Author Archives: DAVID Lavender

Tender Barbecue Steak with Yams, Make it Fast in Your Pressure Cooker

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Who doesn’t love barbecue during the week? If you’ve relegated barbecue to the weekend, when you’ve got time to fire up the grill and nurse your steak and chicken, then think again. Okay, this might not thrill the grilling you, but you can barbecue your steak in your stove top pressure cooker. Really.

pressure cooker
Yes you can make a delicious and tender barbecue steak in your pressure cooker!

In addition to the pressure cooker, you’ll need a trivet. A trivet is a piece of metal that sits in the bottom of the pressure cooker, to keep food out of the water.

You’ll need a 6-ounce lean round steak to start. Of course the yam, which should be scrubbed and sliced. The last item is a a couple of tablespoons of barbecue sauce. Of course you can use more if you want lots of sauce. It’s your choice if you want to use sweet barbecue sauce to match the yams or firey sauce to act as a balance.

To make mouthwatering and tender barbecue steak in the pressure cooker, first you put the trivet in the pressure cooker bottom and add water. Put the steak flat on the trivet as well as the yams. Turn on the pressure cooker and bring up to high pressure. Cook the steak for 20 minutes. If you are using a stovetop pressure cooker then use the quick cool method by putting the pressure cooker under cold water. Don’t do this with an electric pressure cooker. Read your instructions for a quick pressure release. Open the lid, put the barbecue sauce on the steak. Recover the pressure cooker and bring the appliance to high pressure. Cook the steak and yams for another 10 minutes. Perform another cold water release. Place the steak on a dinner plate. Add more barbecue sauce if you want. I’d put putter and cinnamon on the yams. Throw on a few mini marshmallows as well.

 

Cooking: Indian curry influence and Japan

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Food is one of my passions and, when I have the time, I enjoy writing about it. Recently, while working on a project that involved finding the best autoresponder, I promised myself when I had a little time; I would share some fascinating information about the influence of Indian curry in Japan. We are all familiar with the idea that Indian country seems to have taken over as the national cuisine of Britain and the most popular dish in the country is the Indian “chicken tikka masala”.

Only recently did I find out that curry occupies a place in Japan in much the same level as it does in Britain. This is extremely unusual because Japan has no colonial ties with India and has its own unique and distinctive cuisine. The Japanese simply love curry and every food store in every shopping mall or railway station sells curry and rice which is locally known as karee raisu. And bakeries often offer a bread roll with curry sauce inside that goes by the name of karee pan.

Apparently, in 1982, schoolchildren chose curry as their favorite meal in the national program for lunch at school. In Japanese homes, the three most frequently cooked dishes for dinner are pork cutlets, stir fry vegetables and, believe it or not, curry. The Curry House Ichibanya, a nationwide chain with more than 300 outlets, serves curries with differing levels of spice. You can even find comic books where the leading characters seriously debate the best way of cooking curry.

The Japanese army found that curry and rice was an easy dish to cook in large quantities. Moreover they considered it as one method of feeding the troops beef which they believed would be strengthening. After the Second World War, curry and rice began to feature on school lunch menus. The introduction of pre-prepared curry roux made it easy for housewives who were tired after a day at work to cook curry at home.

Stop Frying Your Foods!

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The world has become ever so health conscious and people are now trying everything to eat healthier, lose weight and look good. We tend to try too many quick fixes instead of just trying to fix the root of the problem and the manufacturers aren’t helping. Instead of preaching the importance of proper dieting they are instead coming up with newer gadgets that make it easier for you to stay fit.

One such gadget is the flex belt. People are being told that they can easily watch TV and have their workout done by this belt that they strap around their stomachs. They can eat dinner, they can play with their kids, they can do everything else but stay active and eat healthy. 

Those aren’t the only simple things you can do to stay fit. There are other things you can do in terms of your diet to remain fit. One main thing you can do to loose the flab around your waist is to stop eating fried foods.

Fried foods are known for their high fat content and cholesterol content but they can also be carcinogenic especially when the same oil is reused multiple times to fry multiple items. So if you are not too worried about clogging your arteries you may need to be worrying about cancer.

Benefits of fruits and vegetables in your diet

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Often, when you are engaged in stressful and hectic activity such as learning how to invest in the stock market, you simply forget to eat right because you are preoccupied. However, you should put a little time aside so that you can think about your diet. Fruit and vegetables have many beneficial effects on your health. For one thing, the high fiber content helps to control glucose levels in your blood and reduce the levels of cholesterol. They also contain large quantities of phytochemicals and antioxidants that reduce the risk of heart disease. The quantities of essential minerals and vitamins promote general well-being while providing protection against illness and disease.

