Adapting Recipes For Waterless Cookware

Many of us want to cook healthy meals that are both pleasing to the eye as well as to the palate. There are literally thousands of cookbooks on the market that help us with that daily task of meal planning and preparation. Yet when it comes to waterless and greaseless cooking, there are very few cookbooks available. To enjoy a variety of recipes and receive the benefits of cooking without water and added fats, you will need to adapt recipes. The easiest way to do that is to know and trust your cookware. Three things are important in this process.

Use Lower Temperature Settings

Stainless Skillet

One of the benefits of quality stainless steel waterless cookware is the way it conducts heat-on low. One common mistake is to use a heat setting that is too high. Waterless cookware has a flat bottom comprised of 5, 7, 9 or possibly 12 elements (layers). This bottom of a waterless cooking pan needs to be flat to provide for even heat distribution. The special design of the encapsulated bottom of each stainless steel pot provides strength and rigidity that prevents warping. It also eliminates hot spots that may burn food. Heat is distributed evenly in all directions.

Adapting Recipes For Waterless Cookware

Understand Waterless Cooking
inse and freshen vegetables. Pour off excess water, cover utensil, close vent, set on low heat, and remember not to peek. These are the basic principles of waterless cooking. Every time you lift the cover moisture is allowed to escape. This can result in burned foods and/or extra cooking time. Always use the correct size pan. Vegetables should fill or almost fill the pan. If there is too much air inside the pan, the vapor seal will not form, and vegetables will burn. Many foods, like fruits and vegetables, have their own moisture. You can retain the natural moisture by cooking with low heat, the cover on, and the vent closed. There is an exception however. Dried foods, such as rice, pasta, or dried beans will have to additional moisture added to rehydrate.

Enjoy Greaseless Cooking
You really can prepare your foods without added oils and fats. Remember, you are cooking on a surgical stainless steel surface. To prepare meats, preheat the pan on medium (on some stoves medium high might be necessary) heat until water drops "dance" when they are sprinkled in the pan. Place the meat in the pan. It will immediately begin to sear, temporarily sticking to the surface. You should not try to move them until they are ready to turn. After 4 or 5 minutes, lift the corner of the meat. Do not force. The meat should release itself. When that side is seared, turn and cook on the other side for additional 4 or 5 minutes. Most meats, chicken, chops, and fish have natural fats and oils, so you don't need to add them. There are some who believe that cooking meats in stainless steel, rather than nonstick, pans will result in stuck-on foods and therefore messy cleanups afterward. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. True, meats will stick during the searing process, but with the help of a spatula, these particles will easily come loose later in the cooking process.

Eggs, however, have no natural oil. You must add vegetable cooking spray to the pan or use a small amount of butter or margarine.

I have included a recipe for Chicken Pot Pie that I have adapted to waterless cookware. Once you get used to following the above principles, you will realize cooking with waterless cookware needn't be a scary, uncertain experiment but rather an enjoyable culinary experience. You don't have to be a gourmet cook to produce eye-appealing, tasty and healthy meals!

Chicken Pot Pie

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 medium carrot, diced
4 celery stalks, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 Tbsp. minced fresh garlic
2 Tbsp. soup base (vegetable or chicken)
1 Tbsp. dried thyme
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried rubbed sage, basil, and parsley
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
4 cups heavy cream
2 cups water
1 large unpeeled Russet potato, diced
1 cup corn kernels
Pastry crust (optional)

Put chicken thighs in heavy stockpot and saute until cooked all the way through. It will begin to shred at this point. Add the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic. Saute until carrots are tender. Add the soup base, thyme, oregano, basil, sage, parsley, salt, and pepper. Cook until fragrant.

Add the flour and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the cream, water, potatoes, and corn to the pot. Cook until a fork goes through the potatoes without resistance. The starch in the potatoes and the flour will thicken the mixture. If you want a really thick filling, add more flour.

Put chicken mixture into a pie pan or other baking dish. Cover with single pie crust or puff pastry. Seal the edges. Heat at 350 degrees. (You can also serve the filling over biscuits that have been heated according to directions.)

