Extra virgin olive oil spray
4 chicken breasts, boneless -inch thick
1 1/4 cup flaked whole grain cereal
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 egg white
1/3 cup water

Islay

This is a small island off the western coast of Scotland and is the site of many wonderful malt distilleries. They have many variations of malts however the most notable carry a tangy smoky peaty taste. The current number of running distilleries is at eight although at onetime there was said to be twenty-three, with the newest edition opened in 2005.

Lowlands

This mountainless and flat region is apparent by its name and is also in the most southern region of Scotland. This brew is contains less of the smoke, peat, and salt than most other malts coming from Scotland and it carries with it a mildly fiery yet smooth taste.

Speyside

This is undoubtedly the center of the whiskey universe in Scotland.  The Spey River runs directly through the area hence the name. A good majority of top distilleries use water from the river in their processes. Although some of the characteristics vary in speyside it is still a part of the Highland geographically speaking. Someone interested in trying a traditional Scottish malt for the first time would do well with this malt, as it is rich and relatively mild in taste.

Highlands

The largest malt-producing region in Scotland is by far the Highlands. This brew is smoky and very rich. In comparison to malts from the lowlands, many of the different distilleries produce a different taste to their malts. This is caused by the varying microclimate differences.  The use of many different raw materials and the inclusion of some changed production routines also contribute to these distinctions in taste

Campbeltown

At one time Campbeltown was Scotland’s prime distillery site. Twenty-one distilleries were active in and around 1886 however only three are currently in business. This region is still considered a separate malt state for the value of historians.

Islands

Arran, Orkney, Mull, Jura, and skye make up the body of islands that sometimes get confused with Islay. This is in fact an entirely separate region. Those whom have some experience drinking malts generally enjoy the malts from this region. ]]> http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/the-six-scottish-malt-regions/feed/ 0 http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/where-are-the-best-places-to-buy-wine-glass-racks/ http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/where-are-the-best-places-to-buy-wine-glass-racks/#comments Sat, 24 Apr 2010 06:00:29 +0000 admin http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/?p=136 A wine glass rack is a really beautiful thing to have in a home, and especially if you have a larger collection of wine to store it will be really functional because then you are going to have a safe, attractive place to keep your wine and where you know that you are going to be able to keep it and let it age until you want to open and enjoy it.

There are lots of great styles of the wine glass rack that you can choose from, and you can even have a wall mounted wine glass rack which is best because then you know that the wine rack is not going to fall over and end up breaking all your bottles of wine. Now you just need to figure out where you can go if you want to buy a wine glass rack, whether that is a wall mounted wine rack, hanging wine glass rack or any other type.

Home & Garden

This is one great place that you can head to if you are looking for a wine glass rack. You never have to worry about your wine glasses falling out and breaking when you use one of the wine glass racks that you can purchase here, because they are all built to hold wine glasses tightly and make sure that there is no chance of them falling out and getting wrecked.

IKEA

This is another fantastic store that you can check out if you are trying to find a rack for your wine glasses. They offer a variety of wine glass racks to choose from and so you can choose one that is going to work well with the decor of your home. You want to make sure that you are going to find a rack for your wine glasses that is going to be suitable for the number of wine glasses that you have to store and which is also going to look nice in the room that you are planning to keep it in.

Arte Wine

You could also head here if you were looking to get a wine glass rack because they have a lot to offer. They are always adding new wine glass racks to their collection so you can keep checking back to see what they have new to offer. They will even make customized wine glass racks if you are interested in this and want to get something really unique. ]]> http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/where-are-the-best-places-to-buy-wine-glass-racks/feed/ 3 http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/apple-strudel-with-walnuts/ http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/apple-strudel-with-walnuts/#comments Fri, 23 Apr 2010 06:00:24 +0000 admin http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/?p=139 Phyllo dough is sold frozen. Defrost it in the package overnight in the refrigerator for best results.

