COOKING TIP: Want to Drink Tea Liks a Connoisseur?

Most of us have drunk tea using those very convenient teabags that one can find on any grocery market shelf and have enjoyed the experience. However, to TRUE CONNOISSEURS, by doing this, we are really missing the true pleasure of drinking all the various kinds and types of tea available. The following will give you some information about the most widely available types of tea and methods of preparation for you to get the most pleasure out of drinking them. 

 TYPES OF TEA

 All teas are processed to some degree and are classified by the amount(s) of processing they undergo. 

WHITE TEAS: The least processed of all the teas. Young leaves are dried, which removes all moisture but retains the natural flavor of the leaves, leaving a light-bodied tea which is naturally sweet 

 GREEN TEAS: These teas are heated shortly after harvest to halt the oxidation process and retain their green character. Their flavor is lighter than more oxidized black teas and has a clean, refreshing flavor. OOLONG TEAS: These teas are partially oxidized which imparts a lighter body than the even more oxidized black teas resulting in a highly aromatic, flavorful brew. 

BLACK TEAS: These teas are fully oxidized resulting in a rich, full-bodied taste

 PREPARATION

 1) It is suggested that you use loose tea purchased from a reliable supplier= and freshwater to brew your tea. Tea can be brewed is an individual cup or in a pot using various sizes of tea infusers or, if you are brewing in a pot, the tea can be poured threw a small strainer to remove the leaves

 2) Use 1-3 teaspoons of tea, depending on how strong a brew you prefer, for each 6 oz cup of water or follow the specific measurements recommended on the tea package.

 3) Steeping times and the ideal water temperature in which to brew your tea varies with the variety of tea you are using. Use the following table as a guide but experiment with different steeping times to suit your own taste. 

 STEEPING TIMES 

 Type of Teat       Time/Min      Water Temperature/F

 Green                       2-3                  170-180 

 White                       2-4                  180-190

 Oolong                     2-5                     190

 Black                        2-5                     212

 A LITTLE EXTRA TEA TRIVIA 

The British add milk to their tea. Traditionally, milk is added to the cup before the tea is poured into it. Why you ask? When tea was introduced into England, it was quite expensive, available only to Royalty and the very wealthy. These people drank their tea from thin, high quality, fine China cups which would crack if the hot tea were poured directly into it. Therefore, cold milk was added first to cool the tea enough to prevent damage to the cup. For those who would like more information about tea and its history, see my series of 4 posts about the History of Tea: Oct – Jan 2017’

THE FOODIE’S COMPANION WILL BE MOVING:

 Dear Friends and Followers of The Foodies Companion:

I will be selling my house and moving into a new Retirement Community over the next  couple of months. Therefore I cannot devote much time to compose new posts for the Foodie’s Companion. I will return to sending out new posts, as soon as I can. In the interim, I thank my friends and other readers for their support and hope you will continue to view my new posts in the future.

FOOD TRIVIA: The Fruit That Named a Color

 

The linguistic precursor to the name “orange” the fruit was originally used to describe the tree the fruit grew upon. The root for the word refers to the Sanskrit language where the word "Naranga” meant orange tree. The Sanskrit word evolved into the Persian, “narang” and The Arabic word “naran". When Islamic rule spread to Italy and Spain in the Middle Ages, the orange tree made its way to Europe where, to this day, the word stayed true to its original roots in some countries; naranja in Spanish and aranchia in Italian. However, it lost the first “n” in France and England. In France, the Olde French adapted the Arabic word “naranj”as “pomme d’orenge” (the fruit of the orange tree) or just “orenge. The Middle English equivalent became “pume orange’.   By the 13^th century, the word orange began to be used not only for the tree and its fruit but the fruit itself. The name orange as the color, did not come until later, in the 16^th century,  when the term orange (the color of the fruit) began to be used by the English to describe cloth and clothing in that color. Until then, speakers of Olde English used the word “geoluread” (yellow- red) to describe the color that we now know as orange. After that, in Europe and beyond, “orange “became the name for both the fruit of the orange tree and the color of anything whose color matched the color of that fruit.

COOKING TIP: Cooking with Cheese

Semi-hard (high moisture) cheeses should be grated rather fine before cooking. A box grated or food processor will make that easy. Semi-soft (high moisture) cheese should be cut into very small pieces since they are too soft to grate. Cutting them while they are still cold from the refrigerator will make cutting easier.

 High moisture cheeses used for soups or sauces should be added to the cooking liquid at a low simmer, in small batches to avoid grittiness. Tossing the cheese with a small amount of flour or corn starch will thicken the cheese slightly and reduce the chances of the fat separating from the cheese.

Hard (low moisture) cheeses, e.g., Parmesan, Romano, etc., stand up to high heat of a broiler and are ideal to put on top of a casserole (alone or mixed with breadcrumbs) to obtain crispy toppings.

Cut goat or any other soft cheese using un-waxed dental floss. Stretch a piece taut and saw through the cheese.

 When shredding semi-firm cheese (Cheddar, Mozzarella, Monterrey Jack), freeze for 30 minutes to firm up before shredding using the large holes of a box grater. Spray the holes with non - sticking spray to prevent sticking.

Keep cheese rinds (Parmesan, Romano) in your refrigerator or freezer and add to soups or vegetable and meat broths. It will give an additional dimension of flavor to whatever you are cooking. When finished cooking, rinds that have not melted can be minced and added to whatever they were cooked in as part of the dish to give an additional textural aspect to the dish or be discarded. In either case, the liquids in which they were cooked will have their flavor enhanced by having had the cheese rind added during cooking.

