September 3rd, 2008
‘The Sahara Forest’ project is an ambitious proposal to turn areas of the dry arid desert into real-life oases. A team of architects and engineers are aiming to combine huge seawater greenhouses with solar power plants in the desert to provide food, fresh water and clean energy. They will use mirrors to focus the sun’s rays and generate heat and electricity, and eradicate the need to dig for fresh water creating lush areas of vegetation.
The vast majority of plants cannot grow in the desert due to the extreme temperature and lack of water, the seawater greenhouse can make these arid environments vegetation friendly. Charlie Paton is part of the Sahara team and the inventor of these greenhouses.
“So we’ve got conditions in the greenhouse of high humidity and lower temperature,” said Paton. “The crops sitting in this slightly steamy, humid condition can grow fantastically well.”
Paton said that the greenhouse produces over five times required for watering the plants so after cleaning the mirrors, the excess can be released into the local environment, creating a local microclimate outside the greenhouses for hardier plants such as jatropha - an energy crop that can be turned into biofuel. The ability to create these microclimates has been shown by Paton’s demonstration greenhouse.
To purifying the seawater and cool the air of the greenhouse, solar energy is used to power the evaporators and then pump the damp, cool air through the greenhouse, reducing the temperature to 15c less than outside. At the other end of the greenhouse from the evaporators, the water vapour is condensed. This fresh water can be used to water the crops and clean the solar mirrors.
Demonstration plants are already running successfully in Tenerife, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, producing lettuces, peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes. The designers are confident that virtually any vegetables can be grown in the greenhouses depending on the climate maintained in them. The nutrients to grow the plants can be taken from seaweed or the seawater itself.
Both the CSP (solar power) and seawater greenhouses are proven technologies so the cost of this project should be relatively low. The designers estimate that building 20 hectares of greenhouses combined with a 10MW CSP scheme would cost around £65m. Groups in countries across the Middle East, including UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, have shown interest in funding demonstration projects.
These projects are useful due to the production of extra crops, but most importantly will benefit the environment. Hopefully these seawater greenhouses can be used instead of, or to counteract the environmental damage caused by greenhouses already built. In Algeria, southern Spain, more than 40,000 hectares of greenhouses have been built in this desert region over the past 20 years, taking water from the earth around five times faster than it comes in, so the water table drops and becomes more saline. To convert them all to the seawater greenhouses would make sustainable
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May 29th, 2008
Do you want to add an extra touch to your kitchen? One way to make changes to your kitchen would be to ad a kitchen island. It is a counter top that allows family and guests to surround the counter without being confined to a wall.
You can use outdoor Kitchen Islands can become a self serving buffet for parties. Guests can mingle with each other and entertainment is conducive with this Kitchen Island. Kitchen Islands are a cost effective means to increase storage space. What ever the style of the kitchen you can enjoy installing your own island or have one installed for you.
You can choose what type of counter top you want for this Island, the design and style is not limited. You can choose from wood, metal or any choice of surface material. It’s important to consider the dimension of your kitchen that you want to install an island in. What are your floor plans like? There are several designs you can work with, find one that fits your interest and start creating a kitchen that fits your style and functioning needs. One suggestion would be that if you have a small kitchen area, you could find a kitchen island that is pre-built and is movable. These are great for breakfast bar, paper towel holders. These create convent space at a lower cost.
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May 16th, 2008
Canton and Fukien: the southern cuisine
The provinces of Fukien and Canton make up the southern coast of China, and are the 2 major constituents of the southern Chinese cuisine. As expected, seafood plays an important role due to the geography. The southern Chinese cuisine takes full advantage of the plentiful supply of lobsters, crabs, prawns, shrimps, etc. They are usually stir fried or steamed with ginger, and onion to eliminate the fishy smell. Seafood is also utilized in their seasonings, as oyster sauce, shrimp sauce, and shrimp paste are widely used.
