A delicious lamb vindaloo recipe taken from the 1000 quick and easy 5 star Indian Recipes: buy it now, special promotion for only $6.95.

Although vindaloo recipes are Indian, they were brought to India by the Portuguese. The original Portuguese dish was called "Carne de Vinha d’ Alhos" where carne translates to meat. The traditional Portuguese dish was made with pork preserved in red wine or red wine vinegar and prepared with extra garlic, ginger, pepper and coconut (grated or milk). Now you can also find lamb vindaloo curry and beef vindaloo recipes.

Ingredients for the lamb vindaloo recipe

Lamb:

• 3 pound (1.5kg) boneless, lean lamb meat
• some meaty lamb bones

For the meat marinade:

• 4 tablespoons light vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup (60ml) cider or balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons of tamarind pulp
• salt to taste

In the Blender:

• 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 large white onion
• some garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoon freshly chopped ginger root, chopped

When cooking the lamb vindaloo you will need

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (125ml at most!)
• 3 cup (345gram) thinly sliced onion
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin spice
• 1 teaspoon ground mustard seeds
• 3 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 1/2 teaspoon red chili pepper
• 3 teaspoon paprika
• 2 1/2 cup (625ml) hot water

Preparation of the lamb vindaloo recipe

• Cut lamb into 3/4 " (2cm) cubes.
• Place lamb and the bones in a non-metallic bowl with the four tablespoons of oil, the vinegar, tamarind pulp, and salt. Let it marinate at room temperature for eight hours or, refrigerated, for 24 hours.
• Put two tablespoons of oil, the onion, garlic, and ginger in an electric blender or food processor and run the machine until a fine pasty puree is formed.
• Heat the one-half cup of vegetable oil in a large enamel coated skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and saute until they are caramel brown, stirring constantly to prevent burning.
• Add the puree. Reduce the heat and add ground cumin, ground mustard, turmeric, red pepper, and paprika. When the spices begin to sizzle and turn dark, in about 15 seconds, add the lamb and bones. Cook until slightly seared (about ten minutes).
• Add the water and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the meat is very tender (about thirty minutes).
• Pick out and discard bones.
• Serve the lamb vindaloo over rice or with naan.

If you love to eat, prepare and read more delicious quick and easy Indian recipes like this, buy the 5 star Indian Recipes now: Special Promotion: more than 1000 recipes for only $6.95.

Leave a comment when you want to share your lamb vindaloo recipe or any other delicious recipe, thanks!

One of the most delicious Thai Jamie Oliver Recipes: mussels in the wok!

Jamie Oliver Recipes

Read more Jamie Oliver recipes

Also 1 of the easiest Jamie Oliver recipes: fry all the Thai ingredients with the mussels and at the end add coconut and lime.

Go to Jamie Oliver’s Creamy Mussels

How mussels can help with osteoarthritis at: Green lipped mussel. Having osteoarthritis we are adding more recipes that can help in the treatment of osteoarthritis. Especially green lipped mussels are rich in "glycosaminoglycan", which is a food supplement assisting in the repair of joint tissues. The Skinny Cook is trying to get free green lipped mussel samples and list his experience at: Green lipped mussel.

Technorati Tags: Jamie Oliver | Jamie Oliver recipes | Food | Thailand | Thai food | Thai recipes | Thai recipe | Thai ingredients | Food | Taste of Thai | Asian | Cooking

Yes, Keith Floyd is dead at 65 after a battle with bowel cancer. Unfortunately he had no chance in winning his battle over bowel cancer, as he wasn’t able to do everything right like metastatic liver cancer survivors do:

• unlike Patrick Swayze who outlived his prognosis of stage 4 pancreatic cancer supported by his loving wife and dog, Keith Floyd’s death will most likely be applauded by his 4th divorced wife
   
• both Patrick Swayze and Keith Floyd kept by their addictions after being diagnosed with cancer: Patrick Swayze kept smoking, although less than the Marlboro man, Keith Floyd kept on drinking his favorite wines, even had to be admitted to hospital due to fatigue after an evening in the pub
   
• both men however showed an extreme passion and love for life, but again, if you want to survive cancer, you need to do everything right!

Just to illustrate Keith Floyd’s passion for live, watch the video below:

May Keath Floyd’s death bring more awareness for cancer survivors. Our deepest condolences to Keith Floyd’s family, friends and loved ones.

I treated myself with a visit to Bodrum Turkey, which is a ferry trip away from Kos Island Greece. Just a normal ferry, not a cruise in one of those famous wooden Bodrum gulets…

Being far far away I treated myself with an iced coffee: Bodrum Turkey style!

Bodrum Turkey coffee drink with whipped cream

Best coffee

We all know what Turkish coffee is Well, great was my surprise to find out that an ice coffee in Turkey was:

• ice like in ice cream
• coffee and
• a big dot of whipped cream (what does The Skinny Cook think about cream? Cream doesn’t make you fat, eating cream could…)

Now the people from the land of the cappuccino are smart, very smart. When you look at the spoon to eat the ice cream: it has a hole on both ends, meaning you can use your spoon as a straw to drink your iced coffee!

