SPICY, Eastern-style food will become a breakfast staple within 15 years, food experts predicted yesterday. Healthy eating, multiculturalism and ­tourists inspired by exotic cuisine will push popular tastes away from a full English. The panel of experts also said breakfast will become more important than dinner and be seen as the main daily meal – running to three courses by 2031.

Seafood and seaweed were tipped as future breakfast “superfoods”, following the popularity of warm crab porridge in China. And we will sprinkle spices and chillis on our food, with firms cashing in by ­introducing fiery cereal brands in the ­supermarkets, the panel concluded.

More morning fishy dishes are expected due to influences from Poland, the Middle East and Scandinavia, inspiring a move towards kedgeree, kippers, sardines, fish fingers and devilled kidneys. Panel member and chef Guy Wolley said: “In the future we will take breakfast much more seriously. Seaweed, spices and fish will be popular.”Kellogg’s, behind the study, said: “Already spices and fish are more commonplace on the British breakfast plate.”

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Now that Christmas is over, planning for New Year’s Eve is underway. Celebrations from one side of the International Date Line to the other will mark the coming of the New Year. And no matter where those parties are held, good food and lots of it is an integral part of the merrymaking. With all that goes into organizing a successful party, recipes that are fast, easy and tasty are a must.

Here are three appetizer recipes that are always a hit with my friends and family. The first is bruschetta, the second is breakfast sausage balls, and the third is arancini. Make plenty of these as they will disappear fast.1 loaf of baguette bread.

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Food is the best source of energy and without food we just cannot survive. There are certain basic needs that a human being needs in order to survive in this world. Among all the needs, food is one of the most important one. It helps in the growth of an individual and provides all the required nutrients to the body.

Different people have different taste and different places have their own special kind of food. There are varieties of foods available all over the world. If you go to any part of the world, you can get something different and very tasty as per their culture. Among all sea food is one of the best source of food supplements for the body. It serves with all sorts of required minerals, calcium and many more important nutrients. Sea foods have numerous benefits and are used for many purposes. Not only delicious food is prepared from it but these foods have many medicinal values as well.

Ghol fish, deepsea shrimp, big mouth croakers, pink shrimp and many more marine foods are available those are very yummy to taste and have many medicinal values as well. In large number of hotels and restaurants these sea foods are prepared with different recipes.

Though these pink shrimps, brown shrimps, ghol fish, deepsea shrimp etc. are not found everywhere, several exporters let it easy for us to get these marine foods. There are many companies engaged in this task and offer the sea foods to us by charging a very nominal amount. These are not very expensive and fit into the budget. Moreover, taste and health is more important rather than money. These sea foods are very lip-smacking and contain many beneficial nutrients.

If you go to any coastal area, these are found in bulk and these are the main food of the local inhabitants. Yes of course, it is a big deal for us to have these as we do not get it very easily. The inhabitants of those coastal areas are used to all these foods and hence they are very fit and strong.

So, if you wish to have these marine foods and desire to taste the yummy shrimp, fish etc. then search for the best company that supplies them at a nominal rate.

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Every “self-respecting” Southern woman should keep a block of cream cheese in the fridge and a jar of red pepper jelly in the pantry, according to a book I once read. That way, our quintessential Southern hostess could quickly dump the jelly over the cream cheese and serve with crackers to any guests who happened by.

At this time of year when your to-do list is a mile long (and growing) and you have neighbors, friends and family passing through, you might need some nibbles to offer guests. If jellied cream cheese is not quite your style, here are a few prepared appetizers you might pick up to have on hand.

If you shop at:

Kroger/Costo:
Seafood Tortas by Inland Market: These molded cream-cheese based seafood spreads come in several flavors. They present nicely — just invert them and pop them onto your serving dish. The flavors in the crab and artichoke version with sun-dried tomatoes have broad appeal, making it a safe choice for guests. Other flavors include smoked salmon with pickled ginger, sesame and wasabi, lobster, roasted corn and basil, and shrimp with roasted tomatoes, zucchini and basil.
Trader Joe’s:

Masala Lentil Dip: This sweet and spicy dip with tahini, masala spices, brown sugar, ginger and garlic pairs nicely with toasted pita and raw veggies. Pastry Bites with Feta and Caramelized Onions: These miniature puff pastries pack a sweet onion and creamy cheese interior when heated. You’ll find these and other flavors in the frozen section.
Whole Foods:

