Smarts Tips for Your Family

Cauliflower and broccoli are crunchy vegetables rich in fiber.

Broccoli is fresh and has the best quality characterized by its hard and green leaves, while the cauliflower is still freshly marked with the shape of the whole and white.

Proper storage will keep cauliflower and broccoli fresh and safe for consumption after a few days, even for the next few weeks.


Here's how to keep cauliflower and broccoli fresh:

1. Cut cauliflower and broccoli, put in a storage container. Cut both of these vegetables to the lowest point as desired.

2. Place each of these vegetables into a bag or a sealed plastic container. Cauliflower has a longer period of freshness than broccoli.

3. Store fresh broccoli and cauliflower that has been wrapped neatly into the refrigerator.

The recommended temperature in refrigerator to keep the freshness of the food stay optimum is about 1.67 - 4, 44 degree Celsius.

4. Eat these vegetables within a week to get the benefits and freshness to taste optimally.

Broccoli can last three days to two weeks if stored properly, but this depend on the freshness, the condition of the bud, and the head of the broccoli when you buy it.

Cauliflower can remain fresh for one to three weeks. If broccoli or cauliflower starts to look brown, immediately remove the vegetables and do not use them.

What do you usually use to get rid the fishy smell of fish and seafood? Certainly, lime juice, lemon juice, and vinegar. But did you know that it's actually three types of fluids even make the fish “cooked “?

The content of the acid in the lime juice, lemon juice, and vinegar will actually kill bacteria if meat the fish. And spread lime will make the fish become ' mature '.
Mature is not mature like cooked exhausted, but ready to eat food like sashimi.

The use of lime juice actually still can be used to minimize the fishy smell, but not for too long while soaking.  Compared lemon, prefer to use fresh milk to eliminate the fishy seafood.

The trick, clean the fish and then soaked with fresh liquid milk for a few minutes. After soaking, the fish was ready to be processed.

Maybe you will choose caffeine, but now you can skip this food because there is 5 other food which is best as energy food. Steven Pratt, M.D., coauthor of SuperFoodsRx Diet (Rodale, 2008) said if better to grab fruit, nut or beans. These foods boost energy more effectively because they contain vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that combat inflammation, support your immune system, and help you recover faster from exercise, explains Pratt.

Taken from http://www.naturalhealthmag.com, here are 5 best energy foods.

Citrus
Snack on citrus fruits: They're rich in vitamin C, a powerful nutrient that can have an antioxidant effect 20 minutes after you eat it, explains Pratt. If you prefer juice, choose one with pulp for more fiber, he says.

Dark Honey
Replace the white sugar in your tea with a dark honey like buckwheat honey, which your body processes more slowly, says Pratt. (The darker the honey, the more nutrients it has, he adds.)

Beans
Eat a quarter cup of beans such as pinto or black beans (cooked any style, just don't add too much salt) for a low-calorie source of slow, steady energy.

Trail Mix
Make a trail mix out of your favorite nuts and seeds (like walnuts, pistachios, cashews, almonds, and pumpkin and sesame seeds), raisins, and a little bit of dark chocolate. Include as much or as little of each ingredient as you like (they're all healthy), but eat just one handful of the mix—you'll get sustained energy without too many calories, says Pratt.

Berry Juice
Mix 4 oz. of dark berry juice—like grape, pomegranate, cherry, blueberry, açai, or black currant—with 4 oz. of water. (Diluting the juice helps keep sugar levels down.) Look for a brand with low sugar content.

One of popular processed beef in the world is steak. Normally you enjoy it in the restaurant at a great price, because you do not know how to cook a steak. In fact, you can really make yourself at home with a taste that is not less delicious.

How to make it pretty easy because basically called steak is grilled meat. That is, the process is the roasting of meat cooking on the grill. However, in order to taste more savory, you can soak the meat steak to the marinade seasoning like BBQ sauce. However, seasoning sauce form is not a requirement.

