How To Make Pastry

Thursday, 3 November 2011

Gising gising â€“ A Yummy Pork Recipe

It's now the rainy season and I'm starting to feel the cold weather lonely, rainy days again. And what better thing to pass the boredom away than to do something interesting, like cooking! Yes! Cooking hot and spicy foods would definitely help shake off these rainy feeling we all have during the rainy season. But, thinking of a recipe that's hot and spicy, I soon discovered that I just have a small array of recipes from that genre. I now called my mother and asked her what to cook. She told me that what if I cook Gising gising, a good Pork recipe that's both hot and spicy, and at the same time yummy!

I then went to look for this recipe in our old cooking books. Here are the ingredients I found:

o 2 tbsp (28 g) minced garlic
o 1 pc (75 g) large onion, chopped
o 3 tbsp (63 g) bagoong alamang
o 200 g (200 g) ground pork o 1/2 pc (.5 g) siling labuyo, chopped (optional)
o 1/2 kg (500 g) Baguio Beans, thinly sliced
o 1 pouch (115 g) Pineapple Tidbits
o 1 pack (40 g) instant gata mix powder, dissolved in 1/4 cup water

Now that you have your ingredients, let's start cooking!

First, saut the garlic, in 1 tsp. oil, wait until golden brown, and then add the onions, saut well. Now, add the bagoong alamang and cook it for a few minutes. Add the pork, saut it until lightly browned. Next, add the Baguio beans, sili and pineapple tidbits with syrup. Cover and simmer until the beans are almost cooked. Afterwards, add the gata mixture and simmer for another two (2) minutes. And there you have your very own gising gising!

Gising gising is a good dish, most especially if you feel down on a rainy season like today. But it's not just another delicious dish. Gising gising is a dish packed with health-giving nutrients that helps our body. P ineapple, one of the ingredients of gising gising, is rich in manganese vitamins c, vitamin b1, fiber, and vitamin b6. Another health benefit of pineapple is that it help avoid inflammation in the digestive tract, good antioxidant and immune support, has energy giving nutrients, and it protects against macular degeneration. Another main ingredient of gising gising is pork. Pork is known to have good quality protein, it is said that a 100g portion of pork can provide you with half of the protein you need in the day! Aside from protein, pork is also a good source of iron, and zinc. Based from studies, a 100g portion of pork provides you with 15% of your daily requirement of iron, while it can also give you 30% of your daily zinc requirement.

So, why not try your very own gising gising dish? In this kind of weather, it's good to try a spicy Filipino food that is not only delicious but also healthy!

Sweet And Sour Pork Recipe

Preparation time: 25 minutes + 30 minutes marinating
Total cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients for sweet and sour pork recipe:

500 g (1 lb) pork fillet, cut into thick slices
2 tablespoons cornflour
1 tablespoon sherry
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
oil, for cooking
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 green capsicum, cut into cubes
2 small carrots, thinly sliced
1 small Lebanese cucumber, seeded and chopped
5 spring onions, cut into short lengths
440 g (14 oz.) can pineapple pieces in natural juice, drained, juice reserved
1/4 cup (60ml/2 fl oz.) white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions for sweet and sour pork recipe:

1. When you want to start cooking the sour pork recipe, first place the pork in a shallow glass or ceramic bowl. Combine the cornflour with the sherry, soy sauce and half the sugar and pour into the bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. Drain the pork, reserving the marinade. Heat the wok until very hot, add 2 tablespoons of the oil and swirl to coat the side. Stir-fry half the pork over high heat for 4-5 minutes, or until the pork is golden brown and just cooked. Remove from the wok, add more oil if necessary and repeat with the remaining pork. Remove all the pork from the wok.

3. Reheat the wok, add 1 tablespoon of the oil and stir-fry the onion over high heat for 3-4 minutes, or until slightly softened. Add the capsicum and carrot, and cook for 3-4 minutes, or until tender. Stir in the marinade, cucumber, spring onion, pineapple, vinegar, salt, remaining sugar and 4 tablespoons of the rese rved pineapple juice.

4. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes, or until the sauce his thickened slightly. Return the pork to the wok and toss until the pork is heated through. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Value for sweet and sour pork recipe:

Protein 25 g;
Fat 12 g;
Carbohydrate 25 g;
Dietary Fibre 4 g;
Cholesterol 50mg;
Energy 1325kJ (315cal)

Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Pulled Pork Recipes: Caja China style

This recipe is courtesy of a fellow foodie and blogger, and is one of the best we've made to date! So being that were going caja china style on this pulled pork recipe, whether it be in your La Caja Asadora or La Caja China model, lets begin with our ingredients and then get into the way the roasting box (also called a Cajun microwave) works. Here's what you'll need for your spice rubgarlic, cumin, salt, sugar, and oregano. (The complete list of ingredients can be f ound at the bottom of the article.) Apply the rub a day ahead of time and allow to sit in the fridge in plastic wrap in order to let the spices really set in. Remove the wrap at least an hour or so before placing inside your caja china. You will want to slow roast for this pulled pork recipe, meaning your china box grill should have no more than 8 lbs of charcoal on it at any time. You will want to add fresh coals every hour or so, and allow the barbecue pork to cook for 2 to 3 hours, checking every hour when you add charcoal.

I recommend mopping with your favorite barbecue sauce at this time. The low heat will begin to break down the pork fat and begin to baste the shoulder in delicious natural juices. Use a meat thermometer to check the temperature of the pork. Once the internal temperature has hit 190 degrees you are ready to remove your barbecue pulled pork from your caja asadora/ Cajun microwave and allow it to sit for a few hours until it has cooled to the point where it can be handled. You will notice that the pork can be literally pulled clean from the bone, and that the exterior will have a delicious crisp crust. This is what having a caja china box is all about. Here is the list of ingredients for the barbecue pulled pork. Be sure to check back soon for upcoming Cajun microwave recipes for barbecue pork tenderloin, barbecue pork chops, and barbecue ribs! And for those in the Miami/ Ft. Lauderdale area, contact us directly for all your summertime caja china barbecue catering needs!
Cuban Barbecue Pulled Pork Recipe
1 pork shoulder
Spice Rub:
5 tbsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp. ground cumin
1 tbsp. dried oregano

Mop:
8-10 cloves of pressed garlic
1 tbsp. salt
2/3 cup orange juice
cup white vinegar
1 tsp. dried oregano
tsp ground black pepper

Combine the spices and apply to the pork shoulder. Wrap the shoulder well and refrigerate for at least 12 hours. Unwrap at least 2 hours before you plan to start cooking.

Pre-heat your caja china style la caja asadora roasting box with about 8 lbs of charcoal for 15-20 minutes and chuck the pork on fat side up. Baste with mop every hour when adding fresh charcoal. Remove when the meat's internal temp hits 190.
Let the pork rest for at least 2 hours, then start pulling your pork!

Try These Yummy Pork Recipes in Your Slowcooker or Crockpot for Easy Healthy Meals

Whether you are looking for hot sandwiches or a delicious entree, these slowcooker or crockpot pork recipes may be just what you are looking for. Barbecue Pork Sandwiches and Pork Stroganoff are sure to become favorite recipes in your go-to recipe files.

BARBECUED PORK SANDWICHES
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tbsp butter
1 bottle (12-oz) chili sauce
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp apple-cider vinegar
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup water
3 cups thin sliced cooked pork
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp cold water
12 buns

In a skillet cook the onion, celery, and garlic in the butter until tender but not browned. Transfer the mixture to a crockpot or slowcooker. Add the chili sauce, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, chili powder, salt, pepper, and water, mixing well. Stir in the sliced pork, coating all sides. Add lid to the cooker and cook on low setting for 3 to 4 hours. Turn the heat to the high setting.

In a small bowl or cup blend the flour and cold water until smooth; stir into the pork mixture. Cover again and cook another 15 minutes or so until the sauce is thickened, stirring occasionally.

To serve, place approximately a third cup of the pork mixture on each bun.

PORK STROGANOFF
1 1/2 lbs boneless pork shoulder, cubed
1 tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup water
1 can (3-oz) mushrooms stems and pieces, drained
1 tbsp instant beef bouillon granules
1 tsp dillweed
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 cup dairy sour cream
1/4 cup cooking white wine, optional
3 tbsp flour
Hot cooked noodles for 6 servings.

Heat the canola oil in a large skillet and brown the pork cubes with the garlic and onion; drain. Transfer the meat mixture to the cooker.

In a small bowl combine the water, mushrooms, bouillon, dillweed, and pepper; pour over the meat in the cooker. Add lid to the cooker and cook on the low setting for 8 to 10 hours.

Turn cooker heat to high and heat until bubbly, about 15 or 20 minutes. Blend the sour cream, wine-if using, and the flour together until smooth. Stir sour cream mixture into the cooker and cook about another 15 minutes until heated through and slightly thickened.

To serve, place stroganoff over the hot cooked noodles. Garnish with fresh parsley, if desired.

In a small bowl or cup blend the flour and cold water until smooth; stir into the pork mixture. Cover again and cook another 15 minutes or so until the sauce is thickened, stirring occasionally.

