Wizard Recipes

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    avocado

    The avocado is high in protein. The oil contains vitamins A, D, and E, and contains 14 minerals especially copper and iron. Also, avocados are rich in phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and manganese. They contain more potassium than bananas, and the potassium is balanced in a ratio with sodium, making it an excellent food for heart disorders.

  • Avocados are very good for hypoglycemics because they stabilize the blood sugar.In addition they contain high quantities of protein and beneficial fats, thereby stimulating tissue growth and healing.

  Benefits:

  • reduce risk of heart attack

  •aid in blood and tissue regeneration

  •help with fatigue

  •are good for Hypoglycemia strengthen the nerves

  •are good for convalescence after a surgery

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  • Chili peppers are an irritant to the stomach and signal the bronchial cells to pour out fluid, making the lung and throat secretions less thick and sticky. Chili peppers are good, as a fibrinolytic stimulant, meaning that the hot peppers are good at preventing and dissolving blood clots. Although the effect of chili peppers only lasts a short while, their frequent consumption reduces the possibility of circulatory blockage.
  • Chili pepper contains capsaicin, which causes the mouth to burn when it is consumed. This component has a soothing effect on the bronchial passages and lungs, producing a secretion that thins the mucous in the respiratory system
  • Benefits:

    • medicinal for the lungs

    • an expectorant and decongestant

    • eases chronic bronchitis and emphysema

    • helps dissolve blood clots

    • kills pain

• • Sprinkling salt on your cabinet shelves helps to keep ants away.
  • Quickly applying ice cold vinegar to a burn will give fast relief and help prevent blisters.
  • Oil and grease stains wash out of clothing better with a little baking soda added to the wash water.
  • Rubbing a little salt on your pancake griddle will help to keep pancakes from sticking.
  • Adding a spoonful of vinegar to fruit while cooking will improve the flavor.
  • Soaking a pan with burned on food in a mixture of baking soda and water for 10 minutes will make it easier to clean.
  • Adding a little salt to the water will help your cut flowers to last longer.
  • When frying bacon, sprinkling a pinch of salt in the frying pan will help to keep the grease from splattering.
• You can add more flavor to frozen vegetables by cooking them in chicken, vegetable, or beef broth.
• • You can add a teaspoon of cider vinegar to a main dish or vegetable dish to remove excessive sweetness.

• Eggs are one of the few nearly complete foods for a human body—nature designed them to be the sole source of food and nutrients to the fast-growing chick embryo. Their protein content is high, 13 percent (or 6 grams in each large egg). Even the egg shell is nutritious, 96 percent calcium carbonate, an essential element for building human bones (but how do we eat it?). If the kids get upset with bits of egg shell in their scrambled eggs, assure them that you are just trying to help them build strong bones.

• Once a favorite breakfast food in the  Anglo-Saxon world, egg consumption has steadily declined since the 1950s. Americans ate 402 eggs apiece annually in 1945 (1.1/day). By 1991 per capita consumption had dropped to 234 (0.6/day), but it is slowly rising again. In 1998 the annual consumption is 255 eggs. The major reason for the decline is all that   cholesterol in the yolk, a health concern to many people today. A large egg contains an average of 215 milligrams of cholesterol. Its total fat content is a moderate 5 grams or 10 percent of each egg. All the cholesterol and fat are in the yolk.

• Food scientists are working feverishly to reduce the cholesterol level of eggs, attacking the problem on several levels. One approach is to cut down on the development of cholesterol before the hen produces the egg. Biologists are putting laying hens on special to do that.
• Another approach is to chemically remove some of the cholesterol after the hen lays the egg. If we can take the caffeine out of coffee beans, surely we can reduce the amount of cholesterol in eggs to a tolerable level. It is just a matter of time. But to do this, biochemists have to remove the eggs from the shells and add chemicals that bind with the cholesterol, then remove the chemical together with the cholesterol. This part was easy. They ran into problem getting the eggs back into their original containers after they reduced the cholesterol. At this time they can only market the low-cholesterol eggs as scrambled or separated into yolks and whites.

• Genetic alteration of the hens is another approach they are working on. In early 1995, a small egg farm in the Milwaukee area introduced “designer” eggs with 25 percent less fat and 25 percent lower cholesterol using this technique.

• Tea has health benefits beyond the pleasure of a soothing and refreshing hot or iced beverage. The tannin is thought to have beneficial effects in fighting tooth decay. Tea leaves also have a relatively high fluoride content, much of which ends up in the liquid after steeping. Fluoride strengthens tooth enamel, and research has shown that tea-drinking nations have better teeth than non-tea-drinking peoples. With fluoridization of the drinking water in most urban centers of the United States, that benefit is no longer as valuable. Today we drink tea for pure pleasure.

