Spicy Sardine and Cream Cheese Spread

Food and  Nutrition

 

Spicy Sardine and Cream Cheese Spread

By Joey de Larrazabal-Blanco for Yahoo! Southeast Asia 

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Serves: 4-6

This is one of the easiest appetizers you can make, and it is always well received. It’s especially perfect for impromptu gatherings as it can be whipped up in a flash. Place the spread in a bowl or ramekin, line up some crackers on the side, and leave your guests to smear or dip as they wish. This would also be good with raw veggie sticks. Leftovers can be tucked inside an omelet for breakfast. Serve at room temperature.

Ingredients

• 1 225-gram pack cream cheese, softened
• 1 220-gram bottle spicy sardines in oil
• Crackers to serve

Preparation

1. Drain sardines and save the spicy oil. Split sardines lengthwise and remove central bone.
2. Place the sardines in a bowl with the cream cheese and mix until fully incorporated.
3. Taste your mix.  If you’d like it spicier, add a little of the spicy oil back in and mix again.
4. Serve with crackers.

Cooking the Best Beef Nilaga !

Food and  Nutrition

Cooking the Best Beef Nilaga !

By Erica Paredes for Yahoo! Southeast Asia

                                                        

 

With a clear broth and really very basic, straightforward ingredients, Beef nilaga (or, more colloquially, Nilagang baka) looks deceptively easy to cook. But just because it does not have any sarsa, or a special marinade, does not mean you can just do as you please. Beef nilaga is actually even harder to cook because the taste of your dish will essentially come from your ingredients, nothing more; except maybe a pinch of salt and some spices to taste

Here are some tips on how to cook the perfect Beef nilaga straight from Chef Gene Gonzalez, Chef Instructor and president of the Center for Asian Culinary Studies (CACS), Chef Patron of Café Ysabel and World Gourmand Book Awardee (twice!). His show Chefscapades is currently being shown on Lifestyle Network.

•    “When choosing meat for Beef nilaga (slow-boiled beef), go for the ones that have some fat and litid (connective tissue). I would recommend the following cuts:  kneecap, shins and shortplate as they have connective tissue and they give off good flavor.”

•    “Cook the beef until it is tender. You’ll know this when the meat sticks to the bones but can be gently pried off. The connective tissue should also be firm but tender.”

•    “Put in vegetables last, about 2-3 minutes before you serve the dish. Let it simmer. Starches like potatoes or plantains should be put in the pot around 30 minutes before serving.”

•    “Remember that a good portion of your water will evaporate while you are cooking. A standard amount of water would be about 12 cups per kilo of beef. This will be reduced to just 7 cups when you finish cooking.”

•    “If you want a cloudy-opaque broth, put in onions, shallots, leeks and pepper first and let them simmer for a few seconds. Then, put in your meat. This will help in giving flavor to your broth.”

•    “To get a clear broth, put the beef in a pot with water before anything else at room temperature. After a few minutes, let this simmer until it is tender. This will preserve the meat fiber.”

•    “Personally, I like to make a Visayan hybrid of the Beef nilaga. I put in green or semi-ripe plantains (saba), cabbage, pechay, a hint of lemongrass, tangkwei (a Chinese herb) and a slice of bamboo shoot.”

•    “Complement your Beef nilaga with grilled or fried fish; stir-fried seafood; or steamed vegetables in shrimp paste (bagoong) or anchovy sauce (or the Philippine version: patis).”

Fast, healthy 4-ingredient dinners

 Food and  Nutrition

 

Fast, healthy 4-ingredient dinners

 

By Michelle Edelbaum 

September  2012 

http://www.eatingwell.com

With two little boys at home, I’m on a mission to streamline my dinner routine. My focus? Simplify. One of the awesome parts of working as the digital editor at EatingWell Magazine is that I’m surrounded by amazing healthy food every day. The problem is, I think I can go home and cook all of these awesome recipes on a weeknight, when what I really need to do is just get a healthy, simple meal on the table so my family can still have some time to enjoy our night. 