8 servings

Adapting Recipes For Waterless Cookware

Induction Cooking Explained Part 4 - Cookware For Induction Cooking

Part 1 of this series explained how Induction cooktops use a magnetic field to directly heat the the pot or pan. Part 2 explained the growing popularity of induction cooking by exploring induction's many advantages over conventional cooking technologies. This installment of the Induction Cooking Explained series expands on an issue introduced in part 3 by looking at the types of cookware that work best on induction cooktops and explaining which types of cookware should be avoided.

Unlike gas and conventional electric cooking elements, induction elements do not heat up and then transfer heat to the pot or pan. Instead, they directly heat the pot or pan via magnetic hysteresis loss. While the home cook or restaurant chef has no need to understand the details of magnetic hysteresis, he or she must be aware that induction cooking only works with pans made of a ferrous (magnetic) material and will not work with aluminum, glass or ceramic cookware. In addition, although steel is normally magnetic, some stainless steels are actually non-magnetic alloys unsuitable for induction cooking.

Stainless Skillet

Because of induction's growing popularity, many manufacturers whose cookware is compatible with induction cooking will state this in their product descriptions. In addition you can perform an easy test: generally speaking, if a magnet sticks to the bottom of a pot or pan then that pot or pan can be used for induction cooking. Conversely, if a magnet does not stick to the bottom of the pan, then the pan cannot be used for induction cooking.

Induction Cooking Explained Part 4 - Cookware For Induction Cooking

In addition to being magnetic, a pot or pan used for induction cooking must have a flat bottom; therefore traditional round-bottomed woks are not suitable for induction cooking, nor are pots or pans that have extremely warped bottoms. Several manufacturers make Chinese-style induction cooktops specifically designed for round-bottomed woks; however these cooktops are suitable only for woks and can't be used with flat bottomed pans.

Cast Iron

The materials suitable for induction cooking fortunately turn out to be among the most commonly used and effective cookware materials: cast iron, carbon steel and some stainless steel. The first of these types, cast iron, is a very traditional type of cookware and is well suited for a wide range of applications. Cast iron has a high heat capacity compared to many other cookware materials, so cast iron pots and pans tend to be relatively slow to heat up and, once heated, tend to hold heat longer once the heat source is removed. This property is advantageous for many types of cooking (for example, non-enameled cast iron skillets excel at browning and searing meat because of this property), but cast iron cookware is not ideally suited for dishes that require rapid temperature changes. Also, cast iron cookware must be seasoned to protect against rust, to prevent acidic food from reacting with the cookware, and to prevent food from sticking (a well seasoned cast iron pan is almost as stick resistant as a modern "non-stick" pan) and care must be taken when cleaning cast iron cookware not to remove the seasoning.

Enameled Cast Iron

In addition to the plain cast iron cookware discussed above, several manufacturers produce enameled cast iron cookware. The enamel coating means that the cookware:
does not have to be seasoned is fairly easy to clean will not react with acidic foods.

Furthermore, enameled cookware is attractive because the enamel coating is typically available in a variety of bright colors. However, enameled cookware does not do a good job of browning food and the enamel is subject to damage if the cookware is dropped or heated to an extreme temperature. Both enameled and plain cast iron work well with induction cooktops.

Carbon Steel

Carbon steel is common in woks used for Asian-style stir-fry cooking but is otherwise not commonly used for cookware in the U.S. Like cast iron, carbon steel must be seasoned to reduce sticking, rusting and to prevent food from reacting with the cookware. Also like cast iron, once properly seasoned, carbon steel is almost as stick-resistant as modern non-stick cookware. Flat bottomed carbon steel cookware works well with induction cooktops; however round-bottomed woks will work only with specially designed Chinese style induction cookers.

