand. If a Chinese cooking school is what you are looking for, then you have plenty of choices. You can find them in most of the major cities. A simple search on the Internet could do the work for you.

You can even check out your city’s Parks and Recreation Department. This department offers many evening or weekend courses, particularly during spring and fall. There are also many local colleges or trade schools that can help you cook up a Chinese diet. Catering companies, professional Chinese cooking schools or cookbook stores also offer courses. A non-professional can choose from a host of weekend or evening classes on Chinese cooking. A local food publication can also give you a fair idea about finding the right Chinese cooking school. One can also find do-it-yourself Chinese recipes in these books, too.

While a lengthier course gives you plenty of time to learn and fine-tune your skills, a short duration course is ideally suited for someone to pick up a few tips. They are also suitable for individuals with tight schedules and cannot commit to many sessions in a week.

Chinese cooking is an ancient form of cooking. This being the case, it is always better if you were to try it hands on. Just in case you don’t feel comfortable doing so, you can try buying a Chinese cooking video and try out the delicacies.

With Chinese cooking being a traditional affair, one can find that most of the Chinese cooking schools offer a very homely atmosphere. The classes are usually small. A good Chinese cooking school would also encourage you to ask questions and have a closer look at what the instructor is preparing.

By: Kevin Stith

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Eek, the stress of it all! Last minute holiday gift ideas can be a headache if you are at a loss for ideas. The gifts you decide upon will depend on who you want them for and why. Fun and fantastic Halloween gifts for the kids or gracious Thanksgiving gifts can help determine your gift giving needs for the fall season.

One idea that can help you out of this tight spot is quality and tasty holiday food gifts. Everyone likes to eat! Creative baskets are a sure-fire gift for families, neighbors, friends, coworkers and clients. The edible delights are bites of pure deliciousness. And, they are wrapped and designed in fun and festive works of art that you can feel proud of.

Those last minute holiday gift ideas come easily with Halloween gift baskets and Thanksgiving food gift baskets. Flavorful and stylish, quality creative baskets can be delivered directly to your recipients, making your holiday shopping, wrapping and deliveries a pleasant and fast experience.

Fun and tasty last minute holiday gift ideas for Halloween are:

ghostly boo baskets and bags filled with sweets for the big or little kids in your life, gives them a night of ghostly fun. Make your own boo ghost bags with white paper lunch sacks or make them out of fabrics. Use a black marker or crayon and fabrics to create the ghostly image. Fill it with edible delights for the kids and have a great Halloween. jack o lantern containers filled to overflowing with Halloween gifts of sweet edible delights, will delight any spooky participant of Halloween night. Stuff a tee-shirt in the bottom and fill it up with edible delight the kids will love. big bags of treats and plush toys for the ghost and goblins you know are spooktacular gifts of tasty goodies. Add a soft plush toy for the kids to remember how good Halloween treated them.

Last minute holiday gift ideas for Thanksgiving are:
autumn creative baskets filled with gourmet specialty goodies of vegetable dips, crackers, café lattes and many more edible delights are gift ideas for mom and dad, grandparents, and any other friend you know or just met. fall snacks are perfect gifts when someone has made an impression on you or you want to make an impression on them. It is always nice to say thank you with gifts of good taste. gourmet Thanksgiving food gift baskets are filled with scrumptious gifts of cheeses, meats, snacks and sweet treats that can be topped off with a cup of gourmet coffee. They are gifts of good taste for those last minute gifts of the season.

If you need fun Halloween gifts or ones of thankfulness, holiday creative baskets are the gifts you are looking for. Ghoulish or gourmet, creative baskets can come to the rescue for last minute holiday gift ideas.

By: Shirley Bass

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Sweet Delights

Cooking is a very dynamic aspect of human life. This is because you can never really be a genius at the art of cooking. You can only be very good at some delicacies and you will know next to nothing in another cuisine that is alien to you. A lot of work has to be put into learning the art of cooking well.

