Wizard Recipes

In addition to being a popular breakfast food, eggs are a symbol of beginnings. Primitive humans recognized the egg as the beginning of life, and it became a symbol of spring and fertility.

Eggs have four main parts:

Shell - As the name suggests, this is the fragile and porous outer covering. The shell is made mostly of minerals - calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate, and calcium phosphate.

Shell membranes - These are layers of protein fibers that stick to the shell. They provide additional protection for the egg’s insides, preventing mold and bacteria from getting in, for example.

Albumen - This is the white of the egg. It is almost all protein and water.

Yolk - The yellow bull’s eye of the egg, the yolk is made of a substance called “vitellus.” It can be a pale yellow or dark yellow. About 30 percent of the yolk is fat, and about 16 percent is protein. The remainder is made up of solids.

Eggs provide an inexpensive source of high-quality protein, vitamins, and minerals, including vitamins A and B12, folic acid, and phosphorus. They are an excellent source of riboflavin.

The egg is also said to be a complete protein, because it contains a complete count of essential amino acids. The white supplies more than half the protein in an egg. The yolk supplies the fat, along with the remaining protein, and most of the calories.

Eggs are also graded and are classified by both size and quality. The best are grade AA or A, both of which are related to the level of freshness and the quality of the shell at marking. Most recipes are based on large eggs. Nutritionally, there’s no difference between brown eggs and white eggs.

Different colored eggs come from different varieties of hens. The most common egg used for food today is the chicken’s egg, although eggs from other fowl can be bought in specialty stores.

Preparation Tips

When selecting eggs, check the container for any cracked or broken eggs and eliminate them from the carton. Place the carton in the refrigerator for up to 5 weeks. Do not place eggs in the designated egg holders in the door of older refrigerators.

It is too warm for the eggs there because they get a blast of hot air each time the door is opened. The egg carton helps keep eggs from absorbing odors from other foods and helps keep the eggs fresh.

When adding eggs to a mixing bowl, break the egg in a separate dish to make sure the egg is not rotten.

Serving Suggestions

Eggs serve many purposes in cooking and preparing food, including a leavening agent in baked goods, a base for mayonnaise, and a thickener in sauces and custards.

Served alone, eggs can be poached, boiled (soft or hard), fried, scrambled, or made into an omelet. From a safety standpoint, it is recommended that both the yolk and the white be cooked until firm. Because they are made mostly of water and protein, eggs are best cooked over low heat.

In the traditional Mediterranean diet, beef, as well as veal, pork, fish, poultry, and rich dairy products like cheese, was more often used for flavoring rather than as the main event of a meal.

Nestled in a large platter of rice and vegetables, one might find a few small pieces of chicken or shrimp. A prodigious pot of pasta sauce might contain a few clams, some prosciutto, or perhaps some ground meat.

Occasionally a whole fish poached with vegetables and herbs will form the core of a meal, and various types of shellfish are present in small quantities in the diets of most Mediterranean countries. A Turkish or Greek shish kebab typically includes cubes of skewered lamb, but plenty of vegetables, too.

Eating some meat and dairy products certainly makes good sense. High in nutrients, including certain vitamins and minerals, meat and dairy products also add depth, dimension, and flavor to plant foods. Even red meat can be a sensible part of a healthy diet, if the cuts of meat are lean and the portions small, especially for high-fat meat and fullfat dairy products, which contain high amounts of saturated fat.

Eating these foods in moderation is ideal because it guarantees you the nutritional benefits of these animal foods without the excess saturated fat, not to mention excess calories.

In addition to fish (weekly consumption is recommended), you can choose a serving of another source of lean meat about once a week, if desired. Serving sizes are specified in a general range of 1 to 4 ounces but they must be individualized according to dietary needs of everyone.

You don’t need to consume your entire week’s allowance of fish, lean beef, chicken, veal, or whatever you choose at one sitting. An ounce chopped and added to soup one day, another ounce or two added to rice or pasta a few days later, and a few more ounces in a casserole at the end of the week is probably a more authentically Mediterranean way to eat animal foods anyway.

The same goes for cheese-a few shreds here, a sprinkling there. A little highfat cheese, which is highly flavored, goes a long way. Although the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid specifies lower-fat cheeses (such as mozzarella made with part-skim milk) be consumed optionally on a weekly basis or high-fat cheese be consumed monthly (also optional), that month’s serving can easily be portioned out over a number of satisfying meals.

Fish is the one animal meat we recommend consuming more than Americans are generally getting-up to 8 ounces of cooked fish per week-especially the fattier fishes like salmon, mackerel, trout, herring, and tuna. Fish contains omega-3 fatty acids that offer many health benefits (more on omega-3 fatty acids later in this chapter).

