Saturday 27 July 2013

Make Your House a Home

In our country, if you have bought a house, it means good things are not far off. It is the “shubh arambh” [good start] to your life. Today, there are many who buy an apartment once they begin working and slowly fill it with furniture and appliances over a period of time. Doing the traditional house warming is where it all begins. Infact people do Vaastu puja to make sure the alignment of planets are all correct, segregate each room for a purpose and then only move in.

Once they do, it is time to start shopping and bring home the necessary pieces of furniture like the bed, the study table, a sofa, refrigerator, microwave, cooktop and just about everything else. A lamp shade so you get enough light in the room, and a magazine rack to store the daily magazines. The kitchen is the room that takes the most time because it becomes difficult to find all the appliances in one place. Which is why you should check appliancemart.in and order for all that you will need. A Toaster, Electric Kettle, blender, grinding machine, and maybe even an induction stove for those quick fix cooking. If you are the kind who loves to host parties and include music and dance, you will need a good Mp3 player and a good set of speakers as well.

Apart from this, you could also bring home a nice bar set and set up the bar in a corner in the living room. Choose some smart wine glasses and beer mugs so you can serve the drinks in the right glasses. Even for cooking and serving, if you have hot cases it will help to keep the dishes hot. There may be times when you want to do a movie marathon with your girlfriends. And for this, you will need a good TV with speakers. Make sure to set aside a room for working or studying and store the necessary cables and adapters in one place so you find them when you do venture outside. If you want to carry your laptop out for a meeting, you should carry the spare adapter along. Similarly, when travelling you will need good iPod earphones as well to keep you company.

Celery Soup to beat the heat


The sun is blazing above our heads and most of us have low or no appetite. The best thing for this kind of weather would be a light soup. So here goes, celery soup-

Ingredients:

  • 1 celery bunch- chopped roughly [there is a kind of a skin, make sure to peel that off, else you'll be picking out fibre with every mouthful]
  • 1 potato- raw, cut into thin cubes
  • Garlic – a pinch
  • Salt, to taste
  • Black pepper, to taste
  • Oil or Butter 
  • Milk [optional]
  • Water- enough to boil the potatoes

Process:

  1. In a saucepan, add some butter or oil
  2. Add the chopped celery, potato, onion and garlic. Let the onion sweat for a few minutes  
  3. Add enough water to cover the potatoes and allow it to cook for a few mins [10mins max]
  4. Allow it to cool once potatoes are boiled
  5. Blend in a mixer till smooth
  6. Pour in the pan, add some water and allow it to boil
  7. Add salt & pepper [and milk if you like]
 And there you have it, a nice refreshing soup. What is more, you can serve this cold as well. 

Tip
buy smooth gas lighter

Thursday 25 July 2013

How to Roast Peppers on a Gas Stove ?

  1. Cut ¾ of the stem off each pepper and insert a wooden (not plastic) chopstick through the stem, pushing until it is inserted into the pepper completely. The chopstick will serve as a skewer so you can rotate the peppers and remove them from the flame once they are done roasting. Alternately, you can forgo the chopsticks and use tongs instead.

  2. Turn the gas stove to medium-high or high. You want a fairly large flame to ensure the quickest roasting time and sufficient blackening. Lower temperatures will require more gas and time to roast the peppers. You may want to line the stovetop with aluminum foil before lighting the flame, as this procedure can get messy.

  3. Place the peppers on the burners, making sure they are close to the flame.

  4. Leave the peppers over the flame, constantly monitoring them and listening for cracking noises. These noises simply tell you the skin is cracking and that the peppers are roasting. This is a good sign.

  5. Rotate each pepper once the skin has blackened in a certain area. You should rotate the peppers so that the entire surface is black and crispy. Don’t worry about that pitch black color. The flesh underneath will be perfectly fine.

  6. Remove peppers from the heat once they are totally blackened. There are several ways you can proceed to cool the peppers.

    • Put them in a paper bag and close it. This will steam the peppers and aid in removing the skins. You can also place the peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, or seal in a zip-top freezer bag, or put into a saucepan with the lid on.

    • Alternatively, plunge them immediately into an ice water bath. The ice water will stop the cooking process and facilitate the removal of the peppers’ skins. This method, however, is more likely to pull flavor out of the peppers.

  7. Rub the peppers between your fingers, or scrape off the skin with your hands. Once all the skin is off, place peppers on a cutting board.

  8. Cut the tops off each pepper and slice down one side, exposing the inner seed cavity. Scrape off the white membrane and seeds and discard. This can also be done by hand under running water.

