Elementary Chef

I do love it when I get questions from readers. It makes my job so much easier! I got a question this afternoon about how to properly “zest” citrus fruits. Most commonly, a recipe will call for zest of lemon or lime. Sometimes (like in a recipe I plan to share just in time for Valentine’s Day!), the zest will be from an orange or some other citrus fruit. Regardless, the idea is the same, and you need a tool.

When you have properly zested a piece of fruit, the outer, colorful peeling will be gone, and you’ll be able just barely to see the white of the fruit. I have two favorite tools for this. My VERY favorite tool was a Christmas gift this year from my mother-in-law — the Microplane Zester. It’s INCREDIBLE, but God forbid you get your skin anywhere near it! This booger is SHARP! But it’s worth the danger. It does a fabulous job — just keep it covered and away from the kids. You can find these beauties at http://www.microplane.com, and they are well worth the investment.

My other favorite zester is for a different purpose. While the Microplane is fast, efficient, and oh-so-sharp, Pampered Chef makes a nice little zester for making “curly-cue” zests. These take a little longer, but they’re VERY cute — when you care about cute. This zester is available from Pampered Chef consultants — they do parties in your home — or online at http://www.pamperedchef.com.

Now, assuming you’re in a pinch, or not willing to invest in a good zester yet, you can use your cheese grater for this purpose. Just keep in mind that you want to keep the zest chopped fairly small (for better flavor) and you want to avoid getting the white rindy layers in your zest (it’s bitter.) So, opt with the smallest grater you own, and enjoy the citrusy goodness zest adds to all your dishes.

Can’t find a use for zest? How about these: on cupcakes, on broiled fish, in creams (whipped or other!)

Happy zesting!

Getting creative on a budget:

BETHLEHEM, Pa., Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ — Valentine’s Day 2007 - Just Born’s candy brands have sweet ideas for Valentine’s Day. To make the gorgeous Valentine’s Bouquet or scrumptious chocolate covered Sweetheart Lollipop treats, fans can use the Peeps(R) Decorating Kit, Peeps(R) Vanilla or Strawberry Flavored Creme Hearts, and Pink Hearts.

Joe Villiano, Just Born Brand Manager, commented, “Valentine’s Day is one of the largest candy giving holidays and we know that our 65,000 Peeps Fan Club members love to create unique personalized gifts. The Valentine’s Bouquet and chocolate covered Sweetheart Lollipop treats are just two of ideas that are available at http://www.marshmallowpeeps.com.”

The Peeps Valentine’s Day Decorating Kit is sure to entice fans who want to decorate and personalize their Peeps. The Peeps Decorating Kit comes with a 4-pack of pink Peeps marshmallow Hearts, 1 tube of either red or white Cake Mate decorating gel, and on-pack decorating ideas.

Other Valentine’s Peeps include the two-count Pink Hearts, Vanilla Flavored Creme Hearts, and Strawberry Flavored Creme Hearts. The Pink Peeps Hearts have a “to-from” space on the packaging making them ideal for classroom handouts.

OK, I tried it, but I didn’t expect to like it.

There’s some history here: back in the early ’80s, there was a product called “Mug O’ Lunch,” which was kind of the same concept of a pasta-based single serving. Problem was, the stuff tasted like nothing. No flavor whatsoever that we could discern. Plus, if you didn’t wash the mug pronto, the residue would turn into something resembling cement.

I was hoping times had changed.

To my surprise, I found that yes, this was something different. I tried the Lasagna-flavored variety. Despite the visual lack of tomato product, you can taste it, and it does have a sort-of Italian kind of flavor. The amount of hamburger in it was negligible. I liked it well enough that I’ll probably have it around for quick lunches from time to time.

Now, the marketing is aimed at kids — teenagers, to be exact. I don’t think the single serving is anywhere near enough for a hungry 15-year old, but it is enough for a 50ish lady, and it would be enough for my 21-month-old granddaughter. I made it according to package directions, in a 16oz bowl, because it does boil furiously. When all was said and done, the bowl wasn’t quite half full.

So I’m guessing their eventual serving is about a cup. They have directions on the package for making a double portion, and since it comes four packets to a box, at about $3.58, it is kind of pricey if you’re going to feed big kids. I suspect one boy could make short work of the whole box at a sitting.

A regular frozen dinner would be a better nutritional value, and you might be able to get two of them for the same money.

So there’s the facts — you be the judge!