Stainless Steel

Stainless steel actually refers to a family of steel alloys. To be called stainless steel, an alloy must contain a minimum of 10.5% chromium, and it is chromium that causes stainless steel to be resistant to rusting. Many stainless steels contain other metals such as nickel as well. Nickel adds additional corrosion resistance, hardness and durability to stainless steel; therefore it is common in cookware. Unfortunately, stainless steel containing nickel is usually non-magnetic; therefore some stainless steel cookware is not suitable for induction cooking. When purchasing stainless steel cookware for induction cooking, you should look for a statement from the manufacturer or retailer indicating that the cookware is induction-ready. Alternatively, you can test the cookware with a magnet.

Clad Stainless Steel

In addition to frequently being non-magnetic, stainless steel's thermal properties are not well suited for cookware (inductive or otherwise); carbon steel and cast iron both conduct heat much better than does stainless steel. Interestingly, the cookware materials with the best thermal conductivity, aluminum and copper, are non-magnetic and are both quite reactive, so there is really no one material that is ideal for induction cookware. However stainless-steel clad cookware, the fourth type of induction-ready cookware, is made from several different types of metals resulting in cookware that has the desirable properties of each.

Typically, clad cookware has outer layers of nickel stainless steel for durability, non-reactivity and for its shiny luster, an inner layer of either iron, carbon steel or magnetic stainless steel and another inner layer of either aluminum or copper for its high conductivity (the goal of this layer is to conduct heat evenly across the surface of the pan bottom for even heating). Some clad cookware will utilize magnetic stainless steel for the outside layer of the pan bottom rather than cladding the bottom in nickel stainless steel; this eliminates 1 layer while retaining all of the important properties of clad cookware. Because clad cookware has the best properties of several different materials, it is an excellent choice for induction cookware. There are several excellent high-end brands of clad cookware and numerous less expensive brands.

Waterless Cookware

One excellent choice for clad induction compatible cookware is multi-ply surgical stainless steel cookware marketed as waterless cookware. Even if you do not intend to use waterless cooking techniques, many of the same properties that make cookware well suited for waterless cooking also make it suitable for induction cooking. Just make sure that one of the layers in the multi-ply cookware is magnetic as this will not always be the case.

Non-Stick Cookware

Lastly, some but not all non-stick cookware is induction-ready. When buying non-stick cookware, use the same rule as when buying stainless cookware. If you are buying the cookware in a store and have physical access to it, then you can use the magnet test; the cookware is induction ready if and only if a magnet sticks to the bottom. If you don't have physical access, then unless the merchant or manufacturer states that the pan is induction ready, you should not purchase the pan for use with an induction cooktop.

You can leverage the advantages of induction cooking provided you have the right kind of cookware, as described in this article. Future installments of the Induction Cooking Explained series will take a closer look at why induction cooking is more environmentally friendly that other cooking techniques and will describe some of the advanced features available on induction cooktops.

Induction Cooking Explained Part 4 - Cookware For Induction Cooking

What You Should Know Before Purchasing Waterless Cookware!

There is no question that waterless cooking is a healthy way to prepare meals, but using waterless stainless steel cookware can offer other advantages as well. Not only will you be delighted in how wonderful your food looks and tastes, but you can also be assured that you are using safe cookware that will literally last a lifetime. In addition, because this cookware distributes heat so efficiently, you will save time in the kitchen. Care and maintenance is also easy. Assuming you are convinced that waterless cookware is a wise purchase for you, what criteria should you use when deciding WHAT set to purchase?