Your recommended five portions daily of fruits and vegetables should come from a variety of different sources. If you eat the same fruits and vegetables every day, you will continue to be deficient in the vitamins and minerals that they do not possess. To get the maximum benefits from fruits, eat them whole and the peel as well wherever possible. Use fruit drinks or dried fruits in moderation because fruit loses a substantial amount of its fiber when it is converted to juice and as well as a lot of vitamin C in the drying process.

Your intake of vitamins should be divided between red and green vegetables and, generally, the more colors you eat, the healthier it is. As another rule of thumb, the darker and more colorful vegetables contain large quantities of fiber, minerals and vitamins. This is why spinach is more nutritious than lettuce. Balance the starchy vegetables such as potatoes and other root vegetables with non starchy vegetables like beans, spinach and broccoli. Overcooking your vegetables causes them to lose nutrients and the best way to retain the nutrition is to microwave or steam them. Homemade vegetable soup is an excellent way to meet your daily requirement and you can add lentils or barley to make it a complete meal.

Proper food and diet to prevent constipation

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A very important part of your diet should be proper hydration: drink a lot of water, a few cups of detox tea every day and also plant infusions. If you think that, through diet, you don’t succeed to have a proper fiber intake, you can buy a fiber supplement. While taking fiber supplement, you have to drink a lot of water. Anyway, a much better solution is to take your fiber from food.

You should eat every day at least one big vegetable salad. A healthy vegetable salad should contain all colors: green from broccoli and lettuce, red from tomato, red onions, red peppers, orange from carrots and so on. A truly healthy salad must contain at least seven different fresh vegetables. Don’t dress your salad with heavy sauces: use instead simple vinaigrette, made from lemon juice and olive oil.

Fresh fruits are also a very important fibers source. Eat the entire fruit, that way you will benefit from all the nutrients. Don’t squeeze the fruits: homemade juice might be delicious, but you lose all the fiber.

Once you’ve changed your diet, your digestive problems should stop.  And so should budget concerns because healthy eating actually saves you money.  So you can stop yelling “i need money now!”

If the constipation doesn’t get better after a few months, then you should see a doctor. Constipation might be the symptom of a much serious disease.

The Perfect Froth to End Any Dinner

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Having dinner with friends or family is one of my favorite ways to pass time. I love cooking and even more so, love catering for my loved ones and see them enjoy themselves. Of course I always try to make things as festive as possible, especially when having friends over.

This means I can spend all day in the kitchen, preparing all different kind of dishes in an attempt to make things as perfect as possible.

Whether a dinner party is successful or not, depends all on the details. It is of course very well possible that some of the guest does not like any of the ingredients, but if the overall gesture is one of TLC, they will appreciate all the effort you put on.

In my eyes, the perfect way to end dinner is to serve the greatest cappuccino with dinner chocolate, which means of course you must be able to make the perfect froth. Fortunately I found a place where they recommended me one of the best luxury brands when it comes to making the perfect froth, so now I can surprise my dinner guests with a lovely cappuccino.

The Froth Au Lait Mini Stainless Milk Frother not only makes froth, you can also use it to prepare a smooth hot chocolate, and cater for your younger guests.

A Labor Saving Coffee Grinder

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One of the things that I have always enjoyed first thing I the morning is a fresh brewed cup of great tasting coffee. The only problem has been that to get it, I always had to get up and get dressed and get out of the house to visit my local cafe where they sold it. No matter how I tried, I could never quite get that same taste at home. That was until I got my own electric coffee bean grinder, that is.

I first heard about the Bodum Bistro coffee grinder when I was reading some reviews in a magazine someplace and it struck me then that the only way I was ever going to enjoy a real cup of coffee that I could make myself at home was to actually go through the whole process of making it from start to finish. That means grinding up the fresh beans myself, instead of buying the ready ground stuff in a packet at the supermarket. So I bit the bullet and bought myself my very first ever coffee grinder and straight away I noticed a huge difference in the way my home brewed coffee tasted.

It was like getting a really great lift after I brewed my first ever cup of the real stuff after using my grinder for the first time. I had prepared for that moment by buying a pack of freshly roasted coffee beans from a specialist coffee store in the city and I was not disappointed. It has to be the best purchase I ever made!