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Tinto De Verano, The Summer Wine Of Spain

Though “rain in Spain is mostly on the plain”, Spanish summers are delightful. And like Nobel Laureate Earnest Hemingway, if you visit the bullfighting fiesta in Pamplona or pub crawl through Montparnasse, the hills of Spain with a bottle of Tinto de Verano, the summer wine of Spain, you may call yourself extremely lucky!

Tinto de Verano, translated into English or American for that matter, is the Red Wine of Summer and as the nomenclature suggests, it is usually drunk in summer. This refreshing summer drink is commonly served in the beach side Chiringguitos in style. In the Costa del Sol, it is a familiar sight to find locals drinking Tinto de Verano while overseas visitors taste a similar drink called Sangria which has been discussed a bit later in this article.

Tinto de Verano is often homemade or may be purchased ready-bottled from the supermarkets or the wine stores. The concoction, if you are not already very familiar with Spanish drinking habits, consist of 1 part red wine with 1 part La Casera which is an aerated drink like Sprite but less sweet, and is served over ice with a slice of lemon decorating the glass. Otherwise, one may put some ice in a glass, half fill the glass with aromatic red wine and then top it up with very light lemonade.

There are a few online stores as well you will come across such wines. And one recent development is the appearance of several wine clubs all over the world. These clubs often procure white wines and other too and let their members taste them. The clubs also educate their members about white wines.

Coming back to Sangria which is also a summer wine punch like the Tinto de Verano, and it has the following ingredients.

-Red wine
-Sliced or chopped fruit
-Honey, orange juice or any other sweetener
-Slight trace of brandy or any other spirit
-Gaseosa or Soda

Due to the differences in recipes, the alcoholic content in Sangr�s can be very different. Sangr�s ingredients vary, chiefly in the type of fruits that is used. The difference is also due to the addition of spirits (of course when it has been added), and also based on whether there is any carbonation or not. Often in place or red, white wine is preferred, and when this is the case, it is known as Sangr�Blanca.

Zurra is the way it is known as in some areas of southern Spain. It is a result of nectarines or peaches. Usually in recipes, the ingredient that is wine tends to dominate and this works as a base too. Cinnamon is also often included with the sweetener in many parts of Portugal and this spices the flavor.

Incidentally, there is a popular song on summer wine that is often sung by eminent vocal artists that goes like this:

Strawberries cherries and an angel’s kiss in spring,
My summer wine is really made from all these things,
Take of your silver spurs and help me pass the time,
And I will give to you summer wine ? mm summer wine.
James Copper is a writer for http://www.cecwine.co.uk

Tinto De Verano, The Summer Wine Of Spain / Author: Christopher

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Red Wine And Your Health

Alcohol is one of those things that can be very harmful if you get addicted to them. In fact, excessive alcohol consumption can even lead to death. However, recent research has found out that despite the harmful effects of alcohol, certain types of alcohol, like red wine, if consumed in moderation, can be beneficial to your health. In fact, research tells that if you have about two glasses of red wine a day, it can work wonders for your health!

You must be quite startled at the revelation that drinking red wine can actually do good to your health. But then, it is a scientifically proven thing. One of the areas that alcohol can assist you is the realm of heart disease. Drinking a moderate quantity of wine can actually lower the risks of getting a heart attack or a stroke. This can be readily proven with the example of the French population. The French have a high fat diet but strangely enough, they have one of the lowest heart disease rates in the world! How is this possible? Some doctors went to the root of the matter and discovered that it is their tendency to consume red wine with their meals that lowers the risk of heart diseases.

However, although the reason has been narrowed down to the consumption of red wine, researchers are not yet sure as to what component of the red wine has this beneficial quality of lowering heart disease risks. Some believe that it is the presence of flavonoids or any other antioxidant that has this wonderful effect on the human body. In order to find out more about the disease fighting properties of red wine, researchers are also working on grapes and grape juices.

The benefits of consuming red wine are great. In fact, it reduces chances of heart diseases by as much as 50%. This is one of the benefits that will be great news to all wine lovers. However, the idea is to drink in moderation and savour the taste and the benefits.

Other health benefits of this alcoholic beverage are:
It increases the level of good cholesterol in the body.
Decrease chances of Alzheimer’s disease.
Decrease chances of prostate cancer.

