Cooking is a passion for me, especially when you grill meat.
Barbeque and Grilling are different, but for newcomers it won’t make much difference. Grilling adds flavor to any food, and more over you do not need to use lot of spices like we use in curry. When you grill meat, it melts lot of the fats which you will find a lot in fried food items. Hence Grilled food are healthier. But at the same time regularly eating over grilled food is not good. As per medical research, when heated on high temperatures the meat and melting fat form some chemical reaction (carcinogen) that may lead to cancer. Here are some of the tips that would help prepare clean and healthy grilled food. • Clean the grill before cooking! The leftover char from that last cookout contains the chemicals we should avoid. • Avoid direct exposure of meat to open flame. “Flame-licked” meats have more carcinogens. • Cook your meat thoroughly, but do not overcook it – use a thermometer to achieve the proper internal temperature. Overcooking and prolonged exposure to high temperatures increases the amount of carcinogens in the meat. • Partially cook your meat before grilling by parboiling or microwaving. This limits the amount of time the meat is exposed to high temperatures. • Flip meat frequently as it cooks. This reduces the amount of harmful chemicals produced during cooking. • Cook lean meats. Remove skin and visible fat before grilling. The more fat on the meat, the more fat there is to drip on coals or open flame resulting in carcinogen production. • Remove heavily charred or burned crust from the meat before consuming. • Grill vegetables and fruits instead of meat. Vegetables and fruits are not only tasty when grilled, they contain little to no cancer-causing chemicals. • Marinate your meat before grilling. Marinades significantly reduce the number of carcinogens in grilled meats as long as they do not contain a lot of sugar. Rosemary in the marinade seems to be particularly effective.
Ingredients to Marinate Chicken.
a) Take 1 kg of chicken leg or leg-thigh pieces, wash and clean it, and let it dry. b) Make cuts in the chicken pieces so spices are easily absorbed. c) Squeeze 1 lemon on the chicken pieces d) 1 cup plain yogurt e) 2 spoon ginger garlic paste f) 1 spoon cumin powder g) 2 spoon coriander powder h) ½ spoon turmeric i) 1 spoon black pepper j) 1-2 spoon red chilly powder depending on spice level k) 1 spoon of chicken tandoor masala l) Most important, 1-2 spoon salt depending on your taste buds. m) Marinate the spices and keep it for at-least 1-2 hours. n) Cut big pieces of Onions, tomatoes and bell peppers. Vegetables tastes good when you eat them with grilled food.
if you want to learn about my marination magic, please add comments to my post.
