How to Grill Fillet Mignon For Ultimate Taste and Flavor By Oscar Orillia

Fillet mignon is a small tender piece of beef taken from the tenderloin. Most people still have no idea How to Grill Fillet Mignon because aside from the fact that the name itself sounds intimidating, a lot of things can go wrong when you don't know what you're doing such as burning it or ending up with a dried up piece of meat. But you don't have to be a seasoned chef to perfect the art of How to Grill Fillet Mignon. All you need to remember is that with this kind of steak, less is more. Unlike many steak cuts that need to be marinated for tenderness, this only needs minor preparations.

The following are the step-by-step instructions on How to Grill Fillet Mignon:

1. To prepare the steak, season it with fresh ground black pepper. Let it sit for about 30-45 minutes. Try wrapping a strip of bacon around the steak and secure it with a toothpick that has been submerged in water for 20 minutes. This adds flavor to the meat and keeps it from drying out during the cooking process.

2. Fire up the grill and leave it at the highest temperature setting.

3. The third step on How to Grill Filet Mignon is to place the steak on the grill using tongs or a spatula so as not to pierce the meat and allow the juices to seep out and the meat to dry up.

4. After two minutes, lift the steak carefully, turn it 90 degrees, and set it back down for three minutes to create those wonderful grill marks on each side.

5. Check to see if the steak achieved your desired doneness without piercing the meat. Test it by pushing on the steak. If the meat is still rare, an indention of your finger will be seen on its surface. If it's medium rare, the steak will give a little but it will not leave an indention. If the steak feels firm, then it's well done.

6. Remove it from the grill. Set it on a plate and leave it for 2-3 minutes to allow the juices to re-distribute.

7. Enjoy!

These simple steps prove that you don't need to become a professional chef to know How to Grill Filet Mignon. Just follow the instructions and don't stress about it too much. Your efforts will be greatly rewarded in the end with a beautiful piece of steak that you grilled yourself.

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Fast Cooking - 4 Golden Keys How to Plan Your Meals If You Have to Cook in a Hurry By Bettina Berlin

The fact that our hectic schedule is trying its best to keep us away from preparing our own healthy meals at home does not mean we should not try. We simply need to be one step ahead and think of new ways how to cook faster. For preparing your own food is worth the effort: Firstly, it will save you a lot of money. And secondly, it will be much better for you and your family's health than living on ready-made meals which are often packed with unhealthy additives but only little nutrients, or take-aways, many which are high in calories.

Use the four golden keys below when planning your meals to ensure they are quick to make when you don't have much time.

1. Keep your meals simple
2. Choose fast cooking foods
3. Choose foods that require little preparation
4. Use prepared foods

Key #1: Keep your meals simple

Choosing a big variety of ingredients can be enticing but also time-consuming in preparation. The more different foods you work with, the more complex your meal and the longer it will take. If you don't have much time, rather stick to a few key ingredients. Choose pasta, rice or potatoes. Settle for one or two vegetables or a simple salad and one protein-rich food (meat, fish, eggs or legumes). If you vary the veggie groups and the types of starchy carbohydrates and protein-rich foods from day to day, you will surely get all nutrients you need.

Key #2: Choose fast cooking foods

Some foods cook faster, others take longer. The secret of cooking fast is to pick the fast cooking ones rather when you don't have much time. Pasta is certainly the fastest starchy food, only beaten by couscous which is done in a few minutes. Save time by pre-boiling the water with the kettle. As for vegetables, anything that is rather soft, like mushrooms, marrows, tomatoes or leek will be done quickly. Fruits and salads don't require cooking at all. In the meat world, sausages, mince balls and fish are quick foods, and so are filets and goulash. In other words, anything that is small.

Key #3: Choose foods that require little preparation

If you don't have much time, look out for fruits or vegetables that don't need to be peeled and don't contain pips or seeds you need to remove. Marrows, tomatoes and mushrooms are excellent examples. Bananas are certainly quick to peel, and berries don't even need to be cut. Salad requires very little preparation too, especially if you buy the pre-packed ones that are usually quite clean and neat. You may want to buy foods that are already peeled and cut into handy pieces but these will usually be a bit more expensive. Besides these factors, you should also pick the size of your foods wisely. It is less work to peel a few large fruits or veggies than many small ones.

