Now that we are at the beginning of a new year many people are going to start thinking more about cutting calories and eating healthier. They do this mainly to lose the weight that they put on during the two month holiday season. However, others are interested in making long term changes to their diet. One way that you can improve the quality of your diet without having to orchestrate your life around an extreme fad diet is to experiment with a variety of parve Jewish Recipes.
Parve Jewish recipes are simply recipes that don’t contain meat or dairy ingredients. For those of you who love meat and dairy, the thought of eliminating these two types of ingredients may seem crazy. However, once you start experimenting with parve ingredients and recipes you will soon discover that you don’t miss the meat and dairy because the flavors and textures are so satisfying.
One of my favorite parve recipe is for a modified fried rice. For the best results when making fried rice at home cook your rice the day before you want to use it, and refrigerate it over night. This will dry it out slightly and allow the rice to absorb the flavors of your vegetables.
Vegetable fried rice is easy to make. Simply: (1) spray a frying pan with olive oil cooking spray, (2) stir fry onions, carrots, peppers and other veggies, (3) add in rice, (4) mix a tablespoon of soy sauce with a half teaspoon of corn starch, (5) add soy sauce to stir fry and (6) heat through.
Tasty traditional Jewish recipes and unique parve Jewish recipes can help make your New Year tastier. For more tips and savory Jewish recipes, return next week.
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In past blogs I have mainly focused on the recipes that you can use to create an inviting dinner table. Today I want to talk a little bit about the presentation of your table. The details of your table and your dishes can add to the enjoyment of your meals just as the ingredients can.
Garnishments are the first items that can be used to make your food look and taste better. Garnishments are basically just little touches that you add to your dishes to make them look pretty. You can use herbs, you can use specially cut vegetables or you can use other ingredients to add color and pattern to your dishes. Chopped parsley, chives and multi-colored peppers all make great garnishments for soups and stews. When selecting a garnishment think about the color, texture and taste of the garnishment and make sure that these things compliment the color, texture and taste of your recipe.
Your serving dishes also impact how enjoyable your dinner will be. Pretty plates with coordinated colors and patterns make your table seem pulled together and visually interesting. To create an interesting table, consider matching your serving wear with the type of food that you are serving. For example, if serving an Asian inspired meal, try serving tea from an Asian style teapot, provide diners with chopsticks. Coordinate your table linens with your meal’s theme by using reds, golds and black color schemes.
Healthy low fat Jewish recipes taste better when served in special serving wear like Yixing teapots and interesting looking dishes. Use your imagination when serving your favorite Jewish recipes.
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One problem that a lot of people have with traditional Jewish recipes is that they tend to be high in fat. Because of this many family tables no longer serve great tasting Jewish dishes. However, you don’t have to leave out cultural treats because of their high fat status, you can instead, modify the recipes and use special techniques to de-fat these great recipes.
The first way that you can lower the fat content in a traditional recipe is to select leaner cuts of meat. Leaner cuts will naturally reduce the fat content without having to do any more work. Next you can select a leaner type of meat. For example, you can substitute lean turkey for beef. Finally you can trim extra fat from the meat before cooking it.
Another way that you can lower the fat content in a traditional recipe is to de-fat your broths, soups and stews before serving them. De-fatting can be accomplished with several methods. First of all you can allow your broth, soup or stew to cool by placing it in the refrigerator over night. The fat will float to the surface and solidify. You can then easily remove the fat with a spoon. Another way to de-fat your broths, stews and soups is to use a couple leafs of lettuce. Simply mop the top of broth, soup or stew with the lettuce and allow the leaves to absorb the fat. Then simply discard the lettuce.
Ethnic Jewish recipes can have a lot of fat. But there are ways to make these dishes healthy low fat Jewish recipes. For ideas, recipes and cooking tips visit Jewish Recipes!
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Cooking is an accumulative art. Each time you make a recipe or pass it on it is added to, revised and improved. The best way to learn how to cook is to read through recipes and see what ingredients are paired together. This will give you ideas on what you can mix and what you can’t mix. However, occasionally you will need to step out of the box to develop a stellar new recipe.
Thickeners are one of the safest types of ingredients to experiment with. Thickeners tend to have little or no taste. Their primary purpose is to, strangely enough, thicken broths and sauces. Starches are typically used for thickeners.
There are a lot of great thickeners that you can use. The easiest to find thickener is wheat flour. When using flour as a thickener you will want to mix flour with melted butter to create a rue and then add the rue to your mixture. Flour will need to be cooked before it will start to thicken your broth, soup or sauce. Cooking is also necessary to remove the raw flour taste.
If you don’t want to worry about clumps then you can try arrowroot. This thickener works quickly and it doesn’t need to be cooked. However, to get the best results, you will want to mix the arrowroot with water until it is dissolved and then pour the mixture into the recipe that you want to thicken.
Jewish chicken recipes, as well as several Jewish beef recipes, require thickeners. Return to the Jewish Recipes Blog on Mondays and Fridays for more recipe ideas and cooking tips.
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