Coffee drink with ice cream Bodrum Turkey style

Technorati Tags: Greece | Greek Food | Coffee | Hot coffee | Espresso | Cooking | Travel | Bodrum | Turkey | Kos Island

For sure you have read that green tea is beneficial for weight loss and fat burning. But have you ever wondered why?

Although one of my favorite drinks is Japanese green tea and I love green tea ice cream… Lets not talk about the taste but instead let’s talk about the scientific green tea health benefits.

Green tea antioxidants health benefits

Every scientist wil tell you that green tea contains the antioxidant EGCG. In the graphic above you can compare the amount of antioxidants in green tea and other food items.

What are antioxidants? Simply put: they are "anti oxidation". In your every day life : oxidation of iron means it’s getting old, rusty and deteriorates. Anything anti oxidant will make sure "things don’t deteriorate that fast".

This especially is true when it comes to cells deteriorating into cancer cells. Any food containing anti oxidants are considered healthy. Of course natural anti oxidants found in organic food are of a much higher quality that chemical anti oxidants.

Then there is of course quantity : antioxidants from ready-to-drink tea bottles in your "convenience store" contain 10 to 100 tomes less antioxidants than a freshly brewed green or black teas!

Again: freshness is crucial when it comes to the amount of antioxidants in your food. Fresh food contains more antioxidants than the same food a few days later.

Green tea health benefits are plenty when you go back to basics: buy organic green tea and brew the teat yourself. Ready made tea drinks from the "convenience store" are only that: "convenient". They have much less health benefits compared to freshly brewed green tea.

If you love the feeling of traveling in your own house, Vietnamese coffee made with an authentic Vietnamese coffee maker can bring you in the mood of being in Vietnam. The coffee takes about 10 minutes to drip through… it’s great if you just want to relax and enjoy some peace and quietness from a slowly dripping coffee.

If you want things fast, make Vietnamese Iced Coffee using a cup of espresso.

Vietnamese Iced Coffee ingredients

• 3 tablespoons dark roast coffee
   
• 3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
   
• a few ice cubes

Vietnamese Iced Coffee Preparation

1. Put the sweetened condensed milk in a cup and add ice.
    
2. Put the dark roast coffee in a Vietnamese coffee press. You don’t need to go all the way to Vietnam to get these stainless steel looking Vietnamese coffee presses. They do sell copy-cat single cup coffee makers in glass-plastic in your decent household shop. (In Malaysia these single cup coffee makers can be found e.g. in the Isetan malls)
    
3. Add water that just comes off the boil (for half a cup if you don’t want to monitor when your cup will overflow due to the extra ice in your cup.) If you have a real Vietnamese coffee maker, screw to adjust the lid over the coffee until you see bubbles appearing through the water. At this point your coffee starts drips very, very slow in your cup, which for me is still the charm of Vietnamese coffee!
    
4. When your cup is filled with dripped coffee, give it a stir and drink your Vietnamese iced coffee!
    

Fast Vietnamese Iced Coffee
 

You can also make Vietnamese iced coffee with a cup of espresso:
 

• Put the sweetened condensed milk in a cup,
   
• add ice and
   
• poor your cup of espresso over it! 

Are you looking for organic cultivated and caffeine free green tea, then try Chi Tea green tea extract.

You can order Chi Tea green tea extract online and because it doesn’t contain any caffeine, you don’t have to bother about the Green tea extract side effects we mentioned earlier.

Concentrated Chi Tea green is not only caffeine free, it’s also alcohol, herbicides, pesticides and fluoride free.

Use Chi Tea for the Green tea health benefits: it’s a super anti-oxidant. One cup of Chi Tea green tea extract equals 12 to 15 cups of regular green tea containing more than 95% Polyphenols and 62% EGCG anti-oxidant.

Additionally this Chi Tea extract is fortified with concentrated extracts of:

• Goji Berry,
  
   
• Astragalus root
   
   
• natural sweetener Lohan Kuo.
   

Chi Tea green tea extract really is one of the purest and most potent natural herbal elixirs available today.

As usual: always consume in moderation to prevent getting green tea extract side effects.

Drinking freshly brewed green a lot, I never encountered any side effects. I do agree that one has to go a few times more to the toilet, which again is good exercise to help burning some extra fat .

Of course when you take green tea extract, the concentrated amount of the green tea in the extract can be overdosed much easier.

Main side effect however is caused by the caffeine. Caffeine can keep you awake at night. Green tea contains much less caffeine compared to normal tea and coffee. For me: brewing fresh green tea never developed into insomnia, even after drinking huge amounts of green tea.

If you notice getting sleeping problems after taking green tea extract, give the green tea extract to a friend who won’t suffer insomnia side effects. Then go and source for caffeine free green tea extract for yourself.

Other green tea side effects noted are:

• headache,
   
• heart palpitations (that sounds again like a symptom of caffeine overdose),
   
• restlessness,
   
• vomiting and nausea,
   
• diarrhea or the opposite: constipation.

If you love milk, the above side effects can be eliminated by adding some milk into your green tea. I do that from time to time before I go to sleep.

