Food Rookie: French(ish) Onion Soup

Thursday, May 22, 2008

One of the foods I truly enjoy is a bubbling hot crock of French onion soup. Unfortunately, like most of my favorite French recipes, it loaded with butter and fats. That's why I have devised a healthy and easier version of the soup. I can't call it French onion soup, but I can say it's smiler in taste, and so much less fat and calories.

This soup is extremely easy to make, the instructions and measurements are just rough guidelines. Experiment with this, I know it may sound crazy but the mix of onions, sauce, and beefy broth smothered in cheese is just hard to mess up. It's a tasty soup and even better the next day.

You can find detailed information on the soup including calories, nutrition, and serving size on my health blog : link here

French(ish) Onion Soup Base:

Ingredients

200	gram onion
50	gram leek, light green and white parts
300	ml vegetable broth
400	ml warm water, with one beef cube dissolved (I use Knorr brand)
10	ml Worcestershire Sauce
2	teaspoon butter

Directions

1. Slice onions and leek thin, in to half moons.
   
2. In hot pot add 2 tea butter, spread, or olive oil. When it's melted add 150 grams of onions and the leek.
   
3. Saute until transparent stirring occasionally, if they begin to brown, reduce heat, add broth and simmer until tender.
   
4. Add in water and broth then bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minuets.
   
5. Add reserve onion then return to boil, add Worcestershire Sauce Return to simmer for 15 minutes.
   
6. Adjust flavor with additional broth, and Worcestershire Sauce, as needed.

French(ish) Onion Soup Finish:

Directions

1. Toast your favorite bread, and layer it in center of bowl.
2. Shred or thinly slice cheese.
3. Poor hot soup over bread
4. Cover with cheese
5. Place in oven or broiler, and melt or brown the cheese as desired
6. Enjoy!

Please note, nutritional information of soup does not cover bread and cheese, so choose wisely.

Food Storage: The Yellow Onion

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Yellow or brown onions are common ingredients in most cooking. Onions are best know for their strong flavor that can even be sweet. These culinary staples are enjoyed both raw and cooked all across the globe.

Onions if selected correctly and stored well, can last a significant amount of time. This makes them prime candidates for bulk purchases. While there are many kinds of onions, we will focus on the yellow and brown for storage and selection in this topic.

Knowing how to select an onion is the first step in insuring you have the finest product available with the longest shelf life. To select a quality onion you should look for the following traits.

What to look for:

• Firm
• Tightly closed
• Paper dry skin
• Heavy for size
• Smooth
• Well formed
• Even colored
• Soft sheen to skin

What to avoid:

• Sprouting
• Dark spots
• Powdery spots
• Green spots
• Softness
• Blemishes
• Mold
• Bruises

After selecting you onions it is important to know how to store them. Though onions can be easily kept in the refrigerator, it is not necessary. Onions can be stored in any cool dark area, it is best to keep them spaced and out of sunlight. We have in the past suggested using the sock method in the past.

Once an onion has been opened, simply wrap tightly and keep refrigerated. If at any point sprouting does occur, trim the sprout and discard the onion. The green stems that grow from onions can be used as a substitute for scallions, as they are edible with a soft onion flavor.

Alternative storages are freezing, pickling, and canning.


resources: fruitandveggieguru.com; produceoasis.com; homecooking.about.com; makethemost.com; melissas.com;

Food Storage: The Carrot

Friday, April 25, 2008

The carrot is a healthy favorite for many people of all ages. It is an essential part of cooking and can even be a substitute to sugar in some recipes. This sweet, brightly colored veggie has even teethed many of our children.

Adding to value of the common carrot, is the fact it stores easy, and there for is a good choice to buy in bulk. This article is to help your carrots last to the maximum limits at the best possible quality. I have below information on selection and storage of the carrot, I hope you find it useful.

Selecting a Carrot
When selecting carrots you need to consider what you will use them for. Young carrots, especially carrots with greens still attached, tend to be sweeter. The extra sweetness will come at the cost of storage life though. Baby carrots are rarely young carrots, most often they are regular carrots cut up in to "baby" size portions. Larger carrots are often more then sufficient for your cooking and snacking needs. They also come in bulk sizes more regularly and are available year round.