As a beginner, you need to know that it is one step after the other step. Everyone started at some point. Your first step is learning the basics and after that, you must concentrate on putting all you learn to practice. You need not be discouraged when you make a mistake. Take consolation in the fact that there is someone that you must be better than in cooking.

At least you have started to learn but there are people who have not taken that first bold step. Did you know that even those people who are proficient cooks become beginners again at some point when they are learning to cook a new cuisine like the Chinese, Indian food or African food?

There are various reasons why people cook. Some cook because they are bored; some cook because they want to eat, which is the most common; some cook because they are forced to do it; while others cook because they are paid to do so (professional chefs).

The important thing is that you stick to the basics. As you browse through your cookery book or recipe book, be sure to familiarize yourself with the terminologies. These terminologies play a major role in the outcome of the food. Whatever term you find interesting or you don’t understand, it is advisable to check it out very well before proceeding.

By: Benjamin Stratton

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The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar. This usually falls in the first half of June.

The festival honours Qu Yuan, who was a poet and high official in the state of Chu. There are several variations on the story but all end with Qu Yuan drowning himself in the Miluo River on the 5th of the 5th, 278 B.C.E.

One versions says that Qu Yuan believed passionately in social reforms but this upset more conservative members of the court. They talked the king into banishing Qu Yuan, a punishment he was unable or unwilling to accept.

Another version says that he warned against the threat from a neighbouring state only to be ignored. When that state attacked and took the capital he wrote one last poem before committing suicide.

The festival arose as his fellow countrymen honoured the memory of Qu Yuan by racing Dragon Boats to the presumed spot of his drowning. They threw special pyramid-shaped sticky rice cakes wrapped in leaves into the water to feed his soul. These Zongzi now form an essential part of any Dragon Boat Festival.

Some say the rice cakes were made like this to feed the fish, preventing them from eating his corpse. Others say that Qu Yuan appeared to fishermen in a dream complaining that their original offerings were being taken by a local dragon, hence the need for a lily leaf wrapping.

Whichever story is true, it is interesting to have a symbolism to any foodstuff, and nice to see a patriot being honoured, even if a little too late.

Zongzi are made from sticky or glutinous rice and shaped as a pyramid. Over time, the style of the wrapping and the contents have evolved to suit local conditions all over China.

Zongzi now often contain bean or nut paste in the centre (peanuts and walnuts being favourites), or even egg or meat.

The wrapping is usually of any common local leaf. Bamboo leaves are used in the south, maize and other similar leaves further north.

The Zongzi are steamed or boiled for hours allowing the flavour of the contents and the leaves to seep into the rice, producing a whole range of snacks rather than one distinct dish.

By: Ian Ford

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Italy has a well-established and deserved reputation for producing high-quality food and tasty cuisine. Best known for pizza and pasta, Italian food also includes many excellent meat and seafood dishes, as well as excellent cheeses, and fabulous desserts.

It has often been noted that Italy is a country of great regional variations – and that is certainly true, indeed the country was only unified in 1861 – and this fact is reflected in the diversity of Italy’s regional cuisine. It should also be noted that Italy has been invaded many times over the centuries, as well as trading with many other countries, and this too is reflected in the national cuisine.

Some of the regional variations that you may encounter in Italian food include:

- Northern Italy’s native products include balsamic vinegar, bolognese sauce (ragu), lasagna, mortadella (a heat-cured pork sausage, served as a cold cut) parmigiano (parmesan cheese) polenta (a dish made from boiled cornmeal), prosciutto (dry cured ham) and tortellini (stuffed pasta). Rice is grown in both Lombardy and Piedmont (although different types in these two regions), which is used to make risotto.

- Tuscan cuisine often features meat, white beans and unsalted bread.

- Mozzarella and pizza, not to mention sfogliatelle (Italian filled pastries) originate from Naples.

