The Secrets to Sirloin Steak Cooking Methods

Sirloin refers to steak cut from the lower portion of beef ribs, continuing from the tenderloin, which is where we get prized steaks like filet Mignon. Sirloin is a high quality cut, since the muscles are still doing a reasonable amount of work, giving it more flavor than other areas. The sirloin is divided into a number of different kinds of steak.

The Different Sirloin Steak Cuts

The top sirloin is the most prized of all the sirloin steaks, and you are unlikely to find it unless you look for it specifically. Most sirloin steak is really bottom sirloin, a tougher, larger piece of steak that can be more readily available and cost less. Bottom sirloin is also connected to what is called the sirloin tip roast, a good, if somewhat tough roast that should not be eaten as a steak.

Tri-tip steak is one of the most robustly flavored parts of the bottom sirloin, but is quite lean and easy to overcook. Sirloin pin bone steak comes from the front of the sirloin, and has an oval pin bone in it that gives the steak its name. A sirloin flatbone steak can be identified by the flat hip and backbone pieces it has inside this cut of steak.

Sirloin round bone steaks contain less bone and fat than the majority of other sirloin cuts, while sirloin wedge bone steaks come from the rear of the sirloin, and contain small wedge shaped bones. These, and many other kinds of steaks, are all readily available at most markets.

Sirloin Steak Cooking Methods for Perfect Results

Sirloin cuts are leaner and less tender and buttery than the higher end competition, but they make up for it in price and flavor. They are best cooked over a high, dry heat, such as pan cooking, grilling, roasting, and broiling. Of course, you will need to treat different parts of the sirloin differently, so cooking sirloin steak will have a lot to do with what part of the sirloin you are preparing.

Make sure you buy only sirloin that is red and clear in color - that is the color that normally purplish beef becomes when air hits it. Make sure your sirloin is cold and tightly packaged, with a firm feeling to the meet and a reasonable sell by date. Make sure it is in the coldest part of the refrigerator for storage, and keep it only a few days. Fat can be trimmed before or after cooking.

Your steak will be finished to medium rare at an internal temperature of 145 degrees F, and will reach well done at 165. Turn the steak only with tongs, since a fork or knife will puncture the meat and cause loss of juices. Rest all steaks for five to ten minutes before you serve it.

You can broil steaks in a pan two to four inches from your heat source - it takes only eight to ten minutes. Grill steaks for six to eight minutes, lightly brushed with oil, or pan broil them on the stovetop for thirteen minutes to a quarter hour.

Chicken Biryani Recipe - Secrets of Making a Perfect Biryani

If I ask you, "which is your favorite Indian rice recipe"?, I am sure your topmost answer will be "a biryani". Even in biryanis the most liked of all is a chicken biryani.

So here is a recipe for you to make a perfect biryani.

Ingredients required

Ingredients for marinating the chicken

* 1 Kilo Chicken on the bone cut into 12-16 pieces
* 1 cup of curd
* 1/2 Teaspoon turmeric powder
* 1 Tablespoon of ginger garlic paste
* 1 Teaspoon of coriander powder
* a little salt

Mix all of the above ingredients and let the chicken marinate for 6-12 hours, more the better.

Herbs, spices and condiments used are as follows

* 8 cloves
* 1 Cinnamon stick
* 6 green Cardamoms
* 2 Bay leaves
* 1/2 Teaspoon shahi jeera (caraway seeds)
* a few pinches grated nutmeg and mace each
* 1 Teaspoon Coriander powder
* 1 Teaspoon red Chili powder (to taste)
* 5-6 Tablespoon of chopped fresh mint
* 2-3 chopped green Chilies
* 4-5 chopped Tomatoes
* a whole bunch of fresh coriander leaves

For fried onions

About 8-9 medium size onions

Other Ingredients
* 500 g good basmati rice
* Oil for deep frying and 3-4 tablespoon for cooking
* 1 Tablespoon of ginger garlic paste
* 1/2 cup of milk
* a few strands of Saffron (kesar)
* Desi ghee (clarified butter) about 6-7 Tablespoons
* Cashew nuts ( a few or as many as you want)
* Raisins and almonds are optional
* Salt to taste

Deep fry the onions
While the chicken is marinating, slice the onions very thin. You can use a food processor for this or a slicer. Now heat oil and fry these sliced onions in batches. The heat should be medium. Definitely not high, otherwise the onions will get burned.

Stir the onions continuously for uniform browning. When they become light brown, drain them on kitchen paper. Keep them aside. They will get nice crispy as they cool down.

Cook the Chicken

Take a deep, wide mouth vessel and heat 3-4 tablespoons of oil in it. In this add the bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamoms, little bit of shahi jeera and allow to crackle. Now add a tablespoon of ginger garlic paste and stir a little. Now tip out all the marinated chicken and the marinade. Cook on a high flame so that the water gets evaporated quickly. Add the chopped tomatoes, mint, green chilies, all dry powders(coriander, chili), and salt. Cook till the chicken is cooked and the gravy (masala) is not watery. Add one third of the fried onions. Mix well. Keep aside.