Smoked Salmon Dip (prepared by Whole Foods): Sure, you could do this yourself by blending some cream cheese, smoked salmon and seasonings together. But, if you don’t have time, try this very smoky version with crackers or veggies. You can usually find this in an ice case near the seafood counter.
Curry Chicken Samosas with Chutney (prepared by Whole Foods): Packed two to a box, these oversized triangles are stuffed with spiced chicken, potatoes, green lentils and onions. As you would expect, they get a touch soft when heated in the microwave according to package instructions. But the flavors, especially when served with the accompanying chutney, override that flaw. You’ll want to cut these in half to serve as appetizers. You might also pick up some extra chutney for serving.
Share ideas! Tell us your favorite prepared appetizers and where to get them.

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BEIJING - Most hotels on the Chinese mainland are staying out of controversial waters when it comes to serving shark fin soup, and are keeping the dish on their menus despite repeated calls from animal rights organizations to conserve the species from extinction. According to a survey by the Daerwen Environmental Institute, a Beijing-based non-governmental organization, more than 98 percent of high-end hotels in Beijing have refused to stop serving shark fin soup, especially with the approach of Spring Festival - a time when the traditional delicacy is highly desired on banquet tables.

Of the 131 luxury hotels surveyed, only one hotel said the dish had been removed from its menu. Many hotels insist that shark is not a species that needs protection in China. A representative for Xiao-nanguo, a restaurant chain for Shanghai cuisine, told China Daily that the chain will continue to offer shark fin soup during the Spring Festival. "Though China's national standards for green hotels request that endangered wild animals and plants should not be used as ingredients in food, there's no specific regulation banning the trade in shark fin," said Liu Huili, a researcher from the Daerwen Environmental Institute. China's Regulation of Assessment of Green Hotels - the first national standard for the Chinese hotel industry in regards to ecological efficiency - has been in effect for nearly four years. By 2012 the country plans to establish 10,000 green hotels, according to the survey report.

"We hope that stopping serving shark fin soup can become one of the standards for a green hotel's assessment, which will effectively promote the protection of sharks," Liu said. According to WildAid, a wild animal protection organization, up to 73 million sharks are killed every year to meet the demand for shark fin soup. About one-third of the open-ocean shark species are facing extinction, and the populations of some species have even declined by up to 99 percent. Charlie Lim, chairman of the Marine Products Association's conservation and management committee in Hong Kong, denied that Chinese people's fondness for eating shark fin soup contributes the most to the killing of sharks.

"Most shark fins come from dead sharks, and are a byproduct of European shark meat fisheries," said Lim. He added that environmentalists unfairly cast Chinese people as "public enemies", and that China "should continue to promote a policy of tolerance, respect and understanding for the many different ways that different peoples and cultures interact with animals". However, some Chinese restaurants are making efforts to remove shark fin from their menus. Yu Ying, assistant general manager of the Dragon Hotel in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, said that the hotel has stopped serving the dish even if customers ask for it.

"Though stopping serving shark fin soup has a big impact on our profits, we decided not to serve it in recognition of the importance of shark protection," said Yu. She added that the hotel sold 300 kilograms of shark fin last year. "When we decided not to provide shark fin soup, we negotiated with the customers who had already booked the dish for their weddings. All of them showed understanding and agreed to cancel the soup," Yu said.

"When I used to have dinner with friends, they persuaded me to have shark fin soup if I refused to have it, but now they said they feel sorry and admit their mistakes," said Zhang Yue, a renowned anchorwoman and animal protection activist. "This shows Chinese people's increasing awareness of shark protection," Zhang said. Yang Yijun and Xing Yu contributed to this story.

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Matzo ball soup is not only a staple of Passover feasts, but it is also a popular dish for Hanukkah. Matzo balls are Jewish dumplings made of matzo meal and usually served in a soup. As with any dish, there are many variations to both the recipe and the technique. In this matzo ball soup recipe, the matzo balls cook up light and fluffy in a rich chicken stock with carrots, celery and a hint of dill.

Matzo ball soup
Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup chicken stock (recipe below)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup matzo meal
8 cups chicken stock (recipe below)
2 carrots, sliced
3 celery stalks, sliced
2 teaspoons chopped dill

Chicken stock:

1 cooked chicken carcass and skin
3 celery stalks
2 carrots
1 parsnip
1 yellow onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
12 cups water

Directions:

For chicken stock:

Roughly chop celery, carrots, parsnip and onion.
In a large pot, combine chicken carcass, vegetables, salt, pepper and water. (Water should cover contents of pot.)