- Roman cuisine often uses pecorino (cheese made from sheep’s milk) and offal. Rome is also known for its ultra-thin pizzas.

- Calabria (the region corresponding to the “toe” of Italy) is known for its spicy variety of salami.

- Sardinia is well-known for its lamb and pecorino (cheese made from sheep’s milk).

- Sicilian cuisine is noted for its Arab influences in its cooking (with the use of lemon and pistachio), as well as for its seafood (including tuna and swordfish). Sicily is also the home of gelato (ice cream) and granita (a delicious semi-frozen dessert made using sugar, water and flavorings).

By: Sunil Tanna

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indian cuisine

Their culinary use is renowned but in addition growing Italian herbs will make a fantastic contribution to the delight of your landscape design. These herbs can be displayed both for color and for aroma and by planting the strongly scented Italian herbs amongst other plants, you will be graced with the sweet scents that would give the illusion of being in Italy, while you admire the lovely flowers.

Growing Italian herbs is a fascinating specialisation on herb gardening and gives many variations in growing culinary herbs. It is no surprise that some of the best cuisine comes from Italy, undoubtedly because the most famous and tastiest herbs in the world all seem to come from or have been adopted by Italy.

Although there are so many to choose from when starting to grow Italian herbs you really need to consider which herbs you will use. Also it is necessary to think about the growing conditions each plant needs and work out if you can or can’t provide them.

Basil is a well know Italian herb used in many Italian recipes as is parsley which is a relatively hard herb plant to propagate, but it is so useful as a garnish on a variety of meals, and of course eating fresh raw parsley after a meal eradicates the offensive breath left after eating any type of spicy food, as well as garlic.

Oregano when it is fully mature it will sprout pretty little purple flowers. It is best not harvested until it has flowered because then the plant will have developed most flavor, unlike many culinary herbs grown for their leaves, such as fennel, which loose their flavor as they mature.

Rosemary, just like basil, offers very beneficial help to the garden by attracting bees. It grows into a large tough evergreen perennial shrub that sprouts pretty little blue flowers. Rosemary must be harvested regularly to provide the needed young tender shoots.

No Italian herb garden should be without probably the most used herb in Italian cuisine. That is garlic, which will thrive in just about any garden with very little attention so is an ideal choice for the novice gardener.

New shoots of the sage plant contain the most flavor so new shoots should be encouraged to grow by continual harvesting. Sage is used in a variety of Italian dishes from meats to salads.

The variety of dishes that can be created using Italian herbs is almost limitless and the continual harvesting of these plants will give you an endless supply of fresh herbs with which to enhance all your cooking

By: John Beaver

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INDIAN CUISINE

The cuisine of India is very vast & it is basically characterized by its sophisticated & subtle use of spices & herbs grown across India.It is also considered to be one of the old diverse cuisines of the world. The Flavors of Indian food are appreciated all over the world. Indian cuisine varies from region to region depending on the diverse Indian subcontinent. Indian cuisine also evolved due to cultural interaction with neighboring countries like Persia, Greece and Mongolia.

The Vast Sub-continent of India offers a range of culinary delights as rich and diverse as its people and history. Indian cuisine can be divided into North Indian, South Indian, West Indian, East Indian and North East Indian. Northern North Indian cuisine is distinguished by the proportionally high use of dairy products like ghee, milk, paneer, and yoghurt. Gravies are typically dairy-based. Other ingredients like chilies, saffron, and nuts are also commonly used. Goat and lamb meats are favored ingredients of many northern Indian recipes.

