Asian Recipes

Asian Recipes Blog

The Unrivaled Practical Guide for Asian Cooking

Keeping the tender breast meat from drying out when roasting a pheasant

As the flesh of game birds is very lean, the breast must be protected. Cover it with a layer of pork fat or streaky bacon to prevent it drying out in the oven. The birds should also be basted from time to time during roasting with the cooking juices and melted fat. Remove the pork fat or bacon 10 minutes before the end of cooking to let the breast brown. If the skin is not brown and crisp enough at the end of cooking, put the bird under a hot grill for a minute or two before serving. Using oven roasting bags also helps to retain the moisture when cooking a game bird.

** Asian Recipes **

04:23:22 on 07/27/08 by Webmaster - Quick Cooking Tips -

Making a healthy pastry, one low in saturated fat

You can make a flan case using light olive oil. This pastry is not as short as traditional shortcrust and will have a firm texture that needs careful handling.

Sift 250g (2 cups) of plain flour into a bowl with a pinch of salt and make a well in the center. Whisk 4 tablespoons of water in another bowl until blended. Gradually add the oil mixture to the flour, mixing until it forms a firm dough. Knead quickly until smooth then line a 23 cm flan tin; bake it blind. Should a slight crack appear during baking, brush it over with a little lightly beaten egg white and return to a hot oven for 1-2 minutes to dry out. This helps to seal the crack and prevent the filling seeping out.

** Dessert Recipes **

15:08:12 on 07/12/08 by Webmaster - Quick Cooking Tips -

Stopping pastry in pies going soggy

There are several possible causes of soggy pastry. One is that oven temperatures vary and the only way to be sure your oven is the correct temperature is to use an oven thermometer. A pie that is soggy inside may not have been cooked for long enough; or a precooked filling may not have cooled sufficiently before being covered with pastry.

Too much liquid in the filling can wet the pastry lid. Fruits combined with sugar require only a little water as they will exude juice during cooking. If you are layering fruit with sugar, make sure the last layer is fruit before the pastry lid is added: if the sugar comes directly into contact with the pastry, it will make it soggy. A hole or cross cut in the top of the pie allows steam to escape from a covered pie and keeps the pastry crisp.

** Cooking Thermometers **

00:53:06 on 07/10/08 by Webmaster - Quick Cooking Tips -