Bring to a boil; then reduce to a simmer.
Simmer over very low heat for about four hours, stirring occasionally.
Strain solids and let stock sit for about 30 minutes; then skim fat off top.

For matzo ball soup:

Beat eggs, oil, 1/4 cup broth and salt together.
Add matzo meal and stir to combine well. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
In a large pot, combine chicken stock, carrots, celery and dill. Bring to a boil.
Meanwhile, with wet hands, form matzo mixture into 12 balls, using about two tablespoons per matzo ball.

When chicken stock comes to a boil, drop matzo balls into pot and reduce to a very low simmer. Cover and cook for 25 minutes.
Serve immediately.

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The Portage Soup Kitchen is holding their annual Christmas turkey dinner today.  The soup kitchen opens its doors at the First Presbyterian Church in Portage la Prairie at 11:15 am.  A turkey dinner with all the trimmings will be served from 11:30 to 12:30, over the lunch hour.  

Soup Kitchen Coordinator Tricia Chiponski says it doesn't matter what time of year it is, everybody still needs a good meal and at Christmas time especially.  She says it can be a financially stressful and lonely time for some people in the community and adds this dinner is a way of coming together during a difficult time.  

Margaret Dunn, who's also a soup kitchen coordinator, says it's put on by a group of four volunteers from the Canadian Mental Health Association who help out at the soup kitchen on a regular basis.  She says they have served the dinner every year they have been with the soup kitchen.

Chiponski says the soup kitchen's biggest need at this moment is volunteers and stresses the commitment is from 10 am to 1:15 pm any day of the week.  She says they have had a few months in the past where they had to close their doors because of a lack of help.

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It's not all about the food at Elim Christian Centre's soup kitchen in Manurewa. Behind the offer of a free feed is a group of people who will ask nothing but give as much as they can. "Food is just a way of drawing people in and finding out where their needs are," soup kitchen founder Angela Anderson says.

Nearly 160 people turned out for the centre's Christmas meal last Wednesday. While it was the final meal of the year, the soup kitchen is here to stay and will be back in February, Mrs Anderson says. She founded the weekly kitchen with her husband Ian in 2008 but said without the Christian centre's support and the hard work of the 15 volunteers who work tirelessly throughout the year the soup kitchen would not happen.

"We started with five families with children, then it went up to 15. Now we are serving 70 to 80 people a week."Numbers swelled due to the global recession and when it hit there was an opportunity for people to release their pride and look for support, she says. The centre has signs out and hands out flyers on the street and at bus stops telling people about the kitchen.

Public officials from Work and Income and health board representatives come to talk to the visitors, offering health and budgeting advice and point people towards services they can take advantage of.

"We have seen lives change," Mrs Anderson says. People they have met in bus stops have gone on to do courses and then into fulltime employment. Others such as Maree Watson, a single elderly woman on her own, visit the soup kitchen for the company. "I started coming last Christmas after they gave me a present."

While making new friends at the centre, Maree has also been able to rekindle a life long friendship. It has brought her together with Doreen Skilton who she had not seen for 44 years. Doreen says the two had not seen each other since they were neighbours in Glen Innes back in the late 60s.

"But we are still the best of friends."Koroni Tuhou was introduced to the centre by his auntie two years ago. He had just moved to Manurewa from Hamilton and it was a wonderful way of meeting people, he says.

Now he and his family often frequent the centre – "just to meet the community, have a kai and say amen now and then". Mrs Anderson says the soup kitchen will reopen on February 8.

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To keep you warm this winter, Martha Rose Shulman, the Recipes for Health columnist, suggests blending up creamy homemade soup:

Puréed vegetable soups satisfy my craving for comfort food and prove the point that a dish doesn’t have to be rich, heavy or meaty to be comforting and filling. The classic French model is a rich affair, usually finished with cream, crème frâiche or a béchamel. But a potato or a half cup of rice added to the soup with the vegetables is just as efficient a thickener.

If you don’t have an immersion blender, you might think about putting one on your Christmas list. With this blender on a stick, you can purée the soups right in the pot you cooked them in. I’ve never found a food processor to be efficient for blending soups; there’s too much liquid in the mix, and that can run out of the bowl or prevent the blades from really puréeing the soup. You can achieve a smooth result if you use a blender, but puréeing in a blender is a hassle, and it can be scary, too, as the hot soup will blow the top off the blender if you close it tightly. If you do use a blender, fill the jar only about one-third full, and remove the lid’s detachable center and pull a dish towel down over the top so that the hot soup won’t splash out.
Here are five winter soups to add comfort to your holidays.