Recipes to Try: 20-Minute 5-Ingredient Dinner Recipes

I combed EatingWell’s recipe database and found these healthy, super-simple 4-ingredient dinners to help me eat well but cook simply. (I didn’t count kitchen staples like salt, pepper, oil, flour, sugar against my 4-ingredient limit.) And they’re all ready in 30 minutes or less of cooking time, most in 20 minutes—plenty of time to steam a vegetable on the side and make instant brown rice or quinoa.

The other bonus of these 4-ingredient dinner recipes? They’ll minimize my grocery shopping too!

Pork Chops au Poivre

 

Turn your dining room into a French bistro when you dress up pepper-crusted pork chops with a rich, creamy brandy sauce. Serve with roasted sweet potato slices and green beans.

Apple, Sauerkraut & Cheddar Quesadillas

This combination may seem unusual—until you try it. The sweet-tartness of the apple, creaminess of the cheese and bite of the sauerkraut work together beautifully in this easy hot sandwich. Serve with oven-roasted potatoes or a green salad.

Grilled Steaks Balsamico

 

A simple marinade of pureed dried figs and store-bought balsamic vinaigrette adds intense flavor to steak. This recipe is adapted from Lori Welander’s grand prize-winning recipe from the 2003 National Beef Cook-Off.

Mustard-Crusted Salmon

 

This updated French bistro dish makes a simple dinner any night of the week. You might want to consider doubling the batch and using the remaining salmon in a tossed salad the next day, or even as the salmon topper in the Warm Salmon Salad with Crispy Potatoes.

New England Fried Shrimp

 

Who doesn’t love a crunchy fried shrimp? This version takes virtually fat-free shrimp out of the deep fryer and pan-fries them in a little bit of oil instead. With 9 grams of total fat and 213 calories per serving, you can feel good about enjoying them.

Stir-Fried Spicy Chicken Tenders

 
A bag of frozen peppers and onions can be a quick start to a stir-fry; here, it’s combined with almost fat-free chicken tenders for a speedy dinner. Serve this dish with warm polenta rounds or brown rice.

Food and  Nutrition

Food Face-Off: Which is Healthier? 3

By Amanda Oaklander
Wed, Jan 09, 2013

                    
                     

Steel-Cut Oats (1/4 cup, dry)	Category	Rolled Oats (1/4 cup, dry)
140	Steel-cut oats, also known as Irish oats, are a bit lower in calories	160
5 g	But they’re equal in protein.	5 g
27 g	And they have identical carb counts, too.	27 g
4 g	Oats are fibrous. Contrary to popular belief, not all steel-cut oats are higher in fiber than rolled.	4 g
0 g	Hardly any sugar here!	1 g
2.5 g	With identical amounts of fat,	2.5 g
0.5 g	…and a pretty negligible saturated fat content,	0 g
2% RDA	…is there even a difference? Not in the calcium department.	2% RDA
10% RDA	And the high iron levels are exactly the same!	10% RDA
	Cue the tiebreaker: Steel-cut oats sit lower on the Glycemic Index.
Steel-Cut Oats: 3	WINNER: STEEL-CUT OATS	Rolled Oats: 1

THE BOTTOM LINE: 

Either way you cut them, high-quality oats are a health food, providing you buy them free of sugar-laden mix-ins. But the key to which is healthier isn’t on the label: It’s the degree of processing. Rolled oats are steamed, rolled, steamed again, and toasted, says Andrew Weil, MD. Steel cut oats are just coarsely chopped, so they have a lower Glycemic Index—a measurement that predicts how much a person’s blood sugar will spike after eating. That’s a tiebreaker for us!

WHAT TO BUY: 

Buy your oats organic, and make sure yours have no added sugars, flavorings, or preservatives.

JUST SO YOU KNOW: 

We used ESHA research to obtain nutritional data. These figures reflect popular brands for rolled and steel-cut oats.