Removing the seeds from a cucumber reduces the amount of watery liquid you get in the finished soup or salad in favor of the pure flesh of the cucumber. It's not always necessary (and the seeds are good for you), but it's easy to do when you want a more refined dish.
Slice the cucumber in half lengthwise. Then scoop the seeds out with the tip of a spoon. If you press down hard enough, one or two passes with the spoon should get most of the seeds.
One of the oldest fruits known to man, the pomegranate is the fruit of a small tree native to grasslands stretching from the Middle East all the way to the Himalayas and south to India. With a tough, red skin, the pomegranate is prized for its edible seeds, called arils, which have a sweet and sour taste.
The name pomegranate is derived from the Latin for apple "pomum" (apple) and "granatus" (seeded). Pomegranate recipes abound in the cuisines of many Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures. Whether stirred into sauces and chutneys, juiced and blended into drinks or baked and formed into sweets and desserts, pomegranates are one of the few bright and sweet fruits of winter.
Pomegranates are good sources of vitamin C and potassium. Recent studies have shown that pomegranates contain high levels of punicalagins, compounds that could act as antioxidants in the body.
Recipe: Pomegranate, Persimmon And Pecan Salad
Recipe: Sliced Oranges With Pomegranate Caramelized Walnuts
Place the pomegranate down on its stem end; the blossom end with have a small opening.
Cut firmly down along one of the 6 hexagonal ribs; hitting the rib cuts the flesh and not the seeds.
Hold the fruit down firmly and move your fingers away from the bottom; the juice is very dark red and stains almost everything.
Remove the split fruit to a bowl of water immediately to prevent staining of fingers and cutting boards.
Holding the cut side down over the bowl of water, tap it firmly with a spoon. The seeds will fall out and sink to the bottom; the inedible pith will float to the surface.
Alternatively, peel the skin off the fruit in the bowl of water. Either method works well to extract the sweet, juicy kernels.
First, slice an "x" across the blossom end of the tomatoes; this will help the skin to peel off in a regular fashion.
Next, plunge the tomatoes into barely boiling water, stem-side down, for 30 seconds.
Turn the tomatoes once so that they heat evenly, allowing the tomato's skin to pull off in large strips.
Using tongs, move the tomatoes to a bowl of ice-water to stop the cooking; the tomatoes will be very hot to the touch, but the interior flesh will not be cooked.
When the tomatoes have cooled -- after 3 to 5 minutes -- remove them from the ice bath, pat them dry with a paper towel and gently peel the cooked skin off along the "x" where the skin has naturally split.
Next, with sharp knife, cut the tomato into quarters and remove the seeds, being sure to cut away the core on the stem end.
Once the seeds and skin have been removed, you're left with tomato flesh petals that can be used to hold dollops of tuna or vegetable salad, or diced and added to soups, salads and sauces.
What's the difference between a chile and a chili?
What's the difference between a chile and a chili?
Nothing. The small hot pepper known as the chili, chilli or chile pepper is essentially the same thing, spelled differently depending on where you live. Chile sauce, chili powder, chilli oil or paste are used to give food throughout the world a fiery kick as they have for thousands of years.
