Thursday, January 12, 2012

5 best ways to cook food

Pasta with creamy aubergine sauce
Food Diary (January 11, 2012)
Breakfast: Rolled oats with raisins, sunflower seeds and flax seeds
Lunch: Pasta with creamy aubergine sauce
Dinner: Spiced lentils and potatoes with sourdough



Today's Favourite Photo
Source: Sparklette
Fried Prawn – looks like it is in yoga pose



Today’s Favourite Blog
Source: Care2
I was skeptical when I saw an article titled “5 best ways to cook food”. I thought I knew the best ways to cook but this article turned out more interesting and useful than I expected.

Steaming
Not only does steaming preserve flavor, aroma, vitamins and antioxidants, it also decreases the volume of vegetables so you can eat more. USDA researchers discovered that lightly steaming greens such as collards and broccoli increases their ability to bind to bile acids more than if consumed raw. With lower levels of circulating bile acids in the blood, the body uses cholesterol to make more bile, which in turn lowers cholesterol numbers and may confer heart-health benefits.

Stir-frying
The intense heat from the stovetop minimizes nutrient loss and helps maintain vegetable texture and color. High-quality woks are great for rapid, even heating at high temperatures, but you can also use a large, heavy, flat-bottom frying pan for stir-frying just about anything.

Sautéing
Sautéing involves cooking food in a moderate amount of fat (oil, butter, etc.) in a pan over direct heat. Cooking times tend to be longer than stir-frying, potentially resulting in slightly bigger nutrient losses.

Slow Cooker
Although heating for an extended period of time, even at low temperatures, will result in some nutrient loss, most of those nutrients can be salvaged if you wind up eating the sauce or cooking liquid in which the food was cooked.

Pressure cooking
Exposure to intense heat and surrounding liquids will cause some nutrient degradation, but the rapid cooking time will help offset this. Again, if you eat any surrounding sauces, you’ll recoup some of the nutrients.


Here's the bad news. Baking, boiling, grilling, roasting and toasting are not the best cooking methods since they do a comparatively poor job at preserving nutrients and, in the case of grilling, can produce unhealthy compounds. Deep-frying is the least desirable preparation method. However these methods produce tasty results.

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19 comments:

  1. I like the sound of the aubergine sauce!

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  2. Those are great ways to cook food - but I would miss my grilling!

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    Replies
    1. I suppose its useful to know but we don't have to follow everything!

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  3. hi three cookies, i dont think i can discipline myself so much, when it comes to cooking methods.. sometimes i do short steaming and capture all the nutrients.
    simply love the pasta with creamy aubergine sauce.. Wow ! the prawns pose is a very sexy one ha ha.
    have a nice day

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  4. Sigh ... there goes my baking days.... and my steaks.
    But I do love slow-cooking tho. Saves me so much time and stress and nap-time :D

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    Replies
    1. There's more nutrient loss from baking, grilling etc so to make up for it we just have to eat more:)

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  5. When will you find a source (please, please!) proving that deep-frying is good for my health, waist, hair etc.? Deep-fried food is sooo good. Seriously, I'm happy reading it because most of my dishes are stir-fried just a couple of minutes and I steam rice almost every day (but almost nothing apart from rice...).
    The aubergine sauce looks delicious.

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    1. I am still searching. Deep frying shouldn't be that bad, if done properly not much oil is soaked etc. I am sure some research will come out soon

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    2. I only try to cheer myself up by the fact that there is worse than deep-frying: shallow frying ;-). The amounts of oil absorbed are huge because the temperature is lower and the frying time longer ;-)
      By the way, I have just made another batch of your crackers. This one is even better! I have eaten half, but saved some and took photos, so will be able to boast about them soon :-) Thank you once more for the amazing recipe!

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    3. I think KFC will be happy with your reasoning:) Its correct though.
      Good to hear those crackers are turning out well. Looking forward to seeing the photos

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  6. I have not tried aubergine sauce before. Got to find out how it taste.

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  7. Yep I think those are great ways - although I've never tried pressure cookings - got to get on to that
    mary x

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    Replies
    1. Me neither, though my mum uses pressure cooking often.

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  8. great and useful article! i really like the look of your pasta!

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  9. The prawn does look like it is in a yoga pose lol.

    Really great article about cooking methods. Getting the why and chemistry answers of cooking always fascinate me. Definitely need to remember the best techniques for the future.

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  10. Thanks for the comments on the fried prawn photo! Sure made my day ^o^

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