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Vitamins are nutrients that are necessary for the proper functioning of the human body and its various organs. While vitamins are found in fruits, vegetables, cereals and other foods, they cannot be synthesized by the human body. As a result, we need to obtain our vitamins from food so that our bodies remain healthy and function properly. Unfortunately, many popular cooking techniques lead to excessive vitamin loss, due to which we often end up being deficient in essential vitamins in spite of having a “balanced” diet. Minimizing vitamin loss from food during cooking will not only help you eat healthy, it will also make your food tastier.  Some tips that will help you minimize vitamin loss while cooking and get the maximum benefit from what you eat are listed here.

• Before we get down to vitamin loss through cooking, it is important to realize that food items also lose vitamins through exposure to air, water, light and heat. It is because of this reason that nutritionists advise eating fresh produce as much as possible, since they fresh foods get exposed to the elements for the least amount of time. If you cannot go out and buy fresh produce everyday, make sure that you store your fruits, vegetables and meat at the right temperatures in the fridge and freezer. Wrap and pack everything so that exposure to light and air is the least. This will ensure that your food items are still left with vitamins to lose when you pop them into the pan.

• Fruits, vegetables and meat lose the maximum vitamins when they are cooked at high temperatures for long periods of time. Therefore, one of the best ways of reducing vitamin loss during cooking is to use the microwave. Since foods get cooked quickly in the microwave, they end up retaining most of the nutrition. Try to avoid adding water to the food as much as possible since this aids vitamin loss. Research has shown that broccoli and cabbage cooked in the microwave lose only one third the amount of vitamin C that is lost when they are boiled. It has also been proven that a minimal vitamin loss takes place when food is reheated in the microwave.

• Another method of cooking where vitamin loss is the minimum is steaming. Steamed food also gets cooked quickly, does not involve loss of vitamins to water drainage and is generally not overcooked, especially when compared to boiled food. As a result, it has been found that vegetables lose less than 50% of the nutrition when they are steamed as compared to when they are boiled.

• If a recipe leaves you with no option but to boil a vegetable, then make sure that you put it in the water only when the water starts boiling instead of putting it on the stove with cold water. Use the minimum possible amount of water and cut the vegetables into large pieces or boil them whole to keep exposure to a minimum. Also, do not over boil and let the veggies stay on the stove for as little a time as you can, of course ensuring that they are done for the recipe.

• Baking, roasting and deep frying food at high temperatures leads to the maximum amount of vitamin loss during cooking. So make sure that you avoid over cooking food in the oven. Try to cut out deep frying from daily cooking as much as possible and save these techniques for special occasions and parties.

At talkingcooking.com, we believe that good cooking is necessarily healthy cooking and vice versa and in recent times, the term healthy cooking often has to do with organic cooking. In fact, a large number of people who have taken to cooking at home have done so because they want to eat healthier food that is not laden with preservatives and chemicals. So a switch to organic cooking might prove natural in such cases. However, like almost everything good in life, organic cooking also has its own pros and cons. Here we give you a list of the main advantages and disadvantages of organic cooking that will help you decide whether you should switch over to organic cooking or not.

Advantages Of Organic Cooking

• The main and major advantage of organic cooking is that it is healthy cooking. Since foods are labeled organic only when they have not been treated with pesticides, preservatives, drugs, chemicals, antibiotics or hormonal modifications, you end up eating food that is as natural as nature meant it to be when you go organic. It has been proven that eating organic food decreases chances of getting afflicted with most immune system and lifestyle related ailments, and this is a major reason why you should consider switching to healthy organic cooking.

• When you go organic, you not only avoid elements that are disease causing and harmful, you also end up eating food that is richer in nutrients and antioxidants. It has been proven that organic foods often have a level of antioxidants that is 50% higher than that of conventionally grown foods. This extra dose of antioxidants ensures that you stay healthy, beautiful and fighting fit with organic cooking.