If you choose to avoid fish because of concerns for possible contaminants, that’s fine. Our fish recommendation is optional. Just be sure to include other sources of omega-3 fatty acids such as flaxseed, walnuts, and even strawberries.

And what about eggs, those high-cholesterol villains we all thought we knew to avoid? Actually , dietary cholesterol isn’t a threat to the heart health of most people. There are indeed some who are particularly sensitive to dietary cholesterol, usually a genetic condition.

Egg yolks do contain some saturated fat, which is the main reason that we generally suggest a moderate intake of four or fewer eggs per week (including eggs used in cooking). By the way, the egg white is virtually cholesterol- and fat-free, so indulge at will in this high-protein portion of the egg.

Cooking an egg properly is not as easy as boiling water. You can ruin eggs, or dishes containing eggs, in seconds, and there’s no bringing them back to edible. The major problem in cooking eggs is that they are as sensitive to heat as rubber-and heat them too fast or just a little too long, and they’ll will be like eating rubber. But first let’s explore their uses.

Besides being a good source of nutrition, eggs also perform three culinary tasks with profound significance in western cookery:

1. Binding-for example, in custards the yolks and whites act together to thicken and bind other ingredients in the liquid. You activate this by low heat until both coagulate, solidify and incorporate the rest of the ingredients into their structure.

2. Emulsifying-for example, in mayonnaise, salad dressings and hollandaise sauce. It is the egg yolk that permanently suspends oil in water. Yolk is an emulsion, which makes it an efficient emulsifier with other ingredients. Emulsions are complex systems that form according to physical and chemical laws.

3. Foaming-as in sponge cakes and soufflés. The albumen in the egg white is able to hold enormous quantities of air in its structure when you beat it, and it forms a semistable foam. Here beaten egg whites act alone in two similar capacities-as leavener to give a light, airy texture and as a semisolid network of support to give structure to the baked product.

Eggs are useful in two other ways: they lend their delicate yellow coloring to whatever you bake with a yellow pigment (xanthophyll) in the yolk and, secondly, they also act as a glue for breaded foods. When the egg coagulates in the heat (oven or deep-fry oil), a tight adhesion forms between the food and the breading material.

Cooking whole egg in the shell

If you can boil water, you should be able to boil an egg, right? But cooking them and ending up with easily peelable shells and perfect, bright yellow, still-moist yolks in the dead center of the whites is somewhat trickier.

First, let’s straighten out our terminology. The American Egg Board declares that there is no such thing as a hard-boiled egg. Eggs simply should not be boiled, the egg people maintain. It is a hard-cooked egg that we are after, and we accomplish this by cooking them in barely simmering water or letting the eggs stand in water that is just been brought to boil.

Although the American Egg Board may be correct, the terms hard-boiled and soft-boiled are too firmly entrenched in our kitchen terminology to change. An overcooked egg has a dry and discolored yolk. Too much heat eventually breaks down proteins, and discoloration occurs as these react with sulfur and iron compounds in the yolk.

To avoid this fate, set your timer and cook an egg no more than 10 minutes. A centered yolk is critical only when you are planning to cut the cooked eggs in half. The Egg Board says storing eggs pointed end down gives a better chance of a centered yolk. Egg packers always pack

To peel the shell off both easily and fast, leaving a fully intact egg behind is visually important for some recipes, especially hors d’oeuvres. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to remove a shell that won’t let go of the egg white. You end up with an egg that looks like an outer-space-pitted meteorite.

Let’s look at the physics of what makes one egg peel readily and another cling to the shell as if its life depended on it. I discussed above the two membranes that is between the shell and the white.

First, the fresher the egg, the stronger the bond of the outside of those two membranes. With aging, the membranes shrink and the bond weakens. Because of that strong bond, hard-boiled fresh-laid eggs are the toughest to peel. Once they are about a week old, the membrane’s bond begins to weaken considerably. That is one thing you don’t need to worry about when you buy eggs at the supermarket. No eggs are likely to be less than a week old by the time they hit the supermarket shelf.

Not only their freshness, but the way you cook eggs can also affect the shrinking of the membrane. First, bring eggs to room temperature before cooking them. Starting with cold eggs ups the chances of cracking while in the cooking water because there is too much temperature change.

Eggs should warm up in an hour or two on your counter (depending how warm your kitchen is), or in a pot of very warm water in a few minutes.

Place the eggs in a cooking pot. Fill the pot with water to about an inch above the top of the eggs. (Adding salt to the water, as some cookbooks recommend, does nothing to aid in peeling, and it doesn’t help the flavor, either. The salt does not penetrate the shell.) Turn the burner on high and keep an eye on the pot. As soon as the water starts to boil, put the lid on and reduce the heat. Simmer in barely bubbling water for 10 minutes.