Fukien, which lies northeast of Canton, features beautiful color, and wonderful mixture of sweet, salty, and sour taste in its dishes. “Red distiller’s grain” is a famous flavoring often used in Fukien cuisine. It takes over a year to prepare from glutinous rice, fermented with red yeast, and emanates the most interesting aroma of the red yeast.
Of all the Chinese regional cuisines, Canton is perhaps the most familiar and best known to the western cultures. For hundreds of years, Canton has had extensive trade links with the rest of the world, from land, as well as the sea. As such, the art of Cantonese cuisine has long since been taken and spread around the world to represent Chinese cuisine. That, and the fact that the majority of the first group of Chinese emigrants in the 19 th century came from the Canton region, further cemented its influence in the west’s interpretation of “Chinese cooking”.
The mild, tropical climate in the region produces an abundance of crop all year round. Ample supply of rice, fruit, and vegetables provide plentiful feed for livestock, which in turn, produces high-quality meat and poultry. Along with the wealthy of seafood along the coastline, the south has arguably the most extensive array of dishes in all of China. Having all this assortment of ingredients in their arsenal, the southern chefs pay a great deal of attention to the artistic presentation of the dishes, making them especially appealing to the eyes, as well as the taste buds.
Steaming, boiling, and roasting are popular cooking methods, which preserve the natural flavors and colors of the ingredients. The Cantonese have perfected, and are most renowned for the art of stir frying. Nothing epitomizes the essence of Chinese cooking better than stir frying to achieve food tenderness through quick cooking in order to retain the natural taste, flavor, and color of the ingredients. It is also perfect for those who are health conscious, as these Chinese cooking techniques require the least amount of oil.
Dim sum are little southern delicacies served on small plates or steam baskets for only breakfast or lunch. They are pushed around the restaurants on wheel-carts by the wait staff for the customer to pick from. It is especially popular among bird-lovers in the south. After walking their birds, they would visit Dim sum restaurants, hang the bird cages on a rack, and meet up with friends over tea and rounds of Dim sum to relax and mingle. If you’ve never tried Dim sum, then you are missing out on quite a unique experience.
This wraps up our brief overview of the major schools of Chinese cuinsine. We hope you have enjoyed reading our article series, “The regional cuisines of China “. We have plenty more articles on all facets of Chinese cooking on our website (http://www.ChineseHomeCooking.com), and we are constantly adding to the database. So bookmark us and visit often. Thanks for reading!
Helen Fan grew up in a family that has owned various Asian restaurants all over North America, from Vancouver (Canada), Houston (Texas), Decatur (Illinois), to Chicago (Illinois). She, and the rest of the Fan family are now sharing their decades of knowledge on the art of Chinese cuisine at http://www.ChineseHomeCooking.Com
You can read more of our articles at http://www.ChineseHomeCooking.Com/resources/resources.htm
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May 13th, 2008
Barbecues have always tasted good and now that they have generous sprinklings of the highly seasoned barbecue sauces to spice them up, they taste all the more delicious. Traditionally barbeque sauces have been a perfect blend of sweet, sour and spicy flavors, but a recent trend shows that people like their steaming barbecues, meatloaves meatballs and other foodstuff with a dash of hot barbecue sauce. As always, the base continues to be tomato but now the hot barbecue sauce has a hot, spicy flavor that lingers hours after you have had your share of a bbq.
Based on hot peppers of the capsicum family such as chilly peppers, red peppers, tabascos, habaneros and paprika, each hot barbecue sauce smells and looks as good as it tastes. The heat index of a hot pepper sauce depends on its hot pepper ingredient.
Some of the best hot barbecue sauces:
Mad Dog “Ultra Hot” BBQ Sauce - A Boston based sauce this is one of my all time favorites. This smooth and refreshing sauce is made with authentic Bird’s Eye African Chili Peppers that gives it a nice little zip. Mad Dog makes their sauces with the freshest ingredients and they are always extremely flavorful.