When it comes to green tea extract side effects, people with health problems like:

• heart problems,
   
• stomach ulcers,
   
• kidney disorders and
   
• psychological disorders,

… may experience green tea extract side effects easier.

Always ask your doctor’s opinion about how green tea extract could interfere with any other medications you take or health problems you have.

I am convinced that you can get more easily pesticide poisoning from eating large amounts of strawberries (like what my brother suffers from each time he eats strawberries) than suffering from green tea extract side effects!

So if you are in need such arrangement, a NY based company, NYC Bus Charters, will be able to provide vehicles to transport 9 to 57 passengers in environmentally friendly vehicles.

This company provides a 24 hour online customer service and there is a local dispatch available to provide you with all the necessary assistance and information that you require. No matter what your transportation needs may be NYC Bus Charters will be able to make all the necessary arrangements may it be airport transfers or local tours.

In addition, you can also utilize their services to attend trade shows and conventions, day trips and basically just to get around.

You can get a discount for group transfers and a corporate discount of 10% will be extended if you purchase the tickets in advance. NYC Bus charters is offering special package deals to Dorney Park Wildwater Kingdom and to Six Flags Great Adventure. For Six Flags this package deal will include return transportation and admission tickets.

So for cost savings and the ultimate trip to New York City , you can’t really go wrong with NYC Bus Charters as they have been in the business for over 20 years.

For better health and an overall sense of well being : use liquid green tea extract when you are traveling. Benefits of green tea and tips how to use green tea drops.

Why use liquid green tea extract?

Why would you use liquid green tea extract when you have fresh green tea available?

It’s the same as asking me: why would you spend tons of money on an organic Aloe Vera extract when you can grow Aloe Vera in your garden?

• The answer is simple: you cannot put the Aloe Vera plant in your handbag or suitcase anytime you are on the go or traveling.
   
• Same answer applies to green tea: if you want to be sure to have a green tea in reach when traveling, do take liquid green tea with you: the bottles are as small as nose-drops and one bottle could last you a whole month.

Regardless of where you are: you do need to drink a lot of cups of green tea in order to have the same benefits of having a few drops of liquid green tea extract.

If you don’t like the taste of any of the liquid green tea extracts, then we advice you to buy concentrated green tea tablets.

How to drink liquid green tea extract

Read the label carefully on your particular container of liquid green tea extract and follow the instructions.

If there are no instructions, then follow these guidelines:

• standard dosages are 20-25 green tea drops up to three times daily, not longer than 2 weeks in a row
   
• use a glass dropper to remove one dropper-full of liquid green tea extract from the bottle. When the extract doesn’t provide a dropper, then you need to buy one from a drug store, a health food store, or an online retailers. Next time make sure to by liquid green tea extract that comes with a dropper!
   
• add 20-25 drops of the liquid green tea extract to one 8-ounce (250 ml) glass of distilled or spring water. If you don’t like the taste, then use less water and add some organic fruit or vegetable juice. Try different brands of green tea extracts as they all have different flavors.
   
• stir the green tea extract into the liquid, combine thoroughly and drink immediately.

Reminder of green tea benefits

• 4000 year old Chinese remedy to treat anything from depression to headache. Green tea health benefits are as old as civilisation.
   
• contains antioxidants to help cleanse your body of toxins and various waste accumulated through bad dietary habits:
   
• as such improving your metabolic rate: or in plain English: burning more fat
   
• boosting your energy and preventing any cases of lethargy
   
• lowers your cholesterol levels
   
• maintains your proper blood pressure level
   
• reduces risk for cancer and strokes
   
• improves skin condition
   
• boosts your immune system.

Green tea is not meant to be a weight loss tea, but by boosting your metabolism, you might see some weight loss as a wanted side-effect of so called green tea diets

Which liquid green tea extract do you buy?

When you buy green tea extracts, you have the choice between pure, caffeine free green tea and "more in one" green tea extracts.

The latter you see in the picture above on the left and the name is misleading: Green Tea Pure isn’t just a pure green tea extract, but it is mixed with liquid extracts from Goji Berry and Acai Berries. Personally I love the taste of it

Chi Teas offers "Chi Tea Ultimate Green Tea" (picture here on the right). Again not only a pure liquid green tea extract, but also containing concentrated natural extracts of Goji Berry, Astragalus and Lohan Kuo (a natural herbal sweetener, read more in Chi Tea Green Tea Extract).

If possible, buy organic green tea extracts. When caffeine gives you bad side-effects, then do buy a decaffeinated liquid green tea extract.

As there are so many things to do and numerous sightseeing places to cover, you need to ensure that you optimize your vacation time when visiting this beautiful city. The best way to do this is to research for sightseeing packages.

A top leader in New York City Sightseeing is CitySights NY. For city tours, you must book their hop-on hop off double decker buses that ply all the major attractions, uptown and downtown included.

If you are into shopping there are day trips available as well. Night tours are also available and there are various choices for your selection.

If you are into walking, there are tours that specifically cater to this. Their biking tours cover Greenway, Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge. Besides these, there are harbor cruises, helicopter riders, day trips from New York and even Food tours.

There are even tours specifically tailored for students.

No matter what your interests may be there is always something that would be exciting for you to do in New York City. So for a great travel experience, check out tours at CitySights NY!