Key #4: Use prepared foods

Not everything that is canned and deep-frozen is bad. There are many canned or deep-frozen vegetables and fruits that are a great resource if you cook in a hurry, since these foods just need to be warmed. These foods can enrich your diet by providing you with something that you could not otherwise get because it's out of season right now. You should though make certain that they are not processed and relatively free of additives. To spice up your meals quickly and easily, use ground spices instead of fresh ones. They might not taste that strongly but they will certainly do the job.

You should try to make sure that you still sometimes eat these other foods that take longer to prepare to ensure your diet is balanced. But when being in a hurry, applying these four keys will surely save you a lot of time when cooking. The results will be worth the effort: You can be more relaxed because your food preparation is working smoothly, you save money by not buying take-aways, and your family eats much healthier. What more could you want?

Bettina Berlin is an Occupational Therapist with special interest in healthy nutrition as it can improve health and help prevent many diseases she saw her patients struggling with. If you want to learn more about healthy eating, visit http://www.elishas-quick-recipes.blogspot.com today and learn how to make your favorite dishes healthier and how to prepare healthy meals in the little time your hectic schedule allows you!

Indirect Grilling Methods Create Great Barbecue Eats By Billy Bristol

Indirect Grilling is the act of moving the meat away from the hottest part of the fire in the grill. It is then cooked slowly, keeping the meat tender, juicy, and full of flavor. Here are some indirect grilling techniques that will lead to the best grilling results:

When working with charcoal briquettes or wood pieces, place all combustible materials on one side, and only at the bottom of the grill or barbecue pit. Leave the other side empty for the time being, and start your fire just like you normally do.

When the briquettes or wood is covered with a thin layer of ash, use some barbecue mitts to place a 9"by 12" foil pan on the bottom, and on the empty side of the grill. Fill the pan halfway with water. Keep adding water periodically as it cooks. The water evaporates during cooking, and the steam it puts off helps keep the meat moist.

While the charcoal or wood pieces are heating, clean the grill (if you did not do it after the last grilling with a wire brush. At this point, oil the grill by using a natural bristle brush, dip it into vegetable oil, and run it over the food grill.

Once the oil is applied, start placing the meat on the hot side of the barbecue grill first. This way you can sear the meat for a short time over the higher heat. Cook for 2-3 minutes per side, then move the meat to the cool side.

Remember, the cool side is also the side with the pan of water under it. This will keep the flames from shooting up and burning the food, which happens often when cooking over direct heat.

If you have a gas grill, the whole cooking process is very much the same. Most gas grills have at least two burners, and that is really all you need for indirect grilling. If using a two-burner grill, turn one burner off, and place the water pan on top of the unlit burner.

If you have more than two burners, this give you more room to experiment with your indirect grilling. With a three-burner grill, you can turn on the two outside burners, and leave the middle one off. Then place the water pan on the middle burner. Again, sear the meat over the hot, or outside burners, and then cook for the majority of time over the middle burner, or cool area.

With these indirect grilling methods, you can cook just about anything on a grill that you can cook in your kitchen oven. Bread, cakes, and pies can all be baked this way, and with great results.

A barbecue grill is really just an outdoor oven. It has a heat source just like an oven, and has an enclosed box like an oven. You can also control the heat almost as effectively as your oven.

Try these indirect grilling methods and enjoy some of the best barbecue and grilled foods you will ever eat.

Billy Bristol is the editor and chief bbq pit master for TexasBarbeques.com, an outdoor cooking and entertaining website devoted to backyard living. TexasBarbeques.com has been providing barbecue recipes, cooking tips, grilling techniques, and backyard entertainment ideas since 2005.

TexasBarbeques.com

How to Cook Baked Potatoes - 3 Techniques, 5 Steps By Ahmad Ranson

Today, the potato is one of the most important of all foods. So it's surprising to think that this vegetable wasn't widely used until the last half of the eighteenth century. The potato is a tuber, which is an enlarged underground stem with buds (or eyes) that become new shoots. Potatoes are classified as either starchy, low-moisture varieties or as waxy, high moisture varieties.