Jake’s BBQ Sauce - Inferno - Originally coming from a family recipe out of the hills of Arkansas. Jakes Smokehouse Inferno BBQ Sauce now located in San Luis Obispo, California is a unique experience. Jakes Smokehouse utilizes wonderful blends of golden brown sugar, ginger, molasses, jalapeno, honey, habanera, garlic and a host of other evenly blended ingredients and spices.
Worlds Most Dangerous BBQ Sauce - From the Chicago area comes a real treat for the ultimate barbecue experience, this pepper sauce has pure honey and natural maple flavor added to it for a perfectly mouth-watering recipe.
Wild-Mild Barbecue Sauce - Hailing for the Chicago area and lying far low on the heat index (around 4), this mellowed-down pepper sauce makes for a mild culinary experience.
Big Bob Gibson - An Alabama based BBQ sauce the Red Habanero BBQ Sauce is a perfect head-turner. Perfectly complimenting the flavors of all broiled meat, the Big Bob Gibson has been a National Award Winning BBQ sauce for many years.
Habanero BBQ Sauce From Hell - Coming from Arizona this is a hot barbecue sauce promising an outlandish experience; it is a perfect condiment and a barbecue blaster. Made with molasses, soy sauce, habanero peppers and more than twenty different herbs and spices.
Pappy’s XXX White Lightnin’ BBQ Sauce - Originating from Kentucky comes another barbeque sauce of the hot genre, it makes for a wholesome experience - ranging from an initial sweet taste to an intermediary sourness followed by the distinct habanero fire. You cannot just stop falling in love with this hot barbecue sauce even after your nose starts running and your eye starts watering.
Chris McCarthy is the owner of InsaneChicken’s Hot Sauce and BBQ Sauce Catalog. Check out the large selection of bbq sauces on http://www.InsaneChicken.com
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May 10th, 2008
“You can’t get good Mexican food anywhere north of Texas.”
So averred my good buddy Tony when I suggested a Mexican meal on
his recent visit. Now, I’m a good deal north of Texas, being in
the Heart of Massachusetts, but that’s the kind of challenge
that I can’t pass up. Three hours later, he was rubbing his
stuffed belly as we left Tortilla Sam’s, voted Worchester’s Best
Mexican Restaurant for the third year in a row. Being voted Best
Mexican Restaurant in a little northeastern city may not seem
like much - till you stand in front of the window at Tortilla
Sam’s and watch the tortillas - freshly mixed and cut by hand -
roll through the steam press and catch a whiff of the mole. Then
you realize that this is real Mexican food. And if the Mexican
food in Worcester is good enough to impress
Texas-born-and-raised Tony, we’ve got to figure that there are
great Mexican restaurants in other unexpected places, right?
I went looking for the most out-of-the-way and unexpected places
to find good Mexican food. My criteria and method were simple -
and hardly foolproof. In order to make the list, the restaurant
must serve primarily Mexican food, and must have been voted a
Best Mexican Restaurant in a local newspaper poll. There must be
some mention in the review of authenticity. If there was a
comment from someone who really KNOWS Mexican food, that gets
bonus points. The list is a long way from exhaustive, but if
you’re looking for good Mexican food a long way from home, you
just might get your craving satisfied at one of these unlikely
places to find authentic Mexican food.
Charlotte, N.C.
Me, I’d go looking for a good mess of pinto beans and Southern
barbecue in beautiful Charlotte, but if I did have a craving for
Mexican food, I’d head on over to Taqueria Las Delicias. It only
took the #8 spot on AOL’s CityGuide City’s Best awards, but any
place that serves its tamales wrapped in corn husk AND offers
lesser known Mexican foods like pupusas and taquitos is going to
get a visit from me when I hit Charlotte.