Enjoy Kit Kat Green Tea, Kit Kat Dark Chocolate and Kit Kat Cheese Cake.

For the latter 2, you need to travel to Malaysia, and for the Kit Kat green tea, you have to go all the way to Japan in May.

Green tea or matcha is a well known staple of Japanese beverages, but to make it into a Kit Kat… It just proves that there are no limits to the Japanese snack-food imagination.

When you like Green Tea Opera Cake and green tea ice cream, you will surely love the flavor of Kit Kat green tea as well.

Just one question: do we serve these green tea wafers with tea, coffee or hot chocolate?

Enjoy this easy and delicious green tea opera recipe. A moist, light and creamy cake where the slight bitterness of green tea tempers the sweetness of white chocolate.

History of the Opera Cake

The Opera Cake was first created by a French known as Louis Clichy, who called it… Clichy.

It was a very refined and decadent layer cake prepared with:

• delicate almond biscuit or joconde,
   
• chocolate ganache,
   
• coffee buttercream, and
   
• chocolate glaze.

The cake got popularized by the Parisian pâtisserie Dalloyau as "Opera Cake", as it is known today.

Highest quality Matcha

Highest quality Matcha powder or green tea powder is Japan’s most widely known tea. It’s also used to flavour and dye foods like:

• green tea ice cream
   
• mochi and soba noodles,  and
   
• a variety of wagashi – Japanese confectionery-.

Highest quality Matcha differs from standard green tea well before it has even been plucked. 

The tea from which Starbucks matcha powder – and all other matcha powder – is made, is grown under shade. This causes the growth of the green tea to slow down to:

• ensure tender tea leaves and most importantly
   
• maximum chlorophyll which causes the deep green colour in the final green tea powder.

The leaves are then plucked and processed into steamed tea. This tea will then be milled into a very fine green powder making matcha green tea so distinctive. 

Matcha is generally expensive compared to other forms of tea, that’s why we want to share with you the secret recipe of making your own distinctive green tea.

Green Tea Opera Cake Recipe

Making White Chocolate Glaze

Top your green tea opera cake with this simple white chocolate glaze:

• 1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream
   
• 3 ounces (90g) chopped white chocolate

Simply melt the chocolate into the heavy cream in a double boiler. Let cool (for 10 minutes) and pour over the top of your green tea opera cake.

Making the green tea cake

• 1 cup (120 g) ground almonds
   
• 1 cup (100 g) sifted icing sugar
   
• 1/4 cup (30 g) all-purpose flour
   
• whites of 3 large eggs at room temperature
   
• 3 large eggs
   
• 1 tablespoon matcha
   
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
   
• 1 1/2 (22.5g) tablespoon unsalted butter

Preparing the green tea cake:

1. Line a 12 1/2 inch by 15 1/2 inch (about 30 x 40 cm) jelly roll pan with parchment and grease with butter
    
2. Beat the egg whites in a bowl until they form soft peaks. Add sugar and beat again until the peaks are stiff and glossy.
    
3. Beat icing sugar, matcha, almonds and eggs in another bowl until light and voluminous. Add the flour and beat until the flour is just combined.
    
4. Fold the egg white mixture into the almond mixture.
    
5. Fold in the butter.
    
6. Pour the batter into the pan.
    
7. Bake the green tea cake in a preheated 425F – 220C oven until lightly browned and just springy to the touch, about 5-9 minutes. As always, don’t use hot air for baking cakes.
    
8. Run a knife along the edges to loosen the cake form the jelly roll pan.
    
9. Cover the cake with parchment paper, flip and un-mold your green cake.
    
10. Peel of the parchments paper flip and cover the green cake while it cools.

Making Green Tea Buttercream

The secret to make any good buttercream is beating and beating more. The green color comes again from green tea matcha powder.

• 2 large egg whites
   
• 3/4 cup (180g) unsalted butter at room temperature
   
• 1/2 (100g) cup sugar
   
• 1 tablespoon matcha

1. Mix the sugar with the green tea matcha powder in a small bowl
    
2. Whisk the sugar and matcha into the egg whites in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until the mixture is hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. Make sure the sugar gets dissolved and the mixture looks like shiny marshmallow cream
    
3. Remove the bowl from the heat and beat until the cream is cool, about 5 minutes.
    
4. Beat in the butter
    
5. Beat the mixture until it thickens and becomes smooth, about 5-20 minutes.

Making the Green Tea Syrup

This is a simple syrup with some added flavour from green tea liquor. Green tea liqueur has a nice dark green color and adds a nice aroma to the syrup and the opera cake.

• 1/4 cup (62.5ml) water
   
• 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
   
• 1 tablespoon green tea liqueur

Making the green tea syrup is easy: bring all ingredients to a boil in a small sauce pan stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.

Making White Chocolate Ganache

When too liquid to keep the ganache from streaming out of your cake: put this white chocolate ganache in the fridge before using it in your green tea opera cake.

