Gourmet Coffee Corner

Here is an excellent recipe for cranberry rice pudding; a sweet treat that isn’t too fattening.

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked medium grain rice
1 ½ cups water
2 tablespoons of orange peel
½ cup dried cranberries
¼ teaspoon salt from a salt mill
3 cups milk
1/3 cup sugar

Directions:

Combine rice, water, orange peel and salt in a saucepan.  Heat until boiling, stirring occasionally.  Reduce the heat, cover the saucepan, and let simmer 15 minutes or until liquid is gone.  Removing the cover, increase the heat to medium-high and add sugar, milk, and dried cranberries.  Heat until boiling, stirring often.  Reduce the heat to medium-low, cook until thick and creamy, 25 or so minutes, stirring occasionally.  Wait to cool before eating.

Many people scour through supermarket shelves in search of products with low or no sodium, and with good reason. Too much sodium in a diet can cause dehydration and contribute to a myriad of health problems. However, there is another explanation as to why many people—including top chefs—prefer to stock their pantry and refrigerator with salt-free products.

Whether you’re baking, simmering, roasting or grilling, it is important to be able to control the salt content of your dishes, both for nutritional and flavor purposes. As the saying goes, “you can always add more, but you can’t take it out.” To that end, purchasing low or no salt products allows you to utilize your Cilio salt mill to achieve the perfect combination of seasonings.

Deceptively simple in its preparation, pasta has been a cooking staple for centuries. Americans alone consume 14 pounds of pasta per year; imagine the vast quantities of spaghetti the Italians surely slurp. Few images say ”family” like a boiling pot of pasta in a busy kitchen.

We all think we know how to cook pasta. Believe it or not, there are a few basic techniques used to improve the taste and texture of pasta. Try adding a few cracks of sea salt from a salt mill to the pot to set up a tasty base for the succulent sauce. To anticipate the perfect consistency, do as the Italians do: test your pasta by tossing an occasional strand against the ceiling. If it sticks, you’re ready to dig in.

Once every couple of months my niece comes to stay at our house while her parents take a few days for themselves. Since my husband and I don’t have any kids of our own, we look forward to these short stints with a young child in the house. Every time she comes over, we try to plan some fun diversions so that she won’t feel too homesick.

Despite only being five years old, she has a love for being in the kitchen and helping me cook. I always plan some simple recipes so that she can help; I never let her do anything too dangerous, of course, usually just stirring the batter or giving a few twists from the Cilio salt mill. Although she is painfully shy, I have seen that she is starting to open up and be more at ease during our visits.

One of the simplest and time-honored breakfast foods is a bowl of oatmeal. In its most basic form, oatmeal is simply oats and water that are heated together. While this combination will create a nourishing and fulfilling breakfast, there are dozens of variations on this staple food.

You can dress your oatmeal up with a multiplicity of add-ins and create your own unique flavor profiles. One of my favorite adaptations is adding bananas, cinnamon and peanut butter to my oats. Also, adding a few pinches of salt from your Cilio salt mill will help to draw out the flavors. Oatmeal serves as a blank canvas, allowing you to add virtually any combination of flavors.

The omelet is one of the quintessential breakfasts in the American kitchen, but many people are intimidated by this simple meal. Most of these fears are derived from the infamous fold over, which, I admit, will take some time to master. Here is a simple omelet recipe to help you get some practice.

1. Since it’s a quick process, have all your ingredients ready by the stove before you start cooking.

2. Use nonstick cookware and add a little butter or give the pan a quick coat of nonstick cooking spray.

3. Add a tablespoon or two of water (not milk — that burns!) to eggs when beating them. That’ll make for a fluffier omelet.

4. Add the eggs to the pan, give them a stir, let them firm up a bit, then add your choice of fillings on one side.

5. Just when the eggs have solidified, slide the omelet onto a plate and carefully fold it over.

6. Finish the omelet with some pepper and salt from your salt mill.

We are all aware that salt can greatly enhance the flavor and bring out the essence of savory dishes. Few people, however, realize that salt can also augment the taste of sweet and baked goods as well. Adding just a pinch from one of your salt mills will get the salivary glands working and increase the food’s flavor.

Seasoned pastry chefs use salt in everything from cakes and pies to cookies and doughnuts. Many foods, such as oatmeal, say in the directions that a pinch of salt is “optional.” While it may not be necessary, you’ll taste the difference by add a touch of NaCl.

For those unfamiliar with the finer points of the culinary arts it may seem that salt is simply salt, which is definitely not the case. There are a variety of different salts that you can use in your cuisine, and they all have distinct qualities and flavors. Most of us are familiar with fine table salt, which is not optimal for many cooking endeavors.

The fine grains lend themselves well to baking and for dishes where the salt needs to be dissolved, but there are other options too. Sea and kosher salt  have much larger granules, which make them ideal for meats and other dishes where you need a more refined salt flavor. If you want to use a sea or kosher salt but are opposed to their large size, there are several salt mills that have a variety of settings to achieve the perfect consistency.