Kitchen Quick Tips - Green vs Wax Beans

Green and wax beans can be used interchangeably. Wax beans lack chlorophyll but taste very close to green beans and since they have less colour to lose, stand up better during longer cooking in terms of colour.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Crispier Waffles

Some waffle recipes have melted butter as an ingredient.  Butter adds moisture to the waffle that results in a soggy waffle.   For crispier waffles use oil in your batter rather than melted butter.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Cake Flour

Cake flour gives a more tender, delicate texture to baked goods than all-purpose flour.  If you don't have cake flour the substitution is:

• sift together 2 tbsp cornstarch and 7/8 c all purpose flour to make 1 cup cake flour

Kitchen Quick Tips - Turning White Sugar Into Brown

If you need brown sugar for a recipe but you are out, the substitutions are:

• light brown sugar - 1 c granulated sugar mixed with 1 tbsp molasses
• dark brown sugar - 1 c granulated sugar mixed with 2 tbsp molasses

Kitchen Quick Tips - Substituting Canned Beans for Dried

Some recipes call for using dried beans by the pound.  If you don't have time to cook dried beans from scratch the substitution is:

• 1 lb dried beans equals 58 ounces of canned beans.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Brown Sugar Substitute

If a recipe calls for brown sugar the substitution is 1 c brown sugar = 1 c granulated sugar plus 2 tbsp molasses mixed well.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Buttermilk Substitute

If a recipe calls for buttermilk and you don't have any substitute with equal amount of plain yogurt or add 1 tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar to enough milk to make 1 c and let stand 5 minutes before using.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Cheesecloth

Cheesecloth is used to strain out larger food particles especially when making jellies.  If you don't have cheesecloth, use a clean piece of old pillowcase or old dish towel instead.  Be sure to wet the cloth before using it as a strainer.

Cheese, Meat & Vegetable Twist

I don't buy or subscribe to very many foodie type magazines. A few years ago I signed up to receive What's Cooking, a free quarterly magazine put out by Kraft Foods. The magazine is wonderful presented with easy recipes using Kraft products. There are a lot of cooking and menu planning tips as well. I will admit to enjoying opening up a foodie magazine and immediately seeing something I want to try making.

The Steps

This recipe was originally called Easy Baked Cheese & Vegetable Twist. The presentation was quite appealing yet looked easy enough to duplicate. I took one look at the recipe then started tweaking changing the filling to include meat. I also wanted something with a bit more flavour which the original recipe didn't have. Here's my version.

Cheese, Meat & Vegetable Twist
modified from: Kraft Foods, What's Cooking. Festive 2009. Pp. 37.

2 cans refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
2 eggs
125 g (4 oz) Philadelphia Herb & Garlic cream cheese spread
2 c broccoli, rough chopped
8 mushrooms, quartered
½ roma tomato, seeded and chopped
1 green onion, sliced
1½ c ground beef, browned

Brown ground beef and drain. Prepare vegetables. Open the crescent rolls, separate and arrange on a baking sheet overlapping to form a circle (1). Mix the rest of the ingredients together then spoon around the centre of the circle (2). I found it worked best to use a large spoon then shape the ring as I went using the other hand. Pull up each triangle point towards the centre and tuck under (3). Continue in this fashion until all points are tucked under (4). Bake at 190ºC/375ºF until golden brown about 35 minutes.

Fresh from Oven

I was a bit surprised to see the ring did not keep its nice round shape but that's ok. Honestly I do have a crooked eye but do still know the difference between a circle and oblong. With a bit of practice I should be able to perfect this. The original recipe showed the finishd twist on a serving wood. This definitely would be a two person endeavour to get the baked ring onto any serving dish without breaking it.

What strikes me about this recipe is you really could use any filling you wanted to as long as the filling isn't runny when hot. It could be a savoury, meat filling as I used, a vegetarian filling or even a sweet, dessert filling. So it is the method and idea that is most important then tailor the filling to what you want.

Plated

Once the twist is cut for plating it really doesn't have the circular shape although there is a slight arc to the pieces. For presentation and serving it would be very nice to present the twist whole as that is when it is most impressive visually. I plated the cut twist very simply with a small garnish. An average serving would be 3 sections depending on the filling. It was quite tasty and very filling. I'm glad I substituted the Philidelphia Herb & Garlic cream cheese spread in place of plain cream cheese as that added a nice flavour element. The real trick is going to be substituting the refrigerator dough. I think puff pastry would be a good substitute so will try that the next time.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Nut Substitution

If a cookie or cake recipe calls for nuts you can substitute oatmeal browned in a bit of butter for a nice flavour and crunch.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Milk Substitution

This tip comes from The Main on the food channel. If a recipe calls for milk substitute buttermilk instead. Buttermilk adds more flavour and richness than milk with an almost lemony flavour to give that little bit extra.

Kitchen Quick Tip - Parsley Substitute

If a recipe calls for fresh parsley and you do not have any on hand, substitute celery leaves instead. Dried celery leaves can be substituted for dry parsley (flakes).