23.12.12 Christmas Dinner Winner

This year’s Christmas meal was doomed from the outset. Seeing how much effort my mother puts in every year, I declared last year that I would take up the mantle this December 25th and would cook the traditional roast dinner. And now, quite frankly, I am bricking it!! That means that to be on top of things I have to get a head start, as a result I am going to prep a few things in advance. The first one up is the red cabbage that my family is partial to. The only problem is that I don’t actually have a recipe to stick to. I know the gist of what’s in it, but I will have to dig into the BBC Food directory to teach me how to get it done.

Ingredients

50g/2oz butter
1 medium onion, finely sliced
2 dessert apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1kg/2¼lb red cabbage, finely sliced
100g/4oz sultanas or raisins
200ml/7fl oz sherry vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper

Preparation method

Melt the butter in a stainless steel or flameproof casserole over a medium heat (an aluminium pan will not work for this).
Fry the onion in the butter for three minutes, then add the apple and cabbage.
Cook for five minutes or so, until softened, then add the sultanas and the sherry vinegar.
Place a lid on the pan and cook for one hour, until all the vegetables are just tender.
Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper and replace the lid. Continue to cook until the cabbage is tender and all the liquid has evaporated. This dish will keep for several days, covered, in the fridge. Simply heat it up again when ready to serve.

I’m off to heat my pan, cross my heart and hope that this meal all goes to plan. After all, there’s only Christmas riding on it.

DC

17.12.12 Veg Your Bets

Lumpy, bumpy cones of floret shaped greenery. Looking like tiny alien pyramids, sandwiched together to make a mother ship style entity that looks more like it’s intent on taking over planet Earth and enslaving our people than being a delicious accompaniment to a roast dinner. You see I’ve long wondered exactly what the below vegetable is, where it originates from and what it tastes like:

It is known as Romanesco and, as the name suggests, has its origins in Italy. It is, in fact, a cross between broccoli and cauliflower from the species Brassica Oleracea. The pattern of the florets is what the vegetable is most famous for with its branches making a logarithmic spiral, this means that the shape is approximately a natural fractal or each bud consists of many smaller buds that are again arranged in a logarithmic spiral. All of it getting smaller and smaller until it reaches the final tip.

I’m not going to lie, the main reason I have always wanted to know what this vegetable is, is because of it’s incredible shape. I may now have something new to go with my Sunday lunch.

DC

1.11.12 Trying to Ketchup

Why is it every time you’re trying to be good, your mind starts craving the worst things it can have? As I prepare for my holidays I am attempting not to eat too many bad things. Today I sit here craving a nice big burger with some chips and of course a big dollop of ketchup.

It’s difficult to imagine a world without ketchup. I’ve got many friends that swear by it and have it on every single meal, even things like pasta! But today I found out that it wasn’t always this way, we didn’t always have a sweet tomato sauce to dollop on everything.

In fact the origins were from a Chinese sauce called ketsiap that was made of pickled fish! It wasn’t until English sailors ventured around that way in the seventeenth century that it made its way to these shores. You can find mention of it as far back as 1690 but it wasn’t until the 1700s that they started adding in tomatoes and in 1876 Heinz first started manufacturing what we know today!

Nowadays it is difficult to go into a household without ketchup. And it’s even harder now to not want a burger….

DC

21.10.12 There’s Something Fishy about This

Some people will eat some disgusting things. Now I appreciate that’s a little subjective, for example I hate milk, but I’m pretty sure there are some things that we can universally agree on. Today I found out what Lutefisk is, and now I’m pretty sure I’ve found something that most of us will agree will never pass our lips.

The dish is Norwegian but now has routes in America through immigration. Luckily whatscookingamerica.net can explain further:

Lutefisk (pronounced LEWD-uh-fisk) is dried cod that has been soaked in a lye solution for several days to rehydrate it. It is then boiled or baked and served with butter, salt, and pepper. The finished lutefisk usually is the consistency of Jello. It is also called lyefish, and in the United States, Norwegian-Americans traditionally serve it for Thanksgiving and Christmas. In many Norwegian homes, lutefisk takes the place of the Christmas turkey. In Minnesota and Wisconsin, you can find lutefisk in local food stores and even at some restaurants. It is a food that you either love or hate, and, as some people say, “Once a year is probably enough!”