• Interestingly enough tea leaves have high caffeine content, twice the amount of that in average coffee beans (in an amount needed to brew a cup of either tea or coffee). But the teasteeping process doesn’t extract the caffeine efficiently, so the final beverage contains only less than half the amount of caffeine that the same cup of coffee. Someone may yet come up with a process to brew espresso tea, that will hopefully give you an extra kick of caffeine.

• Different types of tea leaves have differing amounts of caffeine. The lowest are the Chinese and Japanese green teas. Indonesian, Indian and Ceylon black teas have twice the amount of caffeine that green teas have. A few herbal teas, like South American maté, have high caffeine content, too. A cup of maté contains about as much caffeine as a cup of coffee.

• Tea may be decaffeinated just like coffee and is readily available in this form in the U.S.

There are two main types of this aromatic plant, both with pale green, celery like stems and bright green, feathery foliage. Florence fennel, also called finocchio, is cultivated throughout the Mediterranean and in the United States. It has a broad, bulbous base that’s treated like a vegetable.

Fennel

Both the base and stems can be eaten raw in salads or cooked in a variety of methods such as braising, sautéing or in soups. The fragrant, graceful greenery can be used as a garnish or snipped like dill and used for a last?minute flavor enhancer. This type of fennel is often mislabeled “sweet anise,” causing those who don’t like the flavor of licorice to avoid it. The flavor of fennel, however, is sweeter and more delicate than anise and, when cooked, becomes even lighter and more elusive than in its raw state.

Common fennel is the variety from which the oval, greenish?brown fennel seeds come. The seeds are available whole and ground and are used in both sweet and savory foods, as well as to flavor many liqueurs. As with most seeds, they should be stored in a cool, dark place for no more than 6 months. Though common fennel is bulbless, its stems and greenery are used in the same ways as those of Florence fennel. Fennel is available from fall through spring. Choose clean, crisp bulbs with no sign of browning. Any attached greenery should be a fresh green color. Refrigerate, tightly wrapped in a plastic bag, up to 5 days.

Fennel is rich in vitamin A and contains a fair amount of calcium, phosphorus and potassium

The use for salads today actually goes far beyond the first course. We can break down today’s salads into four general types.

Appetizer salads —this is a light first course designed to stimulate the appetite. The body of this type of salad is greens in combination with other vegetables or fruit. The dressing is also light and tart.

A standard green salad with a light vinaigrette dressing is typical for this use. A fruit salad of tart fruits and a light, barely sweetened dressing is also appetite-stimulating. You may add a little seafood, since it isn’t filling in small doses. Nuts and cheese are heavier and you should use them in small amounts. If you’re disappointed in how your entrée turned out or there
isn’t enough to go around in generous servings, add more calorie-rich food to your appetizer salad to partially gratify, instead of just stimulate, the guests’ appetites.

You may also use a light salad as cleansing the palate, an old French tradition. In this case instead of a first course, offer it between two contrasting courses. The salad dressing literally cleanses the taste buds to prepare them for the next movement in your symphony of the meal. In this role, a salad should be especially light, usually nothing more than greens with a touch of dressing and a hint of pepper, and in minuscule portions to satisfy but a small bird’s meal.

Accompaniment salads—these can be heartier than appetizer salads since they accompany the main dish and complement its flavor as well as satisfy appetites. Marinated vegetables may also accompany the entrée and complement it. They go very well with a heavy, somewhat fatty meal. A sour marinade aids the digestion of oil and butter-rich foods. Remember how your stomach craves for pickle or sauerkraut to go with hamburger or a
Rueben sandwich? A fruit compote is also a good example of an accompaniment salad. It goes well with poultry or pork. Gelatin and aspic salads, although much less popular today than they used to be, are perfect examples of accompaniment salads. With the generous amount of sugar and
marshmallow that were so common in the 1950s and 1960s, they could do double duty on the menu—as salad and as dessert. But it is not fair to serve it as two different courses on the same meal. Some might notice it.
Main dish salads —these hearty salads can, and often do, take the place of the entrée. Main dish salads can include anything edible. Start off with simple tossed greens and just keep adding things. You traditionally serve these salads cold, but for improved flavor, serve them at room temperature. Some you may even serve warm. Many bean salads, for example, are best
when served warm.

Dessert salads —usually of sweet fruits or a mixture of sweet and tart fruits. Some cooks like to add gelatin for a firmer consistency. Sweetened whipped cream or toasted nuts are winning toppings. The expected presentation of dessert salads is chilled, even frozen, but their
flavor is far improved if you allow them to warm up to room temperature.

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Salad

Salads consist of two parts. The body that can be any basic food, cooked or raw and the dressing (the fashionable term is sauce). The dressing is either applied just before serving or, if it is to marinate the ingredients, hours before. When you dress the salad just before serving, the dressing is meant to provide flavor and mouthfeel to the otherwise mild crunchy vegetables.