Disadvantages Of Organic Cooking

• Most people who switch all of a sudden to hundred per cent organic cooking often complain that the food is not tasty enough. This is mainly because we are so used to eating hormone pumped foods that the taste difference when you switch to healthy and wholesome organic food is considerable. However, this is just a matter of getting used to. Instead of switching to organic food all of a sudden, you should start introducing it into your cooking and diet little by little so that the difference in taste is not drastic. Also keep in mind that organic food is not “less tasty”, it only tastes “different” from the chemical pumped food that we are used to eating!

• Organic food is costlier and not very easily available. At times, you might not always find organic substitutes for a number of foods. And when you find them, you might notice that they are exorbitantly priced. Another thing that discourages many people from switching to organic cooking is that many businesses have started selling non-organic food as organic in order to make money. Make sure that you buy organic food that has been approved by the USDA to avoid getting cheated. As for the cost of organic food, you might want to check out fresh produce or farmers’ markets for getting cheap and fresh organic fruits and vegetables.

Health consciousness and an aversion to eating store food have led to many of us spending more time in our kitchens. However, the main disadvantage of home cooking is that we often end up spending way “too much” time in the kitchen; time that can be more valuably spent in other activities with family and friends. Another major downside to cooking at home is that it often ends up costing way too much because you end up buying special ingredients for dishes of which major portions expire before they are used. To remedy both these downsides of cooking at home, we provide you here with a couple of simple recipes and ideas for entrees that are not just fast and easy to make, but can also be made with regular ingredients that you always have on hand.

Noodle and Pasta Soups: While a soup can always be served before a meal, you can convert the soup dish to a main course by adding noodles, vermicelli or pasta to your soup. Check out our entry “Cooking Recipes: Make A Three Course Meal In Less Than An Hour” for a Simple And Nutritious Tomato Soup Recipe. You can put in noodles boiled in salt water to the tomato soup once it is done.

Or you can prepare a nice Hot And Sour Noodle Soup in fifteen minutes. Take three cups of water, about 75 gms of instant or fast cooking noodles, finely chopped onions, beans, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, bell peppers, peas and corn and boil for four to five minutes. Once the veggies and noodles go soft, add salt to taste, a little pepper, a teaspoon of soy sauce, a quarter spoon of sugar, a teaspoon of red chili sauce and two to three heaped spoonfuls of tomato puree. You can also use ketchup if you do not have puree, but in a smaller quantity. Add a little cornstarch to thicken you soup, boil for a minute more and your hot and sour noodle soup is ready. The recipe is perfect for winters and is a good alternative to hot chicken soup when you are down with a cold. You can make umpteen variations by experimenting with vegetables, chicken broth and by using different types of non vegetarian foods with the veggies.

Casseroles: Casseroles are not just healthy and nutritious; they are a great way of taking care of leftovers as well. Take cooked noodles, spaghetti, pasta or rice as a base for your casserole. Add in chopped vegetables and cooked chicken, beef or sea food. To save time, use store ready peas or corn kernels and for flavor, use shallots, tomatoes and bits of ginger and garlic. Mix with some broth or your favorite soup, add in herbs or sauces that you like and feel would complement the other ingredients. Top the casserole with dried bread crumbs or sprinkle all purpose flour, cover with grated cheese and bake till the casserole bubbles. Garnish with fresh herbs and serve your family a healthy, nutritious and balanced meal. You can make a wide number of variations with casseroles depending upon what you like and what you don’t and you will very soon have your own collection of recipes for quick and tasty casseroles.

Gourmet cooking is definitely not as easy as regular cooking. The main reason behind this is that it involves a lot of preparation time, since every little thing that goes inside a gourmet recipe has to be just perfect. As regular cooks, you might never have mastered the techniques used for gourmet cooking, so we will provide you here with a list of the tips and tricks that you need to learn before you perfect your gourmet cooking style. Please keep in mind that our list of tips and tricks is simply indicative and not exhaustive at all!

• All gourmet cooking recipes require the best quality ingredients. So if you have been one of those people who thought that herbs grew in little plastic packets and jars and that vegetables come from freezers, then you will need some practice fast. If you are seriously into gourmet cooking, then start visiting the fresh produce areas of the supermarket to source your herbs and vegetables fresh. You will be able to get the best quality ingredients from farmers’ or fresh produce markets. Even if you cannot frequent such markets regularly, go there initially to at least find out how fresh, fresh is.