Parboil the rice

Boiling rice is one of the most important part of cooking a biryani. The rice needs to be parboiled. Meaning, it should be three fourth cooked. The rest of it gets cooked on dum (when we layer the chicken and rice, seal it and put on a very slow fire).

To boil the rice take a big deep wide mouth vessel, add lots of water (at least 10 times more than rice). Add ample salt (this is very important because the rice needs to be salty when cooked). Also add a cinnamon stick, a couple of green cardamoms, a few cloves and the rest of caraway seeds (shahi jeera), for flavoring the rice.

Now boil all this for a few minutes on a high flame (7 minutes or so). This is how to check if the rice is done. Without burning your fingers, take a few grains of rice (use a clean spoon to take some out of the boiling water), break a grain, if it breaks into 3 parts easily, your rice is done.

Strain the rice and spread it on a clean surface ( a tray or something), so that it cools faster. If you want to pick out the whole spices which you added, you can do that now. Or else just let them be.

Keep all these ready

Now that the rice and chicken are cooked. Fried onions are ready. You just need to get a few more things organized, so that the layering can be done.

* Chop the coriander leaves
* Boil the milk and add crushed saffron in it. Give it a stir.
* In desi ghee, fry the cashew nuts till golden brown. Also the almonds and raisins, if using. Keep aside.
* Keep some melted desi ghee aside.

Layering the biryani

Take a heavy bottom pan with a lid (non stick is best).

Take some melted ghee and grease the bottom of the pan with it. Then

* Put a layer of rice,
* Then a layer of chicken
* followed by a layer of fried onions
* then a layer of chopped coriander.

Repeat and finish off with the rice layer. Lastly, sprinkle the leftover fried onions (if any), cashews and other nuts. Pour the saffron milk on top. Also pour some desi ghee down the sides of the pan and some on top of the rice. It will trickle down with the heat.

Yep, you are done. Seal the lid by sticking it with some chapati dough or simply fix a big foil before placing the lid. The idea is to restrict the steam from escaping. Place this pot on a very slow flame. Ideally place this vessel on top of another flat pan or tawa, so that the bottom of the pan doesn't come in direct contact with the heat source.

Leave for one hour. When you open it, what you get is the magical, flavorsome and aromatic chicken biryani. Please dig in. Don't forget to prepare a riata while your biryani is cooking. Enjoy hot biryani with a cold raita.

Secrets to Making the Perfect Cookie

If you've wondered about the secret to baking perfect cookies, keep in mind that there are several factors that contribute to making a cookie turn out just right.

First, begin by making sure you have all the ingredients asked for in your recipe and that you understand all the terms.

Be sure you have all the ingredients called for and that you understand the recipe clearly.

Get all your pots, pans and equipment assembled in one place. Clear out a work area or a portion of the kitchen counter before you start work. Baking demands accuracy in measurement as well as method. Makes sure you use standard measuring cups and spoons.

While measuring liquids like oil, water and milk use a clear glass or plastic measuring cup. To measure the level of liquid in a measuring cup, place it on the counter and bend down to check the liquid at eye level.

Check the expiration dates on both the baking soda and baking powder. Sift the baking powder and baking soda along with the flour before you add in any of the wet ingredients. This way the baking powder and soda will spread through the cookie dough evenly and you will not end up with cookies with large gaps in them.

Makes sure you do not use more baking soda than asked for in your recipe. Too much baking soda results in cookies that have a salty, chemical-like flavor. If you are cooking at a high altitude, leave out the baking soda completely. The lower pressure at high altitude areas makes the cookie dough spread automatically so the additional baking soda is not required.

Use the exact kind of flour specified in the recipe. Cake flour, all-purpose flour and bread flour all work differently. While measuring flour, make sure you use level off the top using a spatula so that your measurements are exact.

Before adding in nuts, smell as well as taste them to see they are fresh. Nuts contain oil that can leave a rancid smell if stored for too long.

Check that the eggs are within the expiration date. Ensure that you use the right size of eggs. If the recipe calls for large size eggs, don't substitute medium sized eggs.

To make a good cookie dough, you should ensure that the butter is at room temperature. Do not melt the butter in the microwave, as it will turn too soft. Take the butter out of the refrigerator at least an hour before you plan to start getting the rest of your ingredients together. If you are short on time, cut up the butter into smaller pieces or grate the butter. This will increase the surface area and help the butter melt faster.

In case you are using shortening, make sure it smells right. Many of the newer trans-free shortenings tend to have a very short shelf life and give out a bad smell. So make sure all your efforts do not go waste due to foul smelling shortening.