• 7 ounces (200g) chopped white chocolate
   
• 1/4 cup (60ml) heavy cream
   
• 1/4 cup (60g) butter
   
• 2 tablespoon heavy cream

1. Melt the chocolate into the butter and 2 tablespoons of heavy cream in a double boiler.
    
2. Set the ganache aside and let cool completely.
    
3. Whip the 1/4 cup heavy cream in a large bowl.
    
4. Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate ganache.
    
5. Refrigerate until used.

Putting the green tea opera cake together

Assembling the cake on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper like so:

1. Cut the cake into 4 pieces (6×7 inch or 15×20cm)
    
2. Place 1 sheet of the cake onto the baking sheet and moisten with your green tea syrup.
    
3. Spread 1/2 of the buttercream over the cake.
    
4. Place 1 sheet of the cake on top of the buttercream and moisten again with syrup.
    
5. Spread the white chocolate ganache over the cake.
    
6. Place 1 sheet of the cake on top of the ganache and moisten with syrup.
    
7. Spread the remaining buttercream over the cake.
    
8. Place 1 sheet of the cake on top of the buttercream and moisten with syrup.
    
9. Pour the glaze over the cake and smooth it out.

Refrigerate until it sets, about 30 minutes. Trim the sides to get a smooth finished green tea opera cake! Job well done

Enjoy Kit Kat Matcha! Green tea extract in a Kit Kat from Nestle.

Kit Kat Matcha (green tea) is a limited seasonal edition of Kit Kat bars with obviously a green tea flavor. It’s now available in stores in Japan or look for them online.

The Kit Kat Matcha wafers have an unique shade of green : the color of green tea!

The Kit Kat Matcha sticks are made up of white chocolate and green tea. As you bite into the wafers you truly can detect the faint aroma and distinct flavor of green tea!

Enjoy this quick and easy traditional Venezuelan arepas recipe. No oven needed, a frying pan works equally well. Fill your arepas simply with cheese or with any combination of savory meats, beans, plantains and/or again cheese.

Arepas translated

• Arepa – Cooked cornmeal pocket stuffed with various ingredients.
   
• Arepitas – Small fried arepas served as a starter to eat with nata (sour cream), or with soups and stews.
   
• Arepa de Trigo – Large arepa from the Andes region made from wheat.

What are arepas?

An arepa is a grilled corn flour flatbread stuffed with any combination of savory meats, beans, plantains and/or cheese.

Arepas don’t contain yeast. Any arepa can be grilled, baked, or fried. The characteristics of the arepa vary from region to region:

Spanish Arepas

Colombian Arepa

A Colombian arepa or arepas con queso are cheese arepas. They are small and fit perfectly in your hand, plump little corn-cakes filled with thick chewy cheese, griddled until they are crispy on the outside.

Venezuelan Arepa

Venezuelan arepa recipes are endless! Arepas are Venezuela’s homegrown alternative to bread or rolls: cornmeal "cakes" about the size of a hockey puck that are crunchy on the outside but soft and fluffy on the inside.

Venezuelan arepa recipes can have the following fillings:

• Aguacate – Avocado
   
• Aguita ‘e Sapo – Literally "Frog Water", but it’s actually pernil or roast pork in its juice, served with fried cheese. Found almost exclusively in Maracaibo.
   
• Atun – Tuna salad with onions and a squeeze of lemon
   
• Caraotas negras – Black beans
   
• Carne mechada – Shredded beef
   
• Chicharron – Pork crackling, also known in UK as pork scratching
   
• Chorizo – Spicy sausage
   
• Diablitos – Devilled ham
   
• Domino – Black beans and grated white cheese
   
• Ensalada de Gallina – Chicken salad
   
• Jamon – Ham
   
• Montaña Rusa – Quail’s eggs in mayonnaise (literally Russian Mountain, the term for a roller-coaster ride in Venezuela)
   
• Morcilla – Black pudding
   
• Orejas de Cochino – Snippets of pigs’ ears in sauce
   
• Pata-pata – Black beans, yellow cheese and avocado
   
• Pelua – Shredded beef and grated yellow cheese
   
• Perico – Scrambled eggs cooked with chopped tomato and onion
   
• Pernil – Roast pork
   
• Pollo guisado – Chicken cooked in a sauce
   
• Popurri Criolla – Shredded beef, black beans and white cheese
   
• Queso – Cheese
   
• Queso de mano – Literally "hand cheese", a traditionally-made soft white country cheese
   
• Queso Guayanes – Another soft white cheese
   
• Reina Pepiada – Chicken, avocado, mayonnaise and peas

Arepa maker

Arepas can easily made by hand but once you get hooked on them you could opt to buy an arepa maker: the above electric arepa maker makes 6 arepas at a time, with extra-large arepa cavities.

Venezuelan Arepa Recipe

This authentic Venezuelan arepa recipe video is easy to follow with the following Spanish ‘cheatsheet’ including all the ingredients mentioned in the video:

When people talk about arepa flour, they actually mean 100% corn flour that is white in colour.

Ingredients to make arepas

• 1 cup of arepa flour per person. Arepa flour is also known as Maize flour, "Harina Pan" and White Pre-Cooked Corn Flour : available in all good groceries having ‘exotic’ Asian and especially Latin American products
   
• water: 1/2 to 1 cup of water for each cup of arepa flour
   
• salt

How to prepare arepas

Read below and watch the video above.

