Saturday, February 16, 2008

How To Make Yogurt Cheese (Labna)

Labna is a unique Turkish dish that takes a couple of days to complete. It is considered a staple of the Turkish diet. It is otherwise known as yogurt cheese. You can eat it immediately when it is finished but you will get a much better flavor if you let it sit for a few days. The consistency is similar to cream cheese and the taste is slightly sour. As the cheese ages there will be some oil separation around it. It is recommended that you keep the oil and use it to prepare other foods. You can also use it to dip bread in or to make salad dressings with. This recipe is courtesy of Menu Shoppe.

Yield: Makes one batch. It can be broken into several servings or eaten all at once.

Ingredients To Prepare Labna Yogurt Cheese:

1 tablespoon of sea salt
Juice and rind of one lemon, freshly squeezed. You can substitute bottled lemon juice if fresh is not available. However, substituting can affect the taste of the dish.
1/4 cup plus 1/8 cups of extra virgin olive oil.
1 tablespoon of fresh thyme, chopped.
4 tablespoons of mint, fresh and chopped.
4 and ½ pounds of Greek yogurt. This can usually be purchased in the dairy section of a grocery store. It can also be made from scratch at home. For this recipe it recommended to buy ready-made Greek yogurt to make preparation easier.

Instructions For Preparing Labna Yogurt Cheese:

1. Mix everything together and stir all ingredients well.
2. Line a large bowl with muslin cloth first. Then pour the mixture of ingredients into the large bowl.
3. Make a bag out of the muslin by tying it together at the ends.
4. Find a place in your kitchen to safely hang the muslin bag. Place a bowl or other container underneath it because it will drip as it hangs there. Make sure that it is secure and will not fall or there will be a large mess to deal with. If you have a hanging basket you may want to consider using that and placing your bowl inside it.
5. Leave it hanging in the kitchen for 48 hours.
6. When the 48 hours have passed, take down the hanging muslin bag.
7. Open up the bag and drain any excess oil into a small bowl or container.
8. Roll the labna cheese into spoon-sized balls.
9. Put cheese balls in a glass jar and cover with extra virgin olive oil.
10. Refrigerate for a few days.
11. Enjoy the yogurt cheese

According to Menu Shoppe, this labna yogurt cheese would be great to serve to your family or friends or in a restaurant. It is simple to make, keeps well, and tastes great too. It is low in carbohydrates and full of healthy fats and protein to help keep your hunger satisfied. Serve with pita bread or bread sticks dipped in olive oil. You can also serve it topped with cucumber, tomato, mint, and olives.

By Ryan Holman


Sunday, January 27, 2008

The Various Materials That Are Used For Food Packaging

Food packaging has several advantages. Firstly, it helps in providing a proper barrier between the contaminants from the surrounding and the product. Secondly, it ensures hygiene and reduces food contamination to a large extent. There are various kinds of packaging and some of them help to extend the life of certain foods. At the same time it enables efficient and safe transportation. Packaging helps customers to get valuable information about the packaged food. It includes expiry date, instructions for use, manufacturing date and other details. During the transportation of the product, packaging prevents it from getting crushed or spoiled. Various kinds of food require different types of packaging. The legal requirements should be met by all the food packages.
There are several materials that are used for packaging of foods. Paper, fiberboards, aluminum, glass and steel are some of the common packing materials. Each of these has its own unique properties and advantages. Paper is known to be one of the most common packaging materials. For transport packaging, corrugated cardboard is used widely. This is one of the most environmental friendly packaging materials, easy to recycle and also biodegradable.
Steel is another commonly used packaging material for food. It is long lasting and reliable as well as recyclable. It helps in saving energy and resource through the process of steel recycle. Aluminum is used for packaging especially for laminates, cans and foils. Aluminum foil is used for packaging tiffins. Aluminum is a scrap metal and it can be recycled easily.
Plastic is also being used for several food packaging and today it has become very common. Not only in the food industry, the use of plastic is spread in various industries. In comparison to other packaging materials, plastic is easy to use and offers several advantages. There are various kinds of plastic which provides reliable and sturdy application. It is also versatile, cost effective, light weight and practical. The recyclability future depends on the kind of plastic being used.
 The industry of food packaging is constantly growing and its demand is also ever increasing in the world. With the increasing population more and more people have started using packaged foods, thus increasing the demands like anything. Packaging foods are safe and they are also ideal for the consumption of children.
Biodegradable food packaging has now emerged considerably in the market. There are various kinds of biodegradable trays, biodegradable food containers, biodegradable plastics that are being used for packaging of foods. These kinds of containers are used for protecting foods from contaminants and transportation. They are also used for the purposes of delivering and storing of food. For canned foods and dairy products these containers are very ideal.
There are two kinds of machine sous vide that are used for sealing food packages. Suction device is the most commonly used machine sous vide. Seal-a-Meal systems and Food Saver make use of this technology because of its cheap prices.
Machine sous vide is easy to use and various procedures are used for a variety of foods. If you want to know about machine sous vide in details then you should surf the on-line websites. These machines are used only with special bags that are designed to pack foods. When you put the end of the packets in the machine, it sucks the air and sealed the bag using a heating technique.

Friday, January 11, 2008

History of Inegol Kofte

In 19th century, about 80 years ago, some Turkish people immigrated to Bursa from Filibe-Pazarcik in Bulgaria. They were cooking small grilled meatballs and then opened a restaurant and starts selling these meatballs as “Inegol Kofte”. People enjoyed Inegol Kofte and from now on it’s become a delicious, signature Bursa-Inegol meal.
The secret of Inegol Kofte is the mixture of the ground meat and kneading it.
It’s generally made by mixing lamb and ground beef and without adding spice it’s kneaded and left in the fridge for 1-2 nights.

Inegol Kofte'nin Tarihi

19. yuzyilda, yaklasik 80 yil once Bulgaristan topraklarinda bulunan Filibe-Pazarcik sehrinden goc edip Bursa’ya yerlesen Turklerin yaptiklari kucuk izgara kofte, daha sonra yine gocmenler tarafindan acilan dukkanda "Inegöl Koftesi" adiyla satilmaya baslanmistir.Bu lezzetli kofte Bursa ve Inegol ile ozdeslesmistir.
Inegol Kofte’nin sirri, et karisiminda ve etin yogrulmasinda gizlidir.
Genelde koyun ve dana kiymasinin karisimindan yapilir, baharat koyulmadan yogurulup, 1-2 gece buzdolabinda bekletilir.
Inegol Kofte, Turkiye’nin her yaninda bulabileceginiz cok sevilen geleneksellesmis bir tad olmustur.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Aspartam (Dusuk Kalorili Tatlandirici)

Aspartam cay sekerinden 200 kat daha tatli olan, sakarin icermeyen ve iki amino asit + bir metanolden meydana gelen bir tatlandiricidir(aspartyl-phenylalanine-1-methyl ester) . Aspartam etler, tahillar ve sut urunleri de dahil olmak uzere butun proteinli gidalarda doÄźal olarak bulunur. Mutfakta ve pisirme amacli kullanmak icin uygun degildir. Cunku isitildigi zaman genelde yapisi bozulur ve seker oraninin cogunu kaybeder. Seker hastalari tarafindan kullanilan tatlandiricilardan biridir.
Ayrica kilo almak istemeyen ya da vermeye calisanlar icin de popular bir tatlandiricidir. Aspartamain tadi seker ile ortusmez, oyle ki aspartamin seker tadi daha uzun surede algilanir ve etkisi sekerden daha uzun surer.
Aspartamin sebep oldugu saglik sorunlari: kirginlik, halsizlik, bas agrisi, depresyon, endise, bas donmesi, hafiza kaybi, unutkanlik, gorme sorunlari, hiperaktivite, migren, agresiflik ve uyku sorunlari….
Aspartamin kullanimi cocuklar ve hamile olan bayanlar icin uygun degildir.
Aspartamin kanserojen etkiye sahip oldugu one surulmekle beraber, tam olarak kesin kanit bulunamamistir ve uzerinde calismalar hala devam etmektedir.