Helps cure cold, decrease number of fat cells.
Although the world is going gaga over the benefits of drinking red wine, nothing has been confirmed scientifically till now. Thus, it is advisable that you go and ask your doctor about the true benefits of drinking red wine and how it will affect your system.

It is agreed that it is one of the most loved drinks around he world and recent medical discoveries show it in good light, but still you need to be sure of its advantages and disadvantages before embarking upon consuming it regularly as a means of keeping in good health. Research is still on to identify whether it is red wine that benefits your health or just a component in it. Thus, try to be absolutely sure about it before getting merry!

James Copper is a writer for http://www.cecwine.co.uk where you can find information on red wine

Red Wine And Your Health / Author: Christopher

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Learn How To Cook A Yummy And Delicious Baked Salmon Recipes

Running out of ideas how to cook your lovely salmon? Check out below for some great easy to cook baked salmon recipes.

BAKED DILLY SALMON

Ingredients:

1-1/2 lbs Maine salmon steaks or skinless fillets
1 tsp dill weed
1/2 tsp onion salt
1 lemon, sliced

Procedures:

First is to preheat oven to 425. Then lay the salmon in a baking dish sprayed with
cooking spray. Sprinkle with dill and onion salt and top with lemon slices. Lastly, cover and bake for 15-20 minutes, until flesh turns opaque.

EASY BAKED SALMON

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic, minced
6 tbl. light olive oil
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tbl. lemon juice
1 tbl. fresh parsley, chopped
2 (6 ounce) Wild Salmon Dinner Fillets

Procedures:

First thing is to prepare marinade by mixing garlic, light olive oil, basil, salt, pepper, lemon juice and parsley in a medium glass bowl. Afterwards, lay salmon fillets in a
medium glass baking dish then add with the marinade. Let it soak in a marinate in the for about 1 hour, turning occasionally.

Then preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put the fillets in aluminum foil, cover with marinade, and seal. Place sealed salmon in the glass dish, and bake 35 to 45 minutes, until easily flaked with a fork.

BAKED SALMON IN SOUR CREAM

Ingredients:

2 pounds of salmon fillets
3/4 cup sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tbl. all-purpose flour
2 tbl. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. dill weed
paprika
8 oz. cream cheese
1 clove fresh garlic (pressed)
1/3 cup white wine

Procedures:

Initially, preheat oven to 380 degrees then grease a 8×12″ baking pan. Arrange the fillets in pan in a single layer. Mix the sour cream, lemon juice, mayonnaise, flour, dill, cream cheese, garlic and wine with a whisk. Spread the mixture over salmon fillets. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and paprika.

Bake, let it open for approximately 15 minutes or until fish flakes when checked with a fork. Makes about 5 servings.

I hope you can add these two delicious baked salmon recipes to your lists. Enjoy eating!

Anselmo Mendez is a huge salmon lover and cooking enthusiast. Check out his blog at http://www.howtocooksalmon.blogspot.com for lots of exciting, easy and healthy ways how to cook salmon with different varieties of recipes like baked salmon recipe on a fixed budget. When you visit Dan’s How To Cook Salmon Blog, you’ll never run out salmon recipes ever again.

Learn How To Cook A Yummy And Delicious Baked Salmon Recipes / Author: dwglobal

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Enjoy the Rich Taste of Chinese Seafood

China is famous for its best quality of non-vegetarian food. China offer huge variety of sea food. Chinese products regularly go to the world market. Customers are demanding more and more Chinese products because of their varied quality. Chinese food is famous in all over the world. There are large number of restaurants and hotel which are offering Chinese food.

China has one of the world’s largest seafood industries processing and exporting an enormously varied range of both warm water and cold-water products. China has now surpassed Thailand and other countries to become the largest exporter of fishery products. China has an enormous aquatic production. A large part of this production comes to the International market.

China seafood is rapidly gaining a foothold throughout markets in North American, Europe and Australia as well as Asian countries. Its quality and competitive pricing make it an obvious choice for the restaurants, hotels and resorts. In China, small restaurants also keep a tank of live fish for their customers to choose from. Big cities with their higher classed restaurants have tanks with an unimaginable variety of aquatic creatures.

China is rich in seafood, fish and beef. In any Chinese restaurant you will get various varieties of these seafood, fish and beef. China owns many fisheries resources and over 3000 marine species. Chinese seafood, beef and fish have become the most demanded non-vegetarian food since the last five years. The best thing about Chinese seafood is its rich taste and deliciousness.