Boston, MA
The home of baked beans and clam chowder (white, thank you very
much) is also the home to Andale!, a tiny restaurant that seats
8 at the counter. Forget the ground, slightly spiced meat mush
that passes for Mexican food in most of Massachusetts, and build
yourself a quesadilla from chunks of roast chicken and spiced
vegetables. It’s fast Mexican food at its best, even if it is in
Boston.
Philadelphia, PA
Next time I’m in Philly, I’m skipping the cheese steak and
heading out for Mexican food. Voted Best Mexican food in the
Philly area, Coyote Crossing in Conshohocken has all the
standard gringo-Mex foods on the menu, but it also has…
caramel crepes and homemade sangria.
Seattle, WA
Can I get a café latte to go with the chilies relleno? El Puerco
Lloron in Seattle has been serving up its handmade tortillas and
fresh salsa for over two decades and they’re still making the
Best Of lists. If there is real Mexican food in the gateway to
Alaska, chances are that you’ll find it here.
Baltimore, MD
The folks at the Baltimore Citypaper appreciate the irony of
naming a Best Mexican Restaurant in Baltimore. To paraphrase,
it’s like naming the best air conditioner salesman in
Antarctica. Still, they dub the Mexican food at Los Amigos
Mexican restaurant ‘good’ and the wait staff friendly. Not quite
a ringing endorsement, but if I get sick of crab cakes in
Baltimore, I know where I’ll go.
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April 24th, 2008
Valentine Recipes - Delicious Puddings for your sweetheart
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Here are Recipes of
Delicious Valentine Puddings for your special person coming to
dinner on Valentines’s Day. Try these Valentine Recipes to make
this day more Romantic.
Valentine Recipe:1 HONEY PUDDING
Mix one-half cup of honey with six ounces of bread crumbs and
add one-half cup of milk, one-half teaspoon of ginger, grated
rind of half a lemon and yolks of two eggs. Beat the mixture
thoroughly and then add two tablespoons of butter and the whites
of the eggs well beaten. Steam for about two hours in a pudding
mold which is not more than three-quarters full.
Valentine Recipe:2 CHOCOLATE PUDDING
Take half a cake of chocolate broken in one quart of milk and
put on the range until it reaches boiling point. Remove the
mixture from the range. Add four teaspoonfuls of cornstarch
mixed with the yolks of three eggs and one cup and a half of
sugar. Stir constantly until thick. Remove from the fire, flavor
with vanilla and pour the mixture in a dish. Beat the whites of
the three eggs to a stiff froth and add a little sugar. Cover
the top of the pudding with a meringue and set in the oven until
a light brown. Serve cold.
Valentine Recipe:3 JELLY PUDDINGS.
Two cupfuls of fine stale biscuit or bread crumbs, one cupful of
rich milk cream, if you can get it; five eggs beaten very light,
half a teaspoonful of soda stirred in boiling water, one cupful
of sweet jelly, jam or marmalade. Scald the milk and pour over
the crumbs. Beat until half cold and stir in the beaten yolks,
then whites, finally the soda. Fill large cups half full with
the batter, set in a quick oven and bake half an hour. When
done, turn out quickly and dexterously. With a sharp knife make
an incision in the side of each; pull partly open, and put a
liberal spoonful of the conserve within. Close the slit by
pinching the edges with your fingers. Eat warm with sweetened
cream.
Valentine Recipe:4 APPLE CUSTARD PUDDING.
Put a quart of pared and quartered apples into a stewpan, with
half a cupful of water and cook them until they are soft. Remove
from the fire and add half a cupful of sugar, two tablespoonfuls
of butter and the grated rind and the juice of a lemon. Have
ready mixed two cupfuls of grated bread crumbs and two
tablespoonfuls of flour. Add this also to the apple mixture,
after which stir in two well-beaten eggs. Turn all into a
well-buttered pudding-dish and bake forty-five minutes in a
moderate oven. Serve with sugar and cream or hard sweet sauce.
