Cooking with dried beans To prepare dried beans for cooking, soak them in water to soften them and also to reduce some of the gas that is released by the beans, and thus to make digestion easier. Changing the soaking water several times will help more in reducing the gas that is released by the beans.
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Cooking times for beans Typical cooking times for different types of beans are the following:
- Baby lima beans: 60 - 75 minutes
- Large lima beans: 45 - 60 minutes
- Dark red kidney beans: 60 - 90 minutes
- Light red kidney beans: 60 - 90 minutes
- Pink beans: 60 - 90 minutes
- Small white beans: 60 - 90 minutes
- Black eyed beans: 45 - 60 minutes
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Retaining the aroma and flavour of basil in recipes Add basil leaves towards the end of cooking to retain the aroma and
flavor.
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Intensifying the aroma of cumin and coriander seeds To intensify the aroma of cumin and coriander seeds, fry them or toast them before using them in your recipe.
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Cooking with almonds Use roasted almonds for a crunchier result, natural almonds for a softer result.
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| Slow cooking tomatoes Wash tomatoes, remove stems and slice them. Place slices
on a shallow baking pan, brush with oil and cook
in preheated oven for around 40 minutes. Oven should be preheated at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Tomatoes are ready when they are soft. |
| Roasting tomatoes To roast tomatoes, cut them in half, crosswise. In a roasting pan place the tomatoes flat side down and brush with olive oil, Place pan in a preheated oven of 450 degrees Fahrenheiht and roast for about 20 minutes. When tomatoes are slighlty brown, remove from oven, peel off skin and remove stems. |
| Preparing pumkin for making pies Cut the top of the pumpkin
off and using a spoon or an ice cream scoop empty the seeds and strings. Cut it into smaller sections and remove the skin. Steam it (do not boil it as it absorbs water) until tender and mushy. |
| Tomato based pasta sauces For extra flavour in tomato based pasta sauces add 1 or 2 tablespoons of tomato ketchup. |
| Spagetti and olive oil in boiling water Do not add olive oil in the water while cooking your spagetti. Doing
so, will prevent the sauce from blending with the spagetti. To keep
your spagetti from sticking while boiling, use good quality spagetti
and stir often. |