Tips

  • Rinse off peppers before roasting. They might contain chemical and/or organic residues.
  • Soak wooden skewers in warm water for 10 minutes before placing peppers on for roasting. This will help keep them from burning and breaking in the process.
  • It's fine if a few bits of charred skin remain on the peppers. They'll add even more flavor.
  • All kinds of peppers can be roasted. Red bells, green chile, and jalapenos are among the most common types of peppers roasted.
  • If you don't have gloves, you can use a heavy-duty paper towel to remove skins. This works especially well if the peppers are really hot (in both heat and flavor).
  • Washing hands in a mix of oil (food oil) and soap before using the water, can reduce the "hotness" a lot - this is because the hot parts of the chili plants can not be dissolved with water
  • Washing hands in liquid soap and salt, or lemon juice, will help get rid of the smell and "hotness" on your hands and fingers.
  • Efficient cooking is only possible if you have got  Jindal Gas stove

Kitchen stove



 Jindal has brought a range of beautiful cooktops in Stainless Steel Range traditional yet very stylish and sturdy to combat Indian cooking. The stainless steel cooktops are designed to meet every individual’s need and requirement. They are highly durable, safe and just perform beyond expectations.
As an alternative to cooking with Stainless Steel Jindal has developed a range of Glass cooktops. They are extremely beautiful, stylish & highest in quality as compared to the  traditional models. Jindal cooktops are the perfect solution if you are looking for contemporary, minimal style where the cooking zone blends in perfectly within the worktop.
Available in 2,3 & 4 burner models, the Gloria Range of Glass Cooktop consists of Black finish Toughened Glass with Rectangle & square shape, Gloria Curve is available with curved sides & Gloria Bi-Level comes only in 4 burner which is designed to cook at two different levels upper & lower simultaneously, this enables you to access with a clear way to the vessels behind burners while cooking. All the models are available in Auto & Manual ignition.

Apart from this we have Digital Print Designs which is called our “O-Series Range”. Our efforts to provide you more designs are continuous.




A wood burning iron stove

A kitchen stove, usually called a stove (especially but not only in US English[1]), range, cooker, or oven[2] is a kitchen appliance designed for the purpose of cooking food. Kitchen stoves rely on the application of direct heat for the cooking process and may also contain an oven, used for baking.
In the industrialized world, as stoves replaced open fires and braziers as a source of more efficient and reliable heating, models were developed that could also be used for cooking; these came to be known as kitchen stoves.re: cooking in the Middle Ages "The division of stoves into several compartments as in our day was seldom seen. The dishes were cooked on the fire itself. When homes began to be heated with central heating systems, there was less need for an appliance that served as both heat source and cooker and stand-alone cookers replaced them. Cooker and stove are often used interchangeably.
The fuel-burning stove is the most basic design of kitchen stove. In the developing world, such stoves are still the most common cooking appliances and new, more fuel efficient and environmentally sound biomass cook stoves are being developed for use there. Modern kitchen stoves may use alternative methods for heating food. Natural gas and electric stoves are the most common today in western countries. Both are equally mature and safe, and the choice between the two is largely a matter of personal preference and pre-existing utility outlets: if a house has no gas supply, adding one just to be able to run a gas stove is an expensive endeavor. In particular, professional chefs often prefer gas cooktops, for they allow them to control the heat more finely and more quickly. On the other hand, some chefs often prefer electric ovens because they tend to heat food more evenly. According to EnergyGuide labels on appliances sold in the U.S. and EnerGuide labels in Canada, natural-gas-fueled appliances are more cost-efficient for the duration of their life. Today's major brands offer both gas and electric stoves, and many also offer dual-fuel stoves combining gas cooktops and electric ovens.
Modern kitchen stoves have both burners on the top (also known as the cooktop or stovetop in American English and as the hob in British English) as well as an oven. A cooktop can refer to the top of a stove or burners built into a countertop. Many newer cooktops are made of glass-ceramic. A drop-in range has both burners on the top and an oven and hangs from a cutout in the countertop (that is, it cannot be installed free-standing on its own). Most modern stoves come in a unit with built-in extractor hoods.

Early kitchen stoves


The 18th-century Japanese merchant's kitchen, Kamado (Hezzui) made of copper (Fukagawa Edo Museum)
Chinese, Korean, and Japanese civilizations had discovered the principle of the closed stove much earlier than the West.[citation needed] Already from the Chinese Qin Dynasty (221 BC–206/207 BC), clay stoves that enclosed the fire completely are known, and a similar design known as kamado (かまど) appeared in the Kofun period (3rd–6th century) in Japan. These stoves were fired by wood or charcoal through a hole in the front. In both designs, pots were placed over or hung into holes at the top of the knee-high construction. Raised kamados were developed in Japan during the Edo period (1603–1867).
In Europe, prior to the 18th century, people cooked over open fires fueled by wood, which were first on the floor or on low masonry constructions. In the Middle Ages, waist-high brick-and-mortar hearths and the first chimneys appeared, so that cooks no longer had to kneel or sit to tend to foods on the fire. The fire was built on top of the construction; the cooking done mainly in cauldrons hung above the fire or placed on trivets. The heat was regulated by placing the cauldron higher or lower above the fire.[3]
Open fire has three major disadvantages that prompted inventors even in the 16th century to devise improvements: it is dangerous, it produces much smoke, and the heat efficiency is poor. Attempts were made to enclose the fire to make better use of the heat that it generated and thus reduce the wood consumption. A first step was the fire chamber: the fire was enclosed on three sides by brick-and-mortar walls and covered by an iron plate. This technique also caused a change in the kitchenware used for cooking, for it required flat-bottomed pots instead of cauldrons. Only in 1735 did the first design that completely enclosed the fire appear: the Castrol stove of the French architect François de Cuvilliés was a masonry construction with several fireholes covered by perforated iron plates. It is also known as a stew stove. Near the end of the 18th century, the design was refined by hanging the pots in holes through the top iron plate, thus improving heat efficiency even more.
In 1850 Mary Evard invented the Reliance Cook Stove, which was divided in half with one half for dry baking and the other half for moist. [4] She demonstrated this stove with her husband at the St. Louis World's Fair. [5] In 1867 Elizabeth Hawks of New York invented and received a patent for a baking attachment for stoves, intended to spread heat thoroughly throughout loaves while keeping the top crust tender, which she called an "Auxiliary Air-chamber for Stoves." [6] This was so successful that she sold two thousand within months of its release. [7] [8]

Charcoal stoves


Charcoal stoves are still commonly used in rural Thailand
Stoves continued to evolve and charcoal began to replace wood as the burning material in stoves. Up until the 1970s, the top French restaurant Le Pyramid continued to use charcoal stoves. These stoves had flat tops and the heat was concentrated on one side of the stove top so that cooks could cook things at different temperatures based on where the pot or pan was located. This was called the "piano" system. After coal was replaced with gas, French chefs continued to prefer the smooth cooking surface and so the majority of French gas ovens had flat metal surfaces over the gas burners, which continues to be known as the "French style" today.[9]

Gas stoves


1934 gas cooker in England
The first gas stoves were developed as early as the 1820s, but these remained isolated experiments. James Sharp patented a gas stove in Northampton, England in 1826 and opened a gas stove factory in 1836. At the World Fair in London in 1851, a gas stove was shown, but only in the 1880s did this technology start to become a commercial success. The main factor for this delay was the slow growth of the gas pipe network.

Electric stove

Once electric power was widely and economically available, electric stoves became a popular alternative to fuel-burning appliances. The first electric stoves use heating elements made of high-resistance metal to produce heat. The cooktop (range) surface had one or more circular heating elements, insulated with compressed magnesia and sheathed in a spiral metal tube. Heating elements for the oven are of similar construction but an elongated loop to distribute heat. Elements were made as plug-in consumer-replaceable parts and could also be easily removed for cleaning. Temperature of cooking elements was regulated by adjusting a bimetal thermostat control switch, which switched power on and off to control the average heating effect of the elements.

Design evolution

There are still many traditional stoves made, which burn wood or solid fuel. The look and feel maybe very similar to many traditional stoves, but the way fuel is burnt has evolved. Many also have back boilers for domestic heating.[10]

Induction cooker

Rather than applying direct heat to a cooking vessel, an induction cooker causes metal vessels to heat by electromagnetic induction. This leaves the cooking top cold (or rather, only heated by proximity to the cooking vessel) and increases efficiency. Induction cooking offers less waste heat, faster boiling times and the ability to set cookware anywhere on the surface of the cooktop. Although it does require cookware that’s made with some iron or is magnetic, to allow the induction to take place.[11]
Microwave ovens use microwave radiation to directly heat the water held inside food.
Flattop grills are also being installed into kitchen counters and islands, which do double-duty as a direct cooking surface as well as a platform for heating pots and pans.
A hot plate is a similar device, which is mobile and can be used as an appropriate technology.

