sample: exotic food blogging, recipe blogging

Polipetti in Salsa di Pomodoro
 
The secret to a mouth-watering (and highly digestible) octopus dish is the length of its cooking time. The meat of octopus is not really tender enough for chewing, so we have to allow more time to cook them overlow heat, simmer, and then cook for more until they become soft enough to the the bite. Also, the octopus, since it comes from the sea, has a strange fishy smell, so it must be rinsed well. If you read the Sopranos Cookbook, you probably have a fair idea of how Polipetti recipe is whipped up. It’s a Neopolitan sea dish known for its tangy taste.

Polipetti Ingredients

2 lbs of baby octopus or about 6 pcs
2 cups of tomatoes peeled, chopped
1/4 cp of olive oil
1/4 cp of parsley, flat leaf, chopped
2 pcs chopped cloves garlic, large
red pepper
salt
6-12 friselle (also slices of Italian bread, toasted)

Polipetti Cooking Instructions

Polipetti in Italian means many little tentacles – which we cannot eat unless we remove the beaks on the end of each of them. First, combine all the main ingredients: the baby octopus, the tomatoes, oil, parsley, garlic, the pinched red pepper, with some salt to add flavor. As soon as the sauce comes to a boil, lower the heat and let it simmer for about 45 minutes. Stir this polipetti sauce mixture occasionally. Then, remove the cover and let it simmer again for another 15 minutes. Pierce it with a fork or knife to see if the octopus meat is tender enough or if the polipetti sauce is already thick. Place the cooked sauce on the softened friselle on six plates. Top the Polipetti dish with the baby octopus sauce and a pinch of parsley.

http://www.free-fish-recipes.com
Monday, April 30. 2007

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sample: cooking blogging, food blogging, recipe blogging

Grilling Salmon Like a Pro
 
Cooking a smoky fish recipe is one thing, but grilling it without ruining the skin is another. In fact, the trouble with fish-grilling arises when I’ve just set up the Hibachi with the right amount of coal, with the vents keeping the constant flow of air inside, but the heat becomes uneven in a span of thirty minutes or so. I’d grit my teeth in frustration when the skin gets stuck on the parallel wires. Also, there’s the potential of burning the lower area of the salmon and leaving the upper side raw.

Check Your Coals

I thought I learned from mistake, or maybe it was just some well-groomed French chef back at cooking school who taught me tricks to maintain the heat level so as not to burn the salmon when being grilled. Actually, what he did was check the coals time and again. In some tropical areas I’ve been to, they wrap the fish in aluminum tin foil or banana leaves. Since these aren’t always available, the French chef, in his faltering English, demonstrated to me how he positioned the fish away on the opposite side where the coal lumps are placed.

Alternative Tricks

Somehow, I never thought my Hibachi would be too small for this salmon grill trick to work out. He showed me eventually how to put an improvised insulator such as an aluminum pan right over the grill, while putting another mesh or fish grill above it. If this still sounds inconvenient, he asked me to baste the salmon with lemon juice while rotating the Hibachi time and again. At the rate I’m going, I told him, I’d probably be finished in five hours!

http://www.free-cooking-recipes-online.com
Monday, May 7. 2007

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sample: garden blogging, recipe blogging, food blogging

Tomatillos Garden Food
I’ve never known how to cook a tomatillo jam until I grew a shrublike plant with yellow flowers and thick-husked fruits. They are more often called ground cherries. Lots of gardeners in Texas (of various zones) dote on the tomatillo because these edible flower-fruits reseed like hell they don’t have difficult time planting them. Another is that these tomatillos have been good sources of Vitamin C like any citrus fruit. So far, I’ve collected recipes which allows me to include the tomatillo in the meal.

Mexican Dishes

For instance, I’ve tried salsa. There’s no doubt that only in salsa will you be able to exploit the real taste of the tangy sweetness tomatillo. There are species that taste like pineapple. Some like to put the Aunt Molly variety into various chili recipes and jams. My cousin never thought it’s possible to feed humans with tomatillos but he’s done some experiment with the chickens in the backyard. As long as it’s warm and sunny, there will always be tomatillos in the garden.

Salsa and Chili Recipes

The sauce made of tomatillo, mixed with onions, olive oil, jalapeno, oregano, chili, beans, cilantro, chicken stock, and also lime juice makes for a really savory chicken stew. I’m sure no one likes to eat ground cherries stewed in a hot weather, but wait till the end of fall arrives. With a tomatillo in your garden, you don’t have to visit Mexican restaurants each time you’re craving for salsa and chili. A pureed version of the tomatillo salsa also makes for an amazing bowl of tortilla snack dips.

http://www.flower-garden-plants.com
Thursday, May 3. 2007

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