You can see if it’s available in your area

here

More on the varieties

here

HamburgerHelper, GeneralMills

My husband and I were working on a menu/grocery list for the next two weeks, and I realized we have sunk deeply into a rut. We are eating the same few things, mostly because we’ve both been so busy, we stick with the easy stuff.

So went looking online for something different and unusual.
What I found was

FoodProcessing.com

a site devoted to the processed food industry. It was neat to look around!

Though I didn’t find any radically-different meal ideas, I did find some new food products. Like these:

Sometime this spring you can look for a new carbonated soft drink made by Pepsi. It’s called Tava, and comes in four flavors: Brazilian Samba, Caribbean Calypso, Mediterranean Muse and Malaysian Satori. It will include vitamins and fruit flavoring, though I don’t know what fruits..

Three new flavors of Hershey’s Extra Dark Chocolate: Pure Dark Chocolate, Pure Dark Chocolate with Cranberries, Blueberries and Almonds, and Pure Dark Chocolate with Macadamias and Cranberries.

Knorr brand Mini Cubes of Garlic and Onion — which are like bouillon cubes, which may be interesting. I know Knorr’s bouillon is the best of the bunch, so this may also be a quality product.

Hamburger Helper Microwave Singles are a big deal right now, if you like Hamburger Helper. ;>) It’s packaged in a shelf-stable pouch, that you add water to and nuke. Yes, it has hamburger. If you’re wondering how they did that, well, it’s freeze-dried. I might have to try this, just for grins, though it’s being marketed for kids.

O’Coco’s organic chocolate crisps by Nspired Natural Foods Inc. are probably the most intriguing of the group of new foods mentioned. Imagine, if you will, chocolate, but crunchy, like potato chips. I wonder what provides that crunch?

…as a bonus, here’s

an article on chicken wings

— all the history, and how they evolved into one of the most popular snacks in America.

food, products, newfood

I see by

this story

General Mills is going to advertise more to try and prop up their sagging sales.

I remember way back when Sean was a toddler, and I got a bunch of single serving packets of cereal for free. These were all things like Fruit Loops and Apple Jacks — the sugary kind of cereals.

Sean refused to eat any of them, but he’d play with them for hours!

GeneralMills, cereal

Well, I guess it’s a step up from killing monsters and flying simulations. From the reviews I’ve seen, it appears everybody has tried it loves it. One day I keep telling myself I’ll get a Playstation or an Xbox, just to have around for the kids.

But apparently this game is so far only available for Nintendo DS and in March for Wii. Maybe by summer it’ll be out in some other platforms.

I’m intrigued. I’m also all for it if it encourages kids to learn how to cook for real!

CookingMama

All you ever wanted to know about a chocolate manufacturer (in this case, the NOKA brand, described as the 2nd most expensive brand in the world).

This is absorbing reading for fans of chocolate!

Hat tip: Kitchen Lackey

chocolate, KitchenLackey

OSAKA (Kyodo) Momofuku Ando, the founder of Nissin Food Products Co. and inventor of instant ramen, died of heart failure Friday evening at a hospital in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, his family said. He was 96.

Read more here.

How To Makeover Ramen Noodles – (This is about makiing them healthier.)

In the days before I realized the fat content of ramen, I developed a recipe for a quick shrimp pasta salad that appeared in my local newspaper’s cookbook. It was pretty much about using the flavor packet of the shrimp-flavored noodles as the basis for the dressing, by adding it to mayonnaise.

The rest of it included standard salad veg, such as green pepper and celery and green onions, with some black olives and/or sliced jalapenos, depending on taste.

I still see people buying the noodles by the case, and I know the fat content is a perennial concern for those in the health field who deal with low-income people.

ramen, noodles, recipes, Japan, cooking

Apparently nobody bought Trix and Cocoa Puffs with 75% less sugar, so General Mills is going to phase them out by March. Maybe everybody’s not as health-conscious as reported trends would suggest!

general mills, cereal

Tubini is a pasta product made by Barilla, who apparently comes out with new shapes from time to time just because.

I got this kind because of the name, which appealed to my sense of the silly. I liked the sound of it ;>)

After I cooked it I realized what I had here was the pasta they have in Beefaroni. Now I’ve got to try making that stuff myself! Maybe I could even get my husband to eat it! He is not a fan of canned pasta of any kind, though he claims to have married me because of my spaghetti.

pasta, tubini, barilla

Snicker ;>) Anyhoo, here’s the skinny:

WHAT: Amstel Light is helping to ring in the holiday season with festive surprises for commuters and shoppers in Union Square.

