Recipe- Easy Potsticker Soup

Celebrate Chinese New Year with this delicious Asian soup that is as healthy and easy to make as it is tasty!

Ingredients:

1/2 pound Chinese or napa cabbage, thinly sliced

2 celery ribs, thinly sliced

2 medium carrots, cut into matchsticks

1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions

2 to 3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons minced fresh gingerroot or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 package (16 ounces) frozen chicken potstickers

Directions: In a 4-quart slow cooker, combine the first nine ingredients. Stir in chicken broth. Cook, covered, on low until vegetables are tender (5-6 hours). Add potstickers; cook, covered, on high until heated through (15-20 minutes). Makes 6 servings.

Nutrition Facts: Serving size (1 1/3 cups): 198 calories, 6g fat (2g saturated fat), 28 mg cholesterol, 1302 mg sodium, 23g carbohydrate (5g sugars, 2g fiber), 13g protein

Conventional or Convection Oven, What is the Difference?

What is the difference between convection and conventional ovens? This is a very common question; it’s also a very good question.

A conventional oven is a very basic piece of kitchen equipment; inside there is an exposed heating element mounted to the top and bottom of the cavity. The heating element heats the cavity to a desired temperature. However, the temperature is often uneven throughout the cavity which can cause uneven baking with cakes and breads, and dry roasts and poultry. Not to mention that the heating element on the bottom makes it more difficult to clean.

In a convection oven the heating elements are normally hidden behind the oven cavity floor and ceiling, leaving them smooth and easy to clean. Again, the elements heat the cavity to a desired temperature. But with convection there is the added benefit of a fan mounted in the rear of the oven that circulates the air inside the cavity. This makes the internal temperatures very consistent throughout. There is also the option of European/True convection which places a heating element behind the convection fan to help maintain very precise temperatures and cook at quicker speeds.

Those are the most basic differences in how the two types of ovens work. Now let’s talk about why they work.

When you put something on the oven, let’s say, a turkey. You take the turkey out of the refrigerator then you season it. When it goes into the oven it is still very cold which works like a blanket of cold that the stagnant heat of a conventional oven struggles to overcome. With a convection oven that blanket of cold is stripped away by the movement of hot air within the cavity of the oven. Because of this effect the cooking time and temperature can be reduced which means that turkey will be much more moist. Convection ovens also allow you to bake multiple sheets of cookies at the same time. That’s because there is air movement that prevents stratifying of air temperatures between the oven racks and preventing the top rack from over-cooking.

How Much Heat in the Kitchen??

A British thermal unit (BTU): It represents the amount of thermal energy necessary to raise the temperature of one pound of pure liquid water by one degree Fahrenheit. One four-inch wooden kitchen match consumed completely generates approximately 1 BTU.

Do electric stoves have BTUs?

The heating power of electric stoves tends to be measured in watts, instead of BTUs. One watt is equal to 3.412142 BTUs per hour.

More BTUs are automatically better than less, right?

Not necessarily! Professional ranges can scorch your cookware and be hard to handle on a normal schedule of cooking.

How many BTUs should my stove have?

This is the key question, right? Ultimately, you want to make sure your stove has enough BTUs to quickly boil a large pot of water, but that there is a large and effective dynamic range between all the burners. You need to be able to simmer on low, fry on medium, and sear on high. If your stove jumps quickly from low to high heat or doesn't ever do low heat at all, that's not very helpful. A responsive dynamic range and easy control is more important than sheer BTU numbers.

The one other place that BTU numbers come into play is choosing a range vent hood. Hoods are calibrated to handle certain amounts of BTUs, so when you are picking out a new hood, make sure you know how many BTUs your stove puts out.