If you want a milder flavor steaks and authentic flavored meat, you just need to smear the meat with oil (use olive oil) on both sides. This oil works so that the meat does not dry easily and burn. Then, sprinkle with salt and pepper just before burned. Then roast or grill pan using the already heated.



The thing to remember, avoid turning the meat too often. Try to flip the meat once for each side. Give me about three minutes to cook each side of the meat. Leafing through the meat too often will ruin the texture of the meat. In addition, flipping the meat with a fork or other sharp object would make meat lose juice, so that reduced deliciousness.

Once the meat is cooked, rest the meat for a few moments before being cut or served. This process will help hold the juice to remain in the folds of flesh and "trapped" in it so it will be more delicious when eaten.

Eggs become one of the must-carry groceries home. Basically, the eggs can be processed into a variety of delicious foods, from cakes, stir fry meals, and soup. That why almost everyone likes to eat eggs.

However, to produce delicious egg-based foods, you should choose a good quality eggs.  Quality of the eggs can not be seen only from the physical appearance or the shells alone. Here are tricks to choose fresh eggs.

1. Binoculars egg
the most powerful way to see the quality of the eggs is by using binoculars eggs. This binocular function is to see the conditions inside the egg.

Binoculars are really just a simple tool made of plywood, which is shaped like a box and given a light in it. The box was then given two holes in it to "peek" eggs.

How it works, put the eggs in a box, and binoculars in the flame of the lamp. If current binoculars, the eggs are not clear then the egg is not fresh anymore. Unfortunately, not all supermarkets provide these binoculars at the egg counter.



2. Shake
If telescoped difficult way, there is another way to pick the eggs, shake the eggs. You can also use this method when choosing eggs bulk in supermarkets. Choose eggs that look perfect, and then shake the eggs as she listened. When shaken, the eggs will give voice and movement.

If when shaken yolk was moved and follows the direction of your movement, this indicates eggs are not fresh... Yolk signifies moving the cord (which binds to the shell of the egg yolk) has been lost, and this is usually due to prolonged storage period.

3. Size
Everyone will want to choose a large egg. Small size of the eggs was more easily assessed quality. Large eggs (one kilo of grain contains 14-15) apparently resulted from an old chicken. As a result, these eggs have thinner shells than small eggs.

Thin egg shells will be more vulnerable to damage and cause fine cracks. Fine cracks will make the pores open and the shell into the air. Entry of air can make the contents of the egg so easily damaged and rotten. In the end, the size of the eggs will also affect the shelf life of eggs.

One favourite way to cook tofu is bake. Baking tofu is a lot like roasting except the tofu is usually tossed or coated in a sauce or marinade to keep it moist during baking. The sauce glazes the tofu, creating a richly flavoured coating. You can bake tofu in cubes or slabs. Pat it dry or press the tofu before baking (see the video in the last slide to learn how).

For the best baking, you can follow these simple steps:

Choosing and Buying Tofu
When purchasing tofu, knowledge of the right kind to use in a recipe is a very important key to a successful meal. There are typically three types which are tub tofu, brick tofu, and silken tofu. Some come in a variety of flavours, but if you are just starting out it is best to go with just the plain.

Tofu that is found in a tub is usually packed in water and is commonly found in most all supermarkets. This kind of tofu comes in different levels of firmness from very soft to very firm. However, even the most firm of tub tofu is still very soft. The next kind of tofu, which is often requested in many recipes, is the silken tofu. Smooth and very soft, this tofu is the main ingredient in spreads and desserts. Lastly, brick tofu, as the name implies, is the tofu that is best suited for baking or grilling. This type of tofu is packaged in paper and then vacuumed sealed. With a density of super mega firm, this tofu is easy to cube or slice.

Preparing Tofu for Baking
Once you have unpacked the tofu, all excess water will need to be drained from the food. Wrap in paper towels and weigh down (careful not to disrupt the integrity of the tofu’s structure) for about 30 minutes. Once this step has been completed flavouring needs to be decided, especially if the tofu has none. Since plain tofu does not really have any kind of taste at all, the sky is the limit when seasoning. No matter what kind of flavour you introduce, just know that each and every morsel or tofu will become fully infused. If marination is chosen, just slice or cube, depending on your preference and let the tofu rest in the marinade for at least 8 hours. Make sure to turn pieces over half way through the process.