• You must have seen on television shows how the cooks always dice vegetables into equal cubes and julienne them as if they have used a tape measure to measure every cut and julienned vegetable piece. Alas, if you do not have practice, you might not be able to cut vegetables into such equal portions even if you use a tape measure. However, to start with, watch the cooks on TV when they chop. You will notice that to dice veggies into equal cubes, the chef will first cut out a 1cm thick strip of the vegetable, then slice lengthwise to get veg strips that are 1cm wide and 1 cm thick. Then he will chop these strips into equal parts that measure 1 cm on all sides. Definitely not tough but it will take time and practice to get such perfect results.

• Seafood is a crucial ingredient of many gourmet cooking recipes. But you might find yourself at a loss when a recipe calls for boneless prawns and salmons. After all, most regular supermarkets will not be stocking this, and no fresh produce mart will give these for sure. So you will have to learn to use tweezers or needle nosed pliers to pull the bones out of salmon fillets. In order to shell prawn, you will have to hold it tightly by the body and twist the head off. This will let you remove the whole shell easily.

• In order to be a proper gourmet cook, you will need to equip your kitchen with gourmet cooking tools and accessories. You will regularly keep coming across gourmet cooking recipes that call for basting roast meat with butter or fruits with egg whites. So you will need to equip yourself with brushes for this purpose. Similarly, you will need to stock up on a number of cookware pieces ranging from specialized spoons and knives to pans and cookers. Remember that having the right tools and cookware is crucial to the success of your gourmet cooking recipes.

Grilling is an interesting cooking technique that all home cooks should know about. It provides a nice change from supermarket and regular food and has its own charms. Unfortunately, most of what we produce on our home grills bears only passing or coincidental resemblance to what we eat in grill bars and good restaurants. While grilling is such an art that people have written books and guides that will tell you how to do it right, a few simple grilling tips and tricks will help you get the hang of it more quickly:

Always Preheat The Grill: Most of us using gas or electric grills wait till the last moment to fire up our grills. This results in the food getting charred on the outside while being raw on the inside. If you want food that is evenly grilled to perfection, always preheat your oven for at least 15 minutes before you start putting the food on it.

Prep Your Food: The taste of your grilled food is eventually going to be as good or bad as the taste of your marinade. Even a good marinade can fail to make an impression if you do not give it the proper time to seep into the food to be grilled. Marinate fish for at least half an hour and meat for at least four hours before cooking. However, let all the marinade drip off the food before you place it on the grill to avoid flare-ups.

Temp Your Food: Grilling is a temperature game, and the temperature of the grill and the food that you put on it is going to make a huge difference to the end product. Never keep chilled meat or fish on your grill, because this will result in uneven cooking. Always ensure that the food that goes on your grill has already attained room temperature if you want perfect results.

Keep Your Grill Clean: Having the remnants of last time’s grilling party on your grill will not make for good results. No. It will make for food that tastes of things it shouldn’t be tasting of. The best time to clean your grill is right after you have used it and when it is still warm. Take off the residue using a fine wire brush and wash it before you keep it for next time.

Keep Practicing: There are a number of skills involved in cooking that are more of an art than others. Grilling and baking are just some of them. When it comes to grilling, remember that practice makes perfect. The more you grill, the better your grilled food will taste because you will understand the idiosyncrasies of your grill, its hot and cold areas, the marinades that work the best, the time taken for food to attain perfect taste and all the little nuances that distinguish a gourmet griller from an amateur one. Till then, happy grilling and all the best!

With the kind of lifestyle that we are leading nowadays, time has actually become the most precious commodity. If you have to cook when you get back from work, then you must have wished a number of times how you could have used the same time soaking in a hot bath or relaxing on the couch in front of a TV instead of slaving over the stove. While no amount of tips and tricks can actually save you from going into the kitchen, these tips will definitely ensure that you spend lesser time there.

