International Food Receipes

Sarah Thomas asked:


Lecithin or phosphatidycholine (PC) is a phospholipid, first discovered in the 1800s by a French scientist called Maurice Gobley. He extracted the compound from an egg yolk and in 1850 the compound was named lecithin from the word lekithos, which is the Greek term for egg yolk.

This lecithin was first used commercially as an emulsifying agent for a number of years. It could extend the life of many processed foods so the food industry began to add it to all kinds of food products including baked goods, nut butters, candies, chocolates, protein drinks, prepared foods and instant soups. The lecithin would also be added to recipes for flavor and also to be an emulsifying agent.

In the 1930’s when there was a boom in soyabean consumption, the byproduct of the soyabean processing was discovered to include 1.8 percent of hydrophosphatides. If this sludge was put through a process called “degumming” organic lecithin could be extracted and it would be an alternative to the lecithin from eggs. With this new development, lecithin really gained in popularity.

In fact the organic lecithin from the soybean turned out to be a safer product. The animal’s lecithin goes through the kidneys and may come in contact with all sorts of toxins. The soyabean lecithin hasn’t got that kind of potential pitfall so presently soybean lecithin makes up the main part of lecithin sold commercially.

Aside from food, organic lecithin has a multitude of other uses and has been added to paints, metal tape, animal feeds and cosmetics. In addition to that, it is sometimes used as a supplement in things such as capsules, granules or pills.

There are a number of effects that are related to lecithin. For one, it keeps fat dispersed in food. It prevents the oils from separating. In fact, one theory is, that it in this way it may help keep the cholesterol levels in a body low in the same way. This is still a theory though. Lecithin allows the fat content in foods to be reduced while maintaining the taste.

Organic lecithin is comprised of ethanolamine, insotil, phosphatides of choline and other lipids. All living organisms have these substances which are necessary in the human for the muscles, liver and the reproductive tract.

Lecithins must be studied further by the medical research community. It may be a potential treatment for high cholesterol. It keeps the fat in the bile and disperses cholesterol. Right now lecithin has been added to a number of dietary supplements for weight loss.

Organic lecithin holds great promise in the weight loss and cholesterol control fields of medicine. In addition it is very important to modern day food processing.

Mark Ransome asked:


The Acai (pronounced ah-SAH-ee) berry is the latest super antioxidant food sweeping the world. This small round fruit is produced by the Acai Palm which is native to Central and South America floodplains and swamps. The fruit is rich in anthocyanin / anthocyanidin phytonutrients which are members of the flavonoid class of antioxidants. The dark purple berry, which tastes something like a blend of berries and chocolate, supposedly contains 10 to 30 times the flavonoids contained in red wine. The pulp is also rich in B vitamins, minerals, protein, Vitamin E, caffeine, fiber and essential fatty acids (such as Omega-3, Omega-6 and Omega-9). This wonder food is purported to fight cancer, control cholesterol, increase energy, improve your sex life and help you lose weight. The University of Florida is studying its cancer fighting properties and Dr. Nicholas Perricone has recommended it as one of his “top 10 superfoods for age-defying beauty” on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, and in an article in “Oprah” magazine and also in his book “The Perricone Promise”. This little berry has been touted as one of the most nutritious and healthy foods in the world.

The studies being conducted at the University of Florida have determined that the Brazilian berry destroys cultured leukemia cancer cells. This study was not intended to show whether acai berries could prevent leukemia in people as it was only a cell-culture model. This is not a unique effect as other fruits such as grapes, guavas and mangoes contained antioxidant products that also destroyed cultured cancer cells. A lot of claims are being made but research has just started on the acai berry. Another study is underway to investigate the effects of acai’s antioxidants on human subjects.

The acai berry is a small dark blue fruit, similar in size to a blueberry or small grape but with less pulp, that grows in clusters or panicles of approximately 800 berries on Acai palm trees. The tribes of the Amazon knew of the health properties of this fruit for centuries and traditionally pulped it to make wine. The berries contain a thin layer of edible pulp surrounding a large seed. These palms are extremely prevalent in the floodplain areas of the Amazon River and are easy to cultivate as a replacement tree in areas where the rain forest has been destroyed. The slender palms grow from 40 to 80 feet tall and have leaves up to 10 feet long. Each palm can produce more than 50 pounds of berries annually. The harvesting of this powerful antioxidant rich product has become a major industry in Brazil and employs up to 30,000 people on a daily basis to harvest and process the product. Unfortunately the fruit deteriorates rapidly after harvesting (active properties can disappear after 24 hours) and so it is restricted to being eaten in the growing region or being processed and shipped as juice or frozen pulp. This industry has become an economic and environmentally-friendly alternative to unsustainable harvesting of hearts of palm, logging and conversion of the rain forest to farming or ranching. During the last decade in Brazil, acai has become a major food fad and Brazilians consume the frozen pulp alone or in yogurt, ice cream, smoothies, drinks, fruit or as a cereal topping. The frozen pulp tastes like a blueberry sorbet or ice cream with a hint of chocolate.