North Indian cooking features the use of the “tawa” for making roti and paratha, and “tandoor” for making naan, and kulcha and also main courses like tandoori chicken.Puri and bhatoora, which are deep fried in oil, are also common. The samosa is a popular North Indian snack, and it is now commonly found in other parts of India, Central Asia and the Middle East also. A common variety is filled with boiled, fried, or mashed potato. Minced meat, cheese mushroom and chick pea are also used for filling.The staple food of most of North India is a variety of lentils, vegetables, and roti . Popular snacks, side-dishes and drinks include mirchi bada, buknu, bhujiya, chaat, kachori, jalebi, imarti, several types of pickles,murabba, sharbat, aam panna and aam papad. Popular sweets include gulab jamun, peda, petha, rewdi, gajak, bal mithai, singori, kulfi, falooda, khaja, ras malai, gulkand, and several types of laddu, barfi and halwa.Some common North Indian foods such as the various kebabs and most of the meat dishes originated with interaction with muslims. Southern South Indian cuisine is distinguished by a larger emphasis on rice as the staple grain, sambar and rasam ,a variety of pickles, and the liberal use of coconut ,coconut oil and curry leaves. The dosa, idli, vada, bonda and bajji are typical South Indian favorites, which are generally consumed as breakfast. Hyderabadi biryani, a popular type of biryani, reflects the diversity of south Indian cuisine. Each Andhra, Chettinad, Tamil, Hyderabadi, Mangalorean, and Kerala cuisines have different tastes and ways of cooking .

The use of tamarind to impart sourness distinguishes Tamil food.In Andhra food excessive amounts of chilies are used. Some popular dishes include the Biriyani, Ghee Rice with meat curry, sea-food which includes prawns, mussels, mackerel and paper thin Pathiris from Malabar area Western Western India has three major food groups such as Gujarati, Maharashtrian and Goan. Maharashtrian cuisine can be divided into two sections based on the geographical sections. The coastal regions depend more on rice, coconut, and fish. The hilly regions of the Western Ghats and Deccan plateau regions use groundnut instead of coconut and depend more on sorghum and millet as staples. Gujarati cuisine is predominantly vegetarian. Many Gujarati dishes have a hint of sweetness due to use of sugar or brown sugar. Goan cuisine is influenced by the Portuguese as Goa was colonized by Portugal. Saraswat cuisine forms an important part of coastal Konkani Indian cuisine. North Eastern The food of the North East is very different from food from other parts of India. This area’s cuisine is more influenced by its neighbors, namely Burma and the China. The use of Indian spices is very less. Yak is a popular meat in this part of India Eastern East Indian cuisine is famous for its sweets such as rasagolla, chumchum, sandesh, rasabali, chhena poda, chhena gaja, and kheeri. Many of the popular sweet dishes initially originated in the Bengal and Orissa regions. Apart from sweets, East India cuisine offers delights of posta (poppy seeds). Traditional Bengali cuisine is not very spicy, not too faint. Generally ingredients such as mustard seeds, cumin seeds, black cumin, green chillies and cumin paste are used in Bengali curries. Mustard paste, curd, nuts, poppy seed paste and cashew paste are preferably cooked in mustard oil. Curries are classified into bata (paste), bhaja (fries), chochchoree (less spicy vapourized curries) and jhol (thin spicy curries).These are eaten with plain boiled rice or spiced rice. Fish is commonly consumed in the eastern India, especially in Bengal.Like South India, rice is the staple grain in Eastern India too. A regular meal consists of many side dishes made of vegetables. The most popular vegetable dish of Bengal is Sukto. Deep fried, shallow fried and mashed vegetables are also very popular. The popular vegetable dishes of Orissa are Dalma and Santula.

In India, food is most often eaten without cutlery, using instead the fingers of the right hand. Eating with your hands is considered important in Indian etiquette because a person eating with his hands knows the exact temperature of food before the morsel hits his mouth thus preventing blisters in mouth due to consumption of hot food Traditional serving styles vary from region to region in India. A universal aspect of presentation is the thali, a large plate with samplings of different regional dishes accompanied by raita, breads such as naan, puri, or roti, and rice. In South India, a cleaned banana leaf is often used as a hygenic and visually interesting alternative to plates.

By: Sumit Goyal

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