Siam Canadian is one of the leading seafood exporters and suppliers which offer different variety of Chinese seafood, fish and beef. China beef, China seafood and China fish are the most popular among Chinese food. With state of art of processing and packaging facilities, Siam Canadian also employs improved procedures for processing, packaging and product offering to make it beneficial for customer and regular clients.

Enjoy the Rich Taste of Chinese Seafood / Author: Mike Nicholson

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How To Make Belgian Chocolate

Before you start making chocolate of any kind you first need to consider the cocoa beans. They are the basic raw material of any type of chocolates be it Belgian chocolates, Swiss chocolates or plain old ordinary mass produced sweet shop chocolates from the supermarket. There are many steps in converting the cocoa bean into the glorious confection that we know as Belgian chocolate. It’s a complex process too involving many closely guarded secrets.

Did you know that a cocoa tree in a good year will bear about 6000 flowers of which only about 1% will develop into cocoa pods? That’s 60 or so pods per tree so to grow cocoa beans commercially you need an awful lot of trees! Anyway if we’re going to make Belgian chocolate we need to harvest enough beans of the finest quality.

Each pod on the tree will be yellow or red when it’s ripe and be about 15 to 30 cm in length. Inside we should find between 25 and 50 of the seeds we call cocoa beans. They’re creamy coloured at this stage and we must remove them from the pods and put them into heaps on the ground or into trays. Some people cover them with banana leaves. We’ll leave them there to ferment in the trays or heaps until they’ve turned brown, you know, a sort of chocolate colour. Then we’ve got to dry them before they’re ready to be hulled, rather like shelling peas, cleaned and roasted.

Once the beans are roasted it’s much easier to separate the nibs from the shells. It’s the nibs we want to make our Belgian chocolate. Remember those closely guarded secrets? Well here’s one. At this stage the nibs are carefully blended to produce exactly the flavour and colour we’re after. It’s a bit like blending coffee beans really. No-one is going to tell us exactly what proportions of blending they use.

Once blended the nibs are ground using rotating stones, rollers or discs. That produces a liquid that’s more than 50% fat or cocoa butter. It’s actually called chocolate liqueur and it’s at this stage that various other ingredients may be added to produce different kinds of chocolate such as milk solids and sugar for milk chocolate. When all is thoroughly blended we have to put the mixture into a refiner which crushes it into a smooth choclaty sort of texture.

We’re still not there yet! There now follows a process called “conching.” We have to heat our raw chocolate to quite high temperatures, something of the order of 54-71ºC, the exact temperature being another of those closely guarded secrets. It has to be stirred continuously till we achieve a pure homogeneous liquid. Oh, and while we’re doing this we have to keep a blast of fresh air directed at the liquid all the time. At this stage we can add various other ingredients such as vanilla for flavour and lecithin for emulsifying. Of course the quantities and proportions are a closely guarded secret!

Once that process is completed the liquid chocolate has to be tempered by pouring into metal moulds to form blocks or other shapes. The moulds need to be subjected to vibration to remove any bubbles of air in the chocolate before it cools and sets into the form we are all familiar with.

It’s that process of conching, together with the quality of the original beans that determines the quality of the chocolate we’ll have made. Incidentally it’s what goes into the mixture at this stage that makes for the different types of chocolate associated with different countries. Belgian chocolate for instance has less sugar blended in than Swiss chocolate which is much sweeter. So, that’s roughly how to do it. Are you ready to have a go at making some Belgian chocolate?

If so you need to remember the three most important factors you need to get right. Your beans must be of exceptionally good quality preferably grown as close as possible to the Equator. You need to get your conching process just right, and if you intend to fill your chocolates the filling needs to be both delicate and rich enough to complement the flavour of the chocolate itself. Oh and it probably helps if you’re Belgian and descended from a long line of chocolatiers.

Bearing in mind all those closely guarded secrets it’s going to be a rather hit and miss affair anyway so the chances of you coming up with a result to match the best that Belgium can produce are pretty remote. Wouldn’t it be a much better idea to go out and find a source of supply for genuine Belgian chocolate made by people who really do know how to make it and get it just right?

Author Bio:

Natasha Clark
Chocol8
www.chocol8.co.uk

How To Make Belgian Chocolate / Author: lexisclick

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