Fascinating Food II

So many of you enjoyed the previous one that I thought I would get more facts about food.

The First is from a super fun site called Today I Found Out and the next is some other food facts I think is weird and wonderful......

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·        Peanuts are salted in the shell by boiling them in a heavily salted solution, then allowing them to dry.

      Celery has negative calories.  It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It's a pity that celery doesn't taste like chocolate

·         The canning process for herring was developed in Sardinia, which is why canned herrings are better known as sardines.

·         Honey is believed to be the only food that does not spoil.  Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found to still be edible. Why would anybody taste mummy honey????

·         Cheese closes the stomach and should always be served at the end of a meal.

·         A quarter of raw potato placed in each shoe at night will keep the leather soft and the shoes smelling fresh and clean. OKAY that's different!!! How long can you use the same potato or should you use a new one each day?

Everybody these days are talking about buying in season produce. It is hard to keep up though. Are strawberries in season?  And what about these mangoes? 

By buying seasonal you can ensure that you have fresh produce that will have more flavor and aren't grown with UV lights. You ensure that you are supporting local produce and not buying produce that is being imported from Spain, England, or Australia.

Here is a very clever chart for South African seasonal Produce.

Fascinating food

Food is the most wonderful thing in the word. Yet some times it can be weird and wacky. Counting down from ten.....

10. Coffee

The Fact: The most expensive coffee in the world comes from civet poop

Kopi Luwak are coffee beans that come from Civet (a cat sized mammal) poo. The animals gorge on only the finest ripe berries, and excrete the partially-digested beans, which are then harvested for sale. Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between $120 and $600 per pound, and is sold mainly in Japan and the United States, but it is increasingly becoming available elsewhere. 

9. Feast

The Fact: The largest food item on a menu is roast camel

The camel is stuffed with a sheep’s carcass, which is stuffed with chickens, which are stuffed with fish, which are stuffed with eggs. This feast is sometimes featured in Bedouin weddings. Someone discovered the word stuffed and just went crazy.....

8. Bugs

The Fact: The FDA allows you to sell bugs and rodent hair for consumption

The FDA allows an average of 30 or more insect fragments, and one or more rodent hairs, per 100 grams of peanut butter. Now I'm worried.... well what hasn't killed you.....

7. Soup

The Fact: The first soup was made of hippopotamus

The earliest archeological evidence for the consumption of soup dates back to 6000 BC, and it was hippopotamus soup! 

Recipe goes: Catch one hippo

I go: What???? How???? I ask again HOW????

6. Liquorice 

The Fact: Liquorice is also used to flavor cigarettes

Liquorice is used to enhance the flavor of cigarette smoke. Licorice extract may be applied to cigarette tobacco to enhance and harmonize the flavor characteristics of smoke, improve moisture holding characteristics of tobacco, and act as a surface active agent for ingredient application.

5. Worcestershire Sauce

The Fact: Worcestershire sauce is made from dissolved fish

Worcestershire sauce, the popular English sauce, is made from dissolved anchovies. The anchovies are soaked in vinegar until they have completely melted. The sauce contains the bones and all. That explains the weird milky sediment..

4. Popsicle

The Fact: The Popsicle was invented by an 11 year who kept it secret for 18 years.

The inventor was Frank Epperson who, in 1905, left a mixture of powdered soda and water out on the porch, which contained a stir stick. That night, temperatures in San Francisco reached record low temperature. When he woke the next morning, he discovered that it had frozen to the stir stick, creating a fruit flavored ice treat that he named the Popsicle. 18 years later he patented it and called it the Popsicle.

3. Microwaves

The Fact: Microwave cooking was discovered accidentally, when a chocolate bar melted in someone’s pocket

This is very true and very scary – imagine what it was doing to his leg! The fact is, Percy LeBaron Spencer of the Raytheon Company was walking past a radar tube and he noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket melted. He then tested popcorn in front of the tube (surely turning up the power and standing out of the beam), and it quickly popped all over the room. He is (obviously) known as the inventor of the Microwave oven. 

2. Peanuts

The Fact: Dynamite is made with peanuts

Peanut oil can be processed to produce glycerol, which can be used to make nitroglycerin, one of the constituents of dynamite. Note however, there are other processes that can be used to make dynamite without using peanuts at all. How bad is it to survive an accidental explosion of dynamite just to find out your allergic to peanuts.

1. Coconut Water

The Fact: Coconut water can be used (in emergencies) as a substitute for blood plasma.

The reason for this is that coconut water (the water found in coconuts – not to be confused with coconut milk, which comes from the flesh of the coconut) is sterile and has an ideal pH level. Coconut water is liquid endosperm – it surrounds the embryo and provides nutrition.

Homemade easy

We like to go out and buy ingredients and food that is different from the normal everyday ingredients. Vanilla Sugar, basil infused olive oil, herb crusted cream cheese and really anything with the words gourmet, homemade or farm style in front of it.

The crazy thing about all of this is that it is just so easy to make yourself but we simply don’t have the know-how. 

Today I’d like to share some of my own favorites with you. Easy short cuts that will make your friends think you are the best cook they know. And most of these things should not take you more than 15 min.