The history of lutefisk dates back to the Vikings. On one occasion, according to one legend, plundering Vikings burned down a fishing village, including the wooden racks with drying cod. the returning villagers poured water on the racks to put out the fire. Ashes covered the dried fish, and then it rained. the fish buried in the ashes in the ashes thus became soaked in a lye slush. Later the villagers were surprised to see that the dried fish had changed to what looked like fresh fish. they rinsed the fish in water and boiled it. the story is that one particularly brave villager tasted the fish and declared it “not bad.”

Not bad is probably just about the best you could hope for from this vile sounding dish. Learning how it’s made is enough to stop me from even venturing to Wisconsin.

DC

5.9.12 Stew a Little

I’ll admit it, I have been watching some truly awful television as of late. I don’t know whether September is a programming grave yard because everyone is waiting to release things in autumn or Christmas time, but there is nothing on at the moment to relax in front of after a hard days work. All of this lead me to watching some ludicrous contest where two small market stall food producers get a chance to produce home made ready meals in the hope of getting a contract to mass produce them. It’s a bit like an even worse version of Dragon’s Den.

Although not a great show, it did appeal to my enjoyment of cooking. In particular, one of the teams was from Nigeria, a country who’s cuisine I’m not too familiar with, and produced what looked like an amazing black eyed bean stew. So I thought I would find and learn a recipe for such a dish. The below is courtesy of whats4eats.com:

Ewa Dodo black eyed bean stew with plantain

Ingredients
Black-eyed peas — 2 cups
Oil — 2 or 3 tablespoons
Onion, finely chopped — 1
Chile peppers, minced — 2 or 3
Tomatoes, seeded and chopped — 2 cups
Fish fillets, cut into 1-inch pieces (optional) — 1 pound
Salt and pepper — to taste
Oil for frying
Green plantains, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch rounds — 3

Method
– Rinse the black-eyed peas, and then soak them in enough water to cover by about 2 inches for 8 hours or overnight.

– Drain and rinse the soaked peas and add them to a large saucepan with enough water to cover by about an inch. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until the beans are just cooked through and tender. Add water as necessary to keep the beans covered.

– Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high flame. Add the onion and chopped chile peppers and saute until the onion is cooked through and translucent.

– Stir in the chopped tomatoes and simmer for 3 or 4 minutes to cook them down a bit.

– Add the black-eyed peas and their liquid to the pot and bring to a boil. Stir in the fish, salt and pepper, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through.

– Adjust seasoning and set aside while you make the dodo.

– Heat about 1/4 inch of oil in a large skillet over medium flame. Fry the plantain rounds in batches, lightly browning them on each side. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate as they are done.

– Serve the ewa stew with the fried dodo on the side.

Give it a go… You might surprise yourself.

DC

20.8.12 You’ve Got to Pick a Pepper or Two

One of the most interesting type of things you can ever learn is an interesting tit bit of information that disproves a widely held belief you had. Today I learnt that my long deliberations when looking at variety packs of peppers in the supermarket, deliberating which combination of colours to buy, was all in vain.

The pepper is part of genus capsicum which comes from the nightshade family (not sure I want to eat them anymore) and are native to central and southern America. Of course it is now a widely recited fact that they aren’t vegetables but actually fruit because of their seeds so that isn’t today’s wisdom. No, as I mentioned, my consternation comes from the issue of variety.

There are a number of different colours of pepper, even as wide ranging as multi-coloured but I’m more interested in the common supermarket variety as I thought there was a marked difference. It turns out that, although orange/yellow/red peppers are all from different seeds (I told you Lucy!!), a green pepper is merely an under ripe red pepper. This under ripening is the reason that the pepper is slightly bitter and less sweet than a red pepper. Typically the most sweet red peppers stay on the vine a lot longer and enjoy some good old fashion sunshine – Think of them as nice and sunburnt!