1. Mix arepa flour with water and salt and mix or kneed until a soft dough forms.
2. If you used 1 cup of flour, then divide your arepa dough into 4 big balls. Flatten them to approximately 1 cm (1/2 inch) and let them rest for about 5 minutes.
3. Put in a preheated oven for about 10 minutes, deep fry in oil or in a pan with a thin layer of oil on a low fire.
4. Pound your arepas softly. When you hear an empty, echoing sound – as if there is nothing
   inside – they are ready.
5. Once ready, split the arepa open, lightly butter the inside and fill it with your favourite fillings. The video uses white cheese (queso de mano) and butter, but they mention as well: ham and salad. Anything goes!

Arepas recipe summarized

Nothing more easy than to follow this arepas recipes using water, corn flour and salt.

Heat your arepa in an oven, pan or deep fryer and fill them with cheese, ham, salad or anything else you love to eat!

This is the best ceasar salad dressing recipe to keep when you want to know how to make ceasar dressing.

This ceasar salad dressing recipe can be used both on chicken ceasar salad and in any other ceasar salad recipe. Use it when you want to make your "house special best ceasar salad recipe".

Ingredients to make ceasar dressing

This isn’t a low fat salad dressing recipe as we use quite some oil.

Since I need to lower my cholesterol, I use olive oil as my favorite dressing oil of choice and I  discard the egg yolk.

For an even more low calorie salad dressing, replace some of he olive oil and lemon with low fat yogurt.

• half a cup or 100 gr olive oil
   
• 2 boiled eggs, only use the egg white
   
• 2 or 3 garlic cloves
   
• 2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (I prefer the subtle taste of lemon in this ceasar dressing far above a vinegar dressing)
   
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
   
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
   
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
   
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grinded black pepper

How to make your ceasar salad dressing

1. Start with putting garlic and olive oil in a blender and blend it.
    
2. Then add the other ingredients and blend again till you have a ceasar dressing.
    
3. Always taste and adjust the ceasar dressing ingredients to your taste.

When you know :

• a better oil and vinegar salad dressing,
   
• your best salad dressing,
   
• a better olive oil dressing  or
   
• a better way how to make ceasar salad dressing :

please leave a comment!

Try the following home made remedies if you have puffy eyes from allergies.

Visiting my niece yesterday, she was wearing dark glasses indoors… Not a weird teenage fashion statement but she wanted to hide her eyes. No, don’t get me wrong, she isn’t on drugs, just that her eyelids where a bit swollen.

It started the evening before and the whole eyelid was a bit puffy. Since her general health further on is OK and I am a chef, of course I was thinking about food allergy and some food remedies for reducing puffy eyes.

Treatment for puffy eyes

Puffy eyes allergy can best be treated in finding the sources causing the allergy. Therefore you should start noting down everything you do during the day related to:

• make up on your face
   
• soap, shower
   
• what you breath in and
   
• what you eat

Then try to find a pattern : you will get rid of puffy eyes once you eliminate the source of puffy eyes.

Reduce puffy eyes

The following puffy eye remedies at least relieved my nieces puffy eyes. At this moment she feels fine again, which led me to believe she must have had some allergic reaction.

If none of the below puffy eyes remedies work, do go see a doctor and ask for a deep diagnosis and treatment for puffy eyes. There also exist creams against eye puffiness, but when you have an allergy, sometimes it’s not that wise to add a cream. Ask your doctor!

If you really want to self medicate using a cream, then try an Aloe Vera based cream: Aloe Vera will hydrate your eyes.

Tea remedy for puffy eyes

The age-old remedy against dark circles under the eyes, also works against fluffy eyes.

• normal tea reduces swelling,
   
• chamomile tea soothes redness and inflammation.

Put the tea-bags in hot water for three minutes. Let cool until the bags are comfortably warm, lie down, close your eyes and put the bags over your puffy eyes. Unlike on the picture, it’s better to wrap the towel around your eyes! Relax your fluffy eyes for at least 10 minutes.

Make sure you drink the tea, as sometimes puffy eyes indicate water retention in the eyes. The more you drink, the better excess salts can be flushed out of your system.

Herbal home remedy for allergy

When your fluffy eyes are caused by an allergy, then drinking homemade barley drinks twice a day could solve the problem. This is my favourite barley drink recipe, deliciously aromatised with screwpine leaves and dried fruit:

Ingredients:

• some screwpine leaves (pandan-leaves: screwpine is "Malaysian Vanilla" and a delicious ingredient in Malaysian desserts (read more about delicious Malaysian recipes at Kuih Rose Recipe)
   
• 1 handful dried winter melon (winter melon, sugar, sulphide dioxide) (Kundur Manis)
   
• a handful of the best quality barley
   
• some bean curd skin (tofu-skin, fu chuck) tear into pieces
   
• water

Preparation:

• wash the barley until water is clear
   
• put in a medium sized pot, add the other ingredients and fill the pot for 3 quarters with water
   
• boil until the water turns white in colour (about 1 hour)

Please leave a comment if you know more home remedies against puffy eyes from allergies!