 

FOOD HISTORY: Cheese

The history of cheese goes back many centuries but who made the first cheese is not known. One legend is that it was accidentally discovered by an Arabian trader who put milk into a pouch made from a dried pig's stomach to be used to ease his hunger at the end of his journey across the desert. The combination of the desert heat, the rolling motion of his camel and the residual rennet (a digestive enzyme in the pigs stomach) combined to separate the milk into curds (the solid part of curdled milk) and the liquid part, whey. When he arrived at his destination, he drank the whey to take away his thirst and tasted the curds, which had a good flavor, so he ate them to satisfy his hunger. An alternative story is that when men put milk out as an offering to the Gods, as the weather got warmer, the milk became thicker. If the thickened milk was drained, it's liquid part removed and the solid remainder put into a dried sheep's stomach to store, it became a firmer. very soft "cheese". The first pictorial evidence for cheese making in this manner was found in a frieze at the Temple of the Great God in Ninhursag, Mesopotamia in 3000 BCE. Travelers from Asia are believed to have brought the art of cheese making to Europe. When ancient Greece was at it's peak, cheese had become a part of daily life. Many records about the production and comsumption of cheese are found in the writings of Aristoteles, Pythagoras and others. In Homer's Odyssey, the Cyclops, Polyphemus, describes the preparation of a cheese that is thought to be the precursor of the famous Greek cheese, "Feta". Eight thousand years later, "Feta" is produced in essentially the same way except for the introduction of automation and contemporary packaging. While the ancient Greeks called the product made by the coagulation of milk, "cheese", the name  to be applied to this type of cheese, "Feta", meaning "slice", originated in the 17th century and refers to the slicing up of the cheese to be put into barrels - a practice still used today., From Greece, cheese making moved to Rome during the era of The Roman Empire. The Roman cheesemakers, by trial and error plus their documentation of
their methods, refined, improved and passed along the techniques of cheese making. The Romans introduced cheese making to many other European parts of their Empire, including England. However, during the Middle Ages - from them decline of Rome until the discovery of America - cheese was only made in Monasteries where the process was refined and improved by the monks. Gorgonzola was made in the Po valley of what is now Italy in 879 AD and Italy became the cheesemaking center of Europe. During the 10th century, Roquefort was mentioned as early as 1070 in a monastery at Conques, France. However, popular cheeses of today, Cheddar, Swiss, Edam, Parmesan and Gouda, to name just a few, only appeared within the last 500 years. In its early history, cheese flourished in the Middle East and Europe but cheese was never made in North and South America. Only much later was it introduced by European immigrants. Later, American influences introduced cheese to Asia, but cheese is still not a staple in most Asian diets. Exception's are Tibet and Mongolia who have a long history of cheese making. English settlers brought their love of cheese and the skills needed to make them  to America and cheese has been produced in the US since early in the 17th century. As settlers from the Eastern US migrated west, they brought their cheese making skills with them. Later, in the mid - 1800's, Swiss, Germans and Norwegian immigrants who settled  in several communities in Wisconsin brought their cheese making skills with them, as well. Now, Wisconsin leads the US in cheese production, followed by California, Idaho, New York, New Mexico, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ohio and Vermont. Today, there are more than 1750 kinds of cheeses available world-wide made from the milks of cows, goats, sheep, buffalo, yak, reindeer and camels. A cheese available for every taste!

FOOD TRIVIA: How Spam was Named

 In 1926, the Hormel Company developed the first canned ham product in the US. However, after the hams were cut, the company was left with thousands  of pounds of pork shoulders, an almost worthless meat. Jay C. Hormel, son of the founder, George A. Hormel came up with a way of using the pork shoulder in a new product called, "Hormel Spiced ham". Because this was a very uninspiring name, a contest was held to come up with a new name.  Ralph Daidneau, the brother of a Hormel Vice President came up with the name “Spam” from:  S houlder P ork h AM. The rest, as is said, is history!

COOKING TIPS: How to Prepare /Handle/Store Some Vegetables and Fruit.

 

VEGETABLES

Cooking Cauliflower in water that has a bit of milk added to it will keep the Cauliflower bright white.

When you must seed big, round tomatoes, cut them across the equator rather than lengthwise and scoop, out seeds with your finger or the handle of a small spoon.

 Whole canned tomatoes have more "meat" and flavor than chopped but can be messy to chop. Use kitchen shears to cut them, quickly and cleanly, right in the can.

 Celery should NOT be kept stored in the refrigerator in the plastic bag in which it came. The plastic bag traps ethylene gas given off by the celery which accelerates deterioration. Celery should be wrapped in aluminum foil before it is placed into the refrigerator. This will allow the ethylene gas to escape and extend the shelf life of the celery.

To get a longer life out of spinach, stem, wash, remove wilted leaves and dry thoroughly using a salad spinner or paper towels. Place in a plastic bag and lay a couple of wet, wrung out paper towels over the spinach. Seal the bag, squeezing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate for up to two weeks.

 To prepare thin strips of cabbage for Coleslaw without using a sharp knife, cut the head into quarters. Using a Y-shaped vegetable peeler.  "Peel" the flat surfaces of each cabbage quarter to create thin slices. When the quarter gets too small for using the peeler, finish the "peeling" using a knife.

FRUITS

The easiest way to peel a Kiwi fruit is to cut it in half and use a spoon to scoop out the ripe fruit.

 Similarly, with an avocado, cut in half all around the large seed. Using the sharp edge of a kitchen or Chef's knife, strike the pit, gently, but with just enough pressure to cut a small way into it and twist. The pit should come out whole. You can then use a spoon to separate the flesh from the skin.

 Use a melon baller to scoop out the cores of halved apples and pears. IT 'S EASY!