Here are some tips in selecting carrots of all kinds.

Signs of a Healthy Carrot:

• well shaped
  
• smooth
• firm
• free of blemishes

Signs of a Healthy Carrot:

• cracked
• moldy
• discolored or green ends
• Holes
• bristly appearance
• blistering
• darkened and water-soaked skin
• soft or flabby

Storage of carrots:

Remove any green tops, the longer you store them with the leaves the more moisture and nutritional value they will loose.

Store in perforated plastic bags, and place in refrigerator. The crisper is preferred as carrots like moist cool storage to stay fresh.

Do not store neat fruit as ethylene, a gas produced by ripening fruit, will cause the carrots to become bitter.

Alternative Storage:

Canning- Canned carrots must be processed in a pressure canner.

Freezing - To Freeze Carrots they must be blanched.

Resources Links: urbanext.uiuc.edu; extension.umn.edu; ohioline.osu.edu

Food Storage: The Tomato

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Tomato is yet another produce I would love to buy in bulk to save money, but fear letting to many go to waist. Here are the use and storage solutions I have recovered for this months tomato purchase. After all how can we justify our bulk store memberships if we don't use them to the full potential.

When selecting your tomatoes there are some factors you should look for.

• Sniff them, the stronger the aroma the better.
• They should be heavy for their size.
• Look for them plump with tight and smooth skin
• Make sure they are free from bruises, cracks, or blemishes
• Ripe tomato will be completely red or reddish-orange

Vine ripened tomatoes are the best tasting, but go bad faster. Most package bought tomatoes will not be vine ripened. You can store tomatoes in a cool and dark place, they will continue to ripen until they go bad or are brought below 12.5 �C (54.5 �F).

Once a tomato is fully ripe you can store them in your refrigerator for a week. Tomatoes stored in the refrigerator will loose taste, so it's best to use them as fast as you can.

Always store shallow and out of sunlight. Wood or bamboo is the best containers, if you use other materials line it with cloth.

Alternate Storage and Use for Tomatoes

Freezing Tomatoes
Here is a suggestion for freezing them. Apparently you can do this as an alternative to canning. All you need to do before freezing is wash and dry, then place in a plastic baggies. They note there is no need to peel them as the skin will slip off when thawed. This use would be for storing tomatoes for cooking.

Sun-drying
Here is yet another fairly simple way to keep tomatoes from going to waist. All you need to do is wash, dry, slice open, remove seeds and place in the sun single layered and not touching.

Easy Oven-drying
To use this method just slice in half, or in slices, place in the oven at 140 to 145 F and watch them carefully. Oven-drying takes 6 to 12 hours, depending on the tomato it self.

Dehydrating
If you have a dehydrator, you can easily use it on your tomatoes.

Canning and Cooking
You can always can tomatoes, or make your favorite sauce or puree in bulk then freeze.

For more on tomato picking, storage and usage please visit the links provided below.

Links
Drying Tomato Links: doityourself.com; about.com
Tomato Selection and Storage and Freezing: about.com; wikipedia.org; indiaagronet.com; foodreference.com;
recipezaar.com; essortment.com; missourifamilies.org

Food Storage: The Onion

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Many people like to buy in bulk, but we shy away from produce. After all produce goes bad fast and we cant always use it in a weeks time. Luckily there are some things you can do to extend the life of your produce.

Today I'm going to share with you a storage technique for onions that not only makes them last for moths at a time, but helps leave valuable storage room for other items. My simple onion storage technique is a modification of the classic onion sock.

All you need is a hook or nail, a clips, and a stocking or pantyhose.
You can recycle clean used nylons, or go out and buy a pair for this project.

To use the onion sock, simply load the onions in to the nylon, try to keep them in single file. Then put a knot in the toe part, and a clip on the open end to hold it shut.

Attach the nylon to a wall, pole, or ceiling out of the sun and away from moisture, by the knotted toe section.

You now have a reusable onion storage sock that will keep your tasty onions fresh for up to two months.

Just a few notes:

• If you have pantyhose, cut the legs off you don't need the rest.
• You can use old clothing pins, twist ties, rope or any thing else, to space each onion if you cant get them to stay in a single row.
• Spacing onions will also help them stay even longer