Beyond Pea Soup

With a few simple ingredients including fresh peas, tapioca, butter, water, and salt and pepper to taste make a sumptuous soup in less than thirty minutes. The soup’s thick and smooth consistency is because of the tapioca while the butter gives it a rich and luxurious taste. You can enjoy the peas at its utmost flavor and freshness when its delicate sweetness stands out. For best results, use freshly shelled peas to make this recipe. This recipe is great to try when peas are in season. Otherwise, you can still make one of these soups recipes with frozen peas. Bake the peas out of the pod and wash them gently yet thoroughly by placing them in a colander and under cold running water before cooking the fresh peas.

Tapioca is a vegetable-based thickening agent. Instead of using flour or cornstarch to thicken the soup, you can use tapioca to make the dish turn pasty or taste floury. Tapioca adds a sumptuous texture and a neutral taste. Sold in flour form or in pearls, tapioca is also known as Manihot esculenta or dulcis. It is the starch of the tropical cassava root and is made by grating the fresh roots and allowed to dry and ferment. Then the grated roots are pressed and baked into a flat cake then powdered to make pure starch.

When the flour or starch is diluted in water or moistened, quickly heated tapioca is achieved. Quick-cooking tapioca thickens the soup excellently. But it will leave tiny gel-like particles suspended in the liquid. If you don’t like this appearance and texture, use tapioca flour to make the soup. You can process quick-cooking tapioca in the blender until it is reduced to a fine powder. Tapioca pearls derived from tapioca flour and are already cooked. They are often used for making desserts and bubble tea drinks.

Ingredients

300gms shelled peas

1 cup tapioca, washed

6 cups water

2 tablespoons butter

Seasonings to taste

1. Add all ingredients in a kettle and allow it to cook for 20-25 minutes. Keep stirring often. Cover it. Let it cook on medium flame.

2. Towards the end add the seasonings. Stir well. Then strain this mixture and serve hot in a soup bowl.

Deliciously Sinful Salad

If you're into tasty salads and care more about taste than a high calorie and fat count, then this salad is for you. Just about everything goes great with a warm flour tortilla, and this fat-laden salad is no exception. Rich in taste and exploding with calories, you'll enjoy this combination as a delicious spread on any type of breading, but particularly on warm tortillas. The salad I highly recommend you make and enjoy uses the following ingredients: mayonnaise, avocado, corn, bacon, and fresh hard boiled eggs. Sounds good already, doesn't it?

There are two types of salads in this world: those that rabbits would love to eat, and those that are creamy and full of sinful calories. Which do you prefer? Most people think of green, red, and yellow vegetables when they think of salad recipes; lots of lettuce, lots of juicy veggies (like tomatoes), maybe some sunflower seeds, and finally a teaspoon of salad dressing. But that's not the kind of salad this article is going to teach you to make. This salad is for the kind of person that enjoys egg salad, seafood salad, potato salad, and chicken salad. All of those types of salads use one chief ingredient other than the meat: lots and lots of mayonnaise!

Perhaps the simplest of all mayonnaise-based salads is egg salad; crack open a half dozen hard boiled eggs, cut them up, and then add several heaping tablespoons of mayonnaise and mix it all together. While a traditional egg salad is delicious on its own, you can take the taste to a whole new level by adding corn, avocado, and freshly cooked peppered bacon. But be warned, this type of salad is laden with calories and fat! Calorie counters should avert their eyes, and go chase down a head of iceberg lettuce and some low fat dressing.

Step one is to hard boil a bunch of eggs. How many you make will obviously determine how many people can feast on this salad (or maybe you can make a large amount of it and eat it all by yourself over a few days). Spread a single layer of eggs in a deep pan, and then fill the pan with enough water to cover them by at least one inch. Fire up your stove and bring that water to a boil, then lower the heat down to medium and let the eggs simmer for three minutes. After those 180 seconds have passed, remove the pan from the heat and cover with a lid. Leave the eggs in that water (and covered) for at least thirteen minutes. This will make perfect hard boiled eggs. Before you consider them done, however, it's always a good idea to crack one open and see if it's cooked to your liking. After the eggs are done, set them aside in a cold bowl of water to cool down.

The second step in making this awesome salad is to pan fry some peppered bacon. Make it crispy but don't burn it! The trick to cooking bacon is to remove it from pan the moment it looks almost done. This works because the bacon continues to cook after you remove it from the pan. The hot grease, even though it's cooling down, will cook the bacon for another few minutes. Place the bacon on a few sheets of paper towels to drain the grease.