Chinese Cooking With a Wok - Mum's Cooking Secrets That Last a Lifetime

My mother was of the idea that a man's place was never in the kitchen, and this was ingrained into us as she shooed us out of the kitchen every time whenever we tried to get into the kitchen to see what was cooking. It might not have been the best or correct thing to do, and as a result, her children -the sons, including me, grew up not knowing how to cook until we were college going kids and had to live away from home and to start to cook and fend for ourselves.

Disadvantaged as we were in cooking for ourselves, it made us more aware of the beauty in mum's cooking. Mum's prepared food that was absolutely marvellous, both in taste and smell. Meals prepared by her were never ordinary. They were a delight to behold, a pleasure to consume - no matter how simple the dish was.

Now in her twilight years, mum can no longer cook for herself. She has bouts of amnesia, and old age has taken a severe toil on her. Dependent on others to cook and serve her meals, she can sometimes struggle to the kitchen and still manage to prepare a ten minute fast cooking instant noodle, much to our chagrin and anxiety. The doctor orders were not to let her near a stove for fear of a fit or a fall, lest she burn the house down.

Just yesterday, in the quiet of the night, I was able to recall times I had with mum when I was about to go to college. Vivid in my mind, as history started to flash back, I remembered words of wisdom from mum on cooking. We were always profuse in our praise and bountiful in our appreciation for mum's fantastic cooking.And on one occasion, she revealed the secret formula that had always enveloped the food she cooked.

"In Chinese cooking," she said one day," the two most important things are to have a sharp knife and a hot stove. Always sharpen your knife so that you can slice through your veggie and your meat or fish. Cutting them up becomes a pleasure and not a task. Be sure to have everything prepared before you start cooking: the vegetables washed, drained and cut; the meat cut and marinated; the sauces prepared."

"And get yourself a good wok - It is the one piece of cooking equipment you may want to purchase before you start cooking Chinese food. Always heat up the wok. When cooking meat or poultry, make sure that the wok is very hot before adding the food. If you are going to stir-fried meat and vegetables, stir-fry the meat first and set it aside. Then return it to the wok with a sauce during the final stages of cooking. And use a little cornstartch as a binder at the end of your cooking, if it calls for that. Just remember how the dish tastes like, the way I cooked it", she said.

Throughout the years when I had to cook, her words of wisdom flashed back to me whenever I despaired over my cooking. I had seen my cooking improved, and had added more styles and recipes to vary my cooking in the later years.

"And the secret ingredient in all Chinese cooking is to add a little bit of inner joy to your dish as you cook. When you approach your cooking with this little bit of inner joy, you will have a song on your lips as you cook. Something mysteriously will spur you on to do your best and turn on the magic in your cooking," she added.

That day, last week, when I recalled those words of mum when I prepared a meal for her, I could only add not just a little bit of inner joy, I tried my best to give her a physical massive hug of love.

"Vary your ingredients to add textures, colors and flavors.Then it is possible to find harmony and balance in your meals. This is an important principle in Chinese cooking."

Mum may be frail and too old to handle a wok anymore, but her words of wisdom in Chinese cooking has helped us through the many years. Her simple tips for Chinese cooking may help you too.

The Top 10 Secrets to Help You Cook Sensational Fish Recipes Outdoors!

Great fish recipes come in various guises: grilled, poached and baked but so often the results are disappointing! So, when cooking fish outdoors what are some of the secrets of success?

Here are my 10 recommendations

1. The foremost secret to cooking great fish recipes is not to overcook it. Fish is delicate; it easily becomes tough and loses both its flavor & moisture if over cooked on an outdoor grill;


2. Cook your fish hot & fast, this way its cooked well without the loss of its moisture;


3. Handle your fish as little as possible because fish easily falls apart! Try to use fish baskets in your stock pot; use well oiled surfaces/pans when grilling; use a fish slice to turn your fish rather than a thick spatula;


4. Always defrost your fish before cooking...... and if you can, always buy fresh not frozen fish; frozen fish after defrosting is often limp and watery!


5. When buying your fish try to buy fillets that are the same thickness throughout their length [often its not possible]; this avoids over coking of the thin ends of the fish. If you do have thin ends, cut them off and grill them separately for less time;


6. Often we get the quantity wrong and that's a disappointment, when cooking fillets aim for a third to half a pound of fish per person;


7. Remember, its not the weight of the fish but the thickness of the fish that determines how long you should cook it. Freshness also has a bearing. The guideline for how long to cook fish is to calculate 5 minutes per centimeter or 10 minutes per inch of thickness in the thickest part of the fish.


8. If you're not into measuring, another way to tell when to stop cooking your fish on the grill or in the skillet is by looking. Once the flesh of the fish is no longer translucent but has become opaque & separates easily with a fork its cooked.


9. Don't be frightened of marinating fish; marinades work great with fish; but an hour is as much as is needed. Remember also that herbs & spices can be rubbed into the flesh just before grilling.


10. Wine helps to add flavor to fish, add wine to the pan when cooking with a skillet whilst the fish is simmering or drizzle fish with a tablespoon or two of wine and bake it in a foil package.