The Live Tastefully Bottle Symphony will entertain straphangers in the Union Square subway station with a unique rendition of holiday tunes, performed by blowing notes on Amstel Light bottles. Members of The String Orchestra of New York City, providing a soothing musical moment during an otherwise noisy commute, will accompany the group.

WHERE: Union Square Subway Station
Above the N/R/W platform
Closest entrance is Union Square West at 14th Street
New York, NY

WHEN: Thursday, December 14, 2006

• 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
• 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

WHO:
• Amstel Light
• The Live Tastefully Bottle Symphony
• The String Orchestra of New York City

beer, concert, NYC

As you can imagine, New York’s restaurateurs aren’t happy about the city’s ban on trans fats.

As they say in their press release:
“The National Restaurant Association has attempted to work with the New York City Board of Health, but the Board seems determined to work against the industry. Both proposals are examples of well-intentioned, misguided social engineering. We look forward to working with the City of New York and other municipalities to educate them that quick fix solutions to complex problems will not be effective. The industry is looking for practical, long-term solutions that won’t disrupt the dining experiences of our customers or hurt New York City’s restaurateurs.”
The whole thing is here.

What I wonder is what the Board of Health is really trying to accomplish? I figure they’re either
(A) so arrogant they think they can just ban something and it’ll automatically go away, or
(B) just trying to see how much they can get away with.

Sure, trans-fats aren’t the most wonderful things in the world, health-wise, but it seems to me there’s a better way to go about removing them from the world’s dinner plates than by waving a legal magic wand. My buddy Dean has some (well, a LOT of ) pretty good technical info and a slightly different opinion here.

Even more here at Business Week.

What they’re saying at Yale.

And at The Village Voice

What’s next — a black market in Crisco? ;>) Better get it now, kids, before the price goes up! I have this image in my head of unsavory characters loitering around schoolyards with backpacks full of french fries and pies…

And I really wonder how they’d really enforce this anyway — do they even have the manpower?

So, dear readers, what do YOU think about all this brouhaha???

Here’s the thing — I’ve been baking with Crisco for several decades. So have many millions of other people. Now, if Crisco (and margarine) were suddenly to disappear, what would we use for our pies, cakes, and cookies?

Sure, there are other choices — lard or butter. Lard tastes awful in sweet dessert items, and butter is way expensive.

One of the reasons Crisco has been so popular is that it doesn’t impart much, if any, taste, and so your recipe comes out tasting like whatever else you put into it. All your spices and flavorings are right there, without competition from the shortening.

So it’s going to be really interesting to see how this plays out!

Crisco, transfat, NewYork

Great discussion going on over at the Instapundit.

Check it out!

It appears a woman in LA is suing Kraft foods due to a lack of avocado in their guacamole.

I’ve known for a long time that most commercially-produced guacamole products have little or no avocado in them. I avoid them for just that reason. You can tell whether the dip you’re buying is actually avocado-based in two ways:

1. Check the list of ingredients. If avocado isn’t the first one on the list, then pass it by.

2. Check the price. With avocados running as much as a dollar apiece, and even more in some areas, you can expect to pay $3 or $4 for an 8 oz. package of guacamole. If the dip is one of those that’s 99 cents for a 16 oz package, it’s probably not what you’re hoping for. There’s one labelled as a sour cream/avocado dip that doesn’t even have real sour cream!

Dips and sauces are categories of products that are very often less than what you expect. The rules of ingredients and price apply to almost every one. That’s mainly because you’re paying for the labor (and/or machinery) involved in making the product, and ingredients are only one factor involved in setting price.

It’s not hard to make your own — the problem is that you can seldom buy ripe avocadoes. You generally need to bring them home and let them ripen for a day or two, which is no help if you’re serving snacks for a spur-of-the moment thing.

food, guacamole

I always like to see these things at the end of the year. That’s because I go back the next year, and see what what was on-the-mark, and what was a non-starter.

It quite often takes a lot longer than a year for some of these predictions to make their way to the AZ desert. For example, I’ve been hearing about packaging that lets you know if fruit is ripe or what, for a long time, and have yet to see it materialize.

Anyway, you can read the whole thing here. It’s a press release, BTW.

I do hope those exotic fruits don’t take too long to show up — I’m intrigued!

Meanwhile, if you want some data on the frozen food industry, that’s here.

Funny thing about writing a food blog when you’re hungry — it’s the same thing as shopping, everything looks good! Think I’ll go get some breakfast.

If you see more of these predictions, let me know, wouldja?

food, trends, foodtrends