Why Steam Cooking Is Good For You.

We all know that eating healthy is part of healthy living. But many of us forget that cooking wisely is also part of the equation. Why not start on a fresh note and go back to the basics and rediscover the benefits of steam cooking. Steam cooking is not something new but has been around for centuries. Forget about micro-waves or pressure cookers or electric steamers for steam cooking can be done with just a covered pot placed over a heat source. You don't need any elaborate and expensive utensils and the benefits you get is good for you and for your health.

Here are some reasons why steam cooking is the best:

1. Retains food valuable nutrients, vitamins and minerals
2. Maintains food moisture and freshness
3. Keeps food vibrant colors and natural flavors
4. Softens food fibres, making food tender and easily digestible
5. Discard the need for cooking oil or fat, resulting in light and healthy meals
6. Cooks almost all kinds of food from vegetables to meats to seafood to fruits and pasta
7. Cooks food fast and easy - cooks a complete meal in just under 30 minutes
8. Cooks over a single heat source a load of different layers of food stacked one on top of the other - saves time, energy and money
9. Keeps your kitchen clean - no oil, no smoke, no mess - cleaning up is easy.
10. Keeps everyone happy and healthy with loads of recipes for delicious and nutritious steamed dishes

You can cook almost all kinds of food with steam cooking. From vegetables to meat, to poultry, to seafoods, to fruits and pasta.   

Start Living A Happier and Healthier Lifestyle.  Happy Steaming.

Credit : http://zeng.hubpages.com/hub/10-Reasons-Why-Steam-Cooking-Is-Good-For-You

Top Healthy Indian Foods.

 If you’ve decided to eat healthy but don’t really like eating bland or sweet oats, cornflakes and other such ‘food for weight watchers’ recommended by dieticians, fret not here is a list of Indian food items that are not only a treat to your gustatory senses but healthy as well! 

Idli

First up is the unpretentious Idli from the south. Idlis are a great source of carbohydrates and proteins. The fermentation process increases the bioavailability of proteins and enhances the vitamin B content of the food.  As it is steamed, fat content is low and it is easily digestible. Use of dal and rice in idli is a good combination as the amino acids in them complement each other.

Sattu 

A staple of the North, sattu was  originally made of roasted gram flour but has now evolved to include other nutritious flours like barley, wheat etc. It is prepared in several ways including parathas, laddoos, litti chokhas and more variations. 

Dhokla

The staple Gujarati snack, dhoklas, is made with gram flour and subsequently steamed. The fermentation of the flour enhances its nutritive value. Dhokla has a low glycemic index (it releases glucose at a more sustained rate) which makes it good for diabetics. 

Bajra

Bajra also knowns as pearl millet is very popular in Rajasthan, this humble food has been eaten in India since the pre-historic times. It  is mostly consumed in the form of rotis or khichdis, especially in the winters. 

Daliya 

Dalia is a popular breakfast cereal in North India and is made with whole wheat grits or broken wheat. It can be made either as a sweet dalia kheer or as savoury dalia. Being a complex carbohydrate, the rate at which it gets digested it slow thus releasing glucose on a slow and sustained rate. This makes it an ideal food for diabetics, people wanting to lose weight or those who have high cholesterol levels.

 Sprouts

Though not a traditional Indian favourite, the health benefits of sprouts are immense. Sprouts have gone through a germination process during which all its nutrients are broken down into their simplest forms making them ‘predigested’ and easily absorbable by the body.  Sprouts are a rich source of vitamins, proteins, minerals and fibre.

Content Courtesy - www.tarladalal.com  

Credit: http://health.india.com/fitness/top-healthy-indian-foods/

Have you heard about an “Idli Diet” ?

The Idli diet has been introduced after knowing its health benefits and its major contribution in aiding weight loss. As most of us know Idlis are a staple South-Indian dish that is made for breakfast and also enjoyed as a snack in the evenings. In North India, idlis are a healthy and filling snack idea. If you love to eat idli, then you would like to know how it aids weight loss.

Idlis and Weight loss:

• This south-Indian breakfast dish is effective in weight loss. Many people have lost weight after eating idlis for a month.
• Idli diet doesn't mean having idlis 3 times a day. You can include this in your breakfast and as an evening snack.
• Idlis help in weight loss as they are steamed. Steamed food doesn't have fat and calories that can increase your weight. Idlis should be cooked in healthy method to enjoy its weight loss benefits.
• Idlis are made with urad dal and rice. Thus, this south-Indian dish is easy to digest and healthy. They digest and flush out easily.
• Idlis if made only with rice batter can be little heavy on the stomach. Moreover, just having urad dal and rice may not compensate for the other nutritional supplements that are required on a regular basis. Add some green vegetables and Indian spices to make idlis tasty and more nutritious.
• If you steam idli and have it with citrus juice (like grape, orange or lemon juice), you can burn fats and also prevent carbs of rice from depositing in the body.

This is how an Idli diet helps in Weight loss and also benefits your Health.

Credit:  http://www.boldsky.com/health/wellness/2012/idli-health-benefits-weight-loss-031012.html

Paralympics 2012: Meet the British Paraorchestra

 The Paralympics have, above all, shown the rest of us that there should no longer be any no-go areas for  those with disabilities, so it was entirely fitting that the climax of closing ceremony saw a newly-formed orchestra of 17 disabled musicians playing out the games as the flag was lowered over east London. So fitting, indeed, that it is hard to credit how hard conductor Charles Hazlewood had to fight to make sure it happened. But he did. “I was jumping up and down, shouting, knocking on doors, like crazy, but once
people started to listen to the idea, they got it immediately”.

Our first goal,” he continues,is to use the global platform of this event to create respect for disabled
musicians,to put a good idea out there to a world audience. I want every major city around the world to
look on and ask why it doesn’t have something similar. And then after that, through education, information and technology, I want to see every big orchestra in the world including performers with disabilities.”