Ingredients for apple strudel with walnuts

3 medium Golden Delicious apples, peeled and diced into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup apple juice
1/4 cup apricot spread (100 percent fruit)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons currants
1/2 cup walnuts
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 sheets of phyllo dough (13 x 17 inches), thawed
Butter-flavored cooking spray
Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions for apple strudel with walnuts

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a medium nonstick skillet, combine apples, apple juice, apricot spread, lemon juice, and currants. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and apples are tender. Remove from heat.

Combine the walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon in a small food processor and pulse until finely ground.

Lay the phyllo sheets on a flat tray and cover with a piece of plastic wrap to keep them from drying out. Remove one sheet of dough at a time, keeping the rest covered, and place on a work surface with the short end facing you. Spritz the sheet with cooking spray and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of the walnut mixture.

Repeat the layering with the next three sheets of phyllo. Spread the apple filling over the pastry, leaving a 2-inch border at the top and bottom and a 1-inch border on the sides. Fold the bottom border over the filling, and roll up the pastry like a jelly roll.

Place the strudel on a baking sheet with the seam down. Spray with cooking spray and top with the remaining walnut mixture.

Put strudel in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake for another 15 minutes, until nicely browned. Remove from oven and cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing, or cool completely and serve later. Dust lightly with powdered sugar at serving time – and you’ll have a healthy dessert that tastes wonderful!

Nutrition facts per serving:

(1 slice): 197 calories, 7 g fat (32% of calories), <1 g saturated fat, 32 g carbs, 3 g protein, 2 g fiber, 19 mg calcium, 1 mg iron, 64 mg sodium

Intuitively, we know what “done” looks like – the meat should be white all the way through, not pink.  It should also be completely opaque, no translucent spots.  And pink or bloody liquid is a no no.  The juices should always run clear.

That’s all well and good, and important, too, especially with salmonella’s being such a problem when it comes to poultry.  But how can we tell for sure when the meat is done all the way through to the bone and not overcooked?  The skin can be golden brown and the chicken can smell great, but it might not be done in the center or it may be completely overcooked and dried out.

Cooking Variables

For starters, and most importantly, it is almost impossible to go by stated cooking times in recipes. Start looking at those times as estimates and estimates only.  There are so many different variables at play when it comes to timing recipes; the size and make of the oven, whether or not it’s a convection oven, did you preheat the oven and the precise size of your chicken and its temperature when you put it in the oven in the first place.

If you pull a chicken out of the refrigerator and it’s 40ºF, common sense tells you it will take longer to cook than a chicken that’s sat out for 30 minutes and reaches a standing temperature of 60ºF. For these reasons, “350º F for 45 minutes” is not very helpful.

Why?

Besides all the variables just mentioned, most of us are so afraid to undercook food that we tend to let it cook longer forgetting that all meats and poultry need to rest to redistribute the juices and while it is resting, it is continuing to cook.

At best, consider “time and temperature” a ball park estimate.  Set the oven to 350º F, but start checking the internal temperature at 35 minutes, realizing it could take well over an hour.  Forget the notion that the time and temperature estimations for doneness is the holy grail. Sure it’s much easier to cook this way, but also a great way to get over or under cooked chicken. Remember – Time & Temperature is just an estimation.

Whether you poach, grill, saute or roast your chicken, you need to find a reliable measure of doneness.  Cooking a bird for several hours “just to be on the safe side” is just as bad as serving undercooked meat.  It might be even worse.  You can always cook the chicken more, but there is no way to uncook it.

Popular Suggestions That Don’t Work

Many cooking resources advise that you cut into the leg to see if juices run clear.  There are a couple of problems with this method.  For one, and rather obviously, not everyone cooks whole chicken, and often we cook boneless cuts.  Another issue is that when juice runs out of the chicken, as it most certainly will when you slice it open, you end up with dry chicken.  So, even if you haven’t overcooked the bird, it might still taste overcooked just because it is drier than it should be.

Other cooking resources advise you to jiggle or tug on the leg to see if the bone feels loose in the socket.  I don’t think much of this method, especially since it’s the way I test for doneness when I’m slow cooking a rack of baby back ribs.