Flavored oils

What flavors you want in your oil is up to you.  

This is just some basic steps to make sure that you know how to infuse the oil and from there you can experiment.

Citrus Oil

2 x lemon and orange peel

1 cup of olive or vegetable oil

Take the peel of the fruit make sure you don’t get a lot of the white flesh.

Give it a rough chop and add it with the oil.

Heat up the oil until it looks like the oil is about to start frying the ingredients. (Little bubbles form)

Take it off the heat and store for use once it is cooled down.  Leave the aromatic ingredients in the oil once you store it.

Use this oil for salads and frying fish.

You can do this with chilli, thyme, onions, and basically anything. The key here is to make oils and use them with other flavors that work. Also the amounts of aromatic ingredients depend on the intensity you want.

Marinated feta

1 Tub of feta

2 lemons

Sprigs of thyme

1 clove of garlic

2 tbls of course black pepper

1 ½ cup of olive/ vegetable oil

Zest the lemons and chop the garlic fine

Add the thyme, pepper, zest and garlic to the oil.

Heat up the oil until it looks like the oil is about to start frying the ingredients. (Little bubbles form)

Take it off the heat and let it cool to room temperature.

Now cube your feta and add it to the cooled down oil. Put all of this back in a container and store until you can use it.

Use it for anything like salads, quiches and cheese platters.

Wake up Muesli

We all like muesli for breakfast but sometimes it gets boring. Here is a way to spice up those nuts. I do this one bag of muesli at a time and always try something different if you want to keep it fresh.

1 kg Bag of muesli (doesn't matter what flavor it is.)

2 tbls Filter/ percolator coffee

1 tsp Vanilla essence

½ tsp Cinnamon

50g sugar

Preheat you oven grill to its medium heat. Number 4 or 5 depending on the oven

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and make sure it is evenly mixed through.

Put the muesli in a baking tray and make sure that the muesli is spread out evenly and not layered to thick.

Roast the muesli for 5 minutes about 15 cm from the grill. Keep an eye on it as you don’t want it to burn and it does burn very easily. 

You just want to heat it up a little bit to release the flavors. You will start smelling the coffee beans and the nuts roasting.

After the 5 minutes pour the roasted muesli on your kitchen counter and spread it out so that it can cool down. Keep moving the muesli around every minute so that it doesn't build up steam and go soft. Do this until the muesli cooled.

Once it is completely dry and cool store it for use.

The coffee and cinnamon gives the muesli a whole new taste. You can always add orange zest, ginger and even a bit of rooibos tea leaves (from the tea bag) for a whole new combination. Keep playing around with flavors and tastes.

Balsamic Marmalade

A beautiful and sticky condiment that was brought to fame by Woolworths. This is my recipe. You work in a ration system for this recipe and it I all about feel and your own personal taste. The ratio is 1: ½ : ¼  

1kg Onions chopped 

500 ml balsamic vinegar

250 ml sugar

Salt and pepper

Fry the onions in a pot until they are translucent. (no browning)

Add the Balsamic Vinegar and sugar all to a pot and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Let it reduce slowly until the liquid is reduced by half.

Add salt and pepper to taste and then store it in a jar for use over cheese, salads and in roasted vegetables.

Keeping the Big Blue, Green

Okay, so these days there are a lot of things you have to check when buying food. Free range, dolphin free, Organic etc.  As much as this is a big pain for some of us it is a very important that we familiarize our self with these things.

SASSI (South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative) is the new thing and has brought to our attention to the following issue. Certain species of fish are either depleted as a result of over fishing or the manner of fishing causes environmental damage or a high bycatch. (The term “bycatch” is usually used for fish caught unintentionally in a fishery while intending to catch other fish. - Wikipedia)

So what can we eat and what not and why? This is where we get annoyed. Luckily SASSI understands human beings as well as fish and made it easy for us. On the SASSI web site they explain it all in a very easy and human friendly way. All fish is divided into three categories; Green, Orange and Red and by following these color codes we can make well informed decisions I our restaurants and grocers.

·         Green

This is the group from which consumers are encouraged to choose, as it contains the most sustainable choices from the healthiest and most well-managed populations. These species can handle current fishing pressure.

·         Orange

This group includes species that have associated reasons for concern, either because the species is depleted as a result of over fishing and cannot sustain current fishing pressure, or the fishery that catches them may cause particularly severe environmental damage and/or has high bycatch, or the lifestyle of the species makes it vulnerable to high fishing pressure. Consumers are encouraged to think twice and consider the implications of these choices.

·         Red

This group includes both unsustainable species, which are from collapsed populations or have extreme environmental concerns and/or lack appropriate management, and species that are illegal to buy or sell in South Africa (no-sale species). These species should never be bought by consumers. Fish highlighted in bold in this category are illegal to sell in South Africa.

