About pulses and pasta (practical advice)

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About legumes and pastaPulse starch takes longer to swell than cereal starch. Therefore, before cooking, the product must be soaked in cold water for several hours. Pulses are boiled with a low boil under a lid: lentils - from 30 to 60 minutes, split peas - from 60 to 90, beans - from 1 hour to 2 hours.

Any acidic product added to uncooked pulses will greatly slow this process down. therefore tomato puree or other sour sauces are added to the legume pot only when they are completely cooked.

About legumes and pastaOut of nowhere came the custom of adding baking soda to speed up the cooking of legumes. Well, there is a gain in time. But vitamin B in the product dies, and the taste of the dish deteriorates. Think mistresses ...

Beans really “don't like” when they either interrupt the process of their cooking, or add cold water during it. The result is cracking of the grains and disorientation of the hostess, who may think that the dish is already ready.

Unhulled peas or beans, when boiled, shed their thin skin. Although we are rationalists, due to the lack of any special nutritional advantages in it, it is better to get rid of the scales that interfere with the uniform consistency of the dish and remove them during cooking with a slotted spoon.

Regardless of your culinary purpose, pulses should be cooked to a cooked state (i.e., whole grains of a soft consistency) during cooking. Your business is what to do with them later: whole grains, seasoned with fat or tomato sauce - a ready-to-serve dish or side dish, but if you want to get mashed potatoes, grind them through a sieve or pass them through a meat grinder with the finest grid. In the latter case, peas can be digested. But undercooking (say, in the expectation that as a filling of pies, it will once again undergo heat treatment) is fraught with embarrassment.

For 1 kg of legumes, experienced housewives use 2-3 liters of water when cooking.

To soak legumes, fairly cold water is required - no higher than 15 ° C (otherwise, during the long hours of this process, they can sour).

Old stocks of pulses are both cooked longer and soaked for a longer period.

About legumes and pastaIf you add salt when cooking legumes at the beginning of the boil, the skin will thicken them. The beans will remain too tough even after boiling, for example, for mashing them. It is recommended to salt them just before the end of cooking.

Dry tough beans will "grow closer" to you (become softer, tastier), if you do not regret a few drops of vegetable oil, adding them to the water intended for boiling beans.

It has already been said that legumes "don't like" cooking with sour foods. But paradoxically, it is in combination with them when served to the table that they are best absorbed by the body (and they are tastier, for example, with to-mat-mashed potatoes, sour cream or tomato sauce). Of the legumes containing up to 20% fat and 33% protein, not to mention starch, split peas, bean concentrates and soy flour are famous for the best digestibility.

A small amount of water and low heat are the main conditions when cooking legumes.

Hard water (if your area is notable for this) should be boiled before boiling the legumes.

You can see that the water has almost boiled away, and the peas are not boiled. It's okay: add a little hot water (no more than you need to cover the layer of food) and continue cooking.

Do you want to soak peas in water for a long time? There is a way out: dried in the oven, the peas will cook quickly and without soaking.

Being a good side dish for meat, fish and sausages, legumes are popular as an independent dish, and you can season them in a variety of ways, excluding, of course, sweet additives. So, to the legumes cooked with tomato, it is good to add a little pounded garlic.

About legumes and pastaBoiled legumes are served with fried bacon, bacon and onions, with boiled potatoes and vegetables, etc. They go well with sour cream sauce, green salad, sauerkraut salad, beets, and fried onions.

Calculation for one portion of an independent pea dish - 100 g of dry product; for cooking soups - 50 g.

Aromatic and tasty legumes are obtained if during cooking you dip a bunch of greens into a saucepan or shredded and tied in a gauze knot carrot, which are removed from it after the dish is ready.

About pasta

Pasta is also prepared both as an independent dish and as a side dish. Small products are often cooked in soups (noodles, noodles, horns, shells, stars, etc.). Actually pasta - for main courses. The highest grades of pasta are made from the highest grade flour. The product has a whitish-yellow color, swells well and boils well. In darker pasta made from first grade flour, these qualities are less pronounced.

For 500 g of pasta, it is used when cooking 3 liters of water, already brought to a boil and salted before filling them. They are usually broken into pieces and stirred at first so that they do not stick to the bottom of the pan. After boiling on low heat, the pasta is thrown into a colander or sieve and poured with boiled water. Then fill with fat so as not to stick together.

Cooked pasta will be much tastier if lightly fried after drying.

About legumes and pastaPasta cooked in meat, bone or mushroom broth is especially appetizing.

All pasta is weakly cooked in milk. Therefore, first boil them for 3-5 minutes in water, and then transfer them to boiling milk.

Do not leave cooked pasta in the liquid in which it was cooked, otherwise it will soon fall apart and sour.

For each serving of the side dish, boil 60-70 g of pasta; per serving of an independent dish - 80-100 g. In soups, it is supposed to put any pasta at the rate of 10-15 g per serving.

Do not forget to use a decoction of pasta for food purposes: sauces and soups are quite good from it, since during cooking the product gives off a lot of starch to liquid.

Boiled pasta is prepared with butter, cheese, tomato, vegetables and meat products. They are often baked with cheese, eggs, tomato. An inexpensive, but hearty and tasty dish is served either in a warmed plate or in the pan in which it was baked. Baked pasta is very tasty if sprinkled with toasted crumbs of white breadcrumbs mixed with a little grated cheese.

B.P. Brusilov - Culinary savvy


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