My guest today is Martha Foose. Martha was born and raised in Mississippi. Her cooking specialty is Southern food with a contemporary flair. Lets get started now….
Can you tell us a bit about your cookbook - ‘Screen Doors And Sweet Tea’?
Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook is a visit in and around the Mississippi Delta and the American South with 150 recipes and a few stories thrown in for good measure.
In your opinion, what is the most underrated ingredient?
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To me, cidar vinegar is totally underrated. That tart undercurrent really rounds out flavors. |
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James Halliday has written or co-authored over 60 books on wine since 1979, and has been a contributor to others (notably the Oxford Companion to Wine and Larousse Encyclopaedia of Wine). He has been kind enough to share with MagicChefHat the best value wines (from 2009 Wine Companion edition). |
Here is the information:
Special Value Wines
As always, these are lists of 10 of the best value wines, not the 10 best wines in each price category. There are literally dozens of wines with similar points and prices, and the choice is necessarily an arbitrary one. I have, however, attempted to give as much varietal and style choice as the limited numbers allow.
Ten of the Best Value Whites $10 and under
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My guest today is Jennifer McLagan. Jennifer is one of Canada’s most sought after food stylists. After years of styling other people’s recipes, in 2005, Jennifer penned her first cookbook - Bones: Recipes, History And Lore. In this book, she writes about the bold flavors of cooking with bones. Jennifer also has a blog which she updates regularly.
On your blog you say – “you are on a culinary mission to bring back the bold flavours of cooking using bones and fat”. What fascinates you about these ingredients and how did you get interested in them?
I’ve always cooked with them, after all, bones and fat are where the flavour is. The expression “the near the bone, the sweeter the meat” is true and when you cook on the bone you have more flavour, plus you have that wonderful unctuous texture you get from the collagen in the bones. As for fat it also adds flavour and texture. Those big fat molecules feel wonderful in your mouth and many aromas and flavours are only soluble in fat. If you start with fat and bones you can’t but help but have a great dish.
In a world were boneless, skinless and fat-free are the mantras, I want people to reassess why they are cooking that way. Are they healthier? Is their food tastier? Are they happier?
When at home, what do you like to eat?
I eat pretty much everything, as long as it is fresh and in season. I always prepare my food from scratch.
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Most evenings I have main course with vegetables and fruit for dessert. Despite writing books about meat and fats I do not restrict my menu to them - I often eat pasta, omelette, risotto with a salad for dinner. And I do use olive oil. |
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My guest today is Alamelu Vairavan. I am absolutely thrilled and honored to feature Alamelu Vairavan on my website. Her speciality is the ‘South Indian Cooking’. She is popular cookbook author, cooking instructor and has also been featured on many US television programs. Alamelu has also contributed numerous recipes to American Dietetic Association cookbook. Lets get started now….
How and when did you get interested in cooking?
In India, I grew up in a large family with a professional cook and regularly shared in an abundance of delicious foods. Although I knew nothing about cooking itself, I did greatly enjoy good food. After my marriage I accompanied my husband to the U.S. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. I learned cooking in New York from a professional chef at my aunt’s house. To my surprise, I found immediate joy in cooking. I am a person who loves the company of family and friends. Whenever friends dined with us, they indicated how much they enjoyed the food. Many even asked me for the recipes. I was amazed. These compliments not only gave me joy but also inspired me greatly. So, the cooking, cookbooks all evolved naturally. It has been an exciting culinary journey for me.
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My guest today is Viji Varadarajan of vijisamayal.org. Viji is an expert in tamil brahmin recipes. Viji has written many best selling brahmin recipe cookbooks. She won the ‘Gourmand Award’ for her books. ‘Gourmand’ is referred to a lover of good food. These awards begun by the brilliant Edouard Cointreau identifies and rewards the best cookbooks and wine-books in the world. Read below to find out more about Viji…
Can you tell me about the type of recipes in your cookbooks (what I mean here is - Viji, in one of your emails to me you mentioned about ‘tamil brahmin cooking’, can you elaborate on that)
Tamil Brahmin cuisine is based on the concept that food shapes the personality, mood and mind. A healthy vegetarian diet fosters sathvic qualities, soothens the mind and is essential for spiritual progress. In a Brahmin household food was always cooked with a great deal of attention to cleanliness; to the balancing of nutrition, flavour, texture and variety. All this coupled with the knowledge of the Divine as the first taster of the day’s meal. This in today’s Indian life is a unique thought as we are all getting entangled in the corporate jungle of urban life - what with the introduction of instant food packs, ‘kadai paneer’ and ‘chicken tikka!’
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My guest today is Annette Sym, the founder of Symply Too Good. Annette is the low fat cooking queen. She has written 5 low fat cookbooks so far and all of them are best sellers. Annette’s books have sold millions of copies and in the process Symply Too Good has become a multi-million dollar award winning business.
How did you come up with the idea for your business?
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Having struggled with obesity for most of my life I knew first hand how hard it was to stick to a diet and also how horrible it was to live of ‘diet food’. During the time I was losing weight I devised all these fabulous recipes that not only helped me lose 35 kilos but made the journey easy. It seemed a good idea to put the recipes into a book and publish it. I felt there may be others out there just like me who would value what I do and thank goodness I was right.
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