Keep stuff ready for cooking. We might not realize it but defrosting and washing food takes quite a lot of time. In order to save up on this, plan a little ahead and save yourself the hassle of defrosting. If you are planning to cook some meat from your freezer for dinner, take it out of the freezer and keep it into the fridge around the time that you have breakfast. Take care to keep it in a vessel that will take the leaks and save your fridge from getting dirty. This way, you will find that your meat is thawed and ready to cook in the evening. No microwaving and no running under the water. All you have to do is put it into the pan and you are done.

Defrost fast. You can defrost frozen vegetables in no time at all by putting them in a bowl full of warm, instead of cold water. By the time you pan is ready, your vegetables will be as soft as fresh.
 
Use the right equipment. Machinery and equipment have been created in order to increase human efficiency and to save on time. So if you want to spend lesser time in the kitchen, make sure that you have all the correct equipment ready. Keep a set of good knives and chopping block so that you can deal with all your cutting needs efficiently. A simple knife is simply not enough for all your needs, and every kitchen should have at least a peeler, a chef’s knife, a serrated knife, a paring knife and a bread knife. If you can afford it, go ahead and buy a food processor, and you will be able to chop your vegetables in seconds instead of hours. Invest in some non-stick pots and pans, since they also cut down cooking time considerably and you do not have to keep stirring food continuously when using one. This means you can easily go and catch snippets of your favorite soap instead of being glued to the stove.

Multitask. Many people first prepare all the stuff needed for cooking—chop vegetables, assemble spices and sauces, wash and chop meat and only then put on the pans and pots on the stoves. With a little thought and planning, you can start cooking the moment your first ingredient is ready for cooking and keep on preparing and adding the others as and when the time comes.

Cooking is generally time consuming and tedious, and most people with busy jobs and busier lifestyles really do not fancy cooking much. At the same time, we all get fed up of eaten store bought frozen food or calling for takeaways all the time. Nothing equals home cooking when it comes to taste and nutrition, and eventually we all have to end up spending time in the kitchen. However, you can easily shorten your time in the kitchen by using the microwave for cooking instead of just using it as a heating and defrosting device. Modern microwaves with convection and grill make it possible to prepare delicious food in a short span of time. Apart from making the usual steamed vegetables, instant noodles or rice in your microwave, you can also use it to prepare finger licking good meat. Just follow these simple microwave cooking tips for cooking meat and you will start using your oven more and more often for making non vegetarian food.

• The first thing that you should pay attention to when cooking in the microwave is the kind of container you use for your food. While plastic containers that are microwave safe are usually good enough to heat food, use only utensils that are specially manufactured for microwave cooking if you really plan to cook. Glass and good quality microwave proof plastics are best for microwave cooking. Using any other material, including cheaper quality of plastics might lead to chemical transmission into your food, which will not only spoil its taste, but also make it dangerous for consumption.

• When you plan to cook meat in the microwave, it is a good idea to defrost it by keeping it in the fridge twenty four to twelve hours before cooking. This is because when you defrost meat in the microwave, it gets partially cooked in places. On top of this, defrosting takes almost as much time as cooking, so you won’t save much cooking time if you defrost in the microwave. 

• The microwave oven is most suitable for making dry meat dishes instead of stews and gravies. In order to make your chicken, lamb or beef soft and tasty, you should always marinate it before putting it in the microwave. Dishes that use marinades or sauces turn out best in the microwave because the spices and flavors have already permeated the food before you put it in the oven. Pierce the meat to be cooked with a fork or a sharp knife all over and then coat it with salt, spices or sauces—whatever you plan to cook it in—at least four hours before cooking. Leaving it overnight in the fridge will give you the best results, however. Once the meat is marinated, all you need to do is take it out and put it in the microwave.

• Remember that turning and moving around meat in the microwave is important if you want your meat to be thoroughly cooked all over. Keep turning meat pieces every ten minutes or so and move them around in their container so that they are thoroughly cooked.

• Always keep your container covered with cling film till the meat gets tender. Once it is three fourths cooked, you can remove the plastic covering and let the excess moisture vaporize. This would ensure that your meat is not hard and dry when cooked.