Baking Tofu
With marination out of the way, it is now time to put the tofu in the oven to bake. First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and then place the cubed or sliced tofu in a pan that has either been sprayed with a non-stick cooking spray or oiled with olive oil. With the tofu placed side by side, bake in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes. You will want to turn the pieces every 15 minutes to ensure even cooking. Once the tofu is out of the oven, serve it over salads, as an appetizer, or even as the focal point of a main course. Not only will your friends and family love it, but your mouth will love it too.

For other baking tips, let see 7 Tricks Baking Techniques

How to fry Tofu – Tofu has soft texture, so if you want to frying it, you must slice in thick. Frying or shallow frying is a great method for cooking tofu because the hot oil dehydrates it, making it chewy in texture. But be careful when frying tofu, you will get lots of splatter. It's a good idea to press the tofu beforehand.

Frying can remove water from tofu. Another method for removing the water is frying the tofu on small heat to let the water to evaporate before marinating it. Use a Teflon pan with no oil. Fry it on both sides. This is a quick and very simple way.

There are some methods to fry tofu, such as:

Deep fry it. Fry thin slices of pressed and drained firm tofu in your deep fryer until light brown and crispy. Deep fry yield the tastiest fried tofu because the pieces are completely exposed to hot oil.  They’re easy, fast, and not overly dramatic tofu cooking methods.

Add it to a chilli or stew. After firm tofu is drained and pressed, it can be crumbled into pieces that are much like ground turkey or ground beef. Add crumbled firm tofu to a chilli or stew and cook through for at least 15 minutes at medium heat. If you marinated it fry it on oil to lock in marinated taste inside.

Make a cheesecake or custard. Silken tofu is great for making cheesecakes and custards. Replace cream cheese with tofu in cheesecake and custard recipes to create delicious, high protein desserts.

Pan-fry it. For about 5 minutes on medium heat on each side. Panfrying tofu does not create an even crisp texture all over the tofu pieces but you use less oil and can fry slabs that are a bit larger; however, too large of slabs (e.g., what you may put on a burger) can be unwieldy. Expect some sputtering when panfrying because the tofu is not quickly coated and sealed in hot oil. For that reason, be sure to blot excess moisture from the surface of the tofu pieces before panfrying.

Stir-fry it. Stir-fry chunks of pressed and drained firm tofu much as you would any other meat. The tofu will nicely absorb the flavours of the stir-fry oils and sauce.

When stir-fry tofu:
Use tender tofu and be gentle. For example, the dish at the top of this post is the ubiquitous mapo tofu, a spicy tofu with beef and Sichuan peppercorn preparation that’s ubiquitous on Chinese menus; see Asian Tofu, page 101, for the recipe.



In that classic, medium or medium-firm tofu (stuff that feels like the flesh between your thumb and index fingers; I often buy Trader Joe's regular organic tofu in the 20-ounce tubs but a firm tofu, such as Whole Foods' is fine) is cut into cubes, then soaked or blanched in hot water and drained. Exposure to hot water facilitates draining and helps the tofu to better hold its shape during the stir-frying.

You add the tofu to the pan and gently shake or stir it. You don’t vigorously move it around the wok with a spatula, lest it fall apart. There’s a fair amount of liquid and seasoning too so the tofu takes on the other ingredients. This is delicate stir-frying with some simmering involved. The results are creamy cubes of tofu with incredible flavor.

For non-spicy alternative, try the tofu with shrimp and peas (page 100). This is a dish that many Asian Tofu recipe testers made without being assigned to it:

Go for sturdier seasoned, pressed tofu. If you’re set on stir-frying super-firm tofu, try using seasoned pressed tofu that’s been simmered with seasonings (often times five spice and soy sauce), marinated, then baked. It’s called dou gan in Mandarin.

Fry the tofu first. Yep, it’s like double cooking. You can panfry, shallow-fry or deep-fry pieces of tofu beforehand – like up to 5 days in advance. Seriously. 

Frying tofu adds a rich fattiness and creates a lovely golden color. It also makes tofu that holds its shape during cooking. You can push, toss and move it around with ease.

The young parents become more aware of the dangers of pesticides exposure to vegetables and fruits. Although not eliminate it completely, there are tricks to minimize pesticide residue that settles on it.

Residue of pesticide is dangerous for health, especially if accumulated continuously and in a long time. The solution is to choose organic food products. But the problem, organic products is still lacking in the market and the price is more expensive. More trick If organic fruits and vegetables are difficult to get, you can use non organic vegetables and fruits, but with right washing before cooking.

Wash with running water. This method can reduce 20% -70% of pesticide residues that stick, depending on the type of pesticide.

Wash plant parts with details, such as the delicate folds, spinach stems, as well as clumps of cauliflower and broccoli florets.

Wash with running water. Not advisable to wash the soaked, because the toxins that have been dissolved can be glued back on fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, systemic pesticides, the pesticides that enter through the soil, water or air and then spread throughout the plant tissue and settles on the leaves or other parts of plants, can not be lost simply by washing.

Wash with special soap (food grade). This method can reduce the residue that sticks, especially if there a wax on the food skin or oil which is absorbing particles or pesticides. Paraffin coating that looks shiny is

Peel the skin of the fruit. This is how to effectively reduce pesticide residues, if the skin is able to inhibit the transfer of the place or toxic substances Trans located to other tissues.

    Peel the skin of the fruit with a knife, do not bitten with teeth.
    Root crops, such as potatoes, onions, and potatoes also need to peel because pesticides can enter through the soil.

Discard the outer layer of vegetables. Do not hesitate to throw away the outer layers of the layered vegetables, such as lettuce, cabbage, and mustard greens. The outer part most exposed to pesticides.

Soak in hot water. This method is effective to reduce residual 38% -97%, due to the release and breakdown of pesticides into water and water vapor.

Boil the vegetables. As well as soaking in hot water, this way reduce residues on vegetables is much lower than the raw material, including systemic pesticide residues.

intended to reduce evaporation so the fruit does not wrinkle. After being washed with soap, fruits and vegetables should be rinsed well so there is no residual soap left behind.

Grilling or barbecuing is one of the most famous cooking traditions in America. To get a delicious grilled dishes, its takes no time and experience. You can learn it in a short time with respect to 7 the following trick:

1. Brown a Beautiful Color
Each grill tool is always trying to "create" a beautiful burnt. Said Todd Simon, senior vice president and fifth-generation family business owners Omaha Steaks, "To burn perfectly, grill tools should be heated at high temperature 500-600 degrees centigrade. It’s enough to make a chocolate burnt surface. Afterwards reduce heat during the baking process takes place and use a solid tongs to reverse the flesh. "

2. Method 60/40
Whatever you bake cooks with maturity method each side 60 and 40 percent.

3. "Locking" Taste
When cooking, we are often tempted to check the grill repeatedly. Its can have negative impact for cooking. "Close the grill as long as possible during the grilling process to help lock in flavor," advises Simon.

4. Collided with Charcoal
Your cuisine tucked between charcoal gray? This food can not be eaten anymore. To prevent this from happening, use a special pedestal grill.

5. Give Seasoning
How to get the rich taste of the grill? The answer is use a condiment. But more importantly, give salt to taste before baking food. It can do on the meat, vegetables, tofu and fish. To put seasoning, use a brush food.

6. Note the temperature
Even experienced chefs only use the thermometer when grilling, so it should be with you. This is to make sure the grill cooked perfectly, especially for a very thick piece of meat.

7. Rest Before Presented
To avoid chewy meat let the food rest 3-5 minutes before serving.