Valentine Recipe:5 APRICOT PUDDING
Take 1 tin of apricots, 6 sponge cakes, 1/2 pint of milk, 2
eggs. Put the apricots into a saucepan and let them simmer with
a little sugar for 1/2 an hour. Take them off the fire and beat
them with a fork. Mix with them the sponge cakes crumbled. Beat
the eggs up with milk and pour it on the apricots. Pour the
mixture into a wetted mould and bake in a hot oven with a cover
over the mould for 1/2 an hour. Turn out; serve either hot or
cold.
Valentine Recipe:6 CARROT PUDDING
Take three or four clear red carrots, boil and peel them, take
the red part of the carrot, beat it very fine in a mixing bowl,
put to it the crumbs of a penny loaf, six eggs, half a pound of
clarified butter, two or three spoonfuls of rose water, a little
lemon-peel shred, grate in a little nutmeg, mix them well
together, bake it with a puff-paste round your dish and have a
little white wine, butter and sugar for the sauce.
Valentine Recipe:7 CHEESE PUDDING
Take breakfast-cupful of milk into a saucepan with a piece of
butter the size of a large egg. Let it remain until the butter
is melted, then pour it over three-quarters of a pound of bread
crumbs and half a pound of grated cheese; let these soak for
twenty minutes, then add a pinch of salt and 4 eggs, well
beaten. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered dish and bake in a
quick oven upto 40 Minutes.
Valentine Recipe:8 DATE PUDDING
Melt three tablespoons of butter, add one-half cup of molasses,
one-half cup of milk, one and two-third cups of flour sifted
with one-half teaspoon of baking-soda, one-quarter teaspoon of
salt, one-quarter teaspoon each of cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Add to the above one-half pound of dates, stoned and cut. Turn
into a well-buttered mold. Butter the cover also and steam two
and one-half hours. Keep at a steady boil. Serve with any kind
of sauce.
Hope you will enjoy these Valentine’s recipes. Happy
Valentine’s Day!
Amy Tylor is the Author of Pudding Recipes E-book:
http://www.puddingrecipe.7try.com/ She also maintains a
Directory of Valentine day Recipes at:
http://www.valentine-day.7try.com/valentine-day-recipe.html
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April 18th, 2008
This is a great summer salad, leaving you refreshed even on the hottest days. For those who like to have a little protein with there salad, both grilled chicken or shrimp go well with this dish. Don’t let the number of items scare you, this is a simple recipe and well worth the extra time. Great for the family or summer parties.
Spinach Salad
Makes 1 salad
- 4 oz. Spinach - cleaned and stem removed
- 2 oz. Mango - peeled, seeded and diced into ” pieces
- 2 oz. Papaya - peeled, seeded and diced into ” pieces
- 2 oz. Mandarin oranges
- oz. Red onion - julienne
- 2 Tbsp. Slivered almonds - toasted
- 2 oz. Lime vinaigrette (recipe follows)
- 1 ea. Lime slices
Combine spinach red onion and lime vinaigrette in a bowl and toss. Place on plate and top with mango, papaya, mandarin oranges and slivered almonds. Garnish with lime slice.
Lime vinaigrette
Yields 4 cups
- 4 oz. Lime marmalade
- 6 oz. Fresh lime juice
- 4 tsp. Sugar
- 4 tsp. Orange juice concentrate - undiluted
- 2 oz. Cider vinegar
- 2 tsp. Kosher salt
- 1 tsp. Sambal olek (chili paste)
- 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
- tsp. Ground coriander
- 1 Tbsp. Poppy seeds
- 2 cups Canola oil
- 3 oz. Olive oil
Combine and mix all ingredients except the oils in a mixer. Slowly add the oil on medium speed until vinaigrette is emulsified. Store in an air tight container and refrigerate.
About The Author
Chef Richard has worked in some of the finest restaurants in Washington and is the author of the ebook “Chef’s Special”. You can find more free recipes and order the ebook at http://www.csrecipes.com
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