Cooking Tips

Everyone knows fish is good for you. It’s low in saturated fat, and it makes you smart. So it’s no wonder consumers are confused by headlines warning fish eaters of impending doom.
In late 2002, a San Francisco Chronicle headline warned that eating fish can be risky because of the high content of mercury in some deep-water fish. A physician in Northern California had discovered that wealthy individuals eating expensive fish, such as swordfish and tuna, were putting themselves at risk for mercury poisoning — even as they were trying to eat healthy. In one case, a woman suffered hair loss and high levels of mercury in her blood. That spurred Dr. Jane M. Hightower, an expert of internal medicine at San Francisco’s California Pacific Medical Center, to fish around for answers. Hightower studied her own patients, who were affluent and ate plenty of gourmet fish — swordfish, sea bass, halibut and ahi tuna. She found that patients who often ate these fish or were experiencing symptoms of mercury exposure (fatigue, headache, joint pain, and reduced memory and concentration) had unacceptable levels of mercury in their blood. Hightower retested these patients after they abstained from the suspect fish for six months. The high levels of mercury disappeared. Not surprising, the FDA has issued warnings about high levels of mercury for some of these fish.
Fish remains tasty – and healthy
Fish is naturally low in cholesterol and has been the protein of choice for cardiologists and weight-conscious Americans. It is a fantastic source of omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to lower the risk of heart disease by lowering cholesterol and decreasing the stickiness of blood platelets. This means omega-3 fats can lower the risk for stroke. Studies have shown conclusively that men and women who eat a diet rich in fatty fish — salmon, mackerel, sardines, anchovies and tuna — are less likely to suffer heart disease and stroke. One study published in the journal Circulation (American Heart Association) showed that eating fish regularly reduced the risk of heart disease in diabetic women as much as 64 percent. Researchers at Chicago’s Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center found that older people who eat fish at least once a week may cut their risk of Alzheimer’s disease by more than half.
It’s not necessary to eat fish every day to reap the benefits. According to a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association, men who ate about three to five ounces of fish one to three times a month were 43 percent less likely to have a stroke during 12 years of follow-up. Men who ate fish more often did not reduce their risk any further.

Salted roe of sturgeon and other varieties of fish are popularly known as caviar. It is a delicacy used as a spread or garnish and with hors d’oeuvres. Caviar is a deviate of the Persian word Khag-avar which means “the roe generator” referring to roe of the sturgeon.
There is good news for environmentally conscious American citizens who also happen to be connoisseurs of caviar. Now new varieties of caviars are available which are produced from paddlefish and sturgeon farmed in the US. They taste good and at the same time are environmentally sustainable. The development of American caviar also addresses the worries of consumers and culinary experts about the decline of sturgeon in the Caspian Sea.
Caspian Sea Sturgeon is the major source for the caviar needs of the world. Sturgeons produce the famous beluga. Due to illegal trade, pollution, over fishing and habitat loss, there is a severe downward spiral in the population of sturgeon in the Caspian Sea.
SeaWeb, Pew Institute for Ocean Science and Natural Resources Defense Council of University of Miami is urging the American consumers to support American caviars as a better alternative and to safeguard the endangered species of the Caspian Sea. The caviars from Missouri and California are prominently supported by consumers, renowned chefs and media organizations.
Jacques Pepinand and Rick Moonen who are leading chefs of New York’s Restaurant RM and San Francisco’s Traci des Jardins of Jardiniere removed Caspian Sea caviars from their menu and replaced them with American caviars in an effort to help the environmental groups protecting the Caspian Sea sturgeons.
Most of the party givers would like to know how much caviar should be bought for their party. It depends on the number of guests attending the party and how the caviar is going to be served. With every ounce of caviar, you can serve 8 to 10 guests. Quarter teaspoon or less of caviar can be used for garnishing purposes. With caviar on top of an appetizer and to enhance the taste of caviar predominantly, use half a teaspoon.
Caviar should not be opened until it is needed. Leftovers should be promptly covered and stored in the fridge to be used within a couple of days.If the taste of the caviar is to be retained, do not freeze it. When you freeze the caviar the roe membrane of the caviar gets toughened and the flavor is altered. If you do freeze it, slowly defrost the frozen caviar in the fridge for at least a day or two before you serve. Caviar should be refrigerated at 28 to 32 degrees by putting the tin in the meat shelf or surrounding the bowl containing caviar with ice.

Yes, it is a ‘Forrest Gump’ reference and it should be expected any time shrimp is mentioned for the next twenty years. “Bubba Gump” shrimp is how Forrest made his millions in the Hollywood movie. But, the movie will always be remembered for the amazing number of ways a person can make shrimp. As Bubba would say, “There’s barbecue shrimp, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp soup, fried shrimp…..the list is almost endless. And while there are certainly a large number of ways to cook shrimp, there is actually a fair amount of confusion as to what exactly a shrimp really is. Maybe Bubba wasn’t actually cooking shrimp?
In England and a number of other places, what would be called shrimp in the United States is actually referred to as prawn. If you were to look at a prawn and a shrimp side by side, it would be virtually impossible to distinguish which was which. Technically speaking, however, a prawn truly is not a shrimp.
To the naked eye, the two may appear identical but they are biologically different. On the abdomen of a shrimp or prawn are flaps. Without going into too much detail and causing everyone to go running for a Biology book, let’s just say that the there is a very subtle difference between the first abdomen flap on a shrimp and a prawn. But essentially, these are the same creature.
As far as the Americans are concerned, a shrimp is any crustacean that is part of the Natantia family of crustaceans. It doesn’t matter how big the shrimp is or where it is found—so long as it is a Nantantia crustacean—it’s a shrimp! However, there is a rather peculiar phenomenon among American shrimp that does have to do with size.
Were Bubba to have grown up on the West Coast of the United States, he most certainly would not have seen much potential in the shrimp—for eating, let alone making any money! This is because the typical size of a shrimp found of the West Coast is about ½ inch in length. For some reason, the Pacific Ocean just is not a great place for jumbo shrimp to grow. But elsewhere, it is nothing for shrimp to be 12 inches in length or more.
Shrimp, like any species, comes in a wide assortment of variety. There are rock, brine, royal red, white, brown, and even pink shrimp to choose from. Each offers a unique flavor and consistency but all are absolutely delicious when prepared properly. And, Bubba was correct—you can make shrimp just about any way your imagination will let you! So whether you want to call it prawn or just plain old shrimp—the truth is that it tastes great no matter how you make it!

This Hot Sauce is so hot, you’d have to gulp 250,000 gallons of water just to put out the fire.

“We live in an extreme world,” describes Blair Lazar, a hot sauce inventor. “And I make extreme foods. ‘ In his palm of his hand is the most blistering pepper extract in the world, an over-the-top version of pepper concentrate so blistering that customers must sign a waiver clearing him of any liability if they are crazy enough to try it.

Locked in a crystal bottle sealed with wax and a tiny skull, Mr Lazar’s lip-scorching concoction is pure capsaicin – the chemical that gives habanero and jalapeno peppers their atomic heat. Blair Lazar claims to try his sauce is to encounter ‘pure heat’. His “16 Million Reserve”, which was released to the public in 2006, is the brass ring of hot sauces, the most blistering pepper extract that chemistry can create. It is 30 times hotter than the hottest pepper, the Red Savina from Mexico, and 8,000 times more powerful than Tabasco sauce.

To put the smallest dot on the tip of your tongue is to encounter “pure heat”, Mr. Lazar says. Although capsaicin does not actually burn – it tricks your brain into thinking that you are in pain by exciting nerve endings in your mouth – some health specialists think that it might kill an asthmatic or hospitalize a user who touched his eyes or different susceptible parts of the anatomy. Mr Lazar has trained his taste buds to endure the feeling, but he remembers the instant he decided to try his “16 Million Reserve” himself. “The pain was exquisite,” he said. “It was like having your tongue hit with a hammer. Man, it hurt. My tongue swelled up and it hurt like hell for days. ” The Scoville Scale measures the heat of peppers. The eye-watering merits of peppers are measured in Scoville units, established by Wilbur Scoville, an American chemist who, in 1912, asked panelists to evaluate how many parts of sugar water it took to remove the heat.

Today, capsaicin content is measured in parts per million, using a procedure recognized as high-performance liquid chromatography; one part being equivalent to 15 Scoville units. Benign bell peppers rate zero Scoville units and the Red Savina joined Guinness World Records at 570,000 units. Pure capsaicin, meanwhile, has a heat score of 16 million units – inspiring the name for Mr Lazar’s latest innovation. Each of the 999 limited-issue bottles, priced at $289, comprises  just a few crystals. The concentrate is so strong, though, that Mr Lazar approximates that it would have to be dissipated in 250,000 gallons of water before it might no longer be tasted.

His calling as a hot sauce inventor began when he established that the best way to remove people under the influence out of his seaside bar was to give them free chicken wings immersed in an eye-watering home-made hot sauce. Now he owns and manages Extreme Foods in New Jersey, marketing his existing assortment of sauces, including “Mega Death” and “Jersey Death”, the second, according to Mr Lazar, being the world’s most blistering usable hot sauce. He maintains a refrigerator full of purified water in his headquarters for those courageous enough to try some of the sauces. Most testers sweat severely and are powerless to see through their tears for up to half an hour. It takes many tons of crisp peppers to produce 1lb of capsaicin for the 16 Million Reserve, and the work takes months. First, wetness is separated from the crisp peppers until a thick tar-like substance is left. The process by which all additional impurities are removed, leaving pure capsaicin concentrate, is classified, but the work takes place in a research laboratory where Mr Lazar and his team wear sealed outfits with masks to steer clear of inhaling the dust. Several years ago Mr Lazar developed “2am Reserve” in honor of the hour at which he once closed his bar. It was hotter than any other hot sauce creation on the market, measuring up to 900,000 Scoville units. He then distilled even more powerful extracts, including the scorching “6am Reserve” at 10 million units. Most of the signed and numbered bottles of “16 Million Reserve” will be purchased by hot sauce addicts recognized as chili heads.

Buyers have to agree to a rider cautioning that any handling “must be under a controlled environment using protective eye wear”. “It can’t be used for flavor,” says Mr Lazar. “The only purpose is its heat value.” He prefers not to guess on what might happen should anyone be crazy enough to down a whole flask. Rinsing the mouth with milk is among the best cures as it binds to fat molecules; it will also dissipate in alcohol.