Now that the bacon is done, let's get back to those perfectly hard boiled eggs. Peel them and slice them into small squares. Then do the same for the avocados (small squares), and place both of them into a bowl. Don't cheat and start eating! Wait until everything is mixed together.

The dressing is next. Add the mayo, drained corn, mustard, curry, and the chopped and diced tomatoes to a bowl. Mix together, and then add the lemon juice and bacon. Mix again. Now pour that creamy dressing concoction into the bowl with the hard boiled eggs and avocados. Mix together, and enjoy!

10 hard boiled eggs, peeled 

3 ripe avocados 

2 large tomatoes 

6 slices of cooked, peppered bacon 

1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard 

2 cans of drained corn kernels 

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise 

1 tablespoon curry powder 

4 tablespoons lemon juice

Spinach Pea Soup

Dried pea and spinach soup is an uber green and super nutritious dish that can be a part of healthy recipes. It is ideal for the health-conscious. Serve this as a warming and comforting appetizer. Or enjoy it with crusty bread for a very light dinner. In this healthy recipe, the peas and spinach are cooked then passed through a sieve for a thick and smooth consistency. This soup has a sumptuous texture in the palate and tastes spectacular. Its bright green color gives instant delight to the eyes and the senses.

Before cooking dried peas need to be soaked for at least eight hours in cold water. This can be done overnight so that the peas are all ready to cook the next day. Substantial amount of cooking time will be saved by soaking the peas before cooking. However, do not soak the peas for more than ten hours or germination may occur. This may change the flavor of the peas. Before cooking the peas, pick over them to remove any stone, dirt or debris. And also to remove any discolored peas or those with blemishes. So that you can inspect them carefully spread them out on a clean surface. Place the sorted peas in a colander then wash and rinse them well under cold running water.

The soaked dried peas when boiled will collapse into a puree making a fantastic soup that has a wonderful texture. The spinach also adds a thick texture to the soup aside from a greener color. If the peas are pureed and the spinach has disintegrated into the liquid you will know the soup is ready. To make sure that any solid parts are squished pass the contents of the soup through a sieve to puree it even more. To puree the whole soup you can also use an immersion blender.

Ingredients

5 cups dried peas (soaked overnight)

1cup chopped spinach

1 onion, peeled

3 cups water

Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a pot add all ingredients and allow it to cook for 20-25 minutes. Keep stirring often.

2. Cover. Let it simmer on medium flame.

3. Add salt and pepper to taste towards the end. Stir well.

4. Pass the mixture through a sieve. Then heat it once again. In a soup bowl serve it hot.

Peas and Bacon

Any vegetable taste extra good if bacon is used with it. In this simple cooking recipe of peas and bacon, the peas are cooked in bacon fat. The rich and savory taste of bacon enhances the delicate sweetness of the bright green peas. You need precooked peas and thinly sliced bacon to make this recipe. You no longer need to add salt since the bacon is already salty but if you find it a bit bland, season the dish with salt and pepper near the end of heating process. This simple recipe takes less than 30 minutes to prepare. Serve it as a side dish to your regular meal to add vegetables to your diet.

Delicious Peas are good to consume it on a regular basis since they are low in saturated fat and cholesterol and a good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Protein, Thiamin, Niacin, Riboflavin, Folate, Phosphorous, Manganese, and Copper, as well as of Dietary Fiber. The bacon makes peas taste a whole lot better even the kids won’t be able to resist eating them.

Prior to making this recipe the fresh peas need to be cooked. Fresh peas are often sold in their pods. You need to split the shell first by trimming the ends and pulling out the string and splitting it open to reveal the peas. Place the peas in a colander and wash them with cold water. To retain most of their nutrition, full flavor and bright green color one of the best ways to cook peas is to steam them for two to three minutes. You can also cook the peas in boiling water for two to three minutes or until tender.

In a frying pan fry the bacon until it becomes golden and crispy and so its grease oozes out of the pan. This grease is very flavorful and will coat the peas to give it amazing flavor.

Ingredients

2 cups precooked Green peas

Bacon, sliced thin

Seasonings to taste

1. Fry the bacon in a frying pan until golden brown. Remove and drain on paper towels.

2. Add the peas. Warm them slowly in the bacon fat. When they are nearly done season to taste.

3. Place the cooked peas on a serving plate. Top with the slices of bacon.

The True Barbecue

Barbecue is an interesting term in the world today. Barbecue is mentioned in conversations whether they are grilling or doing what is considered true barbecue food recipes. The similarities are pretty simple, usually accomplished in the backyard and among friends and family. So what are the differences?

