How Eating Seafood Will Help You Live A Longer And Healthier Life - Tip 5 Of 10

Convenience foods. Do you love them or hate them? Or need them because of your busy lifestyle or your unwillingness to cook for yourself?

The claims made by the burger operators about the 100% Burger for a Euro have to be believed. However an animal supplying Beef is 100% Beef from head to toe, and it is around these two areas that the meat will come from. Do not expect that you will be eating the prime cuts of fillet, sirloin, rib or rump. You are more likely to receive meat from the third quality cuts. Is this what you want out of life? The packet of strawberry flavoured, or rather red coloured dessert, made up with milk is neither convenient or inspiring. How about fresh strawberries with cream. Whilst both contain saturated fats from dairy products the fresh strawberries contain vitamins and minerals as against the chemical kit in the sachet, and surely it is not that inconvenient to take the fruit out of the carton as against whisking the powdered mix with milk. The prepared pies, sausages, fresh meat products and cured meats are in a world of their own. Most come attractively packaged with ingredients lists and nutritional details, to help you assess their part in your daily food intake.

Just consider the claims - "now even creamier", for a dessert that does not include any dairy products. "80% pork content" - for a cheap sausage; Pork does contain fat, gristle and sinew. "Now lower in salt" - for a 28 g packet of potato snacks of which 1 g is salt.

There is an easy way to resolve the problems and still present you with the benefit of convenience and speed in preparing a meal, and lead a healthier lifestyle. That is to increase the amount of seafood and fresh vegetables that you eat during the week. Cooking most fresh fish dishes is very quick. A fillet of Sole or Salmon, grilled or fried, will take less than five minutes, still giving you time to prepare a salad or some fresh vegetables. You will end up with a nutritious and healthy meal on your plate. Do not be concerned because of your lack of previous experience, because there are many TV cookery programmes with fish being used, for a small amount of money you can buy a book or even borrow one free from the library, and the Internet is full of free advice and help. A recent report from Australia finds that people aged over 65 who cooked regularly at home live longer than those who exist on the bought in convenience food. This is due to home cooks having a better diet, so it is hardly surprising.

With over 20,000 species of fish in the world and countless ways of cooking them, you will never have a shortage of choice for a meal. Fish is also high in vitamins and minerals, low in fat, salt and calories. Don't just think about the change to eating fresh food start now, on the road to leading a healthier and longer life.

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Folding a Bread Dough - What, Why and How

Folding a bread dough is an old trick that has become very much a modern "must-do." Many recipes specify a long fermentation period followed by a brief kneading and another, shorter fermentation period. The brief kneading is the fold.

Why should you do it? During a fairly long fermentation, say over an hour, the yeast will eat up the carbohydrates near it and will begin to slow down its rate of gas production. However, the gluten in the flour and the water may not have fully reacted to achieve a good cellular structure in the dough. The yeast will also have given off enough carbon dioxide, alcohol and other by-products that the yeast activity will start to slow down. By folding the dough, the baker shifts the food supply for the yeast, the carbohydrates, so that the yeast has access to a new supply. Folding also degasses the dough, which expels the alcohols and the carbon dioxide, leaving the yeast with a clean place to grow. The baker also works the dough strands and makes them stronger, which can do really good things to the finished bread.

How to Fold.

There are at least three ways to fold.

1. A Pocketbook or Letter fold. This is the fold that Jeffrey Hamelman, the baking education director at King Arthur Flour, espouses. It is a good fold. To do this fold, merely place the dough on the floured counter or work surface and pat it flat. Take about a third of the dough on the left side and bring it over the dough. Work this dough vigorously with your fingers to expel the gas. Take a third of the dough from the right side and do the same with it. Make sure you brush off all the extra flour that you can so that none gets incorporated into the dough. This will leave you with a rather long dough. finish the fold by taking the top third of the dough and bringing it down the dough toward you. Again, expel as much gas as you can and brush off any extra flour. Take a third of the bottom dough and bring it up to the other dough and do the same brush and expel. You now have a folded dough.

2. A Roll-Up fold. This is my personal favorite, since it's very simple. I merely pat out the dough, then roll it up into a long tube. Then pat this tube down so it is slightly flat and roll up so that in effect you make a ball. You can do this a couple of times if you wish. This will drive out the gas and other by-products of fermentation, rearrange the nutrients for the yeast and realign the dough strands.

3. The Drop-Hook fold. This is the easiest, and works well it you are fermenting the dough in the bowl on a stand mixer, as I do frequently. Merely drop the dough hook into the dough and turn on the mixer for a few seconds. Then turn off the mixer, reach in and turn the dough, drop the dough hook into the dough and repeat the few seconds of mixing.

When to Fold.

Various experts give different time schedules for folding. One popular timing is to divide the total fermentation time into four parts and fold after the end of the third part. If the total time is two hours, each part is thirty minutes, one-half hour. Fold after 90 minutes, one and one-half hours. Then ferment for the remaining 30 minutes, one-half hour. This timing will never get you into too much trouble.

Certain other breads are made with folds at the half-way point, so that the above bread would be folded at one hour and then allowed to ferment for another hour. This seems to be more popular for doughs with a lot of fats and oils and sugar.

A few doughs benefit from a fold at the half-way point and another fold half-way through the remaining fermentation period.

A lot depends on the recipe, the conditions in your kitchen and your technique. The best thing to do is to start with a simple fold at the three-quarter point and see how that works for you. You can then experiment with various schemes until you hit one that works in your kitchen for each recipe. More than likely, you will find that the four-part timing works fine.

Try folding the dough the next time you make bread, I think you'll like the improvement.

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The Delicious Treat Called Pistachio Baklava

Pistachio Baklava is one of the most popular desserts of the Mediterranean cuisine. This dessert was first made at around 8th century B.C. Although it has faced a few moderations in the course of time, this delectable dessert has never failed to please even the toughest of food critics.

There can be no denial to the well known fact that a tasty dessert can make a meal a memorable experience. Ever heard the Turkish phrase, "Tatli yiyelim, tatli konuÅŸalim"? It literally translates into, "Let's eat sweet and let's speak sweet". Now, a country that believes in such a saying has to be the home to the most delectable of desserts, doesn't it? Turkey really has been a country that has gifted the world with many of today's most cherished sweet dishes. Pastries, puddings and custards are some of them. All of the Turkish desserts have the abundant use nuts and fruits that have been grown traditionally in the region. One such extremely popular and delicious dessert is Pistachio Baklava. Baklava is the most authentic and ambrosial type of Mediterranean sweet dish.

The Turkish chefs say that making a pistachio baklava is a work of art. It requires a passion for food making along with care and affection. The Assyrians were the first people prepared this scrumptious dessert. They made the first Pistachio Baklava at around 8th century B.C. They tried experimenting by putting together a few layers of thin bread dough, with chopped nuts in between those layers. Then they added some honey and baked it in their primitive ovens. Originally, it was considered to be a special dish and was reserved only for special occasions. Even until the later years of the 19th century, the Baklava was a food of 'the rich and the famous'.

For a fairly long time, Pistachio Baklava remained the most favorite dessert of the Turkish sultans. There was another reason for the widespread popularity of this dish among the nobility. The two principal ingredients, of this delicious sweet dish, the pistachio and honey, were believed to be aphrodisiacs when taken regularly. They further enhanced the taste of this pastry by adding in certain spices. Apart from improving the taste of the pastry, these special spices also helped to augment the aphrodisiac characteristics of this preparation. It is interesting to note that cinnamon was added for females and cardamom for males and cloves for both sexes.

Pistachio Baklava is considerably difficult to make. It takes a lot of time to prepare the dough. Once that is done, you have to work pretty quickly as the dough dries up and becomes brittle pretty easily. Even though, previously sugar was used for making the syrup; nowadays honey is used as it contains less calories and is healthier that sugar. Admittedly, if you are a new cook, making something like a baklava can be a messy job. It is because of this reason, foodies prefer to order Baklava from the Greek and Turkish shops. And then it is time to eagerly dive in.

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