This sounds all like a lot of trouble but just by making the little right choices we can make a big difference. So I ask you why not? Make sure what you take from the Big Blue, is Green

Here is the link to the SASSI Web site where you can view the lists of fish and why they are green, red or Orange.  http://www.wwfsassi.co.za/?m=1

Here is a Downloadable pocket size index card that you can stick on the fridge and make sure you do your best to help where you can.   http://www.westerncape.gov.za/other/2010/9/sassicard_2010.jpg

Mushroom Stir Fry

Okay so I’m back in full force after a busy time at work where I didn't have a lot of time to blog.

Keeping up with our little fungi friends here is a nice little dish. It’s my own creation and even though it has no meat in it (you don’t even miss it) it is filling and healthy as well.

If you have to you can add some cut up chicken breast to it but cook it separate and add at the very end or it will turn black.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 pkt button Mushrooms                                                            1 can Butter beans

1 Bell pepper                                                                             15 cherry tomatoes

45 ml oil                                                                                     15 ml soya sauce

15 ml balsamic vinegar                                                                Salt and pepper               

1 pkt Brown Mushrooms                                                           1 Leek

1 Stick of celery                                                                         1 Onion

1 Clove of garlic/ 1 teaspoon of garlic                                         1 tbls sugar

Method

Chop all your mushrooms into thin slices to allow short cooking time. Do not mix the two types of mushrooms.

Chop the leek onion celery and garlic clove finely

Half the cherry tomatoes and cut the bell peppers into slices (Julienne)

Strain the water of the butter beans

The fun starts now that everything is prepped.

The key is to think fast and work faster.

Heat your oil in a frying pan or wok until it is just starting to smoke. Don’t turn down your heat at all during the cooking process.

When a light smoke is rising from the oil throw in your leek onion celery and garlic clove.

Give it a quick stir then add the button mushrooms, bell pepper and butter beans.

Stir and let it stand for 1 minute while frying.

Mix your soya, balsamic, sugar and salt and pepper together.

Now add the tomatoes and the brown mushrooms give it a good stir but do not over work it as the brown mushrooms break up and make the whole dish black. Drizzle the soya dressing over the whole dish. Let it fry for 3 more minutes without too much stirring maybe maximum two times. Take it off the heat and stir on last time.

Serve with rice or noodles and make sure you also dish up the sauce at the bottom is packed with flavor.

Bread, bread and some more bread

Here is a delicious bread recipe that I have found. There is only one thing better than the smell of fresh bread and that I actual fresh bread. So here I hope you have tons of baking fun.

400g flour

300ml Water (luke warm)

7ml instant yeast

5ml salt

5ml sugar

10 ml oil

My attempt at this recipe.It came out good! Bring the butter and cheese

Mix the flour, yeast, salt and sugar together.

Then slowly add the water while mixing the dough with your hands or a mixer.

When most of the flour is combined start kneading the dough in the mixing bowl to get the excess flour to be picked up. (Don’t stress if there is some left and you can’t get it picked up it’s not the end of the world)

Now take the oil and pour it on a flat surface. Knead the dough on this surface for 10 min

Let it rest under a damp cloth for 10 minutes then knead the dough for ten more minutes and rest for ten more minutes then a final knead and let it rest for 45 minutes.

Heat your oven to 180°C

After the dough has rested the last 45 min oil your baking tray and shape your bread in your desired shape.

Now bake the bread for about 30 to 40 minutes depending on the shape. Round breads take longer to bake through.

Check if your bread is cooked by inserting a knife into it. If it comes out clean it’s cooked.

Enjoy with butter and jam while still hot.

Optional: Put a little oven proof bowl with water in it in the oven to get a really nice and crispy crust.

Monday Dinner Made Easy

Monday Morning.Get up, you’re late for work and breakfast is a cup of coffee. At work you have an hour for lunch but you’re stuck answering an email and now you only have forty minutes so you inhale a Snacker bar. Driving home you rush because you have an appointment at 18h00 and you finally get home at 19h00 for the first time and all you want to do is put up your feet and relax. Not feeling any passion for any cooking you go to the closest directory and call a fast food chain with free delivery. Now it's Tuesday and Friday seems so far away.....

This is how all of our lives go during the week. We have either no time for cooking or even worse no time for eating. So the only solution is take-aways. No, there is another option but usually its so tasteless that we do not even consider buying it. Frozen foods.

Okay, I can hear you going “No Way!!!” What if I said that Chefs sometimes cook and prepare food then freeze it and later defrost and cook it again and serve it to you. This is not your local deli, this is your top restaurants as well.

Now why can we not prepare frozen foods? It’s because we have had so many bad experiences with store bought frozen food. I have found a site that can help us all eat healthier and then also help us save time by doing frozen foods. There are so many recipes on these sites you will never get bored. The food is full of taste and great flavors. Why not try it this weekend. Cook for lunch and/or dinner this coming week. Take it out to defrost on Monday morning and then you know that when you come home on Monday the only oven that will be working is Chef Mike warming up your food in 30 seconds and there you have delicious food. Here are a few good links that I even reference sometimes. 

Hope you like it.

http://happymoneysaver.com/making-50-freezer-meals-in-one-day/

https://pinterest.com/lornee56/frozen-dinners-made-at-home/

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/dinner/planning/dinnerplanning_prepfreeze.aspx