Original Article : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_stove

Coconut Cookie Dough Balls


raw macaroons
You know I like recipes that are fast and easy.  So these coconut cookie dough balls are pretty much a dream come true. First of all, they taste like coconut cookie dough. And secondly, they’re no-bake, with just two ingredients.
It can’t get any easier than that!
I also now have new recipe tab: 5 Minute Dessert Recipes.
(If you click on the above link, you’ll see all of my recipes that take 5 minutes or less to make! I’m working on a “no-bake” tab as well.)
raw macaroons
I’m not even sure I can call this a “recipe.” It’s too simple!
Coconut Cookie Dough Balls
(no added sugar!)
  • Scant 2/3 cup pitted dates (80 g) (I like Sunmaid brand, because they’re softer. See the nutritional info link, below, for substitution notes)
  • 1 and 1/2 tbsp coconut butter or Homemade Coconut Butter
  • Tiny pinch salt (can be omitted if desired)
  • Optional: shredded coconut, chocolate chips, etc.
Blend everything together in a food processor. This makes a small batch, so I used my Magic Bullet. If you have a bigger processor, it might be best to double or triple the recipe so everything blends more smoothly. (The recipe can be done in a blender, but the results are stickier.) Smush into one big ball, then roll into little balls or bars or cookie-cuttered shapes.

These will last fridged for a few weeks or frozen for a few months.
coconut cookie dough balls
Note: the cookie dough balls in the photos contain nuts. But after taking photos I revamped the recipe to make it nut-free!


Wednesday 24 July 2013

Kitchenware Utilities



The most indispensable part of the kitchen apart from appliances is kitchenware & Utensils.
The kitchenware serve a lot of purpose to us from cutting, chopping, cooking and lot more. The long list of the kitchenware utilities include crockery dishes, bowls, non-stick utensils, service tools, containers, Lunch boxes, crockery accessories, choppers,  mixer-grinders, table ware, dinnerware, tea-pots sets etc.
The described items are available in all stuffs like stainless steel, non-sticks, plastics, melamine, porcelain, bone china, silicon & enameling etc. This could depend upon the buyers capacity as it is ranging from economical, affordable to the prestigious, decorative and very high class variety.
Good kitchenware and quality products help in efficient and delicious cooking. The standardized and reputed Brand Kitchen ware, Utensils help in conserve timings, money, energy and other resources.

Add Commercial Kitchen Appliances into your Kitchen Space



Though the terms commercial kitchen is related to the big food chains, restaurants, hotels etc.
Yet there is a liking by the domestic seller in home  kitchen too. Very few people who can afford a huge kitchen at home can install some of the appliances depending upon their choice, budget and space required.
For instance if we discuss the refrigerator we are using in general in our house and the big one compared for the commercial use.
The commercial refrigerator is more less like a small room occupancy where frozen food, like meat, chicken etc are stored in heavy quantities. This has a temperature adjustment feature and temp can be set according to as per requirement.
There are a lot of Kitchen appliances manufacturers (http://www.jindalkitchenequipments.com) who have a quality and standardized equipment like supplies to restaurants, coffee bare, Catering, food processing and food chain Industries.
The home series can add oven, pizza oven, bakery, table, trolleys, Rack, Benches and steel fabrication etc.
There are food warmers, which are useful in family gatherings, kitty Parties and Small Functions.  There are some huge burner tops which is convenient to cook food for masses and lot of people. There can be a search online for the commercial appliances and price comparison to be a valued buyer.


Tuesday 23 July 2013

Main Concern while buying Kitchen Appliances



Every housewife has a dream of beautiful, elegant, clean & spacious Kitchen. It is often observed that the housewives are more concerned about this having an edge over their bedroom. It is feeling that good kitchen will give good and quality of food preparations. Most of the people are pre-planning about their Kitchen requirements and hence they pre-determined about the space allotted for each appliance.
Some are very concerned about Hobs, which need a pre-planned space to install in. Then the selection of Chimney. It is more important to choose the model design for chimney and the suction power capacity to give healthy pollution free atmosphere.
      All the appliances such as the Mixer-Grinder, Microwave Ovens, Sandwich Toaster, Refrigerator, Dishwasher, Fuel efficient gas stove etc. should be chosen as per the budget, space and the reputed brand.
What is the service(buy back guarantee/warranty) period that a multi functional appliances with cost saving and more important electricity consumption saver too. There could be a multipurpose appliances, but depends on the buyer, if all  the features are needed and are of average daily use, only then think of the same, otherwise, there could be more complicacy with no use of the features.



Summary:- Most of the people are pre-planned about their Kitchen requirements and hence they pre-determine the space allotted for each appliance.
Some are very concerned about Hobs, which need a pre-planned place to install in. Then the selection of Chimney. It is more important to choose the model design for chimney and the suction power capacity to give healthy pollution free atmosphere.