Turkey And Sausage Gumbo

Writen by Carol A Hill

After the festivities have finished, the noise has quieted down, the last verse of Auld Lang Syne sung and the party guests hugged and wished success for the coming year, it is time for serving them a thick bowl of gumbo made with the leftover turkey saved from the Christmas day meal and some of that wonderful smoked sausage received as a gift. The roux or the gravy like base is not hard to make and the spicy cayenne pepper can be used sparingly for those guests suffering from digestion problems.

Gumbo is the African word for okra and when the French settlers came to Louisiana. They were not able to find the ingredients for their saffron fish stew or bouillabaisse. Therefore, they hunted for wild game, fished the rivers, raised poultry and pigs curing the pork for sausage. Traditionally, large pots of it were served communally beginning twelve days after Christmas and ending at the stroke of midnight on Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras.

The roux:

Into a large non-stick cold skillet, add one tablespoon of light butter turning up the heat to medium-low letting it slightly brown. Remove the browned butter from the heat and add one tablespoon of flour. Return to the heat stirring the ingredients constantly until the flour is completely incorporated into the butter. The finished color should be dark like mud.

The Gumbo:
(Serves 4-bowls, or 6-cups)

4-cups turkey, precooked
1-link smoked sausage, sliced
1/2-cup onion, chopped
1/2-cup green bell pepper, chopped
1/2-cup red bell pepper, chopped
1/2-cup parsley, chopped
3-cloves garlic, finely chopped
1-small can stewed tomatoes, pureed
8-whole okra, fresh or frozen,(rinsed and the tops and bottoms removed)cut into slices
3-cups water
1-cup chicken broth
1/2-tsp cayenne pepper
1/2-tsp salt
1/2-tsp black pepper

Directions: Remove the cooked roux from the heat and add the chopped onion, the garlic, the peppers and the okra. Stir in the seasonings and add the water and the chicken broth. Add the turkey and the sausage. Simmer on medium-low and when the ingredients are thickened or stew like add the pureed tomatoes and the parsley. Cook for fifteen more minutes. Ladle over a mound of white rice. Serve with slices of crusty French bread.

Salad for Gumbo:

1-cucumber, peeled and sliced into halves
1-medium ripe avocado, sliced and cut into halves
3-or 4-green onions, sliced
4-sprigs fresh parsley, finely chopped
4-stalks celery, cut into pieces-1/2-inches wide
1/2-pint cherry tomatoes, cut into halves

Dressing:
2-Tlbs olive oil
1-Tlb red wine vinegar

Directions: Lightly toss the salad ingredients and the dressing until they are combined.

Cooking since the age of fifteen, the Author has always enjoyed preparing holiday meals.

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Slimming Secrets From The Kitchen

Writen by Janice Wee

To get the svelte figure, start in the kitchen. Slimming down is about taking in less calories, while you burn more calories through exercise.

For a food lover, the dieting part is tough. Exercise is easy, using the stairs instead of the elevator, getting off a stop or two before your actual destination and walking the rest of the way, all these add up helping you burn the calories.

Dieting, or consuming less calories requires discipline, or does it?

My mom is svelte. She eats what she likes. I was slim too, when I lived with her. Her style of cooking made all the difference.

Dieting is not about denying yourself your favourite food. Sooner or later, you'll feel so deprived, you end up binging.

A smarter way to go about this is to take a look at how you prepare your food.

Do you deep fry your food? Do you love crispy, oily fried stuff?

That could be part of the problem.

Maybe you have been dieting by eating lots of salad, heaping your favourite salad cream on it. Salad is great but salad cream contains so much hidden fat. With all the calories in most salad creams, you might as well have a full 5 course dinner instead.

Do you binge on ice cream? Sweet, delectable desserts that are oh so creamy?

Let's start with crispy foods. If you absolutely love dining on crispy meat, try roasting the meat instead. The oil in the meat itself is enough to cook the food with. No need for additional oil.

My mom had a turbo broiler. That was excellent for for cooking chicken wings. Our toaster was used to give food that crispy effect you can't get from microwave ovens. Now there are ovens that do both. A great way to make food crispy without resorting to deep frying it.

Grilled food is yummy. Again, by grilling, the meats cook in their own juices. No need for additional oils that characterize deep frying. We use an oven with grill functions to grill chicken wings, roast meat, the works. Again, no frying needed. Use an oven to do that.

If you must have a crispy snack, the latest snacks in the supermarket feature freeze dried slices of fruit and vegetables which are just like potato crisps. Or go for unbuttered pop corn, freshly popped in the kitchen. Make your own using a popcorn machine but skip the butter. Use salt or herbs to season it instead. Or if you must, sprinkle honey or cocoa powder on it before eating.