To serve, place approximately a third cup of the pork mixture on each bun.

Heat the canola oil in a large skillet and brown the pork cubes with the garlic and onion; drain. Transfer the meat mixture to the cooker.

In a small bowl combine the water, mushrooms, bouillon, dillweed, and pepper; pour over the meat in the cooker. Add lid to the cooker and cook on the low setting for 8 to 10 hours.

To serve, place stroganoff over the hot cooked noodles. Garnish with fresh parsley, if desired.

Yield: 12 sandwiches

Enjoy!

Bath And Body Recipes - How To Create Your Own Spa Products!

Imagine surprising your friends and family with your own creations or even setting up your own business doing something that you love! You can't beat relaxing in a hot, scented bath after a long, hard day at work. By creating your own bath and body recipes you will be able to produce your very own homemade spa products at just a fraction of the cost.

Here are some of the great bath and body recipes that you can create in your own home, for pleasure or for profit:

HANDMADE NATURAL SOAP These can be made in all kinds of shapes and sizes. These can be really expensive when bought in a shop. You can a huge variety of ingredients such as essential oils, herbs and flower petals. You can create classic recipes or your own unique blends.

MAKE YOUR OWN BATH BOMBS Bath bombs can make a great gift. You can use a wide range of ingredients and scents and even have a little surprise in the centre of them like some dried flowers.

HOMEMADE BODY SCRUB Make your skin glow by using only natural ingredients with a unique body scrub recipe.

For an easy to make SUGAR SCRUB RECIPE, try this:

8 Cups light brown sugar
1 1/2 to 2 Cups jojoba, avocado or untoasted sesame oil
1/2 to 1 Cup apricot or peach kernel oil
An essential oil of your choice
Honey, to give a smooth texture

Mix all the ingredients together and present your creation in a pretty glass bottle (these can be bought from craft shops or ebay).

You can even make your own bath salts by using ingredients that you can buy in your local grocery store!

For a basic BATH SALT RECIPE, try this:

3 cups epsom salt
2 cups baking soda
1 cup table salt
Food colouring
An essential oil of your choice

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Make sure you blend the colour before adding to the salt if you are using more than one shade.

Try creating your own labels for that professional touch!

Low Calorie Juice Recipes - 9 Healthy Juice Recipes for Weight Loss

People eager to lose weight often go on low calorie juice diets. Whereas juice provides with many nutrients, one needs to combine it with some exercise regime to lose that weight.

Vegetable juice and fruit juices provide the body with vitamins and minerals required for healthy immunity. Vegetable juice can act as appetite suppressants and the sugar content is lower than in fruit juices.

Some healthy low calorie juice recipes for weight loss are as follows

1. Slim Me Juice:

Ingredients: 4-5 carrots, half beets, 1 celery, 1 apple, half cucumber.

Direction: Wash, peel and chop the vegetables and blend in a juicer. You may add little ginger if you need some spice in your healthy juice!

2. Grapefruit Orange Juice Recipe:

Ingredients: 1 grapefruit, 3 oranges.

Directions: Take out the juice of these fruits and in a blender. Add ice and sip! Grapefruits are beneficial for losing weight. This healthy juice is also high in vitamin C.

3. ACC Juice (Apple Carrot Celery):

Ingredients: 2-3 apples, 2 carrots, 2 celery sticks, 2 tablespoon lemon juice.

Directions: Core the apples, peel and cut carrots. Add apples, carrots, celery and lemon juice to a mixer and blend well. Pour in glass and add ice if desired. This is a refreshing and delicious low calorie juice.
4. Cleansing Veggie Broth:

Ingredients: 2-3 carrots, 2 celery, 2 beets,3 kale leaves, 1 turnip, half spinach bunch, half cabbage head, half onion, one-fourth parsley bunch, 2-3 garlic cloves.

Directions: Boil the above ingredients and sip! This healthy juice will help in detoxification of the body too.

5. Papaya Passion Juice:

Ingredients: 1 papaya, 1 apple, 4-5 dates.

Directions: Pit the dates and then blend all the above ingredients in a blender. Best when served fresh. This is a healthy juice recipe.

6. Morning Sunshine Juice:

Ingredients: 2 oranges, 1 grapefruit, 5-6 strawberries, half banana.

Directions: Take out the juice from orange and grapefruit. Pour this in the mixer with banana and strawberries. Blend well and serve.

7. Carrot Beet juice:

Ingredients: 7-8 carrots, half boiled and peeled beetroot, 4 leaves lettuce.

Di rections: Blend all the ingredients and enjoy this healthy juice recipe.

8. Melon Juice:

Ingredients: 2 cups cubed watermelon, 2 cups cubed honeydew melon, 2 cups cubed cantaloupe, 1 inch grated ginger.

Directions: Mix all the above ingredients in a blender and add ice. This is a refreshing and cooling low calorie juice recipe.

9. Strawberry Delight:

Ingredients: half cup strawberries, 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, half lemon.

Directions: Blend the strawberries and orange juice with the juice of lemon. Pour in glass and enjoy this nutritious and healthy juice recipe.

Fruits like watermelons, pineapple, papayas, plums, berries and honeydew have low calories. So, experiment and make your own low calorie juice recipes for weight loss. Likewise vegetables like carrots, cucumbers, celery, cabbage, lettuce, beetroot, spinach, apples, oranges and lemons are the healthy choices for crea ting your low calorie juice recipes for weight loss.

Do not go on a juice diet for long. While they provide nutrients to the body, it is not sufficient for a long term basis.

Tuesday, 1 November 2011

Juice Recipes for Juicers - How to Create Delicious Fruit and Vegetable Juice Recipes with Your Juicer

Besides the extraordinary health benefits one can get from juicing regularly, the best part of juicing is all the delicious juice recipes you can create by mixing and matching fresh fruits and vegetables. By having a variety of great juice recipes for juicing in your repertoire and continuing to experiment, you will come to enjoy juicing and make it easier for yourself to adopt the habit on a regular basis. The guidelines that follow will set you on the right path toward creating healthy and flavorful juice recipes while getting the most out of your juicer.

Before discussing recipe creation, however, it's important address the differences between juicers and blenders. Many people make the mistake of using a blender when they begin juicing and may not realize that juicers and blenders are different appliances with different functions. Juicers squeeze the liquid out of fruits and vegetables while extracting the solid pulp, including the skin and any rind, stem, or other fibrous parts. So, the end product is a relatively thin liquid that is similar to the consistency of V8. On the other hand, blenders mix all parts of the fruits and vegetables up together, creating a more slurry-like consistency whose thickness will depend on the water content of the ingredients and the amount of fibrous material included. Unless you have a very high-end blender, the resulting creation will likely be clumpy with bits of skin, seeds, and rind. To ensure you create a juice that is easy to drink, you will want to use a juicer.

So, what are the best fruits and vegetables for juicing? The answer to this question depends on how healthy you want your juices to be and which specific nutrients (if any) you are targeting, your level of experience with juicing and consuming certain types of vegetables, and of course your personal tastes and preferences. Most fruits and vegetables can be juiced, although some will yield more juice than others. You will want to avoid juicing soft fruits like bananas and avocados since they have a low water content and for this reason can clog up your juicer.

All fruits are vegetables are great sources of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes, which are all essential for a healthy diet, but some are more healthy than others. Vegetables generally contain less sugar than fruits, and thus if you are diabetic or looking to minimize your sugar intake, you will want to use predominantly vegetables in your juices, perhaps adding a small amount of fruit for flavor. Dark, leafy greens like spinach, kale, and collard greens are very nutrient dense and contain a plethora of disease-fighting, anti-aging phytonutrients, so those are a great choice for inclusion in your juices. However, if you are new to juicing, you may want to start with a smaller amount of these vegetables and increase the amount gradually to allow your body to become accustomed to them. It is worth keeping in mind that any digestive discomfort should be viewed as positive from a health standpoint, as it is a just a symptom of toxins being released from your body for eliminatio n. Dark leafy greens are also usually somewhat bitter, so it is a good idea to neutralize them with more mild vegetables like celery or cucumber, for example, or stronger fruits such as berries and citrus.

Another excellent strategy to use when creating juice recipes for juicing is to use a range of different-colored fruits and vegetables, since different colors indicate the presence of different nutrients. Think about each fruit and vegetable's individual taste and which ones would go well together. Feel free to experiment with different combinations. You can also add herbs such as parsely and cilantro, or even a little ginger to give your recipe some zing. If you are looking to make a juice more sweet but are concerned about sugar content, consider adding some honey or stevia. The key is to be creative and have fun with it.

Before throwing your fruits and vegetables into the juicer, there are a few final points worth remembering. First, although juicing shouldn't require much preparation, it is best to chop up your fruits and vegetables first to make it easier for your juicer to extract the juice. This practice should also extend the life of your juicer. Second, It is also important to remove any large seeds or pits before juicing for obvious reasons. Finally, when juicing citrus fruits, it is a good idea to remove the peel for easier processing, but leave as much of the white pith on as possible, as it has a high nutrient density.

Now, you know enough to get started making your own healthy, delicious juice recipes with your juicer!