Yes, the meat will be done when the bone is loose in the leg socket, but most likely it will be overdone, as the looseness is a sign that the connective tissue that holds the bone in place has gelatinized. This is a good thing when what you are looking for is lip-smacking goodness.  It’s not such a good thing when you want tender, juicy, perfectly cooked roast chicken.  Plus, as I stated before, you might not always have a bone in a socket to wiggle.

How to Know When the Chicken Is Done

The most reliable and accurate way to test for doneness, regardless of cooking method, is using an intant read thermometer. Just pierce the meat in the thickest part, being sure not to hit bone (the bone will be hotter than the meat).  Try to aim for the center of the piece of meat.  If you’re not sure, go ahead and pierce all the way to the bone (or all the way through, if you’re cooking a boneless cut) and then back it out halfway.

You’re looking for a final internal temperature of 165º F for white meat and about 180º F for dark meat.  Keep in mind that these are the USDA recommendations, and many people feel that they are set too high.  They are set for your safety though, so I find it is best to stick with these temperatures, especially when dealing with poultry.

Once you take a piece of meat out of the oven, its temperature will continue to rise.  How much it rises depends on the size of the piece of meat and the temperature at which you were cooking it.  For smaller pieces of meat, such as breasts, the temperature may only rise one or two degrees.  For larger cuts and whole birds, the temperature can continue to rise as much as 10-15 degrees over a half hour to forty-five minutes.

Keep carryover cooking in mind when you roast any sort of meat, and allow for it in your temperature readings.  For example, when roasting a whole chicken, take it out of the oven when the breast reads an internal temperature of 155º F-157º F, cover it and let it rest, allowing the temperature to rise to 165º F.

When roasting a chicken breast, remove it from the oven at an internal temperature of 162-163F, letting it rest, covered, until it reaches 165º F.  Not only will resting the bird allow for carryover cooking, it also gives the juices in the bird time to redistribute evenly throughout the meat, resulting in a juicy, tender bird.

Experience

You might ask if professional cooks use instant thermometers and I can tell you they all carry them on their person at all times because it is the law and I imagine most of them use them. I’m also sure after cooking thousand and thousands of chickens they intuitively know when they are done. I’ve even been told by one chef she could hear when a chicken breast is perfectly cooked while sauteing. Cooking by ear – sounds interesting.

You may find it a pain at first to check everything you cook with an instant thermometer but I think after a few perfectly cooked outcomes, you will make it a standard part of your cooking experience.

Be sure your grill is hot enough before starting.

Grill meat and veggies about 4 inches from heat source and chicken about 6-8 inches away.

To add more flavor, try adding pre soaked chunks of natural hardwoods like Hickory.

Make sure grill is clean before cooking.

To prevent sticking, brush or spray a light coating of oil on grid.

If your grill has a top, close it to allow smoke to add it’s flavor.

To keep poultry from drying out, grill with bone in and baste continuously.

Poultry dark meat takes longer than white meat so start it sooner.

Sear chicken on the skin side first.

Types

There are many different brands that make microwave cookware on the market today.  Some of the sets have a lot of pieces in it and there are other versions where each piece can be purchased separately.  LaCuisine is one of the brands that specializes in microwave cookware.  There is an eighteen piece set that they make that is priced at about twenty-five dollars, depending on the store where it is purchased.  This set allows individuals to not only cook the food but to store it afterward in the refrigerator.  The dishes are also made to be fairly attractive so that the pieces can be used on the table as serving dishes so that the set creates and all purpose set of equipment from cooking to serving to storing for the individuals that purchase the set.  The set is also made to be dishwasher safe so that cleanup is also incredibly easy on the people using it.