On to the issue of salads. Salads are good, if you pay attention to the dressing you put on it. Avoid mayonnaise. Try a herbal vinegar instead. Or if you can't stomach a salad without the cream, try steaming your vegetables instead. Steamed corn tastes great. Sprinkle a little salt on it and avoid the butter. Actually, steamers are vital in the kitchen of anyone who wants to lose weight. A steamer makes preparing a healthy, slimming, tasty meal so easy.

A svelte 60 year old told me how she stayed so slim and healthy. She has steamed fish and rice for most meals. Fish contains less fat than meat. Chicken meat itself is ok, but the chicken skin is laden with fat. Regular meals based on steamed fish are an excellent way to slim down. All you have to do is to season the fish with soya sauce, a slice of ginger, sesame oil and steam it. Eaten with steamed vegetables and steam rice, you have a tasty, healthy, low fat meal.

If you absolutely love ice cream, switch to low fat frozen yogurt instead. You can buy that at the supermarket or make your own using a yogurt maker. The great thing about making your own yogurt is you decide exactly what goes into it. You could use low fat milk, and all your favourite fresh fruit, then freeze the yogurt when it is done, for a creamy, fruity treat. You could add cocoa powder and honey to it. Just use your imagination for a really yummy, healthy treat.

Please note that when you switch to healthy, lower calorie foods, avoid increasing the amount you eat, no matter how yummy the food. 10 helpings of a 100 calorie snack is 1000 calories, so watch how much you eat.

Invest in these equipment to revamp your kitchen for a slimmer you.

The writer is the webmaster of Kitchen which helps you find your kitchen essentials online, easily.

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Take A Mop To Your Meats

Writen by Joe Johnson

Mops, sometimes referred to as sops or bastes, are liquids that are applied to meats during the slow cooking process of traditional barbecue, to keep the meats moist and add additional flavor. Many traditionalists and competitive barbecue teams swear by their mops almost as much as they do their dry rubs. They get their unusual name from the tool that resembles a small kitchen mop used to apply the flavor baste.

Ingredients used to create mops will vary widely from region to region, meat to meat, and individual to individual, but a few ingredients remain common between them. In order to protect the moisture level of your meat, mops will usually contain some sort of oil to replace some of the fat that is lost during the cooking process. This normally comes in the form of oil or melted butter, both of which are perfect for maintaining moisture as well as adding great flavor. Further adding to the flavor, most cooks will add some of the complementary ingredients, such as the dry rub used to coat the meat, to their mop along with other flavors such as Worcestershire, citrus juices, bacon or brisket drippings, stock, and beer or liquor.

Often cooks will use the marinade they used with the meat as a mop, which is a perfectly good idea, as most marinades contain the basic ingredients required in a mop such as citrus juice, oil, spices, etc. However, it is extremely important to remember that you had raw meat soaking in there, which could translate into contamination of your cooked foods with harmful bacteria. Never use a marinade as a mop without thoroughly boiling the liquid prior to it ever coming into contact with your meat or food.

Speaking of bacteria, it is also really important to keep your mop at a temperature above 140F by leaving it simmering on your grill, smoker, or stovetop. This prevents any continuous transfer of bacteria back and forth from the mop to the meat as it cooks. Plus, keeping the mop warm helps to keep your meat warm rather than quick cool it, and prevents any coagulation of the oils or fats used in the liquid.

The tools used to apply mops will vary as well. Purists will tend to stick with the traditional miniature mop, whereas others will use brushes or spray bottles. The effectiveness of the spray bottle will vary depending upon the size of ingredients in your wet mop. If the pieces are too large, they may get stuck in your spray nozzle. When using a traditional mop or brush, dab the meat, don't wipe it or paint it like a wall. Wiping or painting the meat will only serve to remove your rub and the flavorful bark that forms during cooking.

When to mop is a question you will hear regularly, and the answer varies as much as the mops themselves. The key to remember is that you shouldn't lift the lid or open the door to your smoker or grill any more than is absolutely necessary. Every time the pit lid or door is opened precious heat and moisture is lost, which increases the cooking time and the odds for a less-moist end product. To avoid this, it is recommended that you don't mop more frequently than about once per half hour, preferably once each hour. This will of course depend upon the meat you are preparing, but this is a good, average time to start with as a guide. Foods that are lean, such as chicken or fish, will require more frequent mopping than those meats with more fat, such as a brisket. Also, some smokers don't require mopping as they create and maintain a consistently moist environment, so read your owner's manual for recommendations from the manufacturer regarding the use of mops.

Joe Johnson is a proud Texan and founding partner and chief pit-master with Caroline's Rub, where he is in charge of product promotion and development for their line of gourmet dry rubs, smoked salt, and Texas chili seasoning.

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