Cooking World

American wines are generally identified by the varietal grape that makes the wine. This approach, of course, greatly differs from many European traditions, where a bottle of wine tells you in which area the grape for this wine grew. With French wine, for example, you drink Burgundy, not Pinot Noir.
Why do they go against the old-aged traditions in the New World? The reason is clearly simple: there are a number of grape varietals grown in the same American wine areas. In Napa Valley, you will find Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel, to name just a few of the red wines. For comparison, Pinot Noir is the red wine grape grown in the vineyards of Burgundy. The French wine drinker knows that if he drinks a red wine from Burgundy, he is drinking that very Pinot Noir. The location tells all.
So to make things simpler, American wineries label their goods primarily by grape varietal.
In certain areas of America titles have become widely associated with particular varietals - to name just a few - the Willamette Valley in Oregon with Pinot Noir, Marlborough in New Zealand with Sauvignon Blanc, and Stag’s Leap with Cabernet Sauvignon.

Italian food, mainly, is simple food. Each area in Italy has its food traditions, and almost all of them come from what has been available in that region traditionally. In the agriculturally rich North, for example, the pasta is made with rich egg yolks and the sauces necessarily include butter. In the droughty South, pasta is made with water, and is therefore harder to chew; they make stronger sauces, using more tomatoes and olive oil.
The tradition of working with fresh pastas, and fresh seafood and vegetables allows the Italian dishes to focus on flavorful ingredients rather than complex techniques. With some of these simple, old ideas, you can make genuine Italian dishes a tasty part of your everyday cooking.
Marcella Hazan, cookbook author, has said: “”Italian food is the food that is easiest to live with”.
In cooking of Italian meal, according to Marcella Hazan, a guru of Italian meal in US, there is no “main course,” but a succession of small courses that complement each another. The first course, is usually pasta, risotto or soup. The second course is usually a meat or fish dish served with vegetables. The meal is finished off with a light green salad, and then fruit or sweets.

Pizza dough is made with barm so you should plan it in advance, but it’s easy to handle and can be frozen. This recipe is enough for making of dough for about two 12-inch pizzas.
Possible toppings include roasted eggplant and bell peppers
If you want to freeze the dough, wrap it in a plastic wrap and then in foil, and freeze.
If the water is too cold or too hot, the barm will not work. “Warm” water should be about 115 degrees F - it should feel warm but not hot. If you like you can add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to the dough.

Splash the barm into a medium dish containing 1 1/4 c. warm water and stir until barm dissolves.
Add 2 c. sifted flour and stir until blended.
Add another 1 1/2 to 2 c. flour and blend.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it for 10 to 15 minutes until dough is smooth.
Place the dough in another dish greased with a small amount of oil. Turn the dough once so that the top is oiled.
Cover the dish with plastic wrap and put it in a warm place for about 45 minutes - until the dough rises to about double its first size.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.
Dump the dough back onto the floured surface and punch it down to get rid of any bubbles. Divide the dough in half and let it rest a few minutes.
Roll each half into a 12-inch circle, depending on your personal preference for how thick pizza crust should be.
Move the dough to an oiled pizza pan or baking sheet.
Add sauce, cheese and toppings as desired. If you like, brush the crust with olive oil.
Bake each pizza for 15 to 20 minutes or until the brown crust and cheese is melted.

Experts - dieticians have offered the list of the most valuable for the health products:
• Apples. These fruit are rich with pectin and vitamin C. Pectin reduces cholesterol and glucose level. Vitamin C, owing to its antioxidative properties, protects cells of the organism.
• Almonds. Unsaturated fats help to lower the cholesterol level. There is little sodium in almonds.
• Broccoli - a fine source of potassium, calcium, folic acid, dietary fiber, beta-carotin and vitamin C. It contains materials which prevent diabetes, ischemic heart-disease and some kinds of cancer.
• Bilberry. The regular use of bilberry improves short-term memory and slows down processes of cells ageing.
• Red beans. Contain few fats, however are rich with proteins, antioxidants, dietary fiber and copper. A good source of iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and thiamine.
• Salmon. A unique source of omega-3- unsaturated fat acids protecting cardiovascular system from an atherosclerosis.
• Spinach. Strengthens immune system and reduces probability of some kinds of a cancer.
• Sweet potato. Contains a lot of beta-carotin, vitamins C, В6, dietary fiber, potassium.
• Vegetable juice. Contains plenty of vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Try to choose juices without salt.
• Sprouted wheat. Germs of wheat concentrated a great number of useful materials.