How To Cook Baked Potatoes In A Conventional Oven (Regular Oven)

1. When you are baking potatoes, try to use russets (these are the best kind for baking) or other regularly shaped starchy potatoes.
2. Scrub well and pierce the ends with a fork or skewer so steam can escape.
3. For crisp skins, rub lightly with oil. For more tender skins, leave dry.
4. Place on sheet pans or on sheet pan racks in a preheated 400 degrees F oven and bake until done. This should be about a hour. To test doneness, squeeze gently. Done potatoes will give in to gentle pressure. (using sheet pan racks eliminates the hard spot that forms where the potato is in contact with the sheet pan)
5. Remove from oven.

To hold for service, keep warm and uncovered so the potatoes will not be made soggy by trapped steam. Hold no more than 1 hour, if possible.

It is important to note there was nothing said about wrapping potatoes in foil. Foil wrapped potatoes do not bake, they steam in their own moisture. The texture of a steamed potato is entirely different from a baked potato. So save yourself the trouble, work, and expense of wrapping the potatoes in foil paper and make better baked potatoes.

How To Cook Baked Potatoes In A Microwave

1. Wash the potatoes, and pierce with a knife once or twice all the way through.
2. Place in the microwave on a paper towel or plate. Plates do not stick to the potato.
3. Try to cook about 4 at a time.
4. 4 small potatoes = 7 minutes, 4 large potatoes = 10 to 11 minutes (microwave oven times vary)
5. If only one potato is being put in the microwave, when using a 1200 watt microwave, set the timer to 3:00 for a very small potato, set it to 4:30 for a medium-sized potato, and set it to 6:00 for a large potato. Huge potatoes will require 7 to 8 minutes.

Let the potato stand for five minutes. This will allow the inside of the potato to finish cooking with hot steam that is trapped inside.After waiting, cut open the potato and garnish with your choice of toppings.

Some microwaves have a baked potato button.

How To Cook Baked Potatoes On A Grill

1. Wash and scrub the potatoes well.
2. Pierce the potatoes with a fork or skewer so steam can escape.
3. Baste the potatoes with oil or butter.
4. Place the potatoes on a hot grill and sear them on all sides.
5. When the potatoes give in to pressure easily when touched, there ready to eat.

Baking the potato on a grill is probably the fastest way to achieve baked potatoes (next to baking them in or on an open fire. Another way to grill a potato is to par-coook the potatoes first. This method cuts down on the coooking time on the grill.

You can see some tasty baked potato recipes and grilled potato recipes.

Chilis Fajita Recipe - Cooking Great Fajitas at Home By Robbie Becklund

When is the last time you ate at Chili's? It's good isn't it. Wouldn't it be great if you could cook food at home like they do at Chili's? How about making Chilis fajita recipe. Think how impresses your friends and family would be when you dish out this classic Tex-Mex dish.

It is possible to make great restaurant style food at home. You don't have to just settle for "homemade" type food. You know, casseroles, burgers and the like. Or worse, frozen food. Or the new thing like we have at our grocery store. Pre-prepped food in a bag--like chicken wings, hamburgers, fajitas. All you have to do it pop it in the oven or microwave. It's closer to home cooked but not from scratch.

To really cook at home, you have to make things from scratch, not pour it out of a can. To do that, we need to start with a really good recipe. Good ingredients are real important, but not essential. For example, the gumbo I make should have home made chicken stock, but I don't have the time (gumbo takes about 2 hours the way it is). So I used bullion cubes and not expensive ones either. It gets the job done.

Okay, so you need to get a great recipe. Where do you find this great recipe? The internet? A book store? Amazon.com? Sure they all have great recipes, but how do you know which is a good one?

What I do to find a quality recipe is to look for ones with reviews by people who have used the recipe, that way I know at least a couple of people have successfully used the recipe and it turned out well. Also in the reviews, people will write comments about how they changed the recipe and made it work better.

For more information about the Chilis fajita recipe stop by http://www.squidoo.com/secretrestaurantrecipe if you get the chance.