Before answering that question, it important to understand that for cookware to be categorized as waterless, four requirements must be present:
A high-grade stainless steel must be used. Waterless cookware must be a minimum of 5-ply. You will often see advertisements for products with 7-ply or 9-ply or possibly more. More plies means more layers. However, beyond a certain point, the actual number of plies is more a marketing tool and a cooking requirement. When you have a good grade of stainless steel, the cookware is easy to clean. Further, surgical stainless steel is one of the most sterile environments in which to cook. You never have to worry about coating from other metals leeching into your foods, as can happen with Teflon or aluminum. To some degree, the layering is important. Stainless steel is a great material for waterless cooking, but stainless steel is not known for fast heat transfer. Thus, the addition of a layer of aluminum in the center of the stainless steel provides for the fast and even distribution of heat. A Flat-bottomed pan is needed for efficient heat transfer. The bottom of a waterless cooking pan needs to be flat to provide for even heat distribution. A thicker bottom plate is necessary to evenly distribute the heat. The special design of the encapsulated bottom of each stainless steel pot provides strength and rigidity that prevents warping. It also eliminates hot spots that may burn food. Heat is distributed evenly in all directions. A special lid is used to keep the steam from escaping. Waterless cooking will not work if a proper seal cannot be formed. When a seal is created, it locks in the natural moisture that escapes from the food during the cooking process. Thus, foods are cooked in their own natural juices, retaining vital vitamins and minerals. This is really the key to waterless cooking-a vapor seal must be created Once you know that the cookware you are considering purchasing meets tthe criteria above, you should also consider two additional factors. For example, we offer a number of different waterless cookware sets on our Internet store site. All the sets are of comparable good quality. How then can you decide what set is best for you? Ask yourself:
What particular pieces are offered with each set? Does the set you are considering fit your particular lifestyle? Are you likely to use the pieces offered in the particular set? Which type of knob do you prefer to use--the steam-release knob or the thermo-control knob? The lids on waterless cookware must be heavy enough to prevent steam from pushing it upward and therefore allowing steam to escape. During the cooking process, it is important to maintain the correct temperature so that the food inside the pan is cooking correctly. If the lid feels like it is locked onto the pot, the temperature is too low. If the lid is bouncing and a lot of water or steam is escaping from the lid, the temperature is too high.

Stainless Skillet

While most sets have a steam-release value or a thermo-control knob. Some sets have just a plain knob. Waterless cooking has been around since the 1920's and were made initially with plain knobs. The instructions for cooking with this plain-knob set are similar to the sets that operate with the steam value. When your food reaches the stage in the plain-valve set where you see or hear the steam being released from the steam valve, you will see and hear the lid bouncing slightly and steam will be escaping from around the lid. This is your cue to turn the heat temperature down and begin the cooking process. If you are using the correct temperature during the cooking process, the lid of the pot should spin freely during cooking. If the lid feels like it is locked, then the temperature is too low. In contrast, if the lid is bouncing around and a lot of steam is escaping from around the lid, then the temperature is too high.

What You Should Know Before Purchasing Waterless Cookware!

The steam-control value is another way of creating the seal that is necessary for waterless cooking. When a seal is created, it locks in the natural moisture that escapes from the food during the cooking process. Thus, foods are cooked in their own natural juices, retaining vital vitamins and minerals. To get this vapor seal, simply start cooking your food over medium heat until the steam control valve whistles in the open position. Then, turn down the heat to a low simmer and close the valve. At this point, the lid will form an air-tight seal. Note: If steam is escaping around the lid, reduce heat to a lower setting.

The thermo-control value is still another way of creating the seal necessary for waterless cooking. The unique thermometer knobs are built into the lids to help you regulate cooking temperature. That means when you are trying to accomplish six things at a time while cooking, a simple glance at the thermometer tells you immediately if everything is fine. These thermo-control knobs make your waterless cooking easy. The thermometer gauge shows three different colors and different numbers to represent the temperature. The first color is yellow representing the lower heat temperatures. The second color, green, represents the medium temperatures of heat. When cooking, this is where you will probably be most of the time. The last color, red, represents the highest heat levels. In summary, if the temperature dial shows yellow, the heat is too low. If it is in the red zone, it means it is too high. The green zone shows the temperature where your food will cook exactly as it should.

In summary, consider the purchase of waterless cookware an investment in your health. Quality stainless steel cookware will last a lifetime. Therefore, it is important to take the necessary time so that you can make an informed decision. If you have more questions about waterless cookware, induction cookware or waterless cooking or you are just looking for healthy recipes to prepare for your family, check out our site-- The Gourmets Cookware.

What You Should Know Before Purchasing Waterless Cookware!

Creating a Country Kitchen Decor

Do you like the look of a country kitchen? Does it remind you of grandma's kitchen that you used to visit when you were young? Everyone loves the homey feeling they get from a country kitchen. It makes you feel happy and safe. It always had the right smell and the right look to it. Now you can create a country kitchen decor theme without sacrificing your wallet or asking grandma for some of her priceless kitchen decor.