Apple strudel is a classic Austrian dessert which consists of nuts and spiced apples rolled into pastry. Strudel can show the baker’s talents, as the dough needs special handling: it is stretched so thin that you can read the newspaper through it. But you can easily substitute homemade strudel dough with Phyllo dough.
Start assembling of the strudel on thin parchment paper for baking. For a crisp, airy crust, splash fresh sugared breadcrumbs between the layers of butter-brushed phyllo. Put in the apple filling. To roll up the strudel, use one hand to lift gently the edge of the paper, and the other hand to carefully roll the strudel up like a jelly roll, gradually lifting the paper up higher as you roll the strudel into a neat log. Put the edge of the dough underneath the roll, and use the paper like a sling to lift the strudel onto the baking sheet. Bake the strudel on the parchment-lined baking sheet until the crust becomes golden brown.

Apple dumplings.
Apple dumplings are whole peeled and cored apples, stuffed with sweet spices, raisins and nuts, folded into pastry and baked till the apples are soft and the pastry is golden. To be sure that the fruit is soft when the pastry is done, use smaller apples. Keep the filling from leaking out the bottom by leaving a half inch or so of pulp at the bottom when coring the apples.
Pack the filling into the centers and fold a pastry squares around each apple. Egg the pastry, and bake as directed. As with pie crusts, cover the dumplings with foil if the pastry starts browning too soon.
Apple pies and Brown Betties.
Though pies, crisps and crumbles are easy to make, perfect if you have a little time. Sliced or chopped apples are covered with a mixture of butter, flour, oats and sugar so that the topping was crunchy. Apple Brown Betty is one of the first documented and the most popular apple desserts in the United States. The dessert is as simple as it gets: apples are layered with a mixture of fresh breadcrumbs, butter and brown sugar, and all this is baked just until the apples are soft and the topping gets crispy. Serve these dish warm together with vanilla ice cream. Its better to serve your deserts in custard cups instead of in one big pan.

Europe-based Restaurant Magazine recently published the 50 Best Restaurants in the World for 2006, chosen by an international group of chefs, critics of the foodstuff and restaurateurs. The commission was divided into 20 voting regions from different parts of the world, each with its own small jury. In total, 560 judges estimated 2,800 votes for the best restaurant in their region and in the world.
More countries than ever appeared on the list, but it were the French who won this contest with 10 restaurants on the list. The United States was second with eight restaurants on the list, while the UK and Spain came in third with six restaurants each (Spain had three restaurants in the top 10).
According to London’s The Independent, “It seems strange that there should be two finalists from South Africa, and two from Sweden, yet not a single representative from the Far East. To have nothing at all from Tokyo, Hong Kong or China is simply contradictory with this well-traveled experience.”

Premium-magazine «So Vkusom (with taste) over the world» was founded by one of the largest restaurant corporations «World Card» which united all of the best cuisines of the world in the well-known restaurants of Ukraine.
«World Card» publishes a rich in content magazine, which invites the readers in the world of aristocratism and aesthetics, and which undoubtedly can be named a high-quality status product for a selected audience.
The magazine is addressed to the successful and well-to-do people. It reflects the spirit of the time and all the best, that surrounds us.
«So Vkusom” » is a guide-book on the refined restaurants and world hotels, review of the best cars market, jewelry, accessories and clothes of high class, and also exclusive interviews with the prominent persons of present-days. The magazine introduces to the unique wine collections, to raises the curtain over the life of famous people, talented artists and musicians.

Research into the popular diets, held by the specialist of the Stanford center of prophylactic researches Kristoferom Gardnerom showed, that women, adhering to the low-carbohydrate diets - in particular Atkins diet- lost in weight two times more than other.
Gardner conducted the most large-scaled and protracted research in this area. He compared four most popular among diets: Atkins low-carbohydrate diet, Zone diet, supposing the use of carbohydrates, albumens and fats in correlation 40:30:30; diet of LEARN (Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitudes, Relationships, Nutrition), echoing recommendations of American Health Department to use less fats and more carbohydrates and Ornish diet, also supposing the use of carbohydrates and limitation in fats.
311 women with surplus weight participated in the research, each keep to one of four diets. Eight weeks they visited studies on a feed and stuck to diets. During ten months after the beginning of experiment specialists looked after the dynamics of their weight and metabolism.
Garden asserts that the Atkins diet of is simple per se: give up the bad refined carbohydrates, and lose weight. In addition, he considers that Atkins diet is the simplest method to stimulate a person to drink water, and who drinks much, eats less than.

After a claim, that adding milk neutralized the healthy properties of tea, the benefits of the great British tradition of tea-drinking were called into question.
A German study compared the effects on arteries of those drinking black tea, tea with skimmed milk and plain, hot water.
It found that caseins, proteins in milk, blocked the powerful effect of catechins in tea - that helped to protect the arteries and kept cardiovascular disease in a cleft stick.
16 women participated in a study. Their arterial function was measured two hours after drinking.
“Our results provide a possible explanation for the lack of beneficial effects of tea on heart disease in the UK.”, was said in the European Heart Journal.
But Bill Gorman, the chairman of the Tea Council, said: “This is a very small study. I can show you studies that show that milk does not hinder the bio-activity of tea.”