Acai can be difficult to find outside of South America although the frozen pulp and juices are starting to be imported into the US and Canada. Your best chance of finding the product is in health food stores or the health food section of your supermarket. Make sure that the acai berry is wild harvested and quickly frozen to retain its maximum nutrient value. Also in the US, acai is being sold as an ingredient in a number of beverages, and as frozen fruit that can be added to home-made smoothies as well as in health food extracts and supplements.

Michael Sheridan asked:


Collecting recipes from all over the world wide web can be fun and very rewarding in terms of the food you eat. It can also be a nightmare to organize. It doesn’t have to be. A little work early on will pay rich rewards as your recipe collection grows.

There’s no need to buy expensive software, everything you need is on your computer right now. There’s no need to print anything out, either, even though most good cooking websites provide you with that facility. You just need to follow the easy, step by step, instructions below.

I’m going to assume that you are a Windows user and that you have Internet Explorer as your web browser (the software that lets you access the internet). If you have a different system don’t worry, the only real difference is likely to be that your ‘Favorites’ file is called ‘bookmarks’. I’m also going to assume that you know next to nothing about using that file. You may find it easier to print these instructions out.

Here’s what you need to do:

1.Open your browser by double clicking on the ‘e’ shaped icon on your desktop (the area of screen you see when nothing else is happening).

2.In the top gray bar you will see the following: File Edit View Favorites Tools Help. Click on Favorites.

3.In the menu that appears click on Organize Favorites and in the little box that pops up you will see four buttons on the left. Click on Create Folder.

4.In the little window on the right you will see a new folder appear with the words ‘New Folder’ highlighted in blue. Without doing anything else, type the word Recipes and hit the ‘enter’ key. That’s step one completed.

5.Now click on Create Folder again and name this folder Chicken. You now have two new folders, one below the other, but we want the Chicken folder inside the Recipes folder and that’s easy to do.

6.Highlight the Chicken folder by clicking on it once. Click on the button marked Move to Folder.

7.In the window that appears scroll down to the Recipes folder, click on it once and then click ‘OK’. As you return to the original window you will see that the Chicken folder has disappeared.

8.Click on the Recipes folder and you will see it reappear, but this time it’s inside the Recipes folder.

9.Adding more sub-folders is a snap. All you have to do is highlight the Chicken folder by clicking on it once and then click Create Folder. You will see your new folder appear under the Chicken folder and inside the Recipes folder. Call this one Lamb or Salmon or anything else you like. You can go on adding folders like this until you have all you need. You can also add more at a later date just by following the same process.

Before we finish, let’s just check that you have everything working as it should. Go to this page http://www.all-about-cooking.com/chicken (if a box drops down with my picture on it click the little ‘x’ in the top right corner to get rid of it) and click on Favorites followed by Add to Favorites.

Scroll down in the window that appears and click on the little [+] next to Recipes, then Chicken and finally the OK button in the top right corner. That’s it, you’re done. You now have a complete chicken recipe collection neatly stored in your favorites file that you can access any time you like. And of course you can add as many different web pages or individual recipes as you wish by following the same simple procedure. Just get into the habit of clicking the Favorites button whenever you find a recipe you like and you need never be surrounded by bits of paper again.

Michael Sheridan asked:


Collecting recipes from all over the world wide web can be fun and very rewarding in terms of the food you eat. It can also be a nightmare to organize. It doesn’t have to be. A little work early on will pay rich rewards as your recipe collection grows.

There’s no need to buy expensive software, everything you need is on your computer right now. There’s no need to print anything out, either, even though most good cooking websites provide you with that facility. You just need to follow the easy, step by step, instructions below.

I’m going to assume that you are a Windows user and that you have Internet Explorer as your web browser (the software that lets you access the internet). If you have a different system don’t worry, the only real difference is likely to be that your ‘Favorites’ file is called ‘bookmarks’. I’m also going to assume that you know next to nothing about using that file. You may find it easier to print these instructions out.

Here’s what you need to do:

1.Open your browser by double clicking on the ‘e’ shaped icon on your desktop (the area of screen you see when nothing else is happening).

2.In the top gray bar you will see the following: File Edit View Favorites Tools Help. Click on Favorites.

3.In the menu that appears click on Organize Favorites and in the little box that pops up you will see four buttons on the left. Click on Create Folder.

4.In the little window on the right you will see a new folder appear with the words ‘New Folder’ highlighted in blue. Without doing anything else, type the word Recipes and hit the ‘enter’ key. That’s step one completed.

