Food Hygiene Essentials

Here’s a little extra for those cooking fanatics among you.

OK, lets get one thing straight, In Hungary goulash is a soup but in the west we have turned it into a main course dish similar to stew. When I make my goulash all my Hungarian friends think it’s a joke.
So let’s get down to making a really great (albeit Western) goulash.
Goulash, in non Hungarian terms is a combination of meat, Usually beef, carrots, potatoes, sauerkraut and spices in a thickish sauce.
The dish can be cooked in a pot on the stove or in a casserole dish in the oven.
The ingredients that you will need for goulash are fairly simple and straight forward. Here’s the list:
1) Cubes of Beef. I use number two or number ten cuts for goulash. They are less expensive cuts and quite good enough.
2) Potatoes, diced into large cubes
3) Carrots, cut into thickish rings.
4) Sauerkraut.
5) Onions, cubed and lightly fried.
6) Beef Bullion cubes.
7) Sweet Paprika powder.
Black pepper
9) Crushed Garlic.
10) Tomato Puree (or paste. optional)
11) Water
Quantities:
For a family of four to six people you will need about one kilogramme of beef. The content of potatoes and carrots use in the goulash should make up about two thirds of the quantity of the beef.
Method.
The first job is to sear the meat on all sides on a lightly oiled skillet. Once that’s done transfer the meat into your cooking pot.
at this stage add your sweet paprika, sprinkling about three teaspoons onto the meat while stirring over the flame.
You can now add about one small half teaspoon of black pepper, stirring onto the meat. Now add water until the meat is covered by about one inch of water. Heat until the pot is boiling and then turn the heat down so that the pot is simmering.
Add about one large cup of sauerkraut and stir in. After this add one large cup of chopped and lightly fried onions and one teaspoon of crushed garlic.
Leave the pot to cook now for about half an hour stirring only occasionally.
When the half hour is up check to see if the meat is tenderizing. Once the meat is starting to show signs of softening add a bullion cube and taste. You may need to add a little more depending on which type of bullion cubes you use.
Stir well and then add the potatoes and carrots. Continue to stir occasionally making sure that the ingredients do not stick to the bottom of the pot.
If you like a tomato taste to your goulash, use a little tomato puree to thicken the dish, add two to three teaspoons of tomato puree and stir in well.
Tomato paste is tart and for this reason we do not add it until the final stages of cooking because it causes the meet to toughen again and go rubbery. Additional cooking time will be needed to soften the meat.
Continue to cook the dish until all the ingredients are soft enough to eat but not breaking up.
If you like your goulash to have a little bite, you can add a few drops of tabasco.
The way that I thicken the sauce is to take about one teaspoon of corn flour mixed into a little water and to stir it into the boiling mixture. This way the cornflour gives the goulash a nice shiny appearance.
An optional extra that gives goulash a pleasant sweetish taste is to add some garden peas. I do this occasionally for a change.
In effect Goulash is an all in meal that has a combination of protein, carbohydrate and vegetables.
I like to serve goulash in a long oval bowl on a plate with a few slices of gorgeous, thick crusted caraway seed bread.
A strong red wine helps the goulash to go down a treat.

I’m a qualified chef, life coach and psychotherapist. In the following article I would like to share with you a whole new approach to loosing weight safely. This is a system that I have formulated after years of working with clients who have problems maintaining a diet regimen.

This system does not require you to count calories, drink weird powder blends or feel hungry. Instead, what I advise my clients to do requires a change in their whole approach to food and drink but at the same time still keeps eating a pleasurable experience without causing any inbalences in the diet.

There are actually more than ten points in the system. What I require you to do is to choose at least ten points that you know that you can adopt into your daily routine. However the first point in the list is the only obligatory point in the system and it acts as the basis for all the others.

Read the list carefully and take time to understand the implications of all the different points. You can change points if you like. Your first choice may not be the ideal choice for you. Have fun with the system and look at it as a form of rehabilitation rather than a way of punishing yourself for how you look and feel.

Here is the list of points.

1) (obligatory). Drink one cup of water first thing in the morning and thereafter one cup of water before each meal, one cup of water during the meal and one cup of water after the meal. In addition drink one cup of water two hours before going to bed.

2) Always eat at a set table. Never eat standing up or laying down. Never eat in front of the TV, the movie screen or the theatre.

3) Cook your own food. Do not buy pre cooked dinners because they contain substances that are put there to make you feel hungrier.

4) Eat three pieces of fruit from the following list every day: apples, pears, oranges, grapefruits.

5) Eat four or five pieces of raw vegetables from the following list: carrots, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, onion, bell peppers.

6) Eat at least three portions of cooked vegetables per day.

7) Eat three portions of grilled chicken or turkey breast per week.

Eat three portions of fish per week. (Instead of meat)

9) Eat in restaurants only once per week.

10) Eat Bread only with one meal of the day and eat no more than three slices. Eat whole grain bread. Whit bread is addictive because it gives the body no nutrients other than empty calories therefore causing the body to ask to be fed again. Whole grain bread constituted eighty percent of a healthy diet before the technology of making white flour was invented.

11) Do not eat anything that has a filling, especially cheese fillings. These are usually processed cheese and not good for you.

12) Do Not eat anything that is salted. (This relates to salted snacks)

13) Eat no more than one portion of desert per day, prefer fruit to desert.

14) Eat ice cream only once per week.

15) Do not eat fried food unless it has been fried with hot air. Poached eggs are healthier.

16) Prefer to eat food without heavy sauces.

17) Proportion you carbohydrate intake so that it makes up no more than one third of your total food intake.

18) Do Not drink any sweet sodas, no cola.

19) limit yourself to one alcoholic drink per day.

20) Cut out chocolate and sweets.

If there are any of the above points that are already incorporated in to your lifestyle then don’t choose these points to be among the ten, pick another choice instead.

See if you can adhere to ten points for ten weeks. If you manage this you are then ready for the advanced stage which includes adding the other ten points, For life.

Good Luck.