Barbecue Grilling

Barbecue grilling is what most people do on the weekends during spring, summer and fall. Grilling is merely cooking meat and vegetables on a grill that is fuel by charcoal, gas or electric. The food is usually placed directly over the flame but sometimes away from the heat. The key here is really the temperature and the amount of time it takes to cook the meat. At 300 to 400 degrees F of temperature the meat will be done quickly.

Mainly people cook steak and chicken breasts and pork chops on the grill. Sometimes vegetables are also cooked on the grill. Naturally the vegetables take less time to cook so are placed later in the cooking process so the meat and vegetable are finished at the same time. If you are using charcoal you will impart some flavor to the food, using gas or electric will not.

True Barbecue

True barbecue has been around since caveman days. Meat slowly cooked at low temperature for several hours rendering out the fat and leaving wonderful meat full of flavor. This has been handed down over hundreds of generations and refined in certain areas around the world.

Here in the United States true barbecue is really becoming a popular way of cooking in the backyard. Many people are either purchasing a smoker in addition to their grill or they are converting their grill into a smoker when needed.

Cooking Temperature

This method of cooking requires low temperature of 180 to 250 degrees F. The other requirement is it must have wood to create smoke that flavors the meat. The cool part of the smoker is that you can use many different types of wood and even combine them to achieve a unique flavor profile.

Flavoring the Meat

The meat itself requires a rub to impart flavor before being placed in the smoker. A rub consists of spices and herbs that add flavor to the meat. Some of the basics are salt, sugar, paprika, onion powder and garlic powder. The rub is far more than just what was mentioned because numerous spices are used to shape the flavor of the meat based on your preferences. This means everyone makes a unique tasting meat customized to their taste.

When it comes to pork butt which is really part of a pork shoulder some pit masters inject a solution of apple juice and apple cider vinegar to impart both flavor and moistness to the meat.

Sauce is used at the very end of the process when it comes to pork ribs as earlier it will burn the bark which is a precious taste that all pit masters strive for. As for a pork butt or shoulder that has sauce added after you have torn the meat apart or reserved for dipping.

Type of Meats Usually Smoked

The meat usually pork in the form of either ribs or pork butts. When it comes to beef, brisket is the most popular. Among pit masters a brisket is considered the most challenging of all meat. This not to say other types of meat are not cooked on smokers, it means that the meat mentioned above is the most popular.

Summing Up

All in all cooking meat in the backyard can be quick and fun or a lot of work and fun, the choice is yours. In this authors opinion there is nothing better than meat that has been cooked using smoking as the method. The meat is juicy, tender and without doubt full of flavor.

Thinking About Indian Cuisines

Indian cuisine is known for its variety of tastes and flavors and is accepted worldwide. There are numerous dishes and cooking recipes belonging to the different parts of the country and these make the real Indian cuisines. In fact, it can be said that Indian food doesn't belong to just one cuisine but it is a fine amalgamation of several cuisines. India is a large country and inhabited with different people with different culture and eating habits. If you want to taste the real culture and food of the country then Indian restaurants are the best options. Indians in large numbers have migrated to UK from time to time and at present, London house a large population of Indians. These people though away from their motherland, yet crave for the food of their land. The Indian settled down in here demand for their local food and this demand has led to the development of numerous Indian restaurants. Some of the best Indian food is offered by these restaurants in London. 

Different dishes are cooked in different styles and methods. A variety of incursions also has played a great role in shaping up the diversity in the Indian cooking of the present days. At present, Indian food is recognized worldwide and in particular, in London as a result of the development of different Indian Restaurant chains. The popularity and demand of the Indian traditional food has added a new element to the Indian cooking techniques. In the UK, you can find numerous hotels that serve variety of tastes from India but the Indian restaurants in Central London can be counted among the top dining spots. The rising fame of Indian cuisine across the globe makes the traditional food of the country well-known to the entire world. Indian Cuisine rises to the great acceptance worldwide because of their irresistible and mouth watering tastes and aroma. In UK, at present one of the traditionally cooked Indian food is very much popular and in high demand among the people and this is the most famous Chicken Tikka Masala. This is also recognized as the national dish of Britain. Another popular Indian dish here is the Murgh Makhani, or Butter Chicken. Along with these, there are other numerous Indian dishes in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian category. There are a few top Indian restaurants in London which are known for serving delicious and appetizing Indian food.

 The traditional cooking of Indian dishes is admired worldwide since it is healthy process. The food cooked in the traditional method of cooking is considered as healthy as it uses lots of spices and herbs which have various medicinal benefits. The use of different spices brings in exotic flavour and aroma along with a different aura. The India restaurants in London not only satisfy the taste buds of Indian but also the locals.