So the truth of the matter is that when making your decision, all peppers will taste similar so colour is for aesthetic unless you pick the slightly more bitter green pepper. I feel with all of these technical horticulture terms, I will eventually be able to redo my garden and bore everyone to tears with all of the official names.

DC

3.7.12 Let me Mussel In

It seems that now a days the most important thing when it comes to ingredients for cooking and eating is seasonality. Obviously before advances in agriculture and trade, seasonality was enforced on us as a result of what could grow at that present time. However now, more than ever, it has come back en vogue.

It was this modern notion that came to bare as I sat overlooking the Portuguese sky line with my girlfriend and her family as we all tucked into a huge paella (made, somewhat unauthentically by myself and Lucy). One of her brothers happens to be a chef and in coming to discuss seasonality, particularly of seafood, he noted to us that mussels have a particularly interesting way of you being able to tell whether they are fresh or not. During months with the letter ‘r’ in, mussels are in season (September through till April), months without a ‘r’ aren’t prime time for these little sea urchins.

So if you’re ever thinking of making up a moules mariniere or a paella with these lovely high in protein, low in fat treats, then make sure that you get them fresh and during a month with a ‘R’ in it.

DC

9.6.12 A Cracking Pre-Game

If there’s one thing that I love before a big game it’s storing up on fuel. A night-before-a-game meal is a mighty fine thing. My love of far eastern food has been discussed with recipes for Pad Thai and Massaman curry already covered and as a result, when discussing potential takeaways to have on a lazy Saturday night, my mind immediately turned to Thai. It’s the perfect combination of things, there’s spicy and sharp, there’s carbohydrate heavy noodles, nice big pieces of meat and of course coconut milk gives it all that feeling of comfort food.

So we ordered Pad Thai, Kao Soi and a Panang curry but all of this wouldn’t be complete without something crunchy to dip and scoop with. So we ordered a nice big bag of spicy Thai prawn crackers. As we sat preparing to attack the meal, however, we were both left wondering one thing. You see, due to an intolerance, we wanted to know whether prawn crackers contain wheat. Neither of us, we decided, had the slightest idea how they were made.

Due to my love of blogging and my lack of prawn cracker making knowledge, I will defer to another blog Hunger Hunger for Kwan Aunty’s Prawn Crackers:

Ingredients
600g small prawns (flesh only & de-veined)
600g tapioca starch/flour*
1 heaped t salt
1 t white ground pepper
1/2 level t (or reduce slightly) msg
banana leaves to line steamer

Method
1. The prawns needn’t be drained dry. Just wash and put into a machine to mince. Mince the prawns in the machine until fine.

2. Put the prawn mince into your cake mixer, add all the other ingredients and mix using the dough hook for 8 minutes or so. If mixture doesn’t come together, add 1/2 T of water. If too soft, add a little bit more tapioca flour.

3. Taste the raw dough. If it’s bland, add more seasoning. Remember that after frying, the crackers will taste even less salty. Now put the dough on a clean surface and knead with your hands until dough is very smooth (say 10 minutes) and when you press it with your fingers, it feels like pressing your arm (provided your arm isn’t more than 60 years old). Soft yet firm. If dough is hard, wet your hands and knead again. If your dough is too hard/dry, the crackers will have cracks after drying in the sun and they’ll taste very dry after frying.

4. Shape dough into two long rolls, pressing and slapping both ends to compact the rolls so there aren’t any air bubbles. Lay the rolls on the banana leaf (NO need to oil/grease) which is laid over your steamer in which the water should be boiling. If you can’t find banana leaf, just use foil but it won’t give that wonderful aroma as it cooks.

5. Steam at medium high (too high and dough will crack) heat for 1 hour 15 minutes or 1 hour if rolls are thinner.Make sure there is a vent in your steamer lid (a bamboo steamer & lid is best) so that the steam does not rise and fall onto the rolls, making the surface bubbled and wet.

