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Why are food ingredients essential? Food Ingredients 101-1

According to research Following are some reasons why ingredients are added to foods: * To Maintain or Improve Safety and Freshness: Preservatives slow product spoilage caused by mold, air, bacteria, fungi or yeast. In addition to maintaining the quality of the food, they help control contamination that can cause foodborne illness, including life-threatening botulism. One group of preservatives — antioxidants — prevents fats and oils and the foods containing them from becoming rancid or developing an off-flavor. They also prevent cut fresh fruits such as apples from turning brown when exposed to air. * To Improve or Maintain Nutritional Value: Vitamins and minerals (and fiber) are added to many foods to make up for those lacking in a person’s diet or lost in processing, or to enhance the nutritional quality of a food. Such fortification and enrichment has helped reduce malnutrition in the U.S. and worldwide. All products containing added nutrients must be appropriately labeled. * Improv

Why I don't have pictures of the dishes I cook

My daughter left me her Sony DSC32 digital camera. It is practically her first digital cam which we gave her as a Christmas present years ago. Two years ago, when she left to work in another country she decided to leave it with me. She knows very well that my old, reliable SLR Nikon needs to be brought to the repair shop. So good. I have a camera. But here's the problem, the batteries are all spent. Meaning, every time I need to use it I need 6 hours to charge the batteries. That's kindda tedious, yes? On the other hand, I am not sure if I want to leave it charging overnight. I don't want to risk that. Perhaps, when I get a new pair of Sony batteries will I be able to take photos for my food blog. I will just have to temporarily borrow from the web if ever there's a pressing need for photos. Cheers!

From gourmet to jologs cooking

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Thanks to www.noodlesandrice.com for the image. As opposed to gourmet, jologs cooking is what I am practically doing these days. Well, I define 'jologs' cooking as 'no recipe' cooking -- just combining whatever I have in my garden with what I have in my pantry and the fridge. So if I cook adobo whether chicken or pork, I just add tumeric or cumin instead of laurel leaves if that is what I have in my pantry. It is not only experimental but workable. More often, jologs cooking do not appeal to the sense of sight, being hodge podge and all. But what I can assure you is tastily cooked food. Promise :-) Some chefs define gourmet as good cooking. Agreed. I must insist though that jologs cooking is not only good, practical and healthy. Hooray! So hell to the chef!!! [joke :-)]

Have you ever tasted kamote tops salad?

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Kamote tops salad is another one of those humble but super healthy veggie dish. I have some kamote plants in my backyard where my tops come from. Kamote tops or talbos in our vernacular usually mean the youngest leaf on the stem. They are colored bright green as opposed to older leaves which has dark pigmentation. These are best for salads. What I do is infuse the tops in boiling water for about 60 seconds. Drain the water. Add freshly diced tomatoes(2pcs clean) plus lots of purple onions (1 medium sized and whites can do as well). Then add 2 teaspoons lemon juice, lots of freshly milled black pepper (according to your taste) and finally, a pinch of salt. If you have olive oil, that should make it more delish!

Another word on malunggay aka 'moringa'

Everyone's going ga-ga with moringa or the 'lowly' malunggay. It used to be that this was considered staplefood of the economically challenge. I remember that back then my father had lots of malunggay trees in our vegetable yard. When there's a good harvest usually during the summer months, my mother extracts the fleshy white part of the pod(fruit) and saute it with lots of tomatoes, onions and garlic. Add a little salt and its good to go with fried fish. The white flowers, as I recall we made into salads. Fresh from the garden, my mother infuses it with boiling water for about a minute, adds fresh tomatoes pinch of salt and pepper and presto. The leaves, ahhh the leaves, it is my father's favorite veggie addition to tinola a chicken soup dish that usually incorporates green papaya along with pepper or sili leaves. My father's version, on the other hand use a lot of malunggay leaves instead of sili. When I cook souped clams these days, I also use malunggay

Food Ingredient - Stabilizers and Thickeners, Binders, Texturizers

Purpose: Produce uniform texture, improve “mouth-feel” Application: Frozen desserts, dairy products, cakes, pudding and gelatin mixes, dressings, jams and jellies, sauces Common Label Names: Gelatin, pectin, guar gum,carrageenan, xanthan gum, whey

Food Ingredient - Anti-caking agents

Purpose: Promote rising of baked goods Application: Breads and other baked goods Common Label Names: Baking soda, monocalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate