Cooking

Everyone at one time or another has been to a restaurant and had a really fantastic meal that you wish you could make at home. And you probably could, if only you knew the exact ingredients, how to prepare the special sauce and how long to cook it. But it always seems there’s an ingredient or two you’ve left out, as it just doesn’t taste quite the same as what you had in the restaurant.

“Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime,” asserts an old Chinese proverb.

Well, not quite. There’s one more step. You also have to teach the man how to cook the fish.

The general rule of thumb for cooking fish is: Lean, white flesh fish is best suited to poaching, sauting, pan frying and deep frying; fatty fish is best with dry cooking methods such as grilling and broiling, and moderately fatty fish is amenable to most cooking methods with the possible exception of deep frying.

Chard is a type of beet, which along with spinach, is a plant in the goosefoot family; so named because some of the plants in this category have leaves shaped like their namesake.

Unlike traditional beets, chard roots are inedible. Chard is prized for its large leaves and crunchy stalks. The two main types found in most supermarkets are red chard and green.

The red has red stems and dark green leaves with red veins. The green has lighter green leaves with white stalks. The red variety has a stronger flavor.

Have you ever wondered whether certain parts of foods can be eaten? When removing the broccoli florets from the stalk, have you ever wondered if you could eat the stem? (I have, so hopefully the answer is yes). Most foods must be fabricated in some manner prior to being utilized into whatever dish is being prepared. This often means breaking them down into their component parts.