6. When rolls are cool, wrap them in tea towels or foil and leave in fridge to firm up. I leave them overnight. The next morning, take rolls out and leave them out 1/2 hour to come to room temperature. Now we come to the part that’s hardest for me. Using a mandoline slicer (I don’t handle the mandoline well so I take the longer way and slice the rolls with a very sharp knife), cut into thin slices (too thick and they won’t puff so well) and lay them on metal sheets/trays to dry directly in the sun. In our tropical sun, it takes two days of drying before the crackers can be fried.

7. Deep-frying crackers

So there we have a reasonably lengthy and in depth recipe and way of making prawn crackers. I bet they’re delicious but it does seem an awful faff. I must concede that I don’t think that I’ll be making them anytime soon. The important learning here is that they are actually made of tapioca flour and as a result, you can eat them even if you are wheat intolerant – So enjoy!

DC

7.6.12 Great British Learnings

Every year I go through the same experience. “oh it’s too contrived nowadays”, “the actual event isn’t as important” – these are the things I tell myself. And every year, in much the same way as the X Factor manages to lure me back in, so does The Great British Menu. Maybe it’s my well documented love of cooking, maybe it’s the intrigue of seeing different ingredients and style of cooking or maybe it’s just that it’s on around dinner time and makes me hungry. Whatever the reason, it always manages to reel me in.

The competition takes the form of famous chefs cooking in regional heats for a place in the final before the 3 judges assign one chef to cook the starter, one the fish course, one the main and one the dessert at a celebratory banquet – this year for the Olympics. The chefs all battle to gain one over on each other, constantly trading barbs and comparing techniques and the “locality” of their ingredients sourcing. Every year, however, they appear to succeed as there are always more than a few head-scratching ingredients that make you pause for thought. This year one immediately leapt out at me – I’ve definitely never eaten a nasturtium!

It turns out that a nasturtium can have two forms. The most obvious is a small plant that is a genus of the Brassicaceae or cabbage family (I know, that name is awfully Game of Thrones isn’t it?). A commonly know ‘brand’ of nasturtium is watercress which explains its links to cooking!

However the type used on the show was actually the more flower like Tropaeolum which is a garden plant originating from South American. The brightly coloured flowers are common stead in gardens however, they are seen as food to pest such as moths and larvae. They are named similarly to the nasturtium that derives from the Brassicaceae family as they produce a similar oil, meaning that they can be used in salads etc to not only provide a peppery taste similar to watercress but they also provide a lovely sprig of colour!

The expanding use of unusual ingredients in cooking is incredible and the links between different, non-related plants and flowers is incredible. Whoever knew cooking would provide quite so many interesting learnings!

DC

15.5.12 Thinking Inside the Box

I’m not even a huge fan, but even I must bow with awe and respect for the development of the takeaway pizza. If I’m going to have takeaway food, I must admit that I would rather have Indian food than the Italian treat as it’s largely just carbs and fat with minimal meat and not something I overly enjoy. However, companies like Dominos do outrageous business and what’s more, chicks LOVE pizza. They go crazy for the stuff, though I’m yet to really workout why.

But no one reads this blog to learn about things as uninteresting as takeaway pizza – and indeed, that sentence works if it’s just the first six words too! Instead though, what I’m really interested in, falls inside the box. I’m talking about that little, white widget that sits in the middle of the box and stops the lid sticking to the cheesy topic. This is truly man’s finest invention, no? A tribute to our decadent gluttony. But how did this novel piece of plastic come about?

It was invented by Carmela Vitale from Dix Hills in New York who originally filed a patent in February 1985. She filed the patent as she identified that both pizzas and more importantly cakes were damaged by sagging box lids during storage and delivery. So she developed and patented an inexpensive, 3- pronged piece of plastic that looked like a mini table, as outlined below:

The present invention relates to a package saver or device for improving the packaging of soft products which may be damaged in boxes or cartons with relatively large sagging covers.

More particularly, the invention relates to such a package saver which is molded from plastic to have minimal size, weight, and cost and which is suitable for supporting large carton covers such as those used for pizza pies. The molded plastic saver is positioned centrally of the completed pie or other product to support the cover during storage and delivery

And so the pizza saving device was invented. It may be simple, but today i learnt that sometimes simple things are incredibly useful. Maybe, just maybe, it’s important to think inside the box.

DC