The British Paraorchestra, then, is the first step on a journey that Hazlewood already has mapped out.
“I am not interested in creating a ghetto for disabled performers, but using this opportunity to lift
them up, enable them to take their rightful place.” And that is side-by-side with non-disabled musicians,
on equal terms.

The current almost complete absence of people with disabilities from orchestral ranks only really began
 to rankle with Hazlewood when he had a daughter, Eliza, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. It is not that he feels she is a precocious prodigy being held back from a dazzling career as a musician. “She’s only six,” he protests, “so I’m not making any extravagant claims”, though he does then add with a fatherly pride that Eliza “has a strong connection with music”.

Why can't musicians with disabilities compete at the highest levels, as we have seen sportsmen and women do? “Nobody with any intelligence,” he continues, “would now argue that there aren’t sportsmen and women with disabilities who can compete at the highest level. So why not musicians? Clearly they exist, but where are the platforms for them?

Link to the performance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu9CvbGJmss

Street corner to Corner office :How Jay-z built a $ 450 million empire

Some people think Jay-Z is just another rapper. Others see him as just another celebrity/mega-star. The reality is, no matter what you think Jay-Z is, he first and foremost a business. And as much as Martha Stewart or Oprah, he has turned himself into a lifestyle.

You can wake up to the local radio station playing Jay-Z's latest hit, spritz yourself with his 9IX cologne, slip on a pair of his Rocawear jeans, lace up your Reebok S. Carter sneakers, catch a Nets basketball game in the afternoon, and grab dinner at The Spotted Pig before heading to an evening performance of the Jay-Z-backed Broadway musical Fela! and a nightcap at his 40/40 Club. He'll profit at every turn of your day.

Jay-Z grew up splitting his time between peddling cocaine and rapping in his native Brooklyn. But by the time hip hop had grown into a popular musical genre -- and a powerful economic force -- he had solidified his position as one of its pioneers.

Early on, Jay-Z displayed an acumen for business. In 1994, unable to find a company to produce his debut records, Jay-Z, Damon Dash and a silent partner founded their own label, Roc-A-Fella Records. And when a distributor agreed to take on the album, he negotiated a deal to retain ownership of the master recordings.

In the late 1990s, he discovered that sales of Iceberg apparel rose after he began including references to them in his songs. But when he went to Iceberg and asked for an endorsement deal, the company demurred. Instead, he started his own apparel company, Rocawear. In 2006, Rocawwear was sold to a brand licensing company for $204 million.

There's been much more: a line of sneakers for Reebok, the 40/40 nightclub chain, an ad for Hewlett-Packard, and an interest in the hot New York City gastro pub, The Spotted Pig.
Jay-Z's tale is compelling not just because of his celebrity, but because it embodies the rags-to-riches American dream and is a model for any entrepreneur looking to build a commercial
empire.

Cooking Shows: India’s New Cult.

Food-related TV programmes have spawned a cooking cult in India, and many devotees are children. The third season of MasterChef Australia, which ended in November 2011, earned host channel Star World a 74 per cent market share in the General Entertainment Channels category.

TAM Media Research, an industry authorised organisation that tracks viewership, estimated that Chakh Le India had 5.5 million viewers from January 8 to April 7.

What with these shows and Zee Khana Khazana, several shows on Discovery Travel & Living, and the Food Food channel, Indian audiences' cup runneth over. Party conversations are peppered with names such as Nigella Lawson, Donna Hay and Gordon Ramsay.

What yeast does for dough, cooking shows are doing for middle-class Indians' awareness about exotic food.

Rising awareness is spurring culinary adventures. Far from being armchair chefs, many viewers are invading that former fiefdom of the matriarch and the maharaj - the kitchen. The more avid among them are seeking out workshops and classes to beef up their cooking skills.

Given rising demand, many who have culinary chops are venturing into teaching. Cooking classes are thriving, thanks to the enthusiasm stirred up by TV chefs.

Clearly, TV audiences today are a hungry mob.

Credit: http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/cooking-shows-get-popular-with-indias-next-generation/1/187161.html

Image credit: http://www.startv.in/shows.asp?channel_id=3&serialid=354

Fluffy, white Idlis: There's more to it than Rice!

That plate of fluffy ‘Idli'  may have been cooked with rice bought at a neighbourhood store. Probably, the rice was cultivated and milled a few hundred kilometres from where you are sitting. But, someone sitting in far-away London might have been responsible for ensuring the lily-white colour and softness of the ‘idli' on the plate.

Yes. That someone in London is monitoring online the high-tech equipment at the rice mill closer to home. Even as the paddy is processed into rice, the quality is being monitored continuously from the remote location and suggestions are given online to make the required changes here.

The place is Manachanallur, about 25 km from Tiruchi. Mr B. Rajantran, Managing Director, Rice Land Agro Food Pvt Ltd, is showing around the mill, a Rs 26-crore unit, the largest in Tamil Nadu.

At Rice Land, operations are automated. The milling machine is from a Brazilian manufacturer, Zaccaria, the driers are from Thailand and the Sortex Z+, based on German technology, which ensures only grains of a uniform quality get into the bag, is from London, he says. The Sortex Z+ is connected by modem to the supplier's office in London, says Mr Rajantran.

Use of an array of technology involving high resolution cameras, sensors and infrared technology scanners ensures that only the finest white grains of rice pass muster. All else like broken grains, immature grains, bran, yellowed, chalky or red grains or the stray bit of husk do not get through.

Credit:  http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2010/08/16/stories/2010081650830100.htm

Image credit:  http://newsfox.in/2011/09/05/south-indian-famous-dish-spicy-idli/.