Another set of microwave cookware is made by Tupperware.  This set is more expensive than the other set because it is a specialized dish called the Oval Microwave Cooker Set.  This set costs about one hundred dollars to purchase, but it is an all encompassing set, allowing individuals to cook anything from meat to brownies in the microwave and have the dishes turn out exactly right every time.  Another choice in microwave cookware is not plastic but is stoneware.  There is a company called Staub that makes these stoneware sets that can be used in the traditional oven or in the microwave so that the consumer has options in cooking and does not need two sets of dishes.  These items can be used to cook as well as serve or store the food and since they are stoneware microwave cookware, they can be placed in the refrigerator or freezer. ]]> http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/finding-microwave-cookware-that-is-right-for-you/feed/ 0 http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/preparation-of-rices-and-grains/ http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/preparation-of-rices-and-grains/#comments Sun, 18 Apr 2010 23:16:22 +0000 admin http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/?p=115 All grains, with the exception of rice, and the various grain meals, require prolonged cooking with gentle and continuous heat, in order to disintegrate their tissues and change their starch into dextrine as to render them easy to digest. Even the so-called “steam-cooked” grains, advertised to be ready for use in five or ten minutes, require a much longer cooking time to properly fit them for digestion. These so-called quickly prepared grains are simply steamed before grinding, which has the effect to destroy any low organisms contained in the grain. They are then crushed and shredded. Bicarbonate of soda and lime is added to help dissolve the albuminoids, and sometimes diastase to aid the conversion of the starch into sugar; but there is nothing in this preparatory process that so alters the chemical nature of the grain as to make it possible to cook it ready for easy digestion in five or ten minutes. An insufficiently cooked grain, although it may be palatable, is not in a condition to be readily acted upon by the digestive fluids, and is in consequence left undigested to act as a mechanical irritant.

Water is the liquid usually employed for cooking grains, but many of them are richer and finer flavored when milk is mixed with the water, one part to two of water. Especially is this true of rice, hominy, and farina. When water is used, soft water is preferable to hard. No salt is necessary, but if used at all, it is generally added to the water before stirring in the grain or meal.

The quantity of liquid required varies with the different grains, the manner in which they are milled, the method by which they are cooked, and the consistency desired for the cooked grain, more liquid being required for a porridge than for a mush.

All grains should be carefully looked over before being put to cook.

In the cooking of grains, the following points should be observed:

1. Measure both liquid and grain accurately with the same utensil, or with two of equal size.

2. Have the water boiling when the grain is introduced, but do not allow it to boil for a long time previous, until it is considerably evaporated, as that will change the proportion of water and grain sufficiently to alter the consistency of the mush when cooked. Introduce the grain slowly, so as not to stop the sinking to the bottom, and the whole becomes thickened.

3. Stir the grain continuously until it has set, but not at all afterward. Grains are much more appetizing if, while properly softened, they can still be made to retain their original form. Stirring renders the preparation pasty, and destroys its appearance.

In the preparation of all mushes with meal or flour, it is a good plan to make the material into a batter with a portion of the liquid retained from the quantity given, before introducing it into the boiling water. This prevents the tendency to cook in lumps, so frequent when dry meal is scattered into boiling liquid. Care must be taken, however, to add the moistened portion very slowly, stirring vigorously meantime, so that the boiling will not be checked. Use warm water for moistening. The other directions given for the whole or broken grains are applicable to the ground products.

Place the grain, when sufficiently cooked, in the refrigerator or in some place where it will cool quickly (as slow cooling might cause fermentation), to remain overnight. ]]> http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/preparation-of-rices-and-grains/feed/ 0 http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/honey-nut-chicken-stir-fry/ http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/honey-nut-chicken-stir-fry/#comments Wed, 14 Apr 2010 06:00:27 +0000 admin http://totallyinformed.com/cooking/?p=110

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 cups sliced celery
• 1 1/2 cups sliced carrots
• 4 teaspoons canola oil, divided
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in 1/2-inch strips
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped peanuts
• Hot cooked rice

Nutritional Analysis:

One serving (1 cup chicken mixture, calculated without rice) equals 348 calories, 11 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 66 mg cholesterol, 636 mg sodium, 34 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 30 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 1 starch, 1 vegetable, 1 fruit, 1/2 fat.