Remove the eggs from the hot water with a slotted spoon (don’t pour the hot water off yet), set them in a bowl and run cold water over them for half a minute to give them the shock of their lives (this helps prevent yolk discoloration, too), then put them back in the hot water for another half a minute for another shock.

Drain the hot water and place the pot under running cold water until the eggs feel cool, 3 to 4 minutes. The shocks should shrink the fine membranes enough to separate them from the shells and the eggshell should come off easily, but don’t be in a hurry. If you have the time, the shell comes off even easier if you let the eggs chill for a few hours.

The first step in peeling is to place all the eggs in an empty pot, cover with a lid and shake them gently up and down and side to side, so they bang against the pot and each other. This shatters the shells into a network of cracks, another help to peel. Be gentle so the eggs themselves don’t break. The shells are now as easy to remove as freshly blanched tomato skins.

Soaking the eggs in water for half hour after cracking them is also helpful if you have the time. The water seeps in under the shells, and they almost fall off by themselves. Peeling under running water or in a large bowl of water is another good idea. Start peeling at the flat end as that is the end that contains the air pocket.

Peel the shells off so the membranes remain with the shell, not on the egg white. Food industry egg peelers who peel eggs by the thousands, day in and day out, use this technique, piling the perfect oval, shiny, nude eggs in small mountains. No machine

has yet been invented for this job that can match the human touch.

Soft-boiled eggs

Soft-boiled eggs are simple because you don’t need to worry about easy peeling. Bring them to room temperature before cooking to avoid them shocking in boiling water and the shell cracking. If you are in a hurry, place refrigerated eggs in a bowl of very warm water.

In 10 minutes they will be near room temperature. When the water is boiling, slip the eggs in the pot one at a time with a spoon and start the timer. Cover the pot and keep the water on a gentle simmer. For large eggs, 4 minutes of cooking gives you firm whites with runny yolks in the middle.

Adjust this time half minute either way for softer or firmer eggs. Similarly, adjust the time if you use smaller or larger eggs than the standard large size.

Whether you fold the egg white foam into a cake batter or spread over a pie as a meringue ,the way you whip it into a foam is crucial. In a nutshell, put the egg whites into a bowl and whip with an electric or hand beater until a proper foam forms in a few minutes. But with poor whipping technique you achieve poor volume. With even poorer technique, you may have no volume at all. The egg whites may even stubbornly refuse to turn into foam.

To get the maximum foam possible, however, takes more than this simple step. First, start with egg whites at room temperature. Cold egg whites don’t produce maximum volume and neither do very fresh eggs. (Unless you have egg-laying hens, today you don’t have to worry about too-fresh eggs.)

Second, both bowl and beaters must be clean and completely free of fat or oil. Even a minute amount in the egg whites reduces, or may prevent, foam development. And since egg yolk is made up of 31 percent fat, you must be careful that no a trace of yolk sneaks into the whites when separating.

Plastic bowls are not ideal for beating egg whites because they may retain traces of fat or oil no matter how well you clean them. Avoid aluminum, too, which tends to discolor the foam, that leaves stainless steel, glass, ceramic or copper bowl. A copper bowl produces the best, most stable, highest volume foam with a slight yellowish tinge. If you happened to have one, clean it first with a little vinegar and hand beat egg whites in it.

Egg whites quickly turn into foam with ease. Food scientists have explained the complex chemistry of interaction of egg whites and copper, but that is far beyond the interest to most of us.

Hand beating egg whites? Nearly all of us consider this chore as something of the distant past, that our small appliances have eliminated, and good riddance. Yet, any accomplished cook should know the technique of hand beating for those times when you need only one egg white or  cup cream whipped. Few machines do a good job on small quantities. With a wire whip and a small bowl you can whip egg white or cream easily in a few minutes.But for now let’s just whip egg whites with a mixer.

You have the egg whites in a clean, oil free bowl at room temperature. What else do you need to know? It helps to start off beating slowly for a minute, then gradually increase the speed to high. Small bubbles are more stable than large bubbles. Starting slowly tends to produce small bubbles, and as you increase the mixer speed to high, small bubbles continue to dominate the foam building it into a more stable foam. Should you turn the mixer to high right away, larger bubbles form early, and the resulting foam will be somewhat less stable.

Sugar also stabilizes the foam, gives it more power to rise and additional structural strength to the baking cake. Slowly add sugar as peaks barely begin to form. If you add the sugar too soon, it interferes with the beating process. If you add it too late, the foam may become too stiff by the time you incorporate and dissolve all the sugar.

Beating intersperses air in the egg whites and that is what foam is, a semi-stable material. Don’t let it stand too long, or the air bubbles pop, the volume decreases. When baking with egg whites, plan on a continuous action from whipping to baking.

How long to beat the egg whites is crucial. If you stop beating them too soon, not only you get less volume, but some of the partially beaten liquid drains away, dragging and collapsing bubbles along. It may even partially liquify the foam. If that happens, start beating again, you can still rescue the egg whites.

Overbeating causes the proteins in the egg whites to coagulate and clump up, also resulting in less volume. You cannot rescue overbeaten egg whites. They have high, dry peaks that are so stiff that they don’t fold easily into the batter. You lose volume and the cake doesn’t rise much.

How can you tell when to stop beating egg whites? As beating, watch for five stages they go through:

1. You reach the first stage when the egg whites begin to hold their shape slightly.

2. At the next stage, you already have soft peaks but they don’t hold well, still fall over.

3. The third stage is the point at which the peaks hold their shape but are still quite soft.

This is the ideal stage for folding into cake batters.

4. The egg whites are stiff but not dry in the fourth stage. This stage is perfect for

meringues

5. In the final phase, the whites are both stiff and dry. This is one step beyond any culinary purpose but great for tossing around at wild parties.

To stabilize the foam you want to have a slightly acid environment. Adding a small amount of cream of tartar at the beginning stage (¼ teaspoon for every 4 eggs) acidifies the egg whites. The cream of tartar also has a bleaching effect, resulting in a whiter cake. A small amount of salt also stabilizes the egg white foam, but it interferes with the flavor.

Eggs contain all 8 essential amino acids and proteins, and also all the needed substances for adolescentin and adult development. Along with the amino acids and proteins, eggs are also high in vitamins (A, B, D, E), minerals (Phosphor, Calcium, Iron) and oligoelements.

Advantages:

- proteins from eggs are better used by our organism that meat proteins. This happens because eggs are rich in vitamins and minerals.

- vitamin D in eggs plays an essential role in Calcium absorption from other ingredients and for bone development. Even though most of vitamin D is produced when exposed to sun, children, pregnant women and elders need high quantities of vitamin D, eggs being a very important source.

- 1 egg means 10% of the daily needed quantity of Selenium and contributes to the quality of sperm.

- eggs maintain the well functioning of the nervous system through its B6 and B12 content.

- protects blood vessels due to antioxidant properties conferred by Selenium and D vitamin.

Disadvantages:

- the egg yolk contains a lot of cholesterol. People with high triglycerides shouldn’t consume more than 1 egg weekly.

- hard boiled eggs can cause indigestion to gall bladder suffering persons.

- it can contain salmonella (especially in goose or duck egg), so don’t consume it raw. Cook it, and the germ dies.

- It doesn’t contain vitamin C or glucids.

Did you know that some foods take their toll own our mood? Some nutrients are absolutely mandatory for the good functioning of our brain and nervous system which is in charge, among others, with our good well being. Here are some of the most important nutrients to keep us happy!

1) GLUCIDS

Glucids are in charge of stimulating the production of  serotonin, a neurotransmitter that influences the so called ‘good mood’. Sugar, for instance, is one of them, but, in order to keep our organism healthy, it is better if glucids are consumed in forms of cereals, bread, potatoes, beans, but not in excess, of course, because the body will transform them into fats. Also, eat generous portions of fruits and vegetables, and, the wonderful chocolate, that, even if you care about your figure, you can consume from time to time, but in small quantities. You may non know this, but the sweet tooth you always have may be a sign of lack of serotonin.

2) MINERALS

Iron. It is essential for the whole organism, helping neurotransmitors to be formed and transported. We can find it in meat, fish, some vegetables, nuts, cereals and seeds.

Zinc. It plays almost the same role  and it is found in the same foods as iron, with the exception that we can find plenty of zinc also in liver and oysters.

Magnesium. With calcium, it helps transmit the nervous impulses. If you are stressed, your magnesium level decreases, decrease that can lead to anxiety or depression. We can get magnesium from nuts, peanuts, almonds, sesame seeds, green leafed vegetables, fish, seafood, cereals.

3)B VITAMINS

Folic Acid (B9). Stimulates the serotonin secretion. Lack of folic acid can lead to irritability

agressivity, depression. B12 Vitamin can be found in green leafed vegetables, wheat,

soya, eggs, liver, oysters, cereals, and B6 in bananas, avocados,

asparagus.

4)FATTY ACIDS

Last researches show that fatty acids Omega-3 and Omega-6 which we can find in fish, seafood, regulate some hormonal actions, including the ones for our mood. These acids are very important to our brain, improving consistently our cognitive capacity. according to these studies, consuming one portion of fat fish, at least once a week decreases the risk of developing Alzheimer. Also, fatty acids contribute to improving you skin aspect, being used in cosmetic treatments.

Original Articles. Constant-Content.