Of course you can use this beer cheese soup recipe with Velveeta as a guidance to substitute with your favourite beer, cheese or cheeses like Parmesan.

A great tip is using Velveeta recipes, substitute it with your favourite Cheddar cheese and you have your personal cheddar beer soup recipe!

Velveeta soup ingredients

• 2 liter (4 pints) chicken stock : freshly made, bought or from chicken cubes
   
• 500 gram (16 ounce) Velveeta cheese (substitute with your favourite cheeses or the cheese left overs in the fridge)
   
• 1 small bottle of Guinness Stout (330ml or 11 fluid ounce) (substitute with your favourite dark beer)
   
• 60 gram ( 2 ounce) butter
   
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
   
• 2 potatoes, cut in small cubes
   
• 30 gram (1 ounce) corn flour : dilute in a few spoons of water of chicken stock
   
• 1 big onion diced finely
   
• 2 carrots diced finely
   
• 1 green celery (without leaves) diced finely
   
• olive oil to fry

Velveeta soup preparation

1. Take a very large pot (you will find out why when you add your beer…), heat some olive oil and saute the onion, leek and carrots for a few minutes.
    
2. Add black pepper and saute further until the onions are soft and almost translucent.
    
3. Add the chicken stock and puree the sauteed vegetables with a hand-mixer.
    
4. Bring back to a boil and add potatoes and Velveeta cheese. Simmer for the next 15 minutes.
    
5. Add in the corn flour mixture and boil for 1 minute more.
    
6. Turn off the fire, transfer your pot to the sink and stir in your beer (especially when this is the first time you make this Velveeta cheese soup).

   Once you add beer, your Velveeta beer soup will start to foam big time, so that’s why we recommend to start off with a huge pot.

   (you could also let the beer go stale first, but I can’t leave any opened beer just standing there…).
    

Serve your Velveeta soup with a huge loaf of bread and some baked sausages for a one meal dish.

Start cooking our easy recipe for the cabbage soup diet. This recipe of cabbage soup is delicious when you use only organic vegetables.

Although personally I have had much more success with the Japanese Banana diet, I am convinced that there is an ideal diet out there for each person.

So for those wanting to try the cabbage soup diet, read below how the diet works and how you can make a not too fat cabbage soup.

What is the cabbage soup diet?

The cabbage soup diet is mainly a one week effort to change your eating habits without having to starve yourself. The diet goes as follows from day 1 till day 7:

1. Eat all the fruit and cabbage soup you want. Strangely but true: the cabbage diet forbids you to eat bananas…(see day 4)
    
2. Eat all the vegetables and cabbage soup you want. Try not to eat beans nor peas but stick to green leaf vegetables. Cooked or raw doesn’t matter
   and you can add a big baked potato to your meal!
    
3. Combine day 1 and 2 but without the baked potato treat.
    
4. Go bananas! Eat at least 8 bananas and drink as much skimmed milk or cabbage soup as you feel like.
    
5. 10 to 20 ounces (300 to 600grams) of beef or skinless chicken, at least 6 fresh tomatoes, 2 liters of water (4 pints) and all the cabbage soup you want (that is if you still feel like eating anything after 4 normal servings of meat…)
    
6. Eat as much beef, green leaf vegetables and cabbage soup as you want.
    
7. Try brown rice, vegetables and fresh fruit juices. Of course keep on drinking your cabbage soup.
    

After 1 week of the cabbage diet, people do loose weight.

On top of that this change in eating habits will open your taste-buts for other food than fastfood. You will discover the taste of brown rice, fresh fruit juices and healthy green leaf vegetables.

Make sure you write down a list of all the flavours you loved during the cabbage diet and base your new diet on those.

Simple recipe for cabbage soup diet

Cabbage soup ingredients

• 1 litre hot (boiling) water
   
• olive oil
   
• 1 organic head cabbage
   
• 2 pounds (1 kg) fresh organic tomatoes
   
• 3 big organic onions
   
• 1 bunch organic celery
   
• 4 stems of organic leek
   
• 1 green organic pepper
   
• 1 red organic pepper
   
• 4 cloves garlic, peel removed
   
• 2 cubes of organic low fat vegetable broth
   
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
   
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
   
• salt and pepper to taste curry powder and your favourite spices
   

Cabbage soup preparation

1. Slice the leek in rings and cut the onion and celery in cubes.
    
2. Put a little olive oil in a non stick pot and saute the onions, celery and leek on a low fire. Stir in the cayenne pepper and curry powder after 5 minutes and let simmer for 5 minutes more.
    
3. Meanwhile start slicing the rest of the vegetables – except the garlic – in strips and add after the onions and leek are sauteed.
    
4. Dice the tomatoes.
    
5. Add tomatoes, the still intact garlic cloves, water and stock cubes and bring to a boil.
    
6. Cover the pot and simmer until the cabbage soup is ready (1 to 2 hours, depends on your cabbage, on your cutting and on how hard or how soft you want your cabbage to be).
    
7. Taste and add salt or pepper if needed. Add skimmed milk if you find your cabbage soup too spicy, but next time just add less cayenne and curry powder!

Happy dieting and leave a comment with your favourite recipe for cabbage soup diet please!

If you peel the zucchinis, they are ideal for thickening a soup without adding too much colour.

If you love the green colour of zucchinis, make sure not to peel them and cook the zucchini soup a bit longer than normal (at least 15 minutes).

If you don’t want to end up with a pale Zucchini potato soup recipe, you can make a deep green zucchini soup by adding spinach!

Using zucchini as one of many ingredients of soup

• 2 potatoes cubed
   
• 2 zucchinis cubed
   
• 2 onions
   
• 2 garlic cloves, flattened with your knife or mortar
   
• 2 pints (1 liter) vegetable stock
   
• 1 pound (1/2 kg) fresh spinach leaves, coarsely cut
   
• a dash of curry, salt and pepper to taste

How to make a zucchini soup

1. Saute the onion in a pan with some olive oil for cooking.
    
2. Add potatoes, zucchini, garlic and stir until the garlic is fragrant.
    
3. Add vegetable stock, salt, pepper and curry, bring to the boil and let simmer for 15 minutes.
    
4. Throw in the spinach leaves, stir them around for 15 seconds and puree the zucchini soup with a handmixer.
    
5. Taste and add more spices if needed. If you want your soup to taste "mature" add a few drops of freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice.

Cheating: zucchini potato lime soup recipe

When you want to serve your guests zucchini potato lime soup but you don’t have any recipe nor lime, then serve the above soup with some extra yogurt and listen to what your guests have to say…

Please leave a comment if you have more tips about using zucchini in soup!

Just add some leek and potatoes and you are done!

Zucchini potato soup recipe ingredients

• 2 big potatoes, cut into pieces
   
• 2 leeks, cut in big rings
   
• 2 small zucchinis (about 1 pound or 500 gram), cut into pieces
   
• 2 pints (1 liter) of chicken stock or vegetable stock (made fresh or with bouillon cubes)
   
• pepper and salt to taste
   
• about 1 oz – 30 gram Boursin or any other creamy cheese or grated cheese you have available
   
• about 1 oz – 30 gram Boursin pepper cheese or use the previous cheese and add some sambal, pepper or curry to taste

Zucchini potato soup recipe preparation

This zucchini soup is fast and easy to make:

1. Boil water or stock.
    
2. Heat some oil in another pot and saute the leek until fragrant.
    
3. Add the potatoes and zucchini and saute 5 minutes more.
    
4. Add the boiling water with stock cubes or add the boiling bouillon. Bring to the boil on a high fire.
    
5. Let the zucchini soup simmer for 20 minutes.
    
6. Add the cheese (and spices) and use the mixer to puree your zucchini potato soup.
    
7. Bring to the boil again, taste and add more pepper, salt, spices or cheese if needed.

Please leave a comment if you have an even better Zucchini potato soup recipe !

More authentic
Thai food recipe

For those who do have all the Thai ingredients available: use green Thai curry paste and the taste of this Thai recipe will be much closer to the authentic Thai cooking!

And if you want a quick dip: make a "Thai" dip sauce with mayonnaise and a dash of Thai green curry paste to taste.

Read all our Thai recipes at : Thai Food Recipe

Read this Thai red curry chicken recipe at : Taste of Thai

Technorati Tags: Thai food | Thai recipes | Thai recipe | Thai ingredients | Food | Taste of Thai | Asian | Cooking | Thailand

Cooking pork ribs has never been easier than with this Thai pork rib recipe! You combine in 2 minutes all ingredients for the curry sauce, and then it is up to the pork ribs to distract just enough of their flavor into the curry sauce. Meanwhile the Thai flavors of the curry sauce marinate the pork ribs.

Serve with lots of yogurt to soften the sweetness of this Thai pork rib recipe.

Read more about Thai food recipes at : Thai Food Recipe

Read this Thai pork rib recipe at : Thai Pork rib recipe

Technorati Tags: Thai food | Thai recipes | Thai food recipe | Guide to Thai food | Pork ribs | Pork rib recipes | Cooking pork ribs

This paste can be used in our Tom Yum Soup Recipe : a delicious hot and spicy Thai Shrimp soup recipe. It can also be used in the other Thai food recipes like Thai red chicken curry

If you can’t buy Thai Red Curry Paste ready made, here follows a recipe to make it yourself.

Read more about Thai food recipes at : Thai Food Recipe

Go to Thai red curry recipe

Technorati Tags: Thai food | Thai recipes | Thai food recipe | Guide to Thai food | Thai red curry recipe | Thai red curry paste recipe | Cooking

This Thai red curry paste can be used in our Tom Yum Soup Recipe or in the other Thai food recipes like Thai red chicken curry. If you have made too much Thai red curry paste, freeze it in into small ready sized quantities. So you only need to make the Thai red curry paste once and can enjoy it for fast and easy Thai recipes later.

This Thai red curry paste can also be used to make an easy Thai green curry paste by using green chilies in stead of red chilies.

Read more about Thai food recipes at : Thai Food Recipe

Read this Thai red curry paste recipe at :
Thai red curry paste recipe

Technorati Tags: Thai food | Thai recipes | Thai food recipe | Guide to Thai food | Thai red curry recipe | Thai red curry paste recipe | Cooking