Puréed Tomato and Red Pepper Soup: Ms. Shulman noticed the most popular boxed soup at her supermarket was a tomato and red pepper soup, so she came up with a version of her own. Curried Cauliflower Soup: It will take you only about 10 minutes to prep the ingredients for this comforting soup. Leek, Turnip and Rice Soup: This simple, fragrant soup is delicious as thick vegetable soup, not puréed.

Sweet Potato Soup With Ginger, Leek and Apple: Inspired by a sweet potato and apple purée, this soup also has savory overtones. Puréed White Bean Soup With Pistou: White beans and pesto or pistou (pesto without the pine nuts) always make a nice marriage.

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The week after Thanksgiving, I participated in a Chicago-grown mobile soup charity event called "Soup and Bread," which made its stop in Madison at the High Noon Saloon. I prepared a garlic mashed potato soup steeped in reverence of Thanksgiving leftovers, which are to me almost as good as Thanksgiving itself.

There's not much to the soup: potatoes, cream, garlic confit and stock. But the foundation of a good soup is a good stock, so I highly recommend making homemade stock if you can. It will add incomparable flavor and a velvety texture.

Of course, it's okay to use store-bought stock for convenience. Just freshen it up with another key component: a "sachet," a fancy-sounding French word meaning "bag of…," well, whatever you want. In this recipe, sachets filled with herbs that I associate with potatoes are used to pack in flavor every step of the way. The soup is simple, but does require a little time to let these flavors develop.

This is a great one for cold, blustery days — your house will smell so good you won't want to leave. And garlic is great for the immune system. Go easy on the portions; a little goes a long way with this luxurious cream soup.

Garlic Mashed Potato Soup

Blending mashed potatoes is generally a no-no because it makes them gluey, but in this soup, the starchiness leads to the desired thickening action. If you over-thin your soup you can also make and whisk in a roux (flour and reserved clarified garlic butter in equal weights) to correct it.

Yields about 1 gallon
1 garlic confit (recipe below)
about 6 cups turkey stock (recipe below)
4 cups heavy cream
about 4 pounds yellow fleshed potatoes like Yukon golds), peeled, whole

In a large pot, cover potatoes by at least an inch with cold salted water (should be as salty as the ocean) and bring to boil, then reduce to simmer. Add sachet. Depending on the size of potatoes, simmer 20-30 minutes until tender all the way through, but firm enough to hold shape. Drain and mash with potato masher or process with a potato ricer.

Heat potatoes, garlic confit and 4 cups stock in a large pot with second sachet. Add cream and bring to a low simmer, about 10-15 minutes or until herbs are aromatic. Blend smooth with an immersion blender or blend in batches in a standard mixer. Adjust consistency with remaining stock, salt and pepper to taste. Soup should be thinner than baby food, but thick enough to coat a spoon.

Garlic confit

7 heads of garlic cloves, peeled
1 pound of clarified butter
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Put garlic cloves in a small oven-proof container, completely cover with clarified butter, and seal with lid or cover with foil. Bake about 1 to 1-1/2 hours until garlic is very tender. Strain garlic from butter (you may reserve for another use) and smash garlic into paste.

Turkey stock

Turkey carcasses left over from Thanksgiving make for a great stock. Supplement with roasted chicken if your turkey parts don't amount to enough for this recipe. Yields about 1/2 gallon about 4 pounds roasted turkey carcass (wings, body, drumsticks, neck, etc.); or substitute equivalent in roasted chicken bones
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
2 onions, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon peppercorns
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. If using chicken, roast chicken until golden brown. If using leftover turkey parts, the roasted leftovers are stock-ready.

Lightly toss vegetables with vegetable oil and spread in a single layer on a pan. Turn vegetables every 15 minutes or so, allowing sides in contact with the pan to develop a rich brown color (depending on the size of your cuts, about 30-40 minutes should be sufficient).

Assemble stock pot: Cover bones with roasted vegetables (and scrape up the browned bits stuck to the pan, which add great flavor) and add water; bring to boil and then reduce to a simmer. Skim fat and scum occasionally. Add sachet after 3-4 hours and simmer an additional hour. Remove bones and large pieces with tongs and strain stock with cheesecloth.

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