[blindza] Re: Minor food preparation/serving issues/irritations

  • From: "Carl de Campos" <carldc@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2010 09:08:47 -0800

Hi Karel, thanks, I like your health cooking tips.
Thanks / Regards
Carl de Campos
E-Mail:  carldc@xxxxxxxxxx
Cell:  078 750 0307
Skype:  carl.de.campos
Personal Web Site:
http://carldc.net

----- Original Message ----- From: "Carel Ewald" <cewald@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 9:58 PM
Subject: [blindza] Re: Minor food preparation/serving issues/irritations


Hi J,

Best way I found to check if boerewors is cooked but still moist inside, is
to bend the wors at a angle of 90 degrees, if it bursts open it is good. I
have however found that the synthetic sleeves (calling it a sleeve as
intestine sounds no good) does not always adhere to this rule, so I make
sure I get the original thing always.

As for roasting in the weber, one sets the temperature with the top airflow
module and I would check it once a hour with one of the forks which shows
temperature. Going slowly to ensure soft and juicy meat, 80 degrees next to
the bone is wonderfully juicy  but not brown. I have to however ask a
sighted person what the temperature is since the temperature fork is not a
speaking one.

I do not do butter or margerine, so spreading and frying in butter is no
problem for me. Vegies are normally steamed, which goes a long way in
solving many issues, and it is a lot faster. Same applies to weber, where
all is placed in the weber. Things like pumkin, sweet patato and mushrooms
are GS.


Thanks,

Carel Ewald

-----Original Message-----
From: Jacob Kruger [mailto:jacobk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 7:40 AM
To: BlindZA
Cc: NAPSA Blind
Subject: [blindza] Re: Minor food preparation/serving issues/irritations

I'be got an electric frying pan, but it's a bit big to generally fit on the counter, so do most of my stuff in combinations of the microwave and either
baking in oven itsself, or in a normal frying pan, and I have different
sizes thereof for different things.

I will also be honest, and I call myself a cheese junkie, so I don't worry
too much about it lasting long enough - just make sure I have enough of it
to last...

Other thing is that for cooking, I definitely prefer mature cheddar, or
decent feta cheeses, along with parmesan etc. since any bland cheese will
just lose it's flavour when cooked therewith.

In terms of actual spices, sort of my top 3 are still paprika, which goes in

and on almost everything, garlic and origanum, but it really comes down to
preparation processes, and I have a few dishes I still call my specialities,

like chicken curry, and my mince that I made this week that can be used on
pasta, mashed potatoes, in mexican wraps etc. etc., and in that one the
flavour just varies depending on what I plan it for, and it really comes
down to me taking quite a while to really cook these things since although I

do also start them off on high to get things like onions started off frying
first in butter and garlic, and to brown/seal meat, I generally end up
cooking these things quite slowly to merge flavours to a certain extent, and

then generally use the various textures to see when they're actually cooked,

so in chicken curry, when meat falls off the bones, it's ready, and when the

mince really seperates apart, then it's basically ready, but I do also use
this as an excuse to sample my food during the cooking process to make sure
it's cooked properly.

Along the lines of that one, for things like boerewors, I just try bending
it and when it seems to have firmed up all the way through, it's then
definitely ready.

Another slightly funny one was went looking for a recipe to cook
mieliepap/maize meal porridge in a microwave, and it seems to almost
quadruple in size when you cook it this way, but comes out nice enough, and
you just have to make sure you prepare the right sauce/sous for it.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
'...fate had broken his body, but not his spirit...'

----- Original Message ----- From: "Carl de Campos" <carldc@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 12:36 AM
Subject: [blindza] Re: Minor food preparation/serving issues/irritations


Hi Jacob, very interesting observations.

I've never been any serious cook, but I find I get to know more or less
how long various cuts of meats are ment to cook at what temperatures.

What I find very tasty and blind friendly, is I have an old slow cooker.
I also don't have problems cutting veges and thing into various sizes, and

with the slow cooker you literally quickly on high "brown" the meat and
onions, etc. +-3 min on high, and then bash it on slow and later moer in
the veges and wait until fairly soft.  I experiment with spices etc.

Spreading bread becomes an issue if the spread is hard and the bread soft.

I use a cheese grater to make cheese last longer, I don't know if I'm
imagining it, but I find using greated cheese instead of slicing it can go

further, that's mentally.
Thanks / Regards
Carl de Campos
E-Mail:  carldc@xxxxxxxxxx
Cell:  078 750 0307
Skype:  carl.de.campos
Personal Web Site:
http://carldc.net

----- Original Message ----- From: "Jacob Kruger" <jacobk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "BlindZA" <blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "NAPSA Blind" <blind@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 4:06 AM
Subject: [blindza] Minor food preparation/serving issues/irritations


Just had these thoughts in my head and was just wondering if anyone
shares these, has workarounds for them, or if you have other minor things

that bother/irritate you.

Firstly, while it's not really an issue, I get irritated when spreading
butter and other spreads on bread.  Basically I will use the spreading
knife to put whatever in the middle of the slice, and then turn it around

at right angles, basically spreading outwards towards the outer edges of
the bread, using my right hand, and I suppose sort of feeling with my
left hand that's holding the slice in place if get close enough to edge
etc.

Apart from this one, while when baking things like lamb and pork chops
will sort of time their sessions in oven at around 15 minutes each time,
and then while turning them over, just check their pliability etc. to see

when I know they're cooked through etc., but the one thing I sort of
refuse to try cooking is an actual roast since I'm one of those who
always prefers to roast meat a bit slower at lower temperatures, and also

refuse to time it as such near the end since in the old days I would
literally cut relatively deep slits into the meat and knew it was
properly cooked when no more blood collected therein as such, and I know
that in places like america, there's a form of internal thermometer that
you can place inside the meat and when that reaches a certain temperature

they reckon the meat is cooked through, but suppose would have to test
something like this before even considering getting hold of something
wouldn't use all that often.

Apart from all of the above, I now got hold of one of those twister
slicing things that you can easily use to very quickly and effectively
slice up/dice vegetables, and it is quite impressive, and only minor
thing is you have to make sure you get all the prepared contents out once

you have used it and I suppose you need to be careful when fiddling with
blades etc., and while will definitely be making use of it, I've never
really had any issues with chopping up things like vegetables myself -
but suppose that could also be to do with the fact that was always a bit
of a knife collector in old days, so made sure knives were sharp, decent
quality/balance, and was never really a problem making sure to be careful

even though can't 'see' what am doing with them now.

Also, sometimes prefer to cut vegetables etc. into varying shapes
depending on cooking method, combined ingredients, end result desired
etc, and this is something would definitely do with the right knife etc.

Another one sort of related to this is don't know if would want to make
use of a traditional cheese grater for various reasons including I reckon

you'd literally have to check each and every hold in it to make sure
you'd gotten hold of all the cheese out of it, and to be honest, I prefer

to do a form of cheese shaving if I just want a coating, or cut larger
blocks if I want to them to maintain a form of flavour nucleus, or if
related to end result texture etc.

Suppose could also get around to listening to all the cooking in the dark

podcasts already have here to see how they handle some of these things,
but don't really get around to all content have collected here, and
already get enough emails daily to sort of put me off joining their
cooking in the dark mailing list as of yet.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
'...fate had broken his body, but not his spirit...'


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