One rule of thumb when using a theme in your kitchen is don't over do it. If you add too many items in your kitchen that match you may create a distracting look in your kitchen.

Stainless Skillet

First you need to pick a color that you like. The country colors are natural colors you see outside. It could be lavender like the lilac bush in grandma's yard. It could be blue like the sky or green like the grass. There is nothing wrong with a white kitchen. It is neat and clean and bright looking. The color that you choose can play an important part in how everyone feels when they enter your kitchen. The color that you choose will also have something to do with their appetites. Yellow is a good color to have in a kitchen.

Creating a Country Kitchen Decor

Braided area rugs are the perfect rug for a country kitchen decor. You can place cream rugs around the eating area of your kitchen. You want your rugs to provide comfort in the areas that you need them the most but you don't want them to take over the decor in your kitchen.

The windows are fun to decorate. You could use white lace curtains for the kitchen or you can add color by hanging checked gingham print curtains that you make by hand or you purchase online. The gingham comes in many different colors; red and white, blue and white, and sage green and white. These curtains allow just enough light to come into the room while adding color to your kitchen decor.

On the stove you will need a copper tea pot to set on the burner at all times. Grandma always had the best tasting hot tea when you were feeling bad or sad. The copper teapot can have your tea ready in just ten minutes. The copper teapots are inexpensive and they will last you forever with the proper care.

Lighting is important in your kitchen. To get a country kitchen look you will need to place the lighting over your bar and your sink. You will also want studio lighting placed in different locations in your kitchen so you will always have enough lighting to create a nice relaxing place to be.

Purchase some wrought iron kitchen accessories including a wrought iron pots and pans rack. This is the best way to store what you use the most often so you can have easy access to it each and every day that you cook. When your look is complete, everyone will feel welcome and enjoy coming to your kitchen.

Creating a Country Kitchen Decor

Nonstick Frying Pan - How to Get the Most For Your Money When Buying Your Favorite Frying Pan

When you buy that nonstick frying pan, it is important to know that price is not always the best indicator of value. In this article you can learn about three brands that are great values in their respective price range.

WearEver - A Name Almost Everyone Remembers

Stainless Skillet

WearEver has been around FOR ever and it's still hanging in there with ever improved products. The WearEver Freedom 12-inch nonstick frying pan is a very nice size and lives up to its WearEver name. Most people aren't particularly kind to their WearEver pans because they are lower priced.

Nonstick Frying Pan - How to Get the Most For Your Money When Buying Your Favorite Frying Pan

But, you know what? After a year or so, you will be amazed at the great condition that pan is still in. The handle is sturdy and it's just heavy enough to feel good in your hand. A real low priced value for the money and probably why WearEver is still wearing well.

Cuisinart - The Chef's Classic

Cuisinart cookware is very impressive and it holds a special place in many kitchens. One of this company's claims to fame is its exceptional use of hard-anodized aluminum. This is a medium priced cookware that is even available in a variety of decorative colors.

The Cuisinart skillet's nonstick coating is a breeze to cook with. Great for eggs, sauteing vegetables or even a hamburger; it performs like a champ. This pan cleans up easy and both the inside and outside stands up very well over time. In the medium price range and with a limited lifetime warranty, the Cuisinart offers a lot for the money.

All Clad - A Top Drawer Nonstick Product

If you know anything about cookware, you've heard of All Clad. They have etched a reputation for the standard in beautiful, long lasting cookware. Perhaps All Clad was the first brand you ever splurged on to bring home a highly touted frying pan.

Their ability to perfectly laminate shiny stainless steel over aluminum produces a very high performance product; one that assure even heat over the cooking surface. Unless you are willing to shell out for copper, All Clad Stainless is near the top of the line.

So when choosing your nonstick frying pan, you definitely have a choice. To get the most for your money, I think you will do well to remember these three examples of value for the price.

Nonstick Frying Pan - How to Get the Most For Your Money When Buying Your Favorite Frying Pan