Tag: Baking

Categories
Food Recipes

Learn How To Make Spicy Banana Chips At Home

baked banana chips

I have always supported the idea of home made snacks more than the regular processed snacks sold in many grocery stores. One of such snacks is banana chips especially when it is well made. Children and middle aged people would love it. Plantain chips seem to be more common here in Nigeria but the very first time I tasted banana chip, it became love at first bite.

baked banana chips

Ingredients For Making Spicy Banana Chips

  • Three big size, semi ripe fingers of banana
  • A table spoon of lemon juice
  • Water
  • Salt ( Optional)
  • Butter or non sticky cooking spray

Equipment Needed

  • Knife
  • Oven
  • Foil paper

Instructions For Making Baked Banana Chips Is Made

The process involved is quite simple and you could involve your teenage children in the process of making banana chips. It is as follows;

  • Peel you banana fingers one after the other. Mean while, as you are performing this activity, pull out the tray in the oven and set it to a temperature of between 180-200F.
  • Slice them into tiny pieces (1/8inch) in a slanting vertical version and set aside.
  • Pour a table spoon of lemon juice into about 50cl of water, add a dash of salt, mix well and submerge the sliced banana into the solution and take out immediately. Do not do all at once, do it in batches and set aside
  • Cover the tray with a foil paper and rub slightly with butter or spray with a non sticky cooking spray to avoid sticking.
  • Carefully place the sliced banana on it one after the other and return to the heated oven.
  • Keep in the oven for 80mins and check. Turn slices, once they are in your preferred baked colour and place in oven for another 30mins.  Do not forget to check at 20 min mark to avoid over burnt bananas.
  • Fetch them out of the oven once they are ready and air dry. The longer you air dry them, the crispier  they are.
  • Once they are dry enough, keep in air dry container.

Your crispy baked banana chips are ready for consumption. The good thing about this is that they can be included and portioned out as snacks for your children when going to school. It is healthier than the sweetened ones sold in supermarkets and not difficult to make.

When you do try this, do not forget to get back to us.

Categories
Food & Body

Foods That Help Relieve Your Headache

migraine and headache

When a headache strikes, it most times render all your body system useless. It makes you very touchy while reducing the extent to which you concentrate at work or at home. Many are quick to funnel some tablets of paracetamol into their bodies in order to reduce the discomfort but they are sometimes shocked to see no improvement. In fact, this has been the norm whenever there is an occurrence of headaches for many people.

migraine and headache

How Some Foods Can Help Get Rid Of Headache

Have you ever asked yourself; if your headaches could be a result of certain foods or micro-nutrients that are lacking in your diets? Yes, this can be very true and this is what has caused a headache in many people. Let us see some of the foods that will help you eliminated headaches if regularly included in your diet.

WATERMELON:

There is no gainsaying that the major cause of headaches is the lack of enough water and certain minerals in the body. With this understanding, to mitigate against the constant pounding of your head, it is essential to have an adequate serving of watermelon which has 90% water content and yet is loaded with a mineral such as magnesium that helps reduce the pains of headaches.

BAKED POTATO AND BANANA:

Alcohol-related headache is a common phenomenon, particularly among alcohol drinking men. Alcohol is diuretic and so causes loss of water from your body within a short period which leads to headaches due to loss of electrolytes such as potassium.

In order to restore your body back to normal, it is advisable to consume foods such as potato and banana that have the capacity to supply an adequate amount of potassium to your body.

ALMOND:

Almonds can be valuable food that can be enjoyed especially during stress time. Almonds have been researched to contain a good source of protein and amino acid with an abundant supply of magnesium, potassium, and even a little iron which are key minerals that can help relieve headaches.

SPINACH SALAD:

Are you hoping to quickly alleviate your pounding headache? then spinach salad with a combination of fruit like a carrot will help your condition. Like I itemized earlier, headache is majorly caused by dehydration with a lack of certain electrolytes. These vegetables are loaded with high moisture content and fiber which will alleviate the headache.

Having itemized some of the top foods that can help during headaches, it is important to state that you should at all times consume an adequate amount of water as dehydration is the major cause of headaches. Avoiding excessive alcohol would also help prevent alcohol-induced headaches.

Categories
Food Processing

Differences Between Food Roasting, Baking and Grilling

grilling maize

Many people cannot differentiate between food roasting, grilling and baking, therefore, they use them interchangeably. This has led to the inappropriate use of these words — some know that they are different but just don’t care to know the differences while some others don’t know they are different food processing methods and mean different things.

In this article, we are going to explain the meaning of each in cooking and outline their difference. Maybe that “roasted corn” you say every time isn’t a result of roasted after all. While these cooking methods involving the use of dry heat are nearly identical in today’s kitchen and usage, there’ are still some few things that set them apart.

What are the differences between Roast, Bake and Grill?

I know this might come to many as a surprise, even though many people confuse grilling and roasting, it is actually roasting and baking that have more similarities. Grilling is very easy and should not be confused with any of the other two.

On the next pages, you will see the differences between grilling, roasting and baking of foods and examples of foods that we use each one for.

What is Grilling?

The grilling of food involves the application of dry heat from either below or above in order to cook food. Now think of those foods that you process this way — you are grilling them and not whatever name you have been calling it before. The heating of the food is by radiation.

grilling maize

A very common food we apply grilling to is meat where the meat to be cooked with dry heat is provided with high and direct heat from below with the help of smoking wood or hot coal or charcoal.

In countries like the United States and Canada, if the heat used to cook the food is provided from above, the process of cooking is called broiling. It is important to note that grilling pans are now used these days. The method of heating here is by conduction.

Common foods that we grill include meat and corn. So, do you think calling “roasted corn” by that name is right?

Roasting Vs Baking

The structure of the foods and the type of foods are the major factors that distinguish these two processing methods. Roasting involves cooking foods that already have a solid structure and shape outside the container before the cooking process starts at all e.g. meat and vegetables. Baking, on the other hand, involves foods that lack the definite structure before heating, then become solid during the cooking e.g. cake and bread.

Foods that are roasted are done in an open, uncovered pan, while food items that are baked may be covered and done inside an enclosed oven area or equipment. Also, the temperature for roasting is higher than involved in baking — about 205 degrees Celcius compared to about 175 degrees Celsius.

Now don’t get roasting and grilling confused because roasting is done in front of or over a fire or bed of coals while grilling involves placing food on a grill situated a few inches over the charcoal, where the intense heat cooks foods quickly. Roasting takes place at a slower pace since the food is not that close to the heating charcoal.

roasting chicken

Since grilling is fast, it is possible to end up with a food that is ver brown outside and a bit uncooked inside, this is not the case with roasting as it makes use of slow heat over a long period of time.