5.Now click on Create Folder again and name this folder Chicken. You now have two new folders, one below the other, but we want the Chicken folder inside the Recipes folder and that’s easy to do.

6.Highlight the Chicken folder by clicking on it once. Click on the button marked Move to Folder.

7.In the window that appears scroll down to the Recipes folder, click on it once and then click ‘OK’. As you return to the original window you will see that the Chicken folder has disappeared.

8.Click on the Recipes folder and you will see it reappear, but this time it’s inside the Recipes folder.

9.Adding more sub-folders is a snap. All you have to do is highlight the Chicken folder by clicking on it once and then click Create Folder. You will see your new folder appear under the Chicken folder and inside the Recipes folder. Call this one Lamb or Salmon or anything else you like. You can go on adding folders like this until you have all you need. You can also add more at a later date just by following the same process.

Before we finish, let’s just check that you have everything working as it should. Go to this page http://www.all-about-cooking.com/chicken (if a box drops down with my picture on it click the little ‘x’ in the top right corner to get rid of it) and click on Favorites followed by Add to Favorites.

Scroll down in the window that appears and click on the little [+] next to Recipes, then Chicken and finally the OK button in the top right corner. That’s it, you’re done. You now have a complete chicken recipe collection neatly stored in your favorites file that you can access any time you like. And of course you can add as many different web pages or individual recipes as you wish by following the same simple procedure. Just get into the habit of clicking the Favorites button whenever you find a recipe you like and you need never be surrounded by bits of paper again.

Mark Ransome asked:


The Acai (pronounced ah-SAH-ee) berry is the latest super antioxidant food sweeping the world. This small round fruit is produced by the Acai Palm which is native to Central and South America floodplains and swamps. The fruit is rich in anthocyanin / anthocyanidin phytonutrients which are members of the flavonoid class of antioxidants. The dark purple berry, which tastes something like a blend of berries and chocolate, supposedly contains 10 to 30 times the flavonoids contained in red wine. The pulp is also rich in B vitamins, minerals, protein, Vitamin E, caffeine, fiber and essential fatty acids (such as Omega-3, Omega-6 and Omega-9). This wonder food is purported to fight cancer, control cholesterol, increase energy, improve your sex life and help you lose weight. The University of Florida is studying its cancer fighting properties and Dr. Nicholas Perricone has recommended it as one of his “top 10 superfoods for age-defying beauty” on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, and in an article in “Oprah” magazine and also in his book “The Perricone Promise”. This little berry has been touted as one of the most nutritious and healthy foods in the world.

The studies being conducted at the University of Florida have determined that the Brazilian berry destroys cultured leukemia cancer cells. This study was not intended to show whether acai berries could prevent leukemia in people as it was only a cell-culture model. This is not a unique effect as other fruits such as grapes, guavas and mangoes contained antioxidant products that also destroyed cultured cancer cells. A lot of claims are being made but research has just started on the acai berry. Another study is underway to investigate the effects of acai’s antioxidants on human subjects.

The acai berry is a small dark blue fruit, similar in size to a blueberry or small grape but with less pulp, that grows in clusters or panicles of approximately 800 berries on Acai palm trees. The tribes of the Amazon knew of the health properties of this fruit for centuries and traditionally pulped it to make wine. The berries contain a thin layer of edible pulp surrounding a large seed. These palms are extremely prevalent in the floodplain areas of the Amazon River and are easy to cultivate as a replacement tree in areas where the rain forest has been destroyed. The slender palms grow from 40 to 80 feet tall and have leaves up to 10 feet long. Each palm can produce more than 50 pounds of berries annually. The harvesting of this powerful antioxidant rich product has become a major industry in Brazil and employs up to 30,000 people on a daily basis to harvest and process the product. Unfortunately the fruit deteriorates rapidly after harvesting (active properties can disappear after 24 hours) and so it is restricted to being eaten in the growing region or being processed and shipped as juice or frozen pulp. This industry has become an economic and environmentally-friendly alternative to unsustainable harvesting of hearts of palm, logging and conversion of the rain forest to farming or ranching. During the last decade in Brazil, acai has become a major food fad and Brazilians consume the frozen pulp alone or in yogurt, ice cream, smoothies, drinks, fruit or as a cereal topping. The frozen pulp tastes like a blueberry sorbet or ice cream with a hint of chocolate.

Acai can be difficult to find outside of South America although the frozen pulp and juices are starting to be imported into the US and Canada. Your best chance of finding the product is in health food stores or the health food section of your supermarket. Make sure that the acai berry is wild harvested and quickly frozen to retain its maximum nutrient value. Also in the US, acai is being sold as an ingredient in a number of beverages, and as frozen fruit that can be added to home-made smoothies as well as in health food extracts and supplements.