If the dressing is a marinade, it can take several hours or several days to alter the flavors, textures and consistency of the foods that make up the salad. Ordinary tossed green lettuce salads are considered passé in today’s food circles and
better restaurants. The trend is to mix unusual combinations or exotic, wild, even unheard-of ingredients. The new rule is, if no deaths have been directly attributed to a plant material and it looks out of the ordinary, add it to the salad bowl. Anything edible, from tiny flowers to furry twigs, flavorful to bland, bitter to sweet, has been, or at this very moment is being tried. Vivid colors, curly shapes and wispy, twisted textures are all in demand.
Some of the more established nouvelle cuisine ingredients include dried tomato, radicchio, chicory, fiddlehead ferns, all kinds of sprouts, arugula, mâche, dandelion, endive, sorrel, baby vegetables and baby greens, flowers and herbs.
Combined with the basic salad fixings, these ingredients create beautiful and appetizing plates with minimal additional work for the cook. But how to find them and how much they are going to set you back at the checkout counter is another problem. They are certainly not for the everyday meal.

Dill
Dill is not only a pretty foliage plant; it’s fragrance is a “comfort smell” for many people. At the same time, dill is an herb that is often passed over as just a pickle spice and is not truly appreciated.

Growing Dill

Dill can easily be grown from seed in full sun, and can even tolerate a slightly sandy soil. However, when first planting you should keep the soil moist until established. Do not move your dill; instead plant where you will be growing it. Thin the seedlings to 10 inches apart; they will grow about 3 feet high. Use the seedlings that you pull up; they are tender and delicious! Be sure to let one of the plants remain with it’s seeds after the season is finished, so it will reseed itself. These plants will be much sturdier and hardier. Throughout the summer you can plant dill in 2 week intervals also, to maintain a supply of fresh leaves.
Using Dill
Dill leaf can be clipped and used in cottage cheese, potato salad, cream cheese, tomato soup and salads. You may also sprinkle chopped young dill on broiling lamb, pork chops or steak during the last five minutes of cooking. The seeds that form on dill can be sprinkled on small pieces of toast or crackers with salmon that has been mixed with mayonnaise. Both the seed and leaf can be used in fish sauces. The fresh leaves can be frozen in small resealable bags and used in dishes. When the leaves are dried, they are referred to as dill weed in recipes. The seeds can be kept in a closed container and used as needed.d

Caraway Seed
These aromatic seeds come from an herb in the parsley family. They have a nutty, delicate anise flavor and are
widely used in German, Austrian and Hungarian cuisine. Caraway seeds flavor many foods including cheese,
breads, cakes, stews, meats, vegetables and the liqueur Kummel. They should be stored airtight in a cool, dark
place for no more than 6 months.

Cardamom
A member of the ginger family, this aromatic spice is native to India and grows in many other tropical areas including Asia, South America and the Pacific Islands. Cardamom seeds are encapsulated in small pods about the size of a cranberry. Each pod contains 17 to 20 tiny seeds. Cardamom has a pungent aroma and a warm, spicy?sweet flavor. It’s widely used in Scandinavian and East Indian cooking. Cardamom can be purchased either in the pod or ground. The latter, though more convenient, is not as full?flavored because cardamom seeds begin to lose their essential oils as soon as they’re ground. The seeds may be removed from the pods and ground, or the entire pod may be ground. A mortar and pestle make quick work of the grinding. If using cardamom to flavor dishes such as stews and curries, lightly crush the shell of the pod and add the pod and seeds to the mixture. The shell will disintegrate while the
dish cooks. Be frugal when using cardamom — a little goes a long way.

Cinnamon
Once used in love potions and to perfume wealthy Romans, this age?old spice comes in two varieties — Cinnamomum zeylanicum (Ceylon cinnamon) and Cinnamomum cassia (cassia). Cinnamon is the inner bark of a tropical evergreen tree. The bark is harvested during the rainy season when it’s more pliable. When dried, it curls into long quills, which are either cut into lengths and sold as cinnamon sticks, or ground into powder. Ceylon(or tree) cinnamon is  buff?colored and mildly sweet in flavor; cassia cinnamon is a dark, reddish brown color and has a more pungent, slightly bittersweet flavor. Cassia cinnamon is used and sold simply as “cinnamon” in many countries (including the United States). Cinnamon is widely used in sweet dishes, but also makes an intriguing addition to savory dishes such
as stews and curries. Oil of cinnamon comes from the pods of the cinnamon tree and is used as a flavoring, as well as a medicinal.

Clove
Considered one of the world’s most important spices, cloves are the dried, unopened flower bud of the tropical evergreen clove tree. Reddish brown and nail?shaped, their name comes from clavus , the Latin word for nail.
Cloves are sold whole or ground and can be used to flavor a multitude of dishes ranging from sweet to savory.

Coriander
Native to the Mediterranean and the Orient, coriander is related to the parsley family. It’s known for both its seeds (actually the dried, ripe fruit of the plant) and for its dark green, lacy leaves. The flavors of the seeds and leaves bear
absolutely no resemblance to each other. Mention of coriander seeds was found in early Sanskrit writings and the seeds themselves have been discovered in Egyptian tombs dating to 960 b.c. The tiny (1/8?inch), yellow?tan seeds are lightly ridged. They are mildly fragrant and have an aromatic flavor akin to a combination of lemon, sage and caraway. Whole coriander seeds are used in pickling and for special drinks, such as mulled wine. Ground seed is used in  many baked good (particularly Scandinavian), curry blends, soups, etc. Both forms are commonly available in supermarkets. Coriander leaves are also commonly known as cilantro and Chinese parsley. Fresh coriander leaves have an extremely pungent (some say fetid) odor and flavor that lends itself well to highly seasoned food. Though it’s purported to be the world’s most widely used herb, many Americans and Europeans find that fresh coriander is definitely an acquired taste. Choose leaves with an even green color and no sign of wilting. Store a bunch of coriander, stems down, in a glass of water with a plastic bag over the leaves. Refrigerate in this manner for up to a week, changing the water every 2 days. Coriander leaves are used widely in the cuisines of India, Mexico, the Orient and the  Caribbean.

Cumin
Also called comino , this ancient spice dates back to the Old Testament. Shaped like a caraway seed, cumin is the
dried fruit of a plant in the parsley family. Its aromatic, nutty?flavored seeds come in three colors: amber (the
most widely available), white and black (both found in Asian markets). White cumin seed is interchangeable
with amber, but the black seed has a more complex, peppery flavor. Cumin is available in seed and ground forms. As with all seeds, herbs and spices, it should be stored in a cool, dark place for no more than 6 months. Cumin is particularly popular in Middle Eastern, Asian and Mediterranean cooking. Among other things, it’s used to make curries, chili powders and Kummel Liqueur.

Curry Powder

Widely used in Indian cooking, authentic Indian curry powder is freshly ground each day and can vary dramatically depending on the region and the cook. Curry powder is actually a pulverized blend of up to 20 spices, herbs and seeds. Among those most commonly used are cardamom, chiles, cinnamon, cloves coriander, cumin, fennel seed, fenugreek, mace, nutmeg, red and black pepper, poppy and sesame seeds, saffron, tamarind and turmeric (the latter is what gives curried dishes their characteristic yellow color). Commercial curry powder (which bears little resemblance to the freshly ground blends of southern India) comes in two basic styles — standard, and the hotter of the two, “Madras.” Since curry powder quickly loses its pungency, it should be stored, airtight, no longer than 2 months.

Basil
If a person loves herbs, they love basil. It seems to be everyone’s favorite herb and the recipes that take advantage of this fresh and spicy leaf are endless.

Growing Basil
Basil is an annual, and is easily grown from seed. There are over two dozen types of basil including lettuce?leaf which has large leaves, cinnamon basil and the purple leafed varieties. Basil is not frost tolerant at all, so be sure to only plant after the soil has warmed completely. Though it needs full sun, basil does need more moisture than some herbs,
so keep it watered; especially in pots. You can bring basil inside as a window herb if you plant the seeds in pots
during warm weather and bring inside to grow in a bright and sunny window when cold.
Using and Preserving Basil
Basil can be frozen, dried, or preserved in oil and it’s delicious however you choose to preserve it. Basil is also available year round in most produce sections. Add leaves to salads or sandwiches along with your lettuce. Add basil to sautés or soups at the last minute to preserve flavor. Basil is also wonderful in herbal vinegars. Try mixing it with oregano and thyme.

Bay Leaf
Also called laurel leaf or bay laurel, this aromatic herb comes from the evergreen bay laurel tree, native to the
Mediterranean. Early Greeks and Romans attributed magical properties to the laurel leaf and it has long been a
symbol of honor, celebration and triumph, as in “winning your laurels.” The two main varieties of bay leaf are
Turkish (which has 1? to 2?inch?long oval leaves) and Californian (with narrow, 2? to 3?inch?long leaves). The
Turkish bay leaves have a more subtle flavor than do the California variety. Bay leaves are used to flavor soups,
stews, vegetables and meats. They’re generally removed before serving. Overuse of this herb can make a dish
bitter. Fresh bay leaves are seldom available in markets. Dried bay leaves, which have a fraction of the flavor of
fresh, can be found in supermarkets. Store dried bay leaves airtight in a cool, dark place for up to 6 months.