Garlic: Bad For Your Breath, Great For Your Palate

When some people hear the word garlic they automatically think of bad breath. But garlic has been known for thousands of years as both medicine and food. But this is a cooking blog, not a medical blog, so I'm going to discuss the culinary aspects of garlic, some of which you may be unfamiliar with.

I like to use garlic in every dish I prepare. Garlic can be crushed, minced, grated, or roasted. When I make a whole chicken I clean out the inside and rub it with a little salt then I take one small onion, a lemon, an orange and about half of a garlic head which equals about 8 cloves and I stuff it in the cavity. When the chicken is done roasting I discard the remaining.

Although people usually associate garlic with Italian cuisine, I was surprised to find out from the U.N. that the four largest producers of garlic in the world are China, India, South Korea and the United States, respectively. Italy isn't even in the top 20! Garlic is also a main ingredient in Latin American food. I thumb my nose at the bottled Puerto Rican sofrito and make my own!

And what Italian meal is complete without garlic bread? I use parsley in my garlic bread because it tends to weaken the strong scent and taste of the garlic.

Garlic bread recipe:

• one baking pan or cookie sheet
• a tablespoon
• one loaf of Italian bread
  
• 8 cloves of garlic, finely grated
  
• 2 tablespoons of parsley
• 2 table spoons of butter
• 2 handfuls of grated parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper
  

Cut the Italian bread length wide and smear the butter all over it. Add the grated garlic, parsley, parmesan cheese to the butter and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until golden brown. And if you're nervous about your breath smelling bad from eating garlic bread, just make sure everyone at the table has some so no one will make fun of your garlic breath. Also, if you're worried about getting the garlic smell on your hands, just dip your hands underwater or under a running faucet and rub your palms and fingers against a stainless steel utensil like a fork or spoon. That should get most of the smell out from your hands.

I leave you with my top ten ways to enjoy garlic.

1. Garlic bread
2. Garlic butter (tastes great on corn on the cob and baked potatoes!)
   
3. Spicy shrimp with garlic and white rice
4. Roasted garlic mashed potatoes
5. Garlic fries
6. Sofrito
7. Whole chicken
   
8. Pork shoulder
9. Garlic dip with vegetables of corn chips
10. Cream of garlic soup

How do you like your garlic? Let me know in the comment area of this post and I'll try and come up with a recipe for it, or a twist on that recipe, if you already have it.

I Feel Like Chicken Tonight

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been pretty busy as my studies are coming to a close, and final exams are right around the corner.

Today I'm writing about chicken, a food that is eaten all over the world and has been enjoyed for thousands of years.

Preparing and handling chicken properly is important because salmonella bacteria is almost always present in raw chicken and can still be found in a chicken meal if the meat is under cooked or if the cooked meat comes in contact with raw meat or anything that came in contact with the raw meat. Millions of people have gotten salmonella poisoning, and children, babies and the elderly can risk dying from salmonella infection, so it's very important that raw chicken is handled carefully and cooked thoroughly.

• If you cut or trim raw meat on a cutting board, wash it with soap before you put anything else on the board, like fruit or vegetables for example.
• Wash anything that comes in contact with raw meat (dishes, forks, knives, tabletops, etc.) before using it again.
• If you have a meat thermometer and you're cooking chicken, 165 degrees Fahrenheit is the internal temperature cooked meat should reach to make sure all salmonella bacteria has been killed off.
• Washing raw chicken before cooking it does not cleanse it of any bacteria. Only extreme heat can truly kill bacteria from a raw chicken.
  

A couple of times when I've eaten at restaurants I've had to send the chicken back because it was under cooked. Keep in mind that restaurants are sometimes under pressure to make a lot of meals quickly, depending on how packed the place is. Keep that in mind the next time you stop at your favorite diner during lunch or dinner rush. I've found that the safest meal you can eat is the one you make yourself. I often soak my chicken in some seasoning and lemon juice.
As I mentioned in a previous post, lemon juice tenderizes the raw meat, making it easier to cut and easier to cook. Lemon also makes the chicken hold more flavor than salts does, good news for anyone like me who is on a low salt diet.

Chicken can be cooked numerous ways: it can be baked, friend, broiled, grilled, shredded, chopped or just added to a nice soup for those cold winter days. Chicken is also tasty chopped up in salads. Even chicken bones (although you can't eat them!) can make an excellent chicken broth. I know chicken stock is sold already made in supermarkets, but if you're cooking an entire chicken, why throw the bones away before getting some use out of them?

Chicken stock mini-recipe:

• chicken bones
• 1 large chopped onion
• 2 medium-sized carrots
• 2 stalks of celery
• one pot filled with enough water to drown all your ingredients.
  

Place all the ingredients in the pot and let it cook for one hour, then strain the stock from its ingredients and let it cool down. The carrots and celery can be chopped if they don't fit into the pot whole and can obviously be used along with the onion in a soup or meal later. I use my homemade chicken stock in my mashed potatoes because it is healthier than using butter or even margarine. You can even pour hot chicken broth over mashed potatoes and stuffing. Also when I get sick or have a sore throat I drink a nice warm glass of chicken broth and it makes me feel better. Of course, broth is the main ingredient in chicken soup and chicken stew. Unused chicken stock can be stored in a refrigerator for about a week, or can be frozen for months. Some of you may be wondering what the difference is between chicken stock and chicken broth; stock is made with chicken bones only whereas broth is made with actual meat which may or may not have bones.

Here are a few links to chicken-related web pages I've found useful:

• Traditional Bone Broth in Modern Health and Disease
• Food Network Chicken Recipes and Meals
• USDA Chicken Fact Sheet
• Mike the Headless Chicken (that one I inserted just for fun)
  

So I will leave you with my ten most favorite ways to serve and enjoy chicken.
1. Grilled chicken Sammy (that's a sandwich for all you who don't watch RR)
2. Baked chicken
3. Chicken roll
4. Chicken Caesar salad
5. Chicken vegetable soup
6. Fried chicken
7. Chicken rice soup
8. Creamy chicken with white rice
9. Chicken fingers
10. Chicken with broccoli served with white rice

How do you like your chicken? Let me know in the comment area of this post and I'll try and come up with a recipe for it, or a twist on that recipe, if you already have it.

The Power of Lemons

Most people only think of lemons as something to add to their drinks. But lemons can also be used in cooking such meats as fish, shrimp, turkey and chicken and even with fruits.

Lemon juice can neutralize the fish’s natural smell and taste. I find it best to let fish marinate in lemon juice for no more than 10-15 minutes before throwing it on the skillet. You shouldn’t worry about the strong taste and scent of the lemon juice overpowering the flavor of the cooked meat. As the meat cooks, the juices seep inside and leave a faint aroma and flavor that can actually improve a fish meal. Shrimp can also be marinated in lemon juice for about 5-10 minutes before cooking it.

Lemons can serve as a tasty meat tenderizer when cooking turkey or chicken, and they are especially effective at tenderizing thighs and breasts. Cut a lemon in half and squeeze it over your meat in a separate bowl before cooking it. Tenderizing loosens the muscles in the meat and allows it to cook faster and makes it easier to cut and chew.

I don’t like using that super-salty powdered meat tenderizer (most of these are like 75 to 90 percent sodium!) that people shake on their steaks, and I’m a bit too lazy to pummel my beef with that little spiky iron mallet. I find lemons to be a much tastier, healthier and easier alternative to others methods of tenderizing meat.

Everyone knows that fruit oxidizes, or turns brown, immediately after you slice it open. But a little dash of freshly squeezed lemon juice on fruit will help slow down that process. This is especially helpful when the fruit being sliced or exposed to the air is for a recipe (like a fruit salad or sangria, which I call “fruit salad for alcoholics”) and not going to be eaten right away. A squeezed lemon will produce more juice if you microwave it for about a minute.

Ironically, my earliest memories of lemons actually have nothing to do with cooking. As a little girl, my family would go to my uncle’s home for dinner every Sunday and I would smell a wonderful aroma throughout the living room during the winter. The aroma was actually lemon and orange peels that he had placed on his radiator with some water in an empty coffee can. The heat piping out of the radiator not only amplified the aroma from the peels but the air pushing out of the radiator spread the wonderful scent around the apartment.

* * * Trivia Time * * *

Most experts agree that the lemon originated in India and was introduced to southern Italy around 200 A.D. It was a very popular crop in the Arab world and the Mediterranean. In fact, the word lemon is derived from the Arabic limun and the Old Italian limone. The Egyptians were the first ones to make lemonade, although I’m not sure who was the first to make it pink. Small pox and gunpowder weren’t the only things Europeans brought to the New World, as Columbus’ ships were full of lemons to feed the sailors.

Lemons are a great source of Vitamin C and have been found to have antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. Smokers should take note that lemons can also wipe away some of the carcinogens created by cigarettes. Just like fish, lemon juice is added to many household cleaners to neutralize the pungent odor most of these chemicals emit. The citric acid in lemon juice actually makes lemons useful as tiny batteries. You remember all those elementary and junior high school science fairs? There was always that one kid who hooked up electrodes and a tiny light bulb to a lemon. The Japanese even discovered that the scent of lemons reduce stress in mice, which may explain all those peaceful, happy dinners at my uncle’s.

So next time you’re walking by a fruit stand or by the produce section in your supermarket, don’t just pass by the lemons. Pick up a few and brighten the rest of your day. They’re cheap